What I would do against Dallas

[Russ Smith]

They have a good defense we all know but they do certain things that leave them highly vulnerable. The only game this year where I watched them for 4 quarters was the SF game and the 49ers did this too them quite easily.

Attack them downfield. They love to play Roy Williams near the LOS, he's a huge hitter, he helps their run defense, and he dissuades plays over the middle. SF was able to get them in single coverage repeatedly which is how Rattay had 3 TD passes including an 89 yarder to Brandon Loyd. They were also able to then get them to adjust by dropping in coverage, and then run against them(barlow and gore 19 carries 107 yards.

The reason SF lost that game was their defense giving up big pass plays, and 2 picks and a lost fumble by SF, Dallas trailed most of the game and was never really able to stop SF until the 4th quarter started and Rattay went into his usual 4th quarter shell.

Dallas can rush the passer, 21 sacks, they have speed on the edge, they have several good young DL's, they blitz. But you have to use that against them because of the way they play Roy Williams, downfield is open quite a bit. If you go back look at how Washington torched them in the 4th quarter with the 2 bombs to Santana Moss. The very next game SF did it to them with Loyd. Next game Randy Moss caught a 79 yarder against them. They shut down Philly, next week Shockey catches a 59 yarder against them. This is a team that gives up a ton of big plays because they will put their CB's in a lot of man to man situations with Roy Williams up.

Also of note, Dallas' starting FS is Keith Davis, who was a college teammate of Josh McCown at Sam Houston State, it's his first year as the starter, 5th year overall, and one would assume with all the big plays being given up, he's not having the best of years at FS?

The more I look at the matchup the more I convince myself the Cards COULD win this game. We can't turn it over but if Dallas plays us the way they play everyone else, with Roy Williams up, I think we have to attack them downfield and find some way to give Josh time to throw it. Even though we don't have the speed of Santana or Randy Moss we have WR's who can get open and punish them for being so aggressive. I really think you have to attack them otherwise Roy Williams just intimidates people over the middle and in the run game with his big hits.

 

[clif]

This is why I think a change to rookie McCoy may not be a bad idea. If he possesses the speed that he is listed for, then he can give this team a deep threat that we have been missing. He may not get many looks deep, but I'm sure him streaking down the sidelines could open things up for Fitz and Q

 

[conraddobler]

This is why I think a change to rookie McCoy may not be a bad idea. If he possesses the speed that he is listed for, then he can give this team a deep threat that we have been missing. He may not get many looks deep, but I'm sure him streaking down the sidelines could open things up for Fitz and Q

With what Russ just said, Fitz should be in single coverage.

Jump ball city.

 

[dogpoo32]

The thing I'm worried about is whether or not our QB will have 2 seconds to drop back. Dallas will know we simply cannot run the ball and will be able to play the pass a little more than they would against any other team. I think if we start out pass heavy before failing to establish the run, we may have an easier time getting JJ or Shipp some positive yards. Its been downright embarrassing watching this team try to run the ball this season. The long pass will depend on some sort of run game or maybe adding an extra blocker.

 

[Russ Smith]

With what Russ just said, Fitz should be in single coverage.

Jump ball city.

I guess the question is are they going to bother to do that against us given our lack of a run game? If they do, I think you have to attack them.

The scary thing to me is they will turn you over so Josh can't be careless with his throws, but I really think if you're aggressive against them you can get a ton of single coverage situations, SF did it repeatedly and in the other games I watched bits and pieces of, other teams did too. The 2 bombs to Santana Moss, Williams was beaten on both of them because he was cheating up, at that point in a game almost any other team has their safeties deep to prevent the big play but Dallas has Williams cheating up and Moss beats them over the top twice.

It's almost as if Parcells dares teams to take the chance, we're going to come after your QB, hit you, do you have the confidence to challenge us or will you just dump it off short.

 

[conraddobler]

I guess the question is are they going to bother to do that against us given our lack of a run game? If they do, I think you have to attack them.

The scary thing to me is they will turn you over so Josh can't be careless with his throws, but I really think if you're aggressive against them you can get a ton of single coverage situations, SF did it repeatedly and in the other games I watched bits and pieces of, other teams did too. The 2 bombs to Santana Moss, Williams was beaten on both of them because he was cheating up, at that point in a game almost any other team has their safeties deep to prevent the big play but Dallas has Williams cheating up and Moss beats them over the top twice.

It's almost as if Parcells dares teams to take the chance, we're going to come after your QB, hit you, do you have the confidence to challenge us or will you just dump it off short.

It's a winning strategy because we will most likely flub up some part of the play.

Either Josh won't have time, will throw it out of bounds or Fitz may not catch it or it gets intercepted.

I have great confidence that if it's thrown correctly Fitz won't be the problem. Getting him the ball would be IMO>

Going over the middle is dangerous with Williams in there, most teams now days would dump it off. Teams don't go deep like they used too so it's a good strategy but Gibbs recognized what to do in that situation and so did the 49ers, I wouldn't have thought the 9ers would have pulled it off like they did and I am sure that's what Parcells thought too.

