Cowboys Defensive Film Study Summer Project - Part 4

WEEK 13 - GREEN BAY

All hands were on deck again in Green Bay, now with four games to play.  The Cowboys put up an amazingly silly offensive performance that saw 12 possessions only advance to their own 40 yard line on 2 occasions.  They got nothing done at all, which left the defense on the field all day long.  The Packers ran 81 plays for 435 yards and an mauling 230 yards on the ground, despite having their own massive offensive issues in the passing game where Dallas held up very well.  Basically, the Cowboys stayed in Cover 1 (out of a Cover 2 shell) and then the Packers responded by taking what they could on the ground and only passing as a change-up.

Green Bay (like Atlanta) employed the physical FB right at the LBs and this is a game where the Cowboys were certainly accused of being to light up front to stop a big rushing attack.  It didn't help that by December, Sean Lee and Rolando McClain looked beat up and physically worn down from the long year of ground and pound.  Meanwhile, Claiborne left he game again injured, which took Byron Jones from FS back to corner, and Wilcox or Jeff Heath played deep in the 2nd half.  Time of possession was 38-22, GB, and the Cowboys just looked beaten up by their own offense's incompetence.  It truly felt like the last game of the season with 3 pre-season games to follow.

COVERAGES - The Cowboys wisely dedicated all troops to the run (it also was rainy and cold) and forced Aaron Rodgers to try to sort through some Cover 1 Robber most of the day.  It worked pretty well, as the Cowboys were only really beaten in the air by a few well-timed screen plays to RBs.  40 pass play situations with Cover 1 - 26 times, Cover 3 - 9 times, and Cover 2 zone on 5 change-ups.  It should be noted the Cowboys used a ton of Cover 2 shell to disguise their Cover 1/3 intentions.

Season totals through 13 games - Coverages in 479 pass plays: 235 in Cover 1 (49%), 120 in Cover 3 (25.1%), 11 in 2-Man (2.2%), 112 in Cover 2 (23.3%), and once in Cover 0.

WEEK 14 - NEW YORK JETS

The Cowboys played the Jets on a Saturday Night without Mo Claiborne (Again) and without Rolando McClain who fell late in the 4th Quarter of the Green Bay game.  That means Hitchens would play the mike LB and Byron Jones would head back to cornerback, meaning Wilcox and Church would handle the safety spot again.  Terrance Mitchell ended up playing the slot corner spot and grabbed a very rare Cowboys interception.  The game was more of the familiar theme of the team getting beat in the turnover game, the offense providing very little, the defense being on the field too long, and then conceding a 4th Quarter collapse that resulted in losing the lead late and the game at the end.

They tried to key on the run (plenty of 3 LB sets with Wilber at the SAM after many games where that position hardly gets on the field) and send the extra safety (Church) down at Chris Ivory and actually did a nice job there.  Behind it, it was pretty clear they weren't trusting the team to stay in Cover 1 much, and therefore tried the safer Cover 3.  Unfortunately, Brandon Marshall and the gang knew how to kill Cover 3 all day (with outs and posts), so eventually, they played more Cover 2 which then gave up plays underneath to tight ends.  They simply did not have their first choices at pretty much every spot except Carr.  DeMarcus Lawrence continued his growth with some really impressive run stops, and Hitchens performance was uneven at the mike as I don't know that scraping is his forte and shedding is no picnic, either.  He will run with guys, but power seems to lack at point of attack.  The defense is really running on fumes now and they are getting work for many players just added to the roster in the secondary.  There was a major mix-up late in the game that cost them the win when coverages were confused and it appeared Byron Jones took the blame for the bust.

COVERAGES - Ryan Fitzpatrick passed for 299 yards and aside from his one error in judgement had a very efficient and impressive night.  44 pass plays situations - Cover 1 - 13 times, Cover 3 - 14 times, and Cover 2 zones the other 17 plays.

Season totals through 14 games - Coverages in 523 pass plays: 248 in Cover 1 (47.4%), 134 in Cover 3 (25.6%), 11 in 2-Man (2.1%), 129 in Cover 2 (24.6%), and once in Cover 0.

WEEK 15 - AT BUFFALO

The Cowboys went to play Buffalo with no Mo Claiborne (who had now been shut down for the year) and no Jeremy Mincey.  No Claiborne combined with the fact after Byron Jones had a major bust late against the Jets meant that they were going to stick him in his now permanent home at Free Safety once and for all.  Of course, that meant that they were going to have to play 29 Deji Olatoye and 21 Terrence Mitchell full time for the remainder of the year because they had no Claiborne, and had already released Tyler Patmon and Corey White into the wild.  Perhaps because of this, the Cowboys broke from their season-long tendencies of using Cover 1 as their primary coverage (or the fact that they were dealing with a Buffalo team that loves to run the ball and features a QB who is a dual-threat.  Cover 1 is not great for stopping the run, so on this day there was a full compliment of zones (Cover 2, Cover 3) behind the fronts.

This game also featured the Cowboys playing with 3 LBs for most of the time on early downs which would also break tendencies where the Cowboys were in nickel almost 70% of snaps all season long. This would also be in the mix for the best game of Sean Lee's 2015.  He had several - all seemed to be on the road - and returned to the top of the Cowboys defender rankings.  He was simply superb in scraping and blowing up run play after run play.  The team also grabbed multiple takeaways for only the third time of the year (at Philadelphia, at Tampa Bay).  But, the story of the game for the defense would have to be collapse late in the 4th Quarter where because of no offensive support, they had to deal with a long drive where Buffalo pretty much just ran it right down the field for the win.

COVERAGES -  with 28 pass situations: Cover 1 - just 3 times the whole game, Cover 3 was 12 times, and Cover 2 was the other 13 (although 2 of those 13 were 3rd and long prevents that looked more like 4-4 zones.  They butchered one of these badly, allowing a pass to the sticks on 3rd and 19 or so - it looked like Olatoye.

Season totals through 15 games - Coverages in 551 pass plays: 251 in Cover 1 (45.5%), 146 in Cover 3 (26.5%), 11 in 2-Man (1.9%), 142 in Cover 2 (25.8%), and once in Cover 0.

WEEK 16 - WASHINGTON

The final week of a disastrous year is not a great place to get a feel for a defense.  This had all the trimmings of a "let's just get this over with" performance from the entire roster.  But, in the interest of properly cataloging all 16 games, here are the notes.

First, Barry Church, Sean Lee, and David Irving joined Mo Claiborne in street clothes.  This kept the 2 backup corners on the field at all times and Kyle Wilber got a lot more play at the SAM with Hitchens playing the Will for Sean Lee.  The defense looked positively lost throughout and were sliced up by Kirk Cousins and Colt McCoy.  Combined they had about a perfect performance with a passer rating of 151 and a ridiculous yards per attempt of 10.8 per play.  All told, the defense gave up some season highs in many categories and they looked absolutely lifeless.  The Redskins scored touchdowns on drives of 2 plays, 3 plays, 8 plays, and 3 plays.  In other words, there were big plays on blown coverages all day long.  Tackling was poor and this team looked like it already left for vacation.

COVERAGES -  In 26 passes, they returned to the trend of Cover 1 the majority of the time (18), Cover 3 on 4 occasions, and Cover 2 on 4 others.

Season totals through 16 games - Coverages in 577 pass plays: 269 in Cover 1 (46.7%), 150 in Cover 3 (25.9%), 11 in 2-Man (1.9%), 146 in Cover 2 (25.3%), and once in Cover 0.