Xs and Os - Week 1 - Giants

Every Thursday in this space, I try to enjoy the finer strategy points of the latest game with a piece that focuses primarily on the Xs and Os of 3 key plays or concepts.  This is an interactive piece in that I am more than happy to accept your nominees before Thursday on what you would like us to take a look at via email or twitter.  I am not a football coach, merely a hardcore enthusiast who tries to learn more about this fantastic sport every day.  With that in mind, I will get some things wrong and am more than happy to admit that at times there is a fair amount of guesswork from those of us on the outside of the coaching room.  

Nevertheless, I would argue that football is the type of sport that gets more interesting the deeper you dig down and don't merely watch the ball and your fantasy lineup.  22 men affect each play and it is enjoyable for many of us to watch each play from a number of angles and discuss what we see.  

Let's begin with our Week 1 plays from the win over the Giants.

1. 1Q, 1st Drive - Cowboys try to fool the Giants

Watch the play above.  It is from the 7:24 mark of the 1st Quarter and on 1st and 10, the Cowboys are in 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE) and run a simple inside zone that Randle bounces outside for no gain.  Hardly remarkable, right?

But, watch the presnap motion from 83 Williams and the way he then cracks inside and tries to free Randle up with an inside block.  The Giants do a nice job against it, but it looks now like Scott Linehan was using that play to set up a play that he would call 3 snaps later.  As you know, coaches like to script their first drive or two, and this one looks like something from the week of preparation that they would set the hook with one play and then come back and try to make them pay.  

Now, 3 snaps later, on 1st and goal from the 5, comes the exact same look:

Same look.  Same double TEs on the right, both WRs on the left.  Bring Williams in motion with the single back.  Same run blocking motions from the OL, but this time, Romo doesn't hand the ball off to Randle, he brings it back and tries to hit Williams who clearly is not blocking this time, he is trying to act like he is blocking and then appear behind that LB for a nice easy dink pass TD. 

It didn't work as Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie is there to defend and it was a tight space to squeeze it in, but I love the chess match.  The Cowboys almost got the reward for the setup.  LBs and Safeties trust their eyes and their memories.  The Cowboys tried to use that against them and almost pulled it off.

2.  1Q - 3:01 - JJ Wilcox makes a big play on Odell Beckham 

Giants are driving on their first possession here and it is 1st and 10 at the Cowboys 34.  The Giants are in 12 personnel and the Cowboys are in their base 4-3 defense with 4 DBs.  This, of course, is the most basic play-calling scenario you can get and both teams are playing it as the "whole playbook" type situation it is.  

The Cowboys are blitzing Sean Lee and Barry Church comes crashing down to destroy any ideas of a 1st down run, and the Giants roll with some play-action with only 2 WRs in route.  Frankly, Randle at the top is running his route like there is no chance it is going to him, so Odell Beckham down below sure seems like the primary (and only) really read here for anyone involved - precisely, Eli Manning and the Cowboys FS JJ Wilcox.  Take a look:

The idea here is that the Giants are expecting for Wilcox to do what Wilcox has done plenty in his first 2 years, and that is to play quite conservatively and to leave a space in front of him where Beckham can run a deep slant and keep in full gallop all the way to the far pylon.  If Wilcox doesn't cut it off at the pass, this play could easily be a TD.

As an aside, the Cowboys have been waiting on Wilcox to develop to the next level for a bit.  He keeps getting better but the strides are not massive.  They do want to run a lot of Cover 3 (the coaches speak quite a bit of using concepts from Seattle) but to do that right, they need a FS that resembles Earl Thomas at least a bit.  That is tough to pull off, especially for a project draft pick like Wilcox who had all sorts of raw ability but very little experience in anything resembling what he sees at this level. 

Now, again, this is a rather straight-forward read for Wilcox.  He sees one primary receiver and realizes what is happening when Beckham begins his break.  27 plants his foot in the ground and charges forward and is looking to rock the receiver and jar the ball loose.  This angle shows it pretty well:    

Confident and aggressive.  Was it a fumble?  It was ruled an incomplete pass, but a safety making a play in space in centerfield?  Odell Beckham had his bell rung, Wilcox broke his nose, and the Giants were served a message about coming over the middle.  This was a real interesting performance from Wilcox where they put him in man on a few occasions against Beckham and he was really a positive player for the Cowboys.  Nicely done.

