Pac is Back: Will Dallas Reprise the Green Bay Game Plan?
December 4, 2008
Adam Jones’ return gives the Cowboys cornerback corps its deepest, healthiest hand since week three, when Jones, Anthony Henry, Terence Newman, Orlando Scandrick and Mike Jenkins played against Green Bay.
Jenkins is out with a hamstring injury but the other four will be available. What’s more, Newman should be much healthier than he was earlier in the year, when he was trying to grit his teeth and play with a hernia.
That Packers game was the defense’s best, before Newman broke down the following week against Washington and the defensive line followed suit. The Steelers offensive philosophy resembles Green Bay’s quite a bit, so it won’t be a coincidence if we see Wade Phillips use several features from that game.
The Steelers have a reputation for being a ground-based, grind it out team. Against New England last week, Pittsburgh ran variations of a three WR, one TE, one RB set about 90% of the time. The Steelers swapped a WR for a second TE when they were in short yardage situations, but in almost all other situations the personnel packages were:
- QB — Ben Roethlisberger;
- RB — Mewelde Moore or Willie Parker;
- TE — Heath Miller;
- WR — Santonio Holmes;
- WR — Hines Ward;
- WR — Nate Washington
Pittsburgh used this personnel group in two basic formations. One is a spread set, with Holmes alone on one side and Ward slotted inside Washington on the other. Miller lines up next to one of the OTs and the running back is set in the shotgun to one side of Roethlisberger.
The other is a bunch set, run from the shotgun or with Roethlisberger under center. In this set Holmes, their deep threat, is again split alone, with Miller, Ward and Washington in a trident just wide of the OT opposite side.
Ward usually plays on the point of the bunch, with Miller flanking him inside and Washington flanking him wide. Miller’s inside set lets him help the OT when the Steelers max protect or to motion into the backfield as a FB on running plays. Ward works much of the time in the middle of the field against linebackers, safeties and third CBs and does a lot of damage here. Washington, like Holmes, is more of a deep threat and has the team’s best YPR average.
The three wide set suggests the Cowboys should deploy in a nickel, but doing that would leave only six men in the box, and the Steelers are not a pass-happy team. Their run-to-pass ratio is 49:51. They will pound the ball inside as much as the opposition will let them.
For this reason, I don’t think we’ll see Dallas deploy in it’s 4-2-5 nickel, with Anthony Henry joining Kevin Burnett as linebackers — at least not on first and second downs. Henry is 207 lbs. and Burnett is the run of the linebacking corps at 237 lbs. They don’t have the muscle to take on guards one-on-one. Dallas twice made the mistake of using this set against the Packers on first down. The Packers ran at it for ten yards each time. Dallas will use this set and has matchups that work in it, but we’ll only see the “Henry nickel” on 3rd and longs. More on this later.
The Steelers, in terms of personnel, resemble Green Bay and Washington, in that they like to spread you out to run. What’s more, the Steelers two biggest receiving threats, Ward and Miller, work the center of the field. Dallas needs to find a package that keeps linebackers on the field, to defense the run, and yet offer the best matchups against Ward.
I think Wade Phillips will take a page from his Packers game plan and go with a tweaked 3-4-4 set. In that game, Phillips made Ken Hamlin the lone safety and matched Henry, Newman and Jones up with the three Packers’ wideouts. I would not be at all surprised if the Cowboys did the same thing Sunday, with Jones and Henry manning the corners and Newman shadowing Ward in the slots.
Dallas would then keep seven men on the line. This would not only help them slow the run, but would give them the maximum flexibility with blitz packages. They could rush the the base set, run inside twists with Bradie James, a tactic that has worked very well against the Steelers interior line, or to walk James next to one of the OLBs and play the “Bum,” Dallas’ version of the old Bears 46 defense.
The one vulnerability in this scheme will be Miller against the Cowboys’ linebackers. Miller is the best overall TE in the AFC, and the Steelers use him the same way Dallas uses Jason Witten, flexing him into the backfield, setting him up in the traditional TE position and splitting him out wide on sure passing downs. They don’t throw to him as often as Dallas does to Witten, but Miller’s YPC is similar — 11.9 to Witten’s 12.2.
The Cowboys may be willing to surrender throws to Miller in order to corral the running game and Ward. The Seahawks’ John Carlson had a huge game last week, but the rest of his team didn’t do much. The coaches may also feel that the linebackers are no worse in coverage than Keith Davis and that their rushing skills and size make them better bets against runs.
