Cowboys @ Browns, Part IV: Rushing against Cleveland
Posted: September 5, 2008 @ 2:56 pm
The matchup of Dallas’ rushing attack against Cleveland’s rush defense provides the most intrigue, because it has the least carryover from last year. Both teams have re-armed, Cleveland on its defensive line and Dallas in its backfield and at tight end.
The Browns were uniformly bad on defense last year, ranking in the bottom quarter in both rushing and pass defense. The D-backs had respectable YPAs in one-on-one matchups, which suggests Cleveland had a poor rush and played a lot of zone to minimize the exposure to their secondary. The team’s woeful sack totals bear this out.
Cleveland was even worse stopping the run, allowing an average of 130 yards per game. GM Phil Savage and HC Romeo Crennell understand that if you can’t stop the run, you can’t stop anything and they paid a steep price this offseason to beef up their front seven. They traded Cleveland’s 2nd round pick in this past year’s draft to Green Bay for 320 lb. DT Corey Williams, who was immediately installed at LE in the Browns’ 3-4 front.
The team later traded its 3rd round pick and starting CB Leigh Bodden (a very good corner, BTW) to Detroit for DT Shaun Rogers. The Lions had grown tired of Rogers’ continual tease; he’s good but only in short doses, because he’s 350 lbs. and wears out quickly. The Browns penciled him in at nose tackle and plan on rotating him with 325 lb. backup Shaun Smith, in order to keep the new Shaun fresh.
Rogers will line up against Andre Gurode, who’s coming off a Pro Bowl ‘07 and who looked very good blocking big interior linemen. He got the better of Jamal Williams last month, though it must be said that Williams had only returned to practice two days before that game. Nonetheless, Gurode’s weakness has been getting out in space and cutting off quick linebackers. He’s better suited to playing big boys right in front of him, because he’s strong and can outquick nose tackles who are usually bigger than him.
Outside, Williams will square off with Marc Colombo, who had a very strong preseason. Colombo played with an injured ankle last year and he looked much stronger this summer. Dallas was decidedly left handed in it’s runs even before Kyle Kosier injured his foot. When Dallas does run inside, look for them to go behind Colombo and 355 lb. Leonard Davis.
The questions entering game one are how often the Cowboys will run early and with whom? As I mentioned yesterday, Dallas’ strategy in the brief Jason Garrett era has been to pass heavy early, wear out opposing defensive lines and then hammer Marion Barber late. Barber had an incredible second half line last year attacking fatigued defenses.
He’s the starter now, but I suspect the Cowboys will use the same formula. Look for them to pass a lot early. Also look for them to run wide a lot, to keep the Browns big fatties running. Dallas has favorable matchups on the edges, where Pro Bowler Jason Witten will match up against OLBs’ Willie McGinnest and Kamerion Wimbley. Both Browns are huge (McGinnest goes 270 and Wimbley goes 255). They’re going to play the entire game, however, since the Browns lost key rotation OLB Antwaan Peek to injury.
Dallas ran a lot of tosses to its right and I look for that tendency to continue, at least in the first half. It will also be interesting to see how Dallas mixes Barber and new RB Felix Jones. Last year the Cowboys balanced their carries, with Barber averaging 13 carries a game and Julius Jones getting 10. I think Barber will get a lot more carries, closer to 18 to 20 this year. That said, I think the new Jones will get his early touches.
The Cowboys ran a lot of passing plays for Felix. When he carried the ball, the calls of choice were off tackle plays, tosses and draws. I think he’ll figure heavily in the Cowboys’ game plan against that thin linebacking corps. While Dallas throws early to wear out the linemen, I think Garrett will also run Felix wide and get him out in space on short passes. Then, in the second quarter, the dose of Barber will increase. Dallas could come out and try butting heads with the Browns, but that hasn’t been Garrett’s style.