3. 4Q - 0:07 - The Game Winning Touchdown

I will argue that the biggest issue on this beauty that seems to not get enough mention is that if this play is tackled short of the goal-line for any reason (sack or Witten is held at the 1) the game is over.  There is simply no way they get another snap off with no timeouts and the clock running.  The play ends with 0:07 left and there is just no way to get everyone lined up 10 yards downfield in that amount of time.  You can imagine the buzzkill of this game ending on a 10-yard completion to Witten that is stopped at the 1.  It would have been unpleasant.

The play is above in the still frame and honestly, when you look at the routes and the scenario, you really do wonder what the other plan was.  They see the Giants in "Cover-2" which they have switched back and forth in the 4th Quarter between that and "2 Deep-Man Under".

Then the play is made even more difficult with a poor snap.  Again, if the snap somehow scoots past and behind Romo, the game is over.  Luckily, the Giants did not bring a blitz.  With only 3 rushers, the botched snap is no big deal.  Romo calmly fields it, picks it up, and really never looks anywhere but to Witten.

Here is what I wrote on Monday in the Morning After:  "Witten was passed off in the zone to backup middle Linebacker Uani' Unga, but Unga allowed Witten to get underneath leverage with that familiar post-up that he has performed dozens of times. Witten against a player who had never played in the NFL before last night? I am pretty sure that Tony Romo knew where he was going all along."

Unga simply cannot let that happen.  But, like the rookie Landon Collins on the TD before, Witten takes advantage of another greenhorn.  TD Cowboys.  

They talk about the game slowing down and the QB having a moment of feeling like everything is at his command at the moment of truth.  93,579 in attendance, millions and millions watching on tv to see what they were going to do on this play at this moment.  Romo acts like it is no big deal and finds his guy in the end zone just as Witten crosses the line to pay dirt.

Enjoy that.  It is the latest come-from-behind winning touchdown in Dallas Cowboys history.  

On to the Eagles.

Xs and Os - 3 Things From Week 1 To Examine

Late in the week, we finally get a chance to "look at the tape" as Jason Garrett likes to say and examine some plays that we cannot fully digest on TV.  I can't promise that every week we will be able to do this, but honestly, this is my favorite exercise of the week because only here can you fully appreciate how advanced and complex the NFL game can be sometimes.

Here, we are not looking to call anyone out, and we surely want to leave open the possibility of our eyes deceiving us and more than anything, I want to admit that I don't have the benefit of the coaches telling me what coverage they were in.  So, sometimes, this diagnosis will be "pretty sure" rather than "100% sure" even though I am trying to get it right.  I will make calls and try to hunt down the right answer, but I will just admit right here that we will try our best to be accurate but invariably, I will see something wrong.

But, let's pick 3 plays that are interesting but not played out by this point of the week and have some fun talking Xs and Os.  Feel free to tweet me @SportsSturm when a game shows you a play that you would like broken down and I will attempt to include it in this post.

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Some overall film thoughts:  I really think the Cowboys offensive line was better than I anticipated.  We must consider that it is just one game, but DeMarco Murray had lots of space on Sunday with some pictures that just showed you he had plenty of real estate.  Here are a few:

Look at that above - hat on a hat.  Lots of green for 29 to pick his lane and go.

Again, as his right foot plants, he can see nothing but space here.  Nobody in front of him and tons of space on this zone right.

And that fateful 2nd and 1.  As you can see, Justin Smith is sneaking in on Tony, but there is plenty of space right if DeMarco gets the ball.  GIVE IT TO HIM!  They don't.  But, I believe this picture erases doubt about 29 getting in or at least the 1st down at the 1 if he follows 70 and 68 in.

Optimism is all over on this offensive line for me.  I have other concerns, but it appears they can be pretty good if they all stay healthy.

