Meantime, we’d brought along some other writers to round out the coverage on InsideCorner, most notably Bob Sturm, he of Ticket fame. Bob broke down the Cowboys for us in the way that only he can. And Gina Miller of TXA 21 has been pitching in on the Mavs front. Zac and Eric threw up a few posts, too, from beyond the arc.

Here’s what we struggled with: we had this great baseball blog run by a full-time employee whose job was to feed and care for the thing more or less around the clock. Then we had this parentless sports blog that was getting passed around from babysitter to babysitter, each of whom gave the thing good care when they had the time but each of whom also had a full-time job (in Zac’s case, keeping Twitter in business; in Eric’s case, breaking necks and cashing checks; in Bob’s case, mediating on-air fights between his broadcasting partner and his producer on BaD Radio; in Gina’s case, keeping Derek Harper’s six-button suits in check on Mavs broadcasts; in Mike Hindman’s case, lawyering; in Jeff Miller’s case, writing books). This is no way to raise a child. A kid needs stability. Rules. An engaged parent.

So. We’ve decided to give our baby to a better home. Or, more accurately, we’ve decided to put the baby down. And not just for nap.

On Monday, we’re pulling the plug on InsideCorner. Its content will still live on the interubes should you ever want to search for a bit of information you remember reading, but there won’t be any links to it on our site. Thank you to everyone who was a part of the magic while it lasted. Thank you especially for your forbearance as we’ve figured out the right course of action.

God bless us all.

On Monday, I spent a fair amount of time wondering about how/why Tony Romo has looked like ‘07 Romo. Many of you have offered your theories and I will answer some of those in a soon-to-be-released mailbag. The most important thing is not why, the most important element of this run that could put the Cowboys in the mix for the 2009NFC Title run would be that he is playing very well right now. He has 1 interception in his last 4 games, and his last 2 games have been nearly perfect.

And when Tony Romo plays well, this team wins. In the last 2 weeks, he has had QB ratings of 113 and 140 and has not looked this good in a long time. Here is a stat for you:

When Tony Romo has a passer rating above 80, the Cowboys are 28-5, for 85%.
When he doesn’t, they are 3-9 or 25%.

That is why people make such a big deal about how well he plays. And that is why Miles Austin has injected about as much optimism into the Cowboys offense as we have seen since the Julius Jones era.

Michael Signora is a statistical guru for the NFL, and I follow him on his twitter feed. This week, he had two jaw dropping tweets about Austin that I think you need to soak in:

1) – Miles Austin is 1 of 3 players in NFL history with 400+ receiving yards & 4+ TDs in 2-game span (Ochocinco, ‘06; Cloyce Box, ‘50)

2) – With 421 receiving yards in 1st 2 career starts, Miles Austin already has more yards than any player ever in their 1st 3 starts

Nobody is suggesting he can keep up his insane pace of nearly 24 yards a catch. But, if he can continue to demonstrate the ability to be a “go to” target for Romo in needed spots, and to attract coverage his way that indicates defenses will either respect him or pay the consequences, then there is no reason to believe that Romo cannot continue to hit that all important 80 QB rating every game.

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Which brings us to this week’s opponent, the 2-4 Seattle Seahawks. This is a team that has had some substantial amounts of talent in recent years, but they have likely been a victim of something the Cowboys fell victim of about a decade ago: Believing that their top level players had more of their prime left than they really did. For 5 straight seasons (2003-2007) The Seahawks dominated the NFC West under Mike Holmgren, and were in the playoffs. During that stretch they won 4 playoff games, and felt they were a bad call or two away from winning Super Bowl XL over Pittsburgh.

They were led by RB Shaun Alexander, QB Matt Hasselbeck, and LT Walter Jones. In 2009, the remains of that trio is the reason the Seahawks are where they are. Alexander is out of football as a reminder that the prime of a RB is over quickly as a possible victim of the curse of 370 (Remember his 11 carries with the Redskins last year?) Hasselbeck, now is now 34, and has missed 10 starts in the Seahawks last 20 games, and has only made 16 starts 3 times in his 11 year career. And Walter Jones has not played a down in 2009, and the Seahawks will try their 4th replacement for Jones. Walter Jones became Sean Locklear who turned into Brandon Frye and then Kyle Williams and now Damion McIntosh. All at left tackle in 6 games. Consider that next time you complain about Flozell.

In the preseason, The National Football Post rated the Seahawks talent like this:

BLUE CHIP: OT, W. Jones.

ALMOST BLUE: QB, Hasselbeck; DT, Mebane; ILB, Tatupu; CB, Trufant.

Without Hasselbeck for 3 starts, Jones for the entire season, Trufant has yet to play (will make his debut this week), and Lofa Tatupu is now gone for the year. You can see how the Seahawks are already looking ahead to the draft. If you have 5 players that the experts rank as remarkable, and 4 are not with you, your season is going to be rough.

Beyond that, the Seahawks have another weight on their neck, The issue of travel out of the Pacific:

Seattle has won only one of its past 10 games played outside the Pacific Time Zone. That poses kind of a problem because four of Seattle’s next five games will require the Seahawks to adjust their watches.

Football coaches have control over a number of things in the 32 NFL fiefdoms. Geography, however, is not one of them and the travel schedule is simply a reality that comes with being the most isolated NFL franchise.

Six of Seattle’s eight road games are to be played in the Eastern or Central time zones, which means those six games will start at 10 a.m. Pacific time, including Sunday’s game in Dallas.

Is playing at 10am local time a big deal in the NFL? Or would the Seahawks be 1-9 in their last 10 road games regardless of where they played?

