Where did Tony Romo go with the ball in Week 3? Anywhere he wanted. He put up an elite QB performance that will win a road game anywhere against anybody. Bottle that performance and put it with his very best in his career. Only 1 throw came close to an interception and his accuracy was flawless. Quite a bounce back from the Chicago game.
As for his targets, Roy Williams had a perfect game. I have been hard on the guy, but when you see that "158.3" QB rating next to his name, you know he made the most of his throws. In case you are not aware, 158.3 is the maximum QB rating at the NFL level. Very nice.
But, it was a day where everyone had impressive numbers in the pass game.
Target Distribution: - Week 3 at Houston
| Name | Targets | Catches | Yards | FD/TD/INT | QB Rating |
| Austin | 3 | 2 | 20 | 1/0/0 | 85.4 |
| Bryant | 6 | 4 | 50 | 3/0/0 | 92.3 |
| Witten | 8 | 7 | 56 | 2/0/0 | 95.8 |
| Williams | 6 | 5 | 117 | 2/2/0 | 158.3 |
| Jones | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/0/0 | 0 |
| Barber | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0/0/0 | 87.5 |
| Choice | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/0/0 | 0 |
| Bennett | 4 | 3 | 26 | 2/0/0 | 91.6 |
| Gronkowski | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/0/0 | 0 |
| Ogletree | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/0/0 | 0 |
| Hurd | 1 | 1 | 11 | 1/0/0 | 112.5 |
| Totals | 29 | 23 | 284 | 11/2/0 | 130.4 |
3rd Downs were not as gaudy, but I think that is easy to explain. The reason the Cowboys were so impressive Sunday was that they stayed out of a lot of desperate 3rd Down situations. Only that drive in the 2nd Quarter relied on 3rd Down mastery, and Romo was awesome there. Otherwise, most of their damage was on early downs.
3RD/4TH Down Targets - Week 3 at Houston
| Name | Targets | Catches | Yards | FD/TD | QB Rating |
| Austin | 2 | 2 | 20 | 1/0/0 | 108.3 |
| Bryant | 3 | 2 | 16 | 2/0/0 | 79.8 |
| Williams | 1 | 1 | 20 | 1/0/0 | 118.7 |
| Witten | 2 | 1 | 14 | 0/0/0 | 72.9 |
| Bennett | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0/0/0 | 79.1 |
| Hurd | 1 | 1 | 11 | 1/0/0 | 112.5 |
| Totals | 10 | 8 | 81 | 5/0/0 | 100.4 |
And now the season numbers. Very early, but the overall totals are looking much better.
Target Distribution - Season To Date
| Name | Targets | Catches | Yards | FD/TD/INT | QB Rating |
| Austin | 29 | 22 | 308 | 15/1/1 | 106.7 |
| Bryant | 20 | 14 | 158 | 9/0/0 | 93.3 |
| Witten | 24 | 15 | 134 | 6/0/1 | 60.1 |
| Williams | 20 | 12 | 191 | 6/2/0 | 125.2 |
| Jones | 5 | 4 | 38 | 1/0/0 | 98.3 |
| Barber | 6 | 3 | 6 | 0/0/0 | 56.25 |
| Choice | 4 | 3 | 5 | 0/0/0 | 77.1 |
| Bennett | 14 | 11 | 78 | 2/0/0 | 89.8 |
| Ogletree | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0/0/0 | 0 |
| Hurd | 1 | 1 | 11 | 1/0/0 | 112.5 |
| Totals | 128 | 88 | 929 | 40/4/2 | 93.5 |
Jason Witten fans, cover your eyes. Through 3 games, the normal 3rd Down idea of Romo to Witten is not working. Yes, that is correct - Tony Romo has a "3" QB rating on throws to Witten on 3rd Down so far. I am going to say that will improve, but the NFL is absolutely sitting on 82 at the sticks on the money down right now. Time to consider other targets, and Romo did that in Houston.
3RD/4TH Down Targets - Season To Date
| Name | Targets | Catches | Yards | FD/TD/INT | QB Rating |
| Austin | 4 | 3 | 50 | 2/0/0 | 116.6 |
| Bryant | 8 | 5 | 64 | 4/0/0 | 87.5 |
| Williams | 6 | 4 | 68 | 4/0/0 | 104.8 |
| Witten | 7 | 2 | 27 | 0/0/1 | 3.5 |
| Bennett | 2 | 2 | 7 | 0/0/0 | 81.3 |
| Choice | 2 | 1 | 7 | 0/0/0 | 58.3 |
| Hurd | 1 | 1 | 11 | 1/0/0 | 112.5 |
| Totals | 30 | 18 | 232 | 11/0/1 | 70.4 |
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DB Targets
I keep track of which DB Romo was picking on each week to see if we can learn anything here. The fact is that for now, the Texans have a few desirable targets to pick on given that Kareem Jackson is a rookie and everyone else back there appears to be rather ordinary in their coverage skills.
We do see again that Kareem Jackson is lined up to Romo's right most of the time (front side), so for the 3rd straight week, the right side has the most traffic. I would suggest when throwing to a sideline, 7 out of every 10 of his throws go to the right. Although on Sunday, he hit a few big plays on his backside as well.
| Targeted DB | Times |
| 25 - Kareem Jackson | 8 |
| 21 - Brice McCain | 4 |
| 29 - Glover Quin | 3 |
| 28 - Antwaun Molden | 2 |
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SACKS
Usually, this is a much more eventful section of our weekly look, but once again, the Cowboys OL kept Tony Romo clean. No sacks allowed against another formidable pass rush. 1 sack in 3 weeks? That will win some football games in the long term. Now, according to my notes, they did use more of Witten on making sure he was giving those tackles help against Mario Williams as the chart below shows:
Jason Witten - Week 3
| Pass Route | Pass Protect |
| 22 | 8 |
But, however they go about their business, we still have only the week 1 sack to show you on our chart below. In the event that they allow a sack in a game, we use video to attempt to figure out who busted on the protection, but we will have to wait until next time to look at another one.
Season To Date Sacks
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The Rankings for the season in Sacks Allowed among the OL: Gurode 1
| Sack # | Down/Dist | Personnel | Sacker | Blame |
| 1/1 | 2/10/D45 | 12 | McIntosh | Gurode |
1 comment:
I also think it's great that maybe Romo and Bennett might be building some confidence in that connection. I mean, like you've been saying Bob, if you roll out the 12 and have a seriously good run threat and also 4 legit receivers you can count on, what in the world could a defense do?
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