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OK,  Here are 3 plays to examine:

6:44 - 1Q - 1/10/27 - Vernon Davis Touchdown

This one seems like a massive coverage bust of some sort.  Let's try to figure it out.

I will start by saying when nobody can figure out what coverage you are in, it ends up looking like a mess.  But, we have 42-Church as our single-high safety, and it looks like 24-Claiborne and 39-Carr are in man coverage on the edges, with a zone underneath to handle Vernon Davis and the RBs against the 12 personnel of the 49ers.  You often run zone here so Kaepernick isn't compelled to start his "runs like a deer" routine.  The red arrows signify the routes that are about to be run by the 49ers.

The frame below is where confusion sets in.  If they are running a Cover 3-slide, then Carr should release Crabtree to Church once Davis heads his way.  But, Carr sticks on Crabtree the whole play.  So, is he running the wrong coverage?  I don't think so, but I at least want to leave that possibility open here.

But, the frame below also shows confusion between 27-Wilcox and 52-Durant on who has the FB in the flat and who has one of the best receiving Tight Ends of this generation in 85-Davis.  Look at Wilcox who seems completely flat footed and sure that he has the FB in front of him as Davis heads to the sideline right behind him.  Durant is also looking at the FB and we have a big problem when Carr doesn't peel off.

So, since nobody can identify what coverage they are in, let's just look at the issues here below.  Davis is breaking open as Mincey almost gets the sack.  Wilcox and Durant are now facing the QB and are ready to crash in if a scramble develops.  But, what if he throws it?  You can see Church is in CF and can already tell what is happening as he spots Davis.

But, Church can't get there in time.  Wilcox still has no idea what is happening (he is still on the FB) and Davis is thinking he did something right as he can fair catch his first TD of the year.

Here it is in motion.  Yuck.  We will leave it at 95% likely JJ busted here because he thought the play was out of danger in his sector.

7:46 - 2Q - 2/11/33 - Bruce Carter sacks Kaepernick

This one is shown here to demonstrate fine technique on how Bruce Carter made a play that might not have been there had he rushed it.

Frame 1 above shows play-action with a pulling Left Guard to the right tackle.  Linebackers follow guard movement to key plays, and the pulling guard can really help sell play-action.  However, 77-Iupati knows he is actually handling the edge for pass rush.

But, here comes Sterling Moore off the edge on a blitz, so Frank Gore will pick him up below.

However, you can see Iupati above see that nobody else is coming, so below he helps Gore make sure they clean up 26-Moore.

And once his head turns away from Carter, Carter is a blur to the QB.  He timed it perfectly.  If he rushes at the snap, Iupati cleans him up.  But, he waited, and got a free run at the QB.

And below you can see he didn't miss.  Well done.

6:45 - 3Q - 1/10/28 - Justin Smith sacks Romo

You can find a hundred different variations of DL games and stunts as they try to cause the offensive line assignment issues, but this one is basic, yet rarely executed this well.

The beauty of this stunt is that you can't show it very much.  It is merely a change up.  But, if you run your front 4 pass rush one way for most the game and pull this out, it can confound the OL that has assumed there are no issues to consider like this one.

Watch the left side of the screen and see the DE and DT both slant inside their man.  59-Skuta is taking Doug Free inside and Ray McDonald is pushing Zach Martin into Travis Frederick.  This is the design of the "Pirate" stunt that then allows the other DT 94-Smith to come all the way around the corner and blow by Free who is cleary off-guard.

It works best when there is nobody in the backfield with Romo to clean up a free man, so this is 5 on 4.  Free sees no issues to his right, so he keeps with his man, and Smith is able to get to Romo (with some help from Romo stumbling into him) with almost no resistance at all.  Again, we don't see this much and the Cowboys will be ready next time, but this is just a great call at a great moment to defeat the Cowboys protection without having to "beat" anyone 1 on 1.

So, don't say we have never covered the "Pirate" stunt here.  Below, somebody on the internet drew it up for you.

OK, that is all we have for this week.  On to the Titans.