Seattle represents the 4th out of 8 home games for the Cowboys. With tough upcoming road dates with Philadelphia, New York, Green Bay, and New Orleans – 4 games in which the Cowboys will be underdogs, it is important that they win the games they should win at home. With the next 3 home games being a depleted Seattle, Washington, and Oakland (with San Diego and Philadelphia in December) it is important for the Cowboys to eat up these easier meals so that they are still in the mix when the holidays arrive.

In the last 2 weeks, the Redskins have lost twice, the Giants have lost twice, and the Eagles were 1-1. The entire division have done the Cowboys a great favor by going 1-5, with the only win coming when the Eagles beat the Redskins. Rarely, will an entire division offer you an invitation like the NFC East has for the Cowboys.

But, it all depends on taking care of this wounded Seahawks team before hitting the road for 2 difficult dates:

ON OFFENSE:

This week, the Cowboys take on a defense that has not had all of its parts available, but things improve somewhat on Sunday. Marcus Trufant will play some on Sunday, with reports out of Seattle indicating that he will likely fill the role of nickel back in Dallas. Meanwhile, Leroy Hill, their solid Outside LB will rejoin the team the same weak that the Middle LB, Tatupu has been lost for the year.

With the Seahawks, there has been some good as some not so good during 2009 on defense. They can get to the QB with a reasonable rate, led by Patrick Kearney grabbing 4 sacks in the last 4 games. They dominated the Rams and the Jaguars in Seattle for their 2 wins which were both blowouts. Otherwise, they are coming off a game where the Cardinals visited Seattle, and the Kurt Warner-Larry Fitzgerald show danced all over the Seahawks home turf.

OFFENSIVE OBJECTIVES:

1) – Run the Ball With Effectiveness – One thing that has dropped off from its incredible start is the Cowboys running of the football. They still average 5.6 yards per carry, but in Denver and then last week, they really had to work for their yardage. As the weather begins to turn, and the Cowboys begin to play on grass surfaces, they need to have their running game completely locked in. Last week, 28 carries for 115 yards was not horrible, but if you do not count Romo’s yards, it was basically 22 carries for 84 yards for the RBs. Barber against Atlanta had 14 carries for 47 yards (3.4 avg). Since hurting himself in the Giants game, Barber missed the Carolina game altogether, and then has had the yards per carry of 3.7, 3.5, and 3.4 in his last 3 games. Getting Barber going is essential for November and December success. It seems like the biggest thing for the RBs these days is just making sure Barber and Felix are healthy.

2) – Pick up the Inside Blitzes – Speaking of things on the RBs minds, it seems that we are seeing a steady diet of inside blitzes. Blitzes come from to areas of the field – the edge (off tackles) and up the gut (Through the “A” gaps and “B” gaps). The Blitzes that have hurt the Cowboys have generally been through the Gaps around the centers and guards. I am sure the offense has spent plenty of time discussing it, and last week, they did a pretty good job. The problem is that the defense only has to get it right a few times to do damage to your QB and cause turnovers. I have been disappointed in the blitz recognition from Leonard Davis in particular up front and Tashard Choice at RB. These two were both on the scene for sacks against the Chiefs and Falcons because they did not recognize who was coming and who was not. In presnap, Romo attempts to identify the blitz with help from Andre Gurode, and you have to figure it out correctly. Inside LBs and Safeties have been the Achilles heel so far, and that needs to be sorted out. It will be interesting to see if we see improvement on this front.

3) – Jason Witten down the Seam – If you have been following along with our study of target distribution , you know that Jason Witten has caught an incredible 33 of the 40 passes intended for him this season – and 8 for 8 on 3rd down situations. The numbers have been steady from game to game, but he has sort of seemed to be lost in the game plan for big chunks recently. I think the emergence of Austin will open things up further for him and the mystery TE, Martellus Bennett for some big gainers down the seam. When that happens, this offense should be unstoppable.

4) – Patience, Patience, Patience – Part of beating a team that you should beat is to be patient and methodical in your plan. Don’t get antsy (as Garrett will do) and take unnecessary chances early on. That can backfire, and before long you have allowed an inferior opponent to hang around. I think a steady dose of cranking up that diesel running game and mashing the Seahawks into a fine powder is the recipe for success. Lots of “22″ and “13″ personnel power running. This is what the Cowboys do well, and this is what they need to continue to do against the better teams down the stretch.

ON DEFENSE:

Defensively, we finally saw things come together last Sunday against a decent Atlanta offense. The Cowboys allowed only 298 yards of offense and combined that with 3 big takeaways. This is the story of success for the Cowboys – when they get multiple takeaways, they seldom lose.

If there is a problem that we have seen through 6 games for this defense, it is that opposing QBs are averaging a QB rating of 90 against Dallas. The Giants allow their opponents a 78 rating, and the Eagles a 70. That stat will not get it done for Dallas, as they have really only troubled Jake Delhomme and Matt Ryan. Others, like Byron Leftwich and Kyle Orton had very strong passing performances. I think we all know that a pressure is important, and we can only hope that Wade Phillips and his staff is determined to bring the blitz at the proper times to help a defensive line that is slowly but surely coming around.

One thing they have done well is 3rd down defense. Allowing only 25 conversions in 75 attempts for their opponents, we can say the Cowboys have been able to get off the field. Only 5 teams have done better so far this year than the Cowboys (Denver, NYG, Arizona, Phil, and New Orleans). This might be the most important defensive stat in football (after takeaways), so let’s keep an eye on that one.

DEFENSIVE OBJECTIVES:

1) – Test those cracked ribs – Matt Hasselbeck is hurting. He doesn’t take part in practices much, and he looks like he tries to carry on in pain. He also is playing behind an offensive line that has very little going for it right now. There are huge issues with the Seattle OL due to health, and they are in a position where they often go max-protect (7-8 man protection schemes) to buy him time. This should make the job easier on the secondary as a whole, but it will offer interesting choices for Wade on when to blitz and how many to bring. Seattle starts their offense by protecting and if that fails (as it did against Arizona) they have no chance.