Special Teams
Injuries are the story here. The Browns have lost elite return man Joshua Cribbs to injury. That’s a relief for Dallas coverage teams that continue to be inconsistent. The injuries to Dallas’ receiving corps have messed with the team’s special teams rotations. Miles Austin and Sam Hurd were the team’s primary gunners last year and both are out. The lack of depth here was one reason why Alan Ball was kept and Evan Oglesby was cut when the Cowboys re-signed Keith Davis. Ball excelled at gunner at the end of preseason and may be active Sunday to play that role.
Isaiah Stanback’s injury may also scramble the team’s kickoff return plans. He and Austin were the team’s two designated kickoff returners and I wonder if Stanback will return kicks, being the only healthy WR behind T.O. and Patrick Crayton? Watch the Cowboys active roster tomorrow to see if Danny Amendola has been activated to play. The more likely candidate is Orlando Scandrick, who will likely be active as the 4th CB and as a kick cover man.
One returner who should play and who could impact the final is Adam Jones. He got two returns in preseason and showed he’s just as dangerous as he was in ‘06, when he rivaled Devin Hester as a top return man.
Prediction:
I wrote earlier that some teams are not fully ready for week one. The Browns look like one of those teams to me. A large number of key starters have not been able to practice much of the preseason. Derek Anderson only returned to practice this week after suffering a concussion three weeks ago. Braylon Edwards missed almost all of pre-season with a gashed foot. He too returned to practice this week.
Jamal Lewis is nursing a sore hamstring and has barely practiced the past couple of weeks. Safety Brodney Pool may not play because of a concussion.
It’s one thing to be a bit ragged because you didn’t play much in the preseason games. Cleveland is hoping its skill position core can step on the field and light it up with little preparation. They’re talented guys but they run a timing offense, so their task is harder.
The Cowboys offense has been smooth this preseason. If they can avoid turnovers, they should be able to move the ball.
Dallas 31, Cleveland 21
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I can’t wait for Sunday!
How do you think the loss of Koiser affects the running game?
Nice work Raf.
I really hope they do make the big guys run and cover in space.
McGinnest trying to cover F. Jones would be a joke. If they cheat to help then they can’t cheat to cover Witten and TO with two.
I really like how you have incorperqated the scientific football approach to the game in your already insightful analysis. Other then I am yet to be convinced with the importance of individual YAC it supports factually based indepth analysis.
Josh Cribbs scared me the most heading into this week. With him gone I’m really not worried at all. This game won’t be close. Their secondary is awful despite their YPA from last year.
Haha “I’m the invisible partner”
Raul’s pretty much a ninja.
Sunday can’t get here soon enough! I’ve been waiting on this game ever since the NYG debacle.
I was hoping to submit a long drawn-out topic, but to start it off, here’s a summary.
Are you ready for some football???
I just don’t get the naysayers. All they can come up with is wishful b.s. and biased analysis to pooh pooh the fact that this Cowboys team is clearly head and shoulders better than any team in the NFC.
There are two macro- points of analysis. Did the Cowboys fix their problems? and Did the competition get better? Let’s take the last question first:
The five other playoff teams and two other teams are the only real competition. Let’s look at each one.
- Gints - This is still a Defense first team. They lost their two best DE’s (accounting for 1/2 their total sacks). All told 5 starters are gone. Simply no way are they better. Further, they lost their 2nd best weapon in Shockey. No real additions.
- Seahawks - Another year older. Another year worse. And they weren’t that good last year.
- Green Bay - No Farve, no problem. Decent Offense + decent D = Alsoran
- Tampa - They’ll be better, but still not a contender.
- Skiz - Did you see that game last night?
- Philthy - They might be the third best team, but they still don’t have a receiver and the Defense is a shell of it’s former self and aging daily. Once McScab lost his wheels, he lost his advantage.
- Aints - This is the best offense outside Big D. Their defense still resembles swiss cheese. They’ll be dangerous but won’t win a playoff game without a D.