Fitz catching jump balls helps aleviate the need to throw a perfect pass, therefore because Josh most likely won't have time and has shown he can at times delilver that type of pass, I'd at least try that a few times in the situations you mentioned.

I really hesitate to believe they will play us that way though.

Maybe because the 9ers run game isn't much better than ours but to me it would seem to be a bad strategy for us.

I'd drop back in coverage and wait for us to make a mistake.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

What I would like to know from some who were at the game last week, or at all for that matter...how often have we tried 3WR 2RB sets? We all know that our TE situation is only marginally better than our OLine. From what I have seen Shipp is as capable as any TE that we have blocking now. JJ could also be used out of the backfield as a checkdown receiver.

 

[conraddobler]

What I would like to know from some who were at the game last week, or at all for that matter...how often have we tried 3WR 2RB sets? We all know that our TE situation is only marginally better than our OLine. From what I have seen Shipp is as capable as any TE that we have blocking now. JJ could also be used out of the backfield as a checkdown receiver.

Did you see the passes Shipp caught early in the game last week?

To me if that's JJ it had a decent chance to score on a couple of them, I'd say you are right, Shipp did well on that play but we stopped running it, maybe the Titans adjusted to it but JJ just needs the ball in some space right now I agree.

I think the hesitation with that is they are afraid he won't pickup a blitz when he's supposed too.

Russ also pointed out that they bring Williams up so in that type of checkdown situation Williams would be head hunting for that exact type of play.

 

[jf-08]

I think Arrington can be a huge weapon in this game.

Shipp has done an admirable job catching passes in the middle of the field to help Josh as a safety receiver which helps slow down the rush.

Can you imagine Arrington in that role, in the middle of the field with several steps before he is engaged? I hope that he is used this way.

 

[jf-08]

LOL!


Same thought at the same time.

 

[conraddobler]

LOL!


Same thought at the same time.

Great minds, at least yours is

 

[conraddobler]

I think Russ is right, it depends on how Dallas plays us, if they do what they have done then yes attack downfield as much as you can.

Screens, well we can't run them and it's not all that effective against a 3-4 like it is against a 4-3 because there are more linebackers to foil it. Depends on their blitz schemes more.

First thing we should do is what DG said, eliminate the plays we can't run at all.

The standard run play shouldn't even be in our playbook cause that's the one everyone shoots the gaps hard on.

We need the shotgun too, can't have Josh dropping back getting tripped up on the carnage shooting through the line or immediately running for his life, he has to have at least some time.

Dump offs aren't great for reasons Russ mentioned, but it could cause them to play like Russ mentioned in the first place in which case if the protection holds throw it deep if not get rid of the ball.

 

[phillycard]

Roy has real trouble covering a TE or RB out the backfield as well. That is afavorable matchup is fe we can get that poppin'.

 

[john h]

With what Russ just said, Fitz should be in single coverage.

Jump ball city.

Simply put we will have to do everything right and they will have to make some mistakes such as turnovers. Man for man they are a better team. Sometimes the bear bits you and sometimes you bite the bear.

 

[john h]

The thing I'm worried about is whether or not our QB will have 2 seconds to drop back. Dallas will know we simply cannot run the ball and will be able to play the pass a little more than they would against any other team. I think if we start out pass heavy before failing to establish the run, we may have an easier time getting JJ or Shipp some positive yards. Its been downright embarrassing watching this team try to run the ball this season. The long pass will depend on some sort of run game or maybe adding an extra blocker.

Who knows. Maybe our secret weapon would be to put Josh in the gun. There is two seconds.

 

[Russ Smith]

Simply put we will have to do everything right and they will have to make some mistakes such as turnovers. Man for man they are a better team. Sometimes the bear bits you and sometimes you bite the bear.

All true but all you gotta do is look at their game with SF, by far the worst team they've played and a game they should have lost if SF didn't blow it.

Any given Sunday.

 

[john h]

It's a winning strategy because we will most likely flub up some part of the play.

Either Josh won't have time, will throw it out of bounds or Fitz may not catch it or it gets intercepted.

I have great confidence that if it's thrown correctly Fitz won't be the problem. Getting him the ball would be IMO>

Going over the middle is dangerous with Williams in there, most teams now days would dump it off. Teams don't go deep like they used too so it's a good strategy but Gibbs recognized what to do in that situation and so did the 49ers, I wouldn't have thought the 9ers would have pulled it off like they did and I am sure that's what Parcells thought too.

Fitz catching jump balls helps aleviate the need to throw a perfect pass, therefore because Josh most likely won't have time and has shown he can at times delilver that type of pass, I'd at least try that a few times in the situations you mentioned.

I really hesitate to believe they will play us that way though.

Maybe because the 9ers run game isn't much better than ours but to me it would seem to be a bad strategy for us.

I'd drop back in coverage and wait for us to make a mistake.

They will review our films and do like any other team. Ignore the run and drop back in coverage. The will blitz 50% of the time if required. It is a no brainer how they will defend when you cannot run.

 

[conraddobler]

They will review our films and do like any other team. Ignore the run and drop back in coverage. The will blitz 50% of the time if required. It is a no brainer how they will defend when you cannot run.