2) – The secondary must be ready for multiple threats – Despite all manner of chaos in the passing game, the Seahawks have 2 WRs with 30+ catches in Nate Burleson (32) and TJ Houshmandzadeh (31). This is actually quite remarkable given that Seneca Wallace started 3 games and could get nothing going. Both Burleson and TJ are capable of big plays, and TJ has stated that he needs to be a bigger part of the offense. There are very few off-weeks for the secondary in this league, and this won’t be one of them for Terrence Newman and Mike Jenkins. Jenkins is coming off a week that everyone has called the best of his pro career, so let’s see if he can build on it against a very capable passing offense. John Carlson has had 24 catches from the TE position as a young and promising pass-catching TE for the Seahawks. He is not Tony Gonzalez, but he can make you pay if you forget him.

3) – Be Mindful of Forsett – In watching the Seahawks last several games, I am convinced Julius Jones and Edgerrin James is about as weak a RB tandem as you might see all year. Jones still falls at first contact and rarely makes anyone miss. James is just done, and shows very little burst at all. But, Justin Forsett, the former California Golden Bear from the DeSean Jackson era, looks like he offers burst and quickness as a return man and a 3rd down back. He has yet to do much, but since the Seahawks are coming off a bye week, if I were to guess what new wrinkle they might show, it might be to feature Forsett a little more in the 2nd half of their season to find out if he might provide them something from the RB position. But, truth be told, they really need a feature back in the offseason.

4) – Keep the Takeaway Game Going – With 3 takeaways last week, some of us may think the Cowboys are starting to get rolling in that category. Guess again. With 7 for the season, they are still dead last in the NFL (tied with Carolina and Washington). If you want to run with the big dogs, just know that Philadelphia and New Orleans have 18 takeaways a piece. Progress has been made, but there is so much room to go. Must. Get. Turnovers.

SUMMARY: This is a game that is not optional. The Cowboys must prove they can handle success and win the easier games on their slate. Coming off the KC close-call, I would hope that they are not putting this game into the win column prematurely.

This is a wounded Seattle team, but they are coming off a “bye” week. They should be relatively fresh and ready to roll. A win could get the Seahawks back into their divisional mix, and you will get their best effort.

That shouldn’t be enough, though, and the Cowboys should be able to dismantle this team in the 2nd half and win by double digits.

Cowboys 27, Seattle 17

Past Issues:

Atlanta Falcons Game Plan

Kansas City Game Plan

Denver Game Plan

Carolina Game Plan

Giants Game Plan

Tampa Bay Game Plan

Only then did the Stars seem to get their dander up. Mike Ribeiro’s redirection in the slot tied the score with 2:45 left in the third period. Then young James Neal, devoted Leafs fans as a lad growing up in the Toronto suburb of Whitby, displayed his offshoot of the Gordie Howe hat trick to help get the game into overtime and win it almost three minutes in by a 4-3 score.

It’s the first time this season the Stars have won a game played beyond regulation. With Florida (2-7-1) coming in Friday and a Saturday night visit to Nashville (4-6-1), the Stars (16 points in 12 games) have a golden opportunity to push San Jose (17 in 13) for the lead in the Pacific Division after the first month.

For the better part of Wednesday night, the Stars seemed destined to make 23-year-old Maple Leafs winger Nikolai Kulemin an overnight star. Kulemin was a healthy scratch four times in the first eight games as Toronto dug itself into the bottom of the Eastern Conference. But when the Leafs finally broke into the win column on Monday night at Anaheim, Kulemin turned from fourth-liner into second-liner. Against Dallas, he scored his first two goals of the season, the second one giving Toronto a 3-2 lead 13:11 into the third period. He took what was a relatively quiet gathering of 16,302 (I thought Leafs fans would show up in droves and make racket like Dallas Red Wings fans) and turn it almost silent.

That finally changed when Ribeiro tipped a wrister from Jamie Benn past Toronto rookie goalie Jonas Gustavsson at 17:15. That was really the first Stars offensive success of the night. Brad Richards had given Dallas a 1-0 lead late in the first period by banging the puck off the skate of Leafs defenseman Ian White from behind the net. Richards had also scored the Stars’ second goal for a 2-1 lead early in the second period, 20 seconds into a 5-on-3 advantage after Ribeiro sold a high sticking penalty on Toronto’s Michael Komisarek. Could be that call resuled in the holding penalty whistled against Brenden Morrow a few minutes later that led to Lee Stempniak’s power-play goal to tie the score.

Kulemin threatened again in the closing seconds of regulation, charging toward the net with the chance to leave the Stars with their fourth loss in five home games. But Neal would have none of it and “escorted” Kulemin off into the corner. The puck eventually made its way near the right point to White, who wound up for a slapper. But there was Neal again, making a sliding block on the final play of regulation.

Stars coach Marc Crawford tilted ice time toward his top two lines throughout regulation, then went with them exclusively in overtime. Neal was on the ice for 1:25 of the extra 2:57 when he collected a rebound to Gustavsson’s right and slid it into the net as the goalie was trying to come all the way across from the left post. “Went across the line pretty slow,” Neal said sheepishly. “But I’ll take it.”

Which summed up the night for the Stars. They hadn’t played since Saturday yet couldn’t find any rhythm, couldn’t find much energy. They were outshot 10-2 in the first period and at one point early in the second had gone almost 20 minutes without an official shot on net, their best chances resulting in near-miss connections or shots off target. Said Crawford: “When you don’t have your best stuff, you have to make sure your habits are very good.”

So in Ott’s absence, who was expected to provide his unique contribution to Stars hockey? And who succeeded in doing that? Crawford’s list began with captain Morrow.

