O line

Mattyk

I think Patten will be ok.

Brunell underthrew him once and another time had one tipped that was headed his way.

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BrudLee

Interesting observation about Royal. I have two theories:

1) The Dallas coaching staff got tired of reading about Cooley as a "secret weapon", and clamped down. Every writer in the league has Cooley pegged as the only big receiving threat on the team. While I expect him to do well this year, it will be difficult if he is considered the top receving threat on the team. Passes to Royal and the WRs will alleviate that.

2) Brunell had been practicing will the second team in practice until this week. He's used to throwing to Royal, who sees snaps with that unit. I remember a few years ago when (I think) Jeff George came in in relief of Johnson. They brought in 3rd WR Thrash to the lineup as well, and Thrash caught like 8 balls. George knew what Thrash was going to do, because they'd worked together. Same thing here.

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Mattyk

Remember that Cooley's production jumped when Ramsey took over, I think it's only a matter of time before Brunell gets in sync with Cooley.

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illdefined

oi, don't remind us.
speaking of, we use two TE/H-Back sets all the time. doesn't Royal line up on the other side where Lefty Brunell sees him more?

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Mattyk

Cooley may have spent more time blocking on Monday due to all the blitzing, something else to keep in mind.

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FRPLG

I think the only true way to stop it is to make teams pay for it. I love crazy blitzing. I loved watching our guys blitz insanely last year. I'd love to watch us blitz every play this year and get 20 sacks a game but the problem with it is that a team only has to beat it 2 or 3 times and the game is over. It is a huge risk to blitz and that is why not every team just goes blitz crazy. They don't have the secondary to mitigate the risk or they don't have the personnell that can get the QB fast enough to not leave the secondary hanging. And that is how you stop the blitzing. You show teams you can beat it. You don't have to beat it a lot. Just enough to make teams think twice about it. Let's be honest if we lined and blitzed 3 guys every play we'd dominate 98% of the game but on those 3 or 4 other plays we'd get beat bad and that would be points. So beat the blitz a couple times and all of a sudden it will slow down. We seem to forget that when Turner was here we had a decent offense because they'd go donwfield on blitzes and hit a couple. Next thing you know teams weren't blitzing so much adn Davis became a running force. The checking down has got to stop or at least the checking down needs be designed well enough to get decent yardage otherwise thats exactly what they want. If they don't get a sack they'll take an incompletion or a two yard dump-off.

STPainmaker

Exactly, I think our checkdowns and blitz receiver audibles are predictable. With our speedy receivers we should be able to get away with slants on the blitz. The other thing is if a team is going to overpursue you have to have dynamic RB screens that rapidly develop to counter this. This is how NE beats the blitz, with quality slants and RB screens.

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illdefined

no kidding, we need to stop hitting the flats. have Cooley and Royal chip the blitzer and get upfield. keeping them in just to block doesn't slow the blitz one bit.

Samuels and Jansen aren't fast enough against the NFL's new faster LBs to properly set up those WR screens either. it just keeps the box nice and packed anyway.

the way to attack the Skins is to blitz, it's in the league newsletter. Moss and Patten just have to burn their single converage and more importantly, *Brunell has to THROW it to them*. even if they look covered, OVERTHROW it to avoid the DB and see how fast these guys really are, don't throw it low and at their knees for the comeback because you think it's "safe" !!!!!

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FRPLG

Yeah it is all about making teams NOT BLITZ anymore. If they bring the heat you have to beat it enough to make them stop. You simply can't block 6 or 7 guys coming at you from 7 different angles consistently or much at all really. Beat it and teams start respecting your entire offense which brings them into a more passive mode. Once there then you're talking about executing well designed plays that get multiple WR open both at the intermediate level and downfield. Until you beat it then you can forget about letting a play develop. You think teams blitz the heck out of the Colts? No they don't usualy and thats because they'd get torched. Manning might eat some turf but they'd score a lot. A lot more.

FRPLG

Oh my gosh this is what I have been saying since the middle of the first quarter against the Bears. NO SECONDARY in the has the speed to cover both Patten and Moss on flys and posts without two Safeties in ladder coverage. Hell Moss gets 5 or 6 yards of sepeartion just about any time he runs a fly one on one. Line those two midgets up on opposite sides of the field and have them run like forrest gump. The safety then has to decide which to provide ladder coverage on and the other should have one on one. THROW IT 30 yards past him and let him run under it. At least if it is too long it doesn't get picked. If they bring two safeties back to cover the flys then start dumping off to Cooley, Portis and Royal and let them get 9 or 10 YAC. I sat in the high ups at the Bears game and had a good view of the whole field. I am tellings you this would have worked. I watched Moss just run by guys every time he was running a lateral route. It was ridiculous.

illdefined

we need to stop the blitz because they run-blitz in a way to attack the running lanes on their way to the QB. the result is what we saw in Dallas. things like RB draws don't work, and Gibbs doesn't seem to like the Toss (though i did see a direct snap to an RB in there..)

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FRPLG

Yeah what happened to our stretch plays and the zone blocking? We seem to have reverted in the running game a little.

jermus22

I mentioned more than once in the second and third quarters that the 'Boys wouldn't respect us until we threw deep. Even though I had defended Gibbs' decision up to that point, I was starting to wonder myself whether he was gratifying his own pride by keeping Brunell in there. I'm glad I was wrong. It definitely seemed like there were a lot of Cowboys playing up in the box to blitz and snuff out our runs. It was kind of funny how one of the commentators noted how calm Gibbs was in the 3rd or 4th quarter.

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