If the Cowboys can get Pittsburgh into 3rd-and-long on a consistent basis, the Henry Nickel offers the ideal personnel to stop the Steelers. I’ll repeat, the Steelers don’t change their personnel when they have long distances to cover. They simply flex Miller out in space, to give a four WR look, with Miller as the second slot receiver. They’ll occasionally motion the RB out wide to give an empty look.
In these situations the Henry package looks strong: Jones will remain on the left corner. Newman will move to RCB and Orlando Scandrick will play in the slot. They will each take a Steelers’ WR man-to-man, with two safeties behind them. Henry will match up with Miller and Burnett will have coverage responsibilty for the RB.
If Dallas does use this package, look for Henry or Scandrick to blitz from the slot. Henry turned the Packers game with two sacks coming from the edge. I expect Dallas to use every varation of blitz they can muster. Steelers’ QBs have been sacked 36 times this year, a nice, round 3.0 a game.
Adam Jones’ return and Terence Newman’s return to better health mean the Cowboys can press in the secondary and pressure up front. They way the Cowboys have been rushing lately, Pac’s return could well bring the Packers-game plan back.
MB3 as iffy as iffy can get for Sunday
December 4, 2008
OLB DeMarcus Ware (hyperextended left knee) did almost everything at today’s practice without a problem. The news about RB Marion Barber isn’t as good.
Barber’s dislocated right pinkie toe hasn’t recovered as well as anticipated. He stayed off his feet during today’s practice, with the hope that rest instead of rehab would help get him ready to go Sunday in Pittsburgh.
“We were assuming that Marion would play, but it’s a little more doubtful right now,” Phillips said. “We’ll see tomorrow.”
DC.com uses the dreaded term “game-time decision.”
Gentlemen this guy may be our starting RB on the road, possibly in the snow, against the top-ranked defense in the league. I believe in Choice and he’s shown some real progress over the year but …
Yikes.
We may have to get cute in the secondary.
I like it.
The Cowboys have kicked around the idea of moving Henry over to safety for the better part of a year, but now that both Roy Williams and Pat Watkins are gone for the season because of injury, it could be a case of need.
With the return of Adam “Pacman” Jones to the team, the Cowboys have enough corners (three) that they could move Henry around some. They should have Mike Jenkins (hamstring) back next week.
Heath Miller is a pro’s pro. Knows how to get open. Knows how to sit in the zone. Tough as nails. We’re going to have to pay attention to him or he’ll burn us. I’m hoping they’ll use Henry to cover the tight end and take away Big Ben’s security blanket.
I’ve been impressed with Bradie James lately, particularly against the Seahawks. His blitzes were well-timed and explosive. I’ve seen many plays were James overran plays or made a feeble attempt at an arm tackle. These were small criticism of his overall game but it used to drive me crazy. I don’t see that much anymore and I think everyone starting to notice. James is steadily making the progression from a solid player to a great one. He’s not there yet but you can tell he’s starting to realize his full potential.
When players enter the NFL, their physical skills outweigh their mental skills because they haven’t seen a game as fast or as complicated while in college. As the years go by, those two skills even out and, eventually, the mental skills outweigh the physical skills.
At 27, James is at the part of his career where the physical and mental skills are at the same point.
“With this being my sixth year, the game is coming,” James said. “It comes to me. I just let the game come basically. I just try to play every down, try to be as consistent as possible and do what I’m supposed to do and when a play is needed to be made, I make the play.”
Don’t ever test Spags. In your life. He will clap back. Resoundingly.
CHRIS BURKE, AUSTIN, TX: I’ve heard it said many times that Roy Williams just needs more time to learn the offense. That really concerns me. How can Daunte Culpepper run the Lions offense (as pathetic as it is) after sitting out half a season and only being with the team two weeks, yet it takes Roy more than a month to learn pass patterns he’s run his entire life?
Mickey: Well evidently you are being misinformed. I don’t think you’re read any of that nonsense on this website. Roy Williams knows the offense well enough to be productive. Just not sure what you are expecting. If Jas Witten is going to catch like seven to 10 passes a game and Terrell Owens is doing the same, and you run the ball like 25 times or so, how many passes are left to go around to Williams, Patrick Crayton and Matellus Bennett. I mean if the guy didn’t know the offense, he wouldn’t be starting, right?
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
Spags can be hard to read and sometimes he rambles a bit. But I love reading the mailbag because he murders fools incessantly. It’s like he’s waiting to embarrass people.