“He’s probably one of those guys who didn’t have his best stuff tonight,” Crawford said. “Yet that’s the veteran quality of a Brenden Morrow; he recognized the team doesn’t have much, and he went out and played with a physical edge. He had a couple of huge hits. I think that allowed our guys to take notice. And that’s a lot of what Steve Ott brings.

“There were [other] people that tried, but they just couldn’t get there. Some of the guys on the fourth line [which was Brian Sutherby, call-up Francis Wathier and Krys Barch]. Some of the guys on the third line [which was Tom Wandell centering for Toby Petersen and Fabian Brunnstrom]. They had trouble getting there tonight.”

Not Neal. The 22-year-old sophomore played a season-high 21:38 and now has goals in the last three games (to take the team lead with seven), points in the last four. Crawford said of him: “You get a little payback when you block a shot, when you battle for loose pucks, when you get in on the forecheck.”

The Mets this season bypassed the September swoons that ruined their 2007 and 2008 seasons; they fell apart in mid-summer. Their list of wounded is well chronicled, negating the signing of Francisco Rodriguez, and general manager Omar Minaya emerged with the support of owner Fred Wilpon.

But Minaya has had a rough couple of years since he and his multi-cultural team made the cover of SI in 2007. The early ‘08 firing of manager Willie Randolph turned into an awkward, late-night affair on the West Coast. Last season, the Mets fired V.P. Tony Bernazard following an ugly incident in the minor leagues that was first reported by New York Daily News beat writer Adam Rubin. During the news conference to announce Bernazard’s ouster, Minaya said Rubin had lobbied him for a position in player development, which left the impression that Rubin’s report was connected to his desire to join the Mets. (A report from that news conference.) Minaya later apologized to Rubin.

Going into the ‘09 season, Minaya elected to re-sign 28-year-old lefty starter Oliver Perez and apparently pass up 35-year-old righty Derek Lowe. The erratic Perez managed only 14 starts and three wins while Lowe went 15-10 in Atlanta to help the Braves stay in wild-card contention well into September. Pedro Martinez told Fox Sports that Minaya offered him a 2009 contract loaded with incentives. Maybe it was best for the Mets not to re-sign him for what he wanted over a full season, but that won’t matter much when he starts Game 2 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium for the Phillies.

All of this in a season during which the Yankees ended their one-year post-season “slump.” Short of getting swept by the Phillies, their arrow appears to be pointed up for the first time in six years.

It would appear the Mets must at least drastically improve in 2010 for Minaya to remain G.M. And if that doesn’t happen … and if the Rangers play anywhere close to what they did in 2009 … and depending on what happens with the Rangers’ ownership situation, would the Mets look at New Yorker Jon Daniels as a potential replacement for Minaya in 2011?

Could be Daniels has been away from New York long enough that there’s no pull to “go home.” Could be he’s settled here and wants to play out his role with the Rangers as long as he can. But the Mets have resources that the Rangers probably never will have . Conversely, the Mets’ resources can’t match the team up in the Bronx.

You tell me if this scenario makes any sense.

1. Though it didn’t necessarily feel that way while sitting in the stands, it’s good to see Gilbert Arenas close to his old form again. He had an efficient 29 points and 9 assists, letting the game come to him. He got others involved early, most notably during a sequence where he fed Brendan Haywood for a couple of wide-open dunks that had the rank-and-file fans grumbling. And, if possible, he had a quiet game. When the second half of the season rolls around, he should be right where he was before a series of knee injuries sidelined him for almost two full seasons.

2. Dirk Nowitzki, true to his word, got off to a slow start, even if his 34-point, 9-board night doesn’t necessarily reflect it. He only really found his range in the second half, after piling up a dozen points at the line before the break. He wasn’t taking bad shots or getting poor looks at the basket. He was just a tick or so off; he had a pair of would-be momentum-building threes that swirled around the rim, and looked like they were going in, before spinning out. If this was a “bad” night for him, though, I think he’ll be fine.

3. Shawn Marion also was a tick or so off. I noticed two instances where he was set up for what normally would have been dunks. On both occasions, however, he took off about a foot or so too far away from the bucket, leading to two awkward-looking misses. I think this is more the function of still getting his bearings. He, too, will more than likely be fine.

4. Jason Terry, on the other hand, looked very much like where we left him in the playoffs against Denver. His 4-15 night (including 1-6 behind the arc) was ugly. Honestly, I can’t remember the four shots he actually hit. In the second half, he killed runs with ill-advised threes, and just generally had a bad floor game. I’m not sure what the problem was, other than osmosis: the entire operation felt like it was still in pre-season mode, from the whisper-quiet (and surprisingly absent) fans to the new HD video board (which was stuck in distracting picture-in-picture mode all night) to most of the team on both ends. They played with a we’ll-fix-it-in-the-mix lack of urgency that was reflected most notably in bad defensive rotations.

5. The Mavs were supposed to have an edge on the bench, with reigning Sixth Man of the Year Terry, along with Drew Gooden, last year’s spark plug J.J. Barea, and pre-season surprise Kris Humphries. Barea (13 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists) was the only one who added anything at all. The reserves were badly outplayed by Randy Foye (19 points) and Andre Blatche (20 points). So, in other words, nothing went right. But remember: the team started 2-7 last season, and dropped their first four at home. So don’t panic.

In the bonus: Playboy Playmate and pizza-place scion Amber Campisi won a name-that-tune contest during a timeout. In-arena announcer Chris Arnold didn’t appear to know who she was. Unless he was just acting and she was a plant.

Where was the D?
Not in the American Airlines Center Tuesday night.  The Mavericks gave up 56 first half points (35 in the second quarter) and let Washington shoot 52% percent in the first two quarters.  The Wizards finished shooting 46% for the game.

“We missed a bunch of defensive coverages,” Dirk Nowitzki said after the game.  “We gotta plenty of stuff to work on.”

