Dallas Knew How To Attack The Rams
I went back and watched every throw Dallas made in the game against the Rams. I charted how long the throw was in the air from the line of scrimmage to the point where the receiver caught the ball. In many cases, the receiver was so wide open, he got several yards after the catch. Therefore, my distance reported here were not be the same as you see in the stat book, which includes the YAC.
I wanted to know how long the pass was because it appeared to me that Tony Romo and the Dallas offense was well prepared to attack the Rams underneath. They were. I am ignoring the Runs because that is the subject of another blog, which I probably will not write.
We all know that the Rams' play two deep safeties often, and the cornerbacks often play off the wide receivers. This year, I have seen three general positions for coverage. 1) Press coverage, 2) what I call close coverage (within 5 yards), and 3) off coverage which is anywhere between 6 to 9 yards off all the way to 15 yards for safeties. To make matters worse, the Linebackers often lineup within 5 yards and then retreat away from the line of scrimmage. This leaves, in my opinion, a gaping hole for short passes and dump off passes. Additionally, if the wide receiver runs an 8 to 10 yard route, he is still wide open for an underneath throw because no one is there to tip it, block the view and/or defend the pass.
Can you guess what Dallas did? In the first half, there was no pass over 12 yards. In fact, the 11 and 12 yard passes in the first half were more a result of the down and yardage than choice. There was an 11 yard pass to Witten on 3rd and 8, and a 12 yard pass to Witten on 3rd and 19. Every other pass in the 1st half was less then 9 yards. (Remember how I measured this). The issue that bothered me most was how open the dump off and quick slants were. In particular, the 8th, 9th and 10th passes of the game were to Murray, Beasley and Murray, respectively. All were 3 yards or less and the receiver was wide open on all three. Generally, when Romo looked downfield, he did not find much, and then checked down to someone who was uncovered.
In the 2nd half the Rams made an adjustment. I know many of you will not believe this, but they did. After the TD to Escobar, there were a couple of situations where the Rams had excellent coverage on short routes. In most of these situations, someone stayed close to the line of scrimmage to be prepared for a short pass. For example, Cortland Finnegan stopped a dump to Miles Austin by staying at the line and Chris long dropped into coverage once which stopped a potential quick pass to Bryant.
There were three long completed pass in the game. The first was a 22 yard TD pass to Escobar in the 3rd quarter, which was a complete failure. The defender (Witherspoon) was late getting on the field, which meant Escobar was uncovered except for a safety who was 15 yards deep. At the snap, Witherspoon still had not made it to Escobar. I will add that Witherspoon was jogging to his position. As Escobar sprinted towards the end zone, the safety moved up to cover the shorter routes leaving Witherspoon as the only person to cover Escobar and Witherspoon was out of position at the snap. Nothing went right.
The next long completed pass was a 17 yard crossing pattern to Witten in the 4th quarter. James L. simply blew his responsibility and ended up behind the crossing pattern. Romo led Witten, and the pass was completed rather easily. Finally, there was the 24 yard TD pass to Harris in the 4th quarter. The safety had coverage responsibility and generally did a good job. Romo simply made an perfect throw.
For the record, Romo tried a 28 yard pass in the third quarter, but Jenkins had good coverage. Romo also tried a 15 yard pass for a TD in the third quarter, but it was into double coverage. I will note that the 15 yard attempted TD pass came from a bunch formation. Bryant took the short crossing route. No one was within five yards of him going across the middle of the field. Romo did not see him.
The two plays immediately prior to the attempted TD pass also involved bunch formations. We covered one of them well, the other left Bryant wide open for an 8 yard pass.
In then end, here is something I can give you to watch for in future games. The issue is not purely a press coverage issue. I doubt you will ever see both or all three CBs in press coverage. It just isn't in the play book. Hopefully, you will see more of the close coverage as I defined it above. Here are a few things to watch:
1. If you see a bunch formation, take a look at the Rams coverage. If no one is up in press coverage, I pretty much guarantee the short route will be open. The Rams intentionally try to keep everything in front of them. This means they back up on the snap. Unfortunately, this means that the quarterback knows that an underneath (short) throw will be open.
2. Even when the Rams are not in press coverage, watch the CBs. In the 2nd half of the Dallas game, the CBs sometimes were is close coverage, but did not back up on the snap. Instead, the CB released the Wide Receiver to someone else and kept an eye out for the short pass.
3. If you ever wondered why the 2012 Rams were able to bend, but not break, I can explain. Once a team gets in the red zone, the linebackers cannot retreat. They have no place to go. This means that we have coverage in the middle and gives our CBs a little more room for error. I wish the retreat would end, but it happened all of last year, and continues to happen this year.
4. If you ever see the safety in the box, you are seeing progress.
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