Film Review: Dallas Cowboys in the trenches (defense)
December 4, 2008
Yesterday, I took a look at the Dallas Cowboys offensive line and blocking schemes against the Seattle Seahawks to see how they’re performing. Now, it’s time to look at the defense, specifically the front seven to see how they controlled the line of scrimmage and how they were able to attack the QB. We won’t take much notice of the secondary or coverages in this Film Review, it’s all about the war in the trenches.
As posted on the offensive Film Review, everything comes with the caveat that while Seattle has some talent, as a team they are playing very poorly. They also had some youth in the interior line that skewed the perspective. But you play who they schedule, and so it was.
Make the jump below for the rest.
Defense
The Cowboys defense has started to make an impact in a positive way. Over the last batch of games (minus the Giants), the defense is controlling the running game, getting more pressure on the QB and creating turnovers. Is it a coincidence all this started when Wade Phillips became more involved? Is it the competition we’ve played recently? Or is it players returning from injury on both sides of the ball? All good questions, but for this article, we’ll see what they did on Thanksgiving Day.
Dallas controlled the run by playing smart, disciplined defense. They appear to have rectified that bugaboo from earlier in the season - poor gap control. The Cowboys defensive front five (DL + Ware and Ellis/Spencer) were extremely mindful of the gaps and didn’t over-pursue leaving huge cutback lanes, they didn’t shoot upfield only to have the play go right under them; they played assignment football. Watching the front five on one particular play, a stretch run, was a thing of beauty. Think of the Denver Broncos zone-blocking scheme where all the linemen move in unison one way, keeping perfect spacing in between them. The Cowboys did that from the defensive side of the ball, everybody perfectly choreographed as they pursued down to the sideline, where DeMarcus Ware eventually knocked the runner out of bounds for a small loss. That’s emblematic of what I saw from the Cowboys run defense in this game.
To do this effectively, the guys taking on the blocks must at least hold their position along the line. If one guy is pushed back, the gap is opened. The Cowboys took on the blocks extremely well in the game. They also were able to maintain the double-teams, not allowing one of the blockers to disengage and get to the second-level. If they can do that, Bradie James and Zach Thomas are free to pursue the ball carrier and shoot into any hole available.
If the run was between the tackles, the front three pinched down to clog the lanes and the outside contain didn’t over-pursue, but pushed down the line while keeping their option to snuff out any cutback runs.
Dallas was able to hold the line, maintain gap control and occupy double-teams. They also tackled better because they were in the right position to make the play, instead of diving or arm-tackling because they got beat on their assignment. That’s good run defense.
The Cowboys are also showing a little more creativity and desire when getting after the QB. One thing that stood out in the game was the amount of times we blitzed the inside linebackers. Bradie James and occasionally Kevin Burnett were used on a variety of blitzes from different angles. The Cowboys were probably mindful that the Seahawks were playing a brand-new center so using the inside backers made sense. But they didn’t bring them just up the middle.
The Cowboys ran a blitz where the ILB’s would rush and either DeMarcus Ware or Greg Ellis would drop back into zone coverage as the middle linebacker. Bradie James got a sack out of this formation, but he wasn’t lined up in the middle. He lined up as the OLB and beat the TE’s block. They ran this type of blitz while changing the ILB’s angle of attack 4-5 times in the game.
The blitzes also had the effect of giving some favorable matchups in one-on-one situations. Tank Johnson got a sack when the center had to block him and was leaning one way trying to anticipate; Tank blew right by him the other way. Or they created impossible matchups, like when Ken Hamlin blitzed on DeMarcus Ware’s side forcing the right tackle to choose one of them to block. He started with Ware, slid outside to Hamlin and Ware went straight to the QB for a sack. On the same play Bradie James was coming on a delayed blitz and was about to get his own taste of the QB. He also got his own sack when he came in un-touched on a delayed blitz.
The downside of blitzing the middle linebackers was that John Carlson, the TE, was able to pull off some of their biggest plays. We left the middle wide-open on one blitz, then we couldn’t cover him in a zone with one inside linebacker blitzing. Matt Hasselback was able to get a couple of hot-reads and quick passes to work over the middle, but the Cowboys were willing to live with that.
Most of the line chipped in on the pass rush. DeMarcus Ware had two sacks where he just destroyed Walter Jones with his speed and agility, plus the one mentioned above. Greg Ellis had a few plays were he got pressure and he picked up a garbage-time sack. Bradie James got two sacks from the linebacker spot. And then there’s Jay Ratliff, who was causing havoc in the middle although it didn’t really appear in the stats sheet or on my first watch of the game. He blew up runs, he got pressure on the QB, he stood up double-teams; in short he’s still the Rat.
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