“Our team defense stunk,” Jason Kidd added a little more bluntly.  “We didn’t rebound the ball.  It was a no-show tonight.”

Remember what we heard in the preseason?  It was all about defense, defense, defense.  It just wasn’t there on Tuesday and when the Mavericks shoot just under 40%, they have to get stops defensively to have a chance to win.

Also notice that Nowitzki starts the fourth quarter quite a few times on the bench.  This happened quite a few times last season, as well.  I’ve been told he’d rather be on the court.  I certainly understand why Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle chooses to give his star some rest to start the final period to save him for late in the game but look what happened against Washington.  Dallas trailed by just three points after the third quarter 77-74.  Granted Shaw Marion hit a shot and the Mavericks trailed by just one to start the fourth but with Nowitzki on the bench it quickly became a six point deficit.

What About the E?
“It was just average on the energy front,” said Rick Carlisle.

Isn’t that kind of surprising in the season opener?  It’s been 5 months since this team played games that counted and for the Mavericks to come out a little lifeless is shocking.

Nowitzki said he was really fired up for the game so much so that he couldn’t get a nap in that afternoon.  He overcame his 1 for 6 start and finished with 34 points so his effort wasn’t a problem (and never is, frankly).

“When those big lights come on you gotta be prepared tonight and we just didn’t execute the game plan at all,” Kidd said.  “There were too many mistakes.”

I asked him if that surprised him and he sort of smirked and said “Yes, especially in game one.”

A number of players told they were completely surprised by the effort put out there.  That’s got to change.

Not Again.
The Mavericks don’t want a repeat performance.  They lost to the Rockets in the season opener last year.  The loss to the Wizards drops them to 17-13 all-time in season opening games.  Dallas started 2-7 and dropped their first four games at home before going 48-25 the rest of last season to finish 50-32.

“It was kind of like the deja vu,” Kidd said.  “I think I felt like I was playing Houston last year and this is the exact same way we started off.”

They don’t want to climb that Western Conference hill again.  They have to make some adjustments and with a game against the Lakers on Friday, they’ve got to figure them out quickly.

Post-Game Fashion Report
Tuesday night it wasn’t Josh Howard’s jacket but my boots that caught attention of Shawn Marion.  They were little Prada numbers I scored for a song.  Turns out, he’s a multi-millionaire who appreciates a deal!  I told I got them at a local outlet mall and that REALLY caught his attention.  I may have to take him shopping.

But, before we get to all of that, here are a few other things before we check our weekly numbers:

1) Occasionally, while watching a Cowboys game, I will see something that I have no place for in one of my entries, but I just wanted to share it with you anyway. Here is one of those cases. I can’t explain why, but for some reason, nothing makes me crazier when watching a football game than the Defensive Backs who refuse to tackle altogether or refuse to tackle properly. It seemed like once upon a time there was the idea that DBs could tackle and would do so utilizing proper technique with arms wrapping up and driving. Somehow, over the years, DBs have found that it is easier (albeit lower percentage) to simply launch a shoulder and hope you knock the player silly.

Well, here is Terence Newman in this video. DcFanatic cut up the attempt that jumped out at me in the 2nd Quarter against Atlanta where he completely missed Roddy White, along with a similar result with the Giants, followed by his strong connection later in the game on 84:

It reminded me of a story I was reading out of Philadelphia where Asante Samuel is being critiqued for his lack of tackling and makes no apologies:

Samuel on Friday responded to the mouting critics of his tackling acumen. They didn’t bring him here to take down ball carriers, he promised.

“I didn’t get signed here because I was a great tackler,” Samuel said. “Everbody saw my film [before he was signed].”

Maybe so, but that answer won’t satisfy defensive coordinator Sean McDermott, who in his own way insinuated that Samuel is one of the highest-paid cornerbacks in football, so he better tackle like one.

The issue comes after Samuel’s less-than-aggressive tackle attempt on Zach Miller’s 86-yard TD catch Sunday, the lone TD in the Eagles’ 13-9 loss to the lowly Raiders, who hadn’t scored a touchdown in three games.

So, after reading that, I had to find the play that they were talking about. Thanks to Youtube, here it is:

Right after Miller catches the pass, watch Samuel bail out at about the 36 yard line. Awesome unintentional comedy.

Poor tackling is not a Cowboys issue, it is all over the league. And I suggest that often times, it is the highly compensated DB making a “business decision” as Deion used to say. That might be why I generally enjoy the fine work of Minnesota’s Antoine Winfield who loves to tackle in all situations – despite his hefty paycheck. Of course, he is also going to miss a month with an injury, but don’t worry about that.

In case you care, here is Asante’s deal of 6 years/$57m:

The details are in on Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel’s contract, and he’ll make $32.14 million in the first three years of the deal. The contract looks like this:

Signing Bonus: $6M
Roster Bonuses: $7M in 2008, $7M in 2009
Workout Bonuses: $500K in 2008, $100K per year for the rest of the contract.
Base Salaries (Cap Number)
2008: $645K ($9.145M)
2009: $1.9M ($9M)
2010: $8.895M ($9.995M)
2011: $5.9M ($7M)
2012: $8.4M ($9.5M)
2013: $10.4M ($11.5M)

And, Newman’s deal :

5/20/2008: Signed a six-year, $50.2 million contract extension through 2014. The deal contains $22.5 million guaranteed, including a $12 million signing bonus.
2009: $895,000,
2010: $9 million,
2011: $8 million,
2012: $6.016 million,
2013: $7,600,417,
2014: $7.5 million,
2015: Free Agent

Bob Gainey used to say that “it is tough to be hungry when you are full.”