So that gets us back to the first question. There were three major holes last year. Receiver depth, Nickel/Dime secondary, and Special teams. You could add RB, but that was resolved 3 fold and really wasn’t a problem last year. The Run D was probably a weaker spot and really needed to be improved.
Receivers - Austin and Stanback are the answers. Otherwise, it’s prayer that T.O. doesn’t get injured. As long as the big 4 are healthy (Romo, Barber, T.O., and Witten), then this team will score on anyone.
Secondary - Please! Next.
Special Teams - Returns just got special. Coverage? We’ll see, but Killa was a great pickup. He’ll take the accountability and should deliver.
Run D - Beyond anything else, this is where we’ll see the biggest improvement. The re-emergence of Spears, Tank, and continued development of Canty will pay huge dividends. Further, the trade of Ayodele for Zach might be the most understated improvement we’ve ever made. No one is going to run on this group.
Add to that, the maturation of Romo, 2nd year in both offensive and defensive schemes, and the outstanding draft and you’ve got a team with no holes.
Only injuries will stop this team.
And all the naysayers thinking the “lockerroom” crap will derail this train…y’all need to quit hating and just recognize that the new dynasty has arrived.
no one has arrived yet, but the pieces are in place.
There is the Fighter I’ve come to love.
Did anybody see the near 5000 post on the Redskins game blog? It was full of pure misery. ahhhhh life is good.
I’m excited about this year and think this might be the most talent Dallas has ever had - now we just need to see if they can gell, play at a high, intense level, protect the football and play smart. A little luck also helps.
Everyone is once again tooting Eli Manning’s horn because he QB’d a team that won the game. I think he’s a pedestrian QB at best and the Giants are in trouble. Check out his QB rating - 61.1. The Skins QB rated higher. Lets see if the media picks up on it or keeps heaping praise on Peyton’s little brother. And he had a few would-be interceptions dropped by Redskin players.
Go Dallas!!
I had to take my Novacek jursey off the wall at work to bring home today. Maybe I’ll have to get a Fathead so Tony can loom large over my colleagues like they’re the iggles.
I also want to put it out there that I would like Newman to sit out another game or two. I lingering groin injury can be as bad as a hammy any day.
Now I read that Newman won’t start this Sunday and possibly won’t even play. WTF????!!!! Where did this come from?? I knew they were holding him out just as a precautionary thing. No sense getting him hurt in meaningless pre-season games, but I thought he’d be healed up by now. I also thought he just had a strained groin but now I hear it’s a partially “torn” groin. We’ve got better depth than ever before but still this sucks big time.
Kam
Strain implies a tear in the muscle. Grades 2 and 3 involving significant muscle damage. Though it hasn’t fully ruptured or doesn’t need major surgery or he’d be on IR by now. However, we (the fans) want the sucker healed right up before he gets back out there.
Newman + starting + grass + fatigue = major setback
Fighter,
Sweet post. However, I think the defenses ability to consistently pressure the QB on good teams should be questioned more than their ability to stop the run.
If this team has a weakness, it’s that.
After the Clowns game we should have a good evaluation of the level of pass rush we have against good o-lines. This will be a real test for the pass rush. I am especially curious to see how D-Ware does against Joe Thomas.
I dont know about this Newman thing either. Why is Jerry telling everyone who is playing?
DMN is reporting that Amendola did not make the trip to Cleveland, but Jefferson did. So my guess is that Jefferson gets activated today. I wonder who gets cut. Marten?
I don’t say much, I just emote.
Is it just me or do the last 48 hours prior to kick-off slow down to a snail’s pace?
ridgelake,
do the cowboys have to cut someone to activate a practice squad player from their own practice squad?
Ridge, Yes.
Yes Maten was the one cut. They hope he will clear waviers so they can now put him on the practice squad. Does that mean that the Jones boys will be handling kick and put returns?