Football 301: Decoding Garrett - Week 17

The Final regular season 301 breakdown of the year. We now have full season data that I will work off of for the entire off-season in that way that I do, but if you would like your own copy of my spreadsheet, I will be happy to email it to you, or you can simply click on this link and save it yourself.

On Sunday, the Cowboys controlled the game with their offense. Another performance that we could only suggest was spot on. Look at the power run game. I don't just make this stuff up for arguments. The fact remains that in normal down and distance, the Cowboys run the ball with great results. On Sunday, 10 rushes out of "22" personnel, and the final damage was 10 for 101 yards. 10 yards a carry? In the NFL?

For the season, the Cowboys ran out of "22" 140 times for 812 yards or 5.80 yards per carry, despite being 77% run out of that look. That means the defense knows you are running it, and still coughing up 5.8 per snap. This is easily the Cowboys most productive run look, with no other package getting more than 321 yards this season. That was "12" personnel, which had but 4.28 yards per carry.

5.8 for "22", 4.3 for "12" - and there you see why Deon Anderson will always have a job here. FB instead of a WR is the only difference between those 2 looks.


Here is the breakdown by groupings:

Totals by Personnel Groups:

Package	Plays Run	Yards	Run	Pass
11	1	2	1-2	0-0
12	8	51	4-14	4-37
13	8	22	6-13	2-9
21	5	42	4-17	1-25
22	12	115	10-101	2-14
31	0	0	0-0	0-0
WC22	0	0	0-0	0-0
S21	0	0	0-0	0-0
S01	3	17	0-0	3-17
S11	18	172	4-34	14-138
S12	9	50	0-0	9-50
Knee	3	-3	3-(-3)	9-50
Totals	67	469	32-179	35-290

Table Tutorial

Definition of the Personnel Groups, click here .

One statistical observation about the shotgun package would be this: Since the Washington Home game, S12 has been run 57 times, and 56 of them were passes (98.2%). S11 136 snaps, 22 runs/114 passes - (83% passes). This seems odd, of course - if you insert Martellus for Crayton when you go to S12 instead of S11, you think that would give you more of a running posture. Instead, they are 98% pass with Martellus (in shotgun) and 83% pass with 3 WR in S11. Odd. I wonder if Garrett is aware of this pattern. I also think Bennett's pass catching ability is more noteable considering this evidence.



We will try to speculate what some of this stuff means for our game plan later in the week, but let's break down 6 of the more successful snaps that the Eagles coaches will be trying to work through this week, below:

Video Breakdowns:

Thanks, Brian at DC Fanatic.com . He has done a ton for this project this season, and deserves your occasional visit to his site.

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The Play:1Q - 2/5/25 22 Run Barber +32



What Happened: "13" personnel, lined up like "22" with Phillips in for Anderson at FB. Now, line both TEs up on the left side, and then run a slant to the weakside. Look at the lead block from Phillips. This is impressive stuff, and it shows that the Eagles are too small in the front 7 to stand up to a power run look from the Cowboys. This is the 2nd play of the game, and painfully easy. You are not always going to get 32 yards on this play, but it would seem like you are able to get 5 or 6 every single time you run this downhill play. Each man wins his block, and 68 Free clears out 75 Parker with ease.

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The Play:S12 - 3/3/10 - Pass to Witten TD



What Happened: End of that same 1st drive, the Cowboys need 3 or 4 yards to keep the drive alive. They are in S12 (which as we have said has turned into a pass package a stunning 98%+ of the time). Bennett and Witten on the right, Austin and Williams on the left. It turns into 3 on 2 coverage from the Eagles, with Romo seeing Witten for an easy 1st down, but because Asante Samuel gambles on picking off the pass (which he did with some success later in the game causing the INT) instead of making the tackle, Witten actually backs 50 Witherspoon back into the endzone. Simple pitch and catch that shouldn't have been a TD, but the location of the pass and the poor decision by the DB result in a score.

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The Play: S11 - 3/4/14 - Pass Crayton TD




What Happened: Shotgun 11, with the Cowboys starting in a bunch formation on the left side. Generally, this gets a defense to switch off into some form of a zone coverage to try to keep from getting picked off. So, the Cowboys scheme to show "bunch", then once they feel the Eagles switch off to a zone, they motion Crayton to the sideline to run their zone-busting play with Williams heading into the flat to draw 24 Brown shallow for a split second, and then Romo finds Crayton in the endzone because 27 Mikell cannot get to Crayton in time. I don't think Brown is doing anything wrong here (disagree with Troy) - because if they switch to zone, that is Brown's guy (he isn't caught peeking, he is covering his zone). Text book taking candy from a baby, here. This is all preparation and scheme from Jason Garrett. Well played. I cannot imagine it works this easy in practice.

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The Play: 2Q - 2/17/D40 - S11 40 yd pass to Austin



What Happened: S11, with Barber lined up in the left slot. The reason I show you this is again to demonstrate how much Asante Samuel 22 likes to roll the dice on his coverage. He gambles, and darn near gets a pick 6. But, he doesn't, so he allows a 15 yard pass to go for 40. Also, I think here we get a reasonable look at Romo's arm strength. Not phenomenal, but surely up to the task of the most difficult throw for an NFL QB - the 20 yard sideline out on a rope.

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The Play: 3Q 1/10/O49 22 - Jones 49 yard TD run



What Happened: The masterpiece of the game. Since this is week 17, I am loving the fact that they ran this play one other time that I can remember - Week 1 against Tampa , scroll down and check the Barber TD run. It is a play out of Power personnel, where the play goes right, but the pitch goes left. Watch LG 63 Kosier pulling right and then the LBs follow him. Watch the two LBs in the middle of the play step left, and once they do, Felix is gone. Then, enjoy the Doug Free show, as he sprints down the field and almost keeps Felix behind him. I have never seen a right tackle run like that, but it is clear Doug Free was putting on a show there. WOW!

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The Play: 4Q - 3/12/D24 - Pass to Crayton S11 32 yards



What Happened: S11, and the idea here is to begin to work on 21 Joselito Hansen with Patrick Crayton. This is the luxury of having numbers where you can have Austin vs Samuel, Roy vs Sheldon Brown on the outside, and then Crayton working the slot against Hansen. When this happens, Crayton can make some plays, and we should look for more of this on Saturday night. 3rd and 12, and if Crayton can break a tackle or get some space, it is an easy conversion. Again, we see the importance of an accurate throw that hits a WR in the right location, where Crayton doesn't have to wait or break stride, but simply head up field for a huge gain.

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Target Distribution and Sack studies will be in another entry today. Stay tuned for that.
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Past Episodes:

Week 16 - Washington Redskins
Week 15 - New Orleans Saints
Week 14 - San Diego Chargers
Week 13 - New York Giants
Week 12 - Oakland Raiders
Week 11 - Washington Redskins
Week 10 - Green Bay Packers
Week 9 - Philadelphia Eagles
Week 8 - Seattle Seahawks
Week 7 - Atlanta Falcons
Week 5 - Kansas City
Week 4 - Denver
Week 3 – Carolina
Week 2 - New York Giants
Week 1 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Garrett '08