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2) Now on to our statistical studies we update on Wednesdays. The top one tracks how often the winners of the turnover battles actually win the game. The numbers are staggering, but about where they are every season. So far in 2009, the winners of the turnover battle have won the game 69 of the 83 game for a 83% number. This is obviously not related in any way to home field, talent discrepencies, play-calling, or injuries. This simply says: take care of the football better than your opponent, and you win almost all of the time. Just 1 team was able to overcome a -1 this week, and that was the Saints in that crazy game in Miami.

Table Tutorial

Table Tutorial

And, then below we compare the winning correlation between the 100-yard rusher and the 300-yard passer. Through 7 weeks, the results are too close to call:

Table Tutorial

Table Tutorial

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TC’s Drive Of the Week: (Each week, my young, trusty intern, TC Fleming, breaks down a drive from around the NFL from a purely X’s and O’s perspective – just because he can. Warning, when other people say “break down” they are not serious. TC is very serious)

I think the real reason we’re focusing on the 49ers is because most of the games this week were boring. Except for the Saints-Dolphins, who we did last week, and Steelers-Vikings, who I considered heavily, this was about the only game where the final score was close. But among those slim pickings, I felt most intrigued by what schemes could get Alex Smith and the 49ers offense not to suck, especially when they had sucked so badly earlier in this same game. To satisfy that interest, I turned to the team’s final touchdown drive against the Texans.

They opened the drive with one of their two plays from under center with both wide receivers to the right, Vernon Davis in tight to the left, and two running backs in an offset I in the backfield. The wrinkle here is that the fullback was former Penn State quarterback and current 49ers backup halfback Michael Robinson. Before the snap, outside receiver Josh Morgan starts toward the backfield. Smith snaps the ball, fakes the handoff to Frank Gore and to Morgan before setting up to pass. This is something they have been setting up all game, motioning Morgan into the backfield and then executing a normal running play but with a fake to Morgan after the handoff. I suspect the real goal in this is not to trick them into a big gain off of this play action but is rather to open up the regular, straight-forward run. The 49ers have quite a claim to sporting the worst offensive line in football, so they need to do things to trick it up if they want to have success on the ground. So if they hit on one of these plays, either the end-around or the play-action pass, then the Texans defenders will be more hesitant and give the blockers an advantage they need just to be competitive.

The formation is also of interest, too, as Brian Billick pointed out on the broadcast. By putting two receivers to the same side, the Texans are forced to make obvious statements about their coverage, either putting a corner over the slot receiver and showing they’re in man or leaving one corner to each side and showing they’re in zone.

As to the pass itself, it’s slow in developing with all the fakes, so both Vernon Davis and Frank Gore stay in as blockers. With Morgan on the fake, this leaves only Michael Robinson and Michael Crabtree as options. Crabtree is running a ‘Go,’ hoping the safeties will bite on the fake and that he will be behind them before they realize the mistake. Robinson first acts as if lead blocking before looking back for a pass from Smith. Before too long, he, too, heads straight upfield. However, Mario Williams kills right tackle Adam Snyder at the snap and puts pressure on Smith from the start. It’s all Smith can do to toss the ball away.

I question how much of a chance at success this play had with good protection. There were only two receivers against all the defenders in coverage, all 6 of them. So they would have to fool quite a few defenders, all of whom are probably not too afraid of a running attack that hadn’t done much to that point. And that’s a downside of the aforementioned formation: by putting the receivers on the same side, you’re calling the defense’s attention to that side. Attention is not what you want when you’re trying to sneak a receiver past the coverage.

The next play is more typical of what we would see on this drive. Smith is in shotgun with five receivers at or near the line of scrimmage. As we have seen both the Cowboys and Saints do, they do so from their 12 package, with their tight ends and running back playing as wide receivers. As stated in weeks past, the advantage is that when the defense sees the players in the huddle, they match up by sending out their normal complement of linebackers. In most cases, at least one of these linebackers is poor in coverage.

The focus on this play is the right side of the formation, where Davis, backup tight end Delanie Walker and Morgan are lined up. Davis is just off the line and Morgan is on the outside with Walker in the slot. Both Davis and Morgan take off at the start, and once their defenders go into their backpedal, they break the route off into a hitch. Walker is running a ‘Go’ between them. Brian Cushing is lined up over Walker, and Cushing is bumping Walker. When Morgan makes his turn back to Smith, Cushing is still engaged with Walker, so there is no one in between Morgan and Smith. Further, Smith’s timing is very good, so the corner has no time to recover. As seems to be the norm with many-receivered sets like this, the safety is playing too conservatively to be a factor in preventing a completion. This is precisely the sort of play the 49ers need. For years they have shown an inability to generate big plays, and until Crabtree really becomes a factor, that does not figure to change. But if they can find lots of easy completions like this one where the quarterback has an easy read, and the line has as little pressure on it as possible, then they can have hope of finding something they can hand their hat on offensively. I think that is where this team can carve out an offense with their current middling talent: easy little plays where they exploit a soft spot to pick up 5 yards without asking too much of anyone.

There’s a weird substitution penalty, and the 49ers get backed up to 1^st and 15. The next play is the final time on this drive that Alex Smith goes under center.  Much like the Saints did last week, the 49ers put an extra lineman in at tight end, to bring the tight end count to three, with Morgan at wide receiver split to the left. Smith fakes to Gore, which doesn’t get too much of  reaction from the defense. Morgan runs deep, with the hope of taking his corner and safety with him. Davis then works behind the linebackers before breaking for the corner. Unfortunately, Eugene Wilson, the safety on that side, does not go with Morgan (after all, he is still just Josh Morgan). He locks on to Davis a little before he breaks and makes a very nice play to break up the pass.