True enough.

The Titans with Jeff Fisher are almost always a solid defensive team both in players and schemes.

I think they had us dead to rights on how to play us.

They just have no one left on offense to take advantage of it.

Dallas has that film and already decided to go with the Titans scheme IMO.

The one counter we have to that is to simply throw out our run plays. I am not talking about that WR screen either.

One play I for sure would do is to have Boldin in the backfield, give him the ball on an option sweep.

He was a QB at one time you know, I'd have him throw it downfield this game either to a TE or deep.

The next thing I'd do is replace the run game with a few passes with the RB leaking over the middle if they do drop back, to JJ not Shipp.

Soften them up with some comeback timing routes on the outside early and often and then turn them deep if they start cheating in on those.

 

[MadCardDisease]

I like the plan Russ and I agree with it. The question will be, can Josh put the ball where it needs to be when these opportunities present themselves. Last week he wasn't able to take advantage of the same opportunities and won. This week he must take advantage of them or it will be a loss.

 

[john h]

True enough.

The Titans with Jeff Fisher are almost always a solid defensive team both in players and schemes.

I think they had us dead to rights on how to play us.

They just have no one left on offense to take advantage of it.

Dallas has that film and already decided to go with the Titans scheme IMO.

The one counter we have to that is to simply throw out our run plays. I am not talking about that WR screen either.

One play I for sure would do is to have Boldin in the backfield, give him the ball on an option sweep.

He was a QB at one time you know, I'd have him throw it downfield this game either to a TE or deep.

The next thing I'd do is replace the run game with a few passes with the RB leaking over the middle if they do drop back, to JJ not Shipp.

Soften them up with some comeback timing routes on the outside early and often and then turn them deep if they start cheating in on those.

Perhaps we should do more of what we did against TN and that is use the short pass in the flat as a running game. Use JJ like the St Louis did with Faulk when Warner was there. We did that a few times in the TN game.

 

[conraddobler]

Perhaps we should do more of what we did against TN and that is use the short pass in the flat as a running game. Use JJ like the St Louis did with Faulk when Warner was there. We did that a few times in the TN game.

Well if they drop back in coverage we will almost certainly, it was a good plan, I just think JJ was the back that should have done that, he has the moves and the speed to really make that pay off.

We seemed to stop doing that, it worked so either they forgot about it or TN ajusted to it.

The Dallas adjustment to it would be to bring Williams up like Russ said, that's really something we want IMO.

So you should absolutely feature that play with JJ, IMO.

 

[TheAnswer42]

Hey, guys. I'm a Cowboys fan who likes to talk football. I just came over here to see what you guys were saying about this weeks matchup.

You are right in that we play Roy in the box a lot. He's not that good in coverage, but he's one heck of a tackler. Our 2 primary CB (Newman and Henry) are really good, but our 3rd (A. Glenn) tends to make mistakes.

Also, for some reason, we keep staying in the 3-4 when our openents go to 3 WR sets, leaving our DBs to drop into coverage. This also happens when teams use their TE against us. Our DBs aren't that good at defending the pass.

I think that if the Cowboys play the Cards like they played the Smeagles, we can stop your two great WRs. However, if we try to stop the run (don't see why we should) y'all will be able to score on us all day long.

However, that won't mean much if our O doesn't get it's act together and put some points on the board. Hard to win games when you only score 10 points.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Hey, guys. I'm a Cowboys fan who likes to talk football. I just came over here to see what you guys were saying about this weeks matchup.

You are right in that we play Roy in the box a lot. He's not that good in coverage, but he's one heck of a tackler. Our 2 primary CB (Newman and Henry) are really good, but our 3rd (A. Glenn) tends to make mistakes.

Also, for some reason, we keep staying in the 3-4 when our openents go to 3 WR sets, leaving our DBs to drop into coverage. This also happens when teams use their TE against us. Our DBs aren't that good at defending the pass.

I think that if the Cowboys play the Cards like they played the Smeagles, we can stop your two great WRs. However, if we try to stop the run (don't see why we should) y'all will be able to score on us all day long.

However, that won't mean much if our O doesn't get it's act together and put some points on the board. Hard to win games when you only score 10 points.

eh, we suck so this game shouldn't be that difficult for you. that's my analysis for this week. hell, that's probably my anaylsis for the rest of the season. sigh . . .

 

[red desert]

eh, we suck so this game shouldn't be that difficult for you. that's my analysis for this week. hell, that's probably my anaylsis for the rest of the season. sigh . . .

Classic.

 

[Russ Smith]

Answer42, thanks for the insights and welcome to the board.

Completely off topic but do you have any feel for where Dallas is going with Drew Henson? Everything I read says they tried to rebuild his throwing motion this offseason thinking baseball had caused him to drop his arm angle. He looked awful in the preseason, seemed to be thinking before he threw, really inconsistent. He had one of those magic arms at Michigan for years I waited for him to quit baseball.

Seems to me that Parcells is just about the worst guy for him to end up with because he's so impatient with young players?