From 2^nd and 15, the 49ers go back to the four-wide set with Smith in the shotgun next to Gore. The patterns are roughly the same, with the outside receivers running deep and the slot receivers running curls. Gore might make the slightest chip of the defensive end, then releases out to the flat. The Texans seem to be in man coverage, with the weakside linebacker chasing Gore when he goes out for a pass. Meanwhile, the strongside linebacker blitzes. So when the two slot receivers run curls well in front of the safeties, the middle linebacker is defending both of those slot receivers. Smith throws to Vernon Davis on the left, who is very open and the best choice of the two. The middle linebacker is at least there to make the tackle, but it’s another easy completion to a soft part of the defense that nets an easy nine yards.

That gain of nine sets up the only third down of the drive, obviously a very key play. Short aside: Smith makes the hand motion where he makes a steeple with his fingers. I think we’ve all seen this a number of times watching football. Billick explains this is the quarterback letting the offense know they are huddling up. I’ve seen the motion plenty of times and did not know until now what it meant. Maybe I’m alone in my ignorance, but I thought that might be a nice tidbit for somebody. Anyways, back to the play. The 49ers again are in their favorite formation, shotgun with four receivers, two to each side. They do switch what receivers are where from play to play. Every time, the two tight ends are split out to one side with the two wide receivers to the other. I believe the wide receivers, Morgan and Crabtree, are to the open side of the field, the one with the most distance to the sideline, while the tight ends are to the closed side. This time, the open side is the left side, so the receivers are there.

Initially, the Texans give a 2-deep look (this is a benefit of the four-wide formation, it becomes clearer who is covering whom, since they are so spread apart that it is not possible for a defender to look like his assigned to one guy but switch to the other or things like that). Before the snap, the safeties rotate with the safety in the left coming over the top and the safety on the right coming down towards the two receivers. That is because the cornerback on the slot receiver is blitzing. This is in addition to the linebacker on that side, who is blitzing as well. That leaves both receivers in single coverage with minimal hope of help over the top. Morgan, who is in the slot, first runs a quick hitch but almost immediately begins working towards the sideline. The benefits of this are two-fold: Morgan is hopefully getting open in order to be a hot route for Smith, while he is also pulling his man towards the sideline, opening up a window for Crabtree, who is running a square-in behind him. Crabtree’s man is playing to keep Crabtree in front of him, so when Morgan opens that window, there is no one in between Smith and Crabtree. Smith’s pass is a little high, but Crabtree makes a nice little grab to convert the third down. It’s a pretty impressive play for someone who hasn’t played football in a number of months and never played football in the NFL. The real star of the play is the protection. This play takes a little bit to set up, more than the previous few completions, and the Texans are bringing six rushers. Gore stays in to block, so it’s six-on-six, and that is not usually a good outcome for San Francisco, but it is on this play. Smith also is good for trusting his protection, staying in the pocket and waiting for the receiver to come open. I don’t think the 49ers could execute a play like this very often, but they do an admirable job here.

San Francisco does a little wrinkle before the snap, where they’re standing as if they’re going to line up in the offset I with Smith under center, but before they’re set, Smith backs up and everyone trots out to again form the four-wide shotgun look they’ve had so much success with.

As has been the case before in the drive, the routes on either side are a mirror image of each other. Both outside receivers run an out pattern, heading upfield before breaking for the sidelines, and both slot receivers run a ‘Go.’ The Texans look to me like they’re in a Cover-3, where both corners are dropping with the receivers and one of the safeties playing over the top. The end result is three deep defenders, which is how it gets the name. What happens here is that the corners go with the outside receivers, and the safety is playing more to clean up any completions rather than prevent them. Smith also holds the safety with his eyes, looking right before coming back to the left. With the corner over with Crabtree and the safety too deep to be a factor, Morgan just has to get behind the underneath defenders, and he’s got a huge space to work. He does just that, Smith makes the necessary throw over the heads of the underneath defenders, and Morgan has plenty of room to go up and get the ball without fear. In all, it nets 23 yards, attacks another soft part of the coverage and doesn’t ask too much of the protection. This is as quick-strike as you can get with a 23-yard gain.

For the final play of the drive, San Francisco returns to the five-wide set from the 12 personnel. The play bears a strong resemblance to the Saints’ four verticals play that got their touchdown on the drive we looked at last week. The outside receiver to the left runs a quick hitch, maybe even faking a quick screen, but the other receivers all runn ‘Go’ patterns down the field. The other exception is Vernon Davis who, from the right slot, runs a little bit of a post. Much like Colston last week, Davis is matched up on the middle linebacker (in this case, DeMeco Ryans). Ryans is very good, and he stays with Davis pretty well, but Davis is faster and taller than just about any linebacker in the league. Smith, like Brees before him, draws the deep safety away from Davis with his eyes before placing the ball over Ryans’ head and into Davis’ hands.

Davis makes his catch over Ryans.

This play capped off a curious trend from this drive: there were a lot of Saints plays in here. If someone had handed me the diagrams of the plays and asked me to name the team, I would have said the Saints with confidence, with the extra lineman, and the four verticals and the five-wide from 12 personnel. It seems odd to me that two offenses so disparate in their results would be so similar in their schemes. And there is no shared branches I can see on their coaching tree. San Francisco’s offensive coordinator is Jimmy Raye, who is really old (he was the backup quarterback in the Notre Dame-Michigan State 10-10 “Game Of The Century,” which was played in 1966. Sherm Lewis thinks Jimmy Raye is old.) but does not appear to have run across Sean Payton is his many years. I told all this to Bob Tuesday morning, and he pointed out that if one’s offense was not working, a good place to go for new ideas would be tape of Saints games. This is a very interesting point that the evidence suggests is possible. If true—and it’s by no means certain that it is true—it raises a lot of questions. After less than a year on the job, is Jimmy Raye really so out of ideas already that he’s lifting his offense off of Saints tapes? What about core principles and offensive design? How do you keep those things together when installing plays you saw last week? How long does it take for an offense to feel comfortable with a play? Most of these passes were effective in part because of their simplicity, but it’s supposed to be harder than it looks, right? Then again, Crabtree played much of the game despite being on the team for only a few weeks, so what does that say about how hard all this is to learn? But if building an effective attack is as easy as watching the Saints’ tape and mimicking it, why doesn’t every team in the league do it and put up big yards? And why didn’t the 49ers do it from the beginning when Shaun Hill was in there (with Hill, they only went to shotgun on third down and in general ran much more of what you would expect from an offense as traditionally mediocre as the 49ers in the last few years)? And I suspect the fact that they were down 21 points by halftime had something to do with all of this. They would be desperate enough to try anything, though they would have had to install all this in practice at some point.

I guess an alternative explanation is that all this stuff that I think is revolutionary (play-action from heavy sets, five wide from 12, managing to get tall, athletic players matched up on linebackers, etc.) is muc more ordinary than I understood. I mean, all three teams we’ve looked at have had a little bit of that. It will be interesting to track as we go along. It certainly makes me glad I branched out to look at other teams. It’s already turning up some fascinating (to me, at least) results.

The fact they were down by 21 should also be considered in their success. The 49ers offense was working against a Texans defense that did not feel much urgency. Likely as a result, they did not blitz much or play particularly aggressively. Given the line’s performance this season and earlier in this game, I think that more frequent blitzing would have posed significant problems. Then again, these were all plays that stressd getting the ball out fairly quickly, and they did have success in their one play against the big blitz. It would be interesting to see what this offense and scheme could do against a defense playing in a more urgent situation.

Also of note is that the 49ers made no attempt to run on this drive. That’s pretty understandable given the game situation, but if the 49ers want to build on the offensive success they had here, I would like to see how they plan to mix in more running with these four-wide sets and whatnot.

And as I indicated throughout, I do think they have some concepts to build off of here. The formations make it easier for Smith to know where he’s going with the ball, and the patterns make it easy for Smith to get those passes there quickly. The spread formations make it hard to have extra blockers, but one of Smith’s supposed strengths coming out of Utah was his elusiveness. I didn’t see anything specifically on these plays to confirm or deny that, but it would be an asset in this scheme. Like I said at the top, the 49ers don’t have anyone to break big plays on a regular basis, so for them to have hope, they need to use these high-percentage plays to keep the ball moving while taking their occasional 20+ yard shot when it’s open and available quickly.

Bonus Coverage: In my research for this article, I discovered that the Houston Texans cheerleading squad features a pair of twins. I thought Bob should know, given his history with twins.

The Stars’ schedule this week appears appetizing with the Leafs followed by Florida at AAC on Friday and a trip to Nashville on Saturday. Toronto and Florida are last and next to last in goals against. Nashville and Florida are last and next to last in scoring, with Toronto 25th. Dallas will face Toronto and Florida minus Steve Ott, suspended by the NHL for two games for his pop on St. Louis’ Carlo Colaiacovo on Saturday night.

The Leafs are in the second year of the Brian Burke-Ron Wilson regime. (This will be Wilson’s first appearance in Dallas since his top-seeded San Jose Sharks were ambushed in the second round of the ‘08 playoffs, causing his departure from the Silicon Valley.) Their first season together resulted in the Leafs’ fourth consecutive season missing the playoffs.

This season, well, the numbers speak for themselves. Mike Zeisberger, the Leafs beat reporter for the Toronto Sun, published a comprehensive look at what had gone wrong going into Monday’s game, including a look at each player.

With Burke’s version of urban renewal, Toronto’s roster features only a handful of players who were there before he and Wilson took over. Their offense has been bad. Their penalty killing has been awful. Their goaltending has been poor. Vesa Toskala has a 5.56 GGA in four starts. Because rookie Jonas Gustavsson was sidelined for much of the last three weeks with a groin pull, Toronto had to resort to No. 3 netminder Joey MacDonald for three starts. Gustavsson, the free agent from Sweden whom the Stars courted, finally made his second start on Monday in the win over the Ducks.

Burke brought in free-agent tough guys Mike Komisarek from Montreal (part of a flotilla let go by Bob Gainey) and Colton Orr from the Rangers. Then there was the 11th-hour trade with Boston to acquire right wing Phil Kessel. Toronto parted with its first- and second-round draft picks for next summer and its first-rounder for 2011. Kessel scored 36 goals last season, more than any Leaf. But he also brought with him a bum right shoulder, injured last March. Kessel hasn’t played yet, only started practicing with the team last week, and Wilson is aiming at early next week for his medical clearance.

Other than that, things are going fine in the quest to win Toronto’s first Stanley Cup since 1967.

Florida owns the league’s longest non-playoff drought (starting in 2001) and is only ahead of Toronto in the East. The Panthers gambled on not trading defenseman Jay Boumeester last spring to take a run at ending that drought and failed. They have few scoring threats. The only Panther going into Wednesday night’s game against Ottawa with more than two goals is new center Steve Reinprecht (four), known more for his defensive play in Los Angeles, Colorado and Phoenix. So far, Stars fans are glad Florida didn’t re-sign Karlis Skrastins.

And we can’t close out October without another Stars-Predators tilt. Third meeting of the month, the teams won’t see each other again after that until the Stars return to Tennessee in late March. Since the Stars beat Nashville 6-0 on Oct. 14, the Predators have one OT win to show for their last five efforts. They’ve been shut out three times. Veteran center Jason Arnott is the only forward with three goals. Didn’t help that wing J.P. Dumont, their top point producer last season, missed four games after bring clocked by the Stars’ Stephane Robidas in the season opener.

Target Distribution:

Targets – Week 7 vs. Atlanta

Table Tutorial

OK, Roy Williams fans will want to just skip over all of this data. When your QB is in the zone, and doesn’t miss on hardly any passes all day long, you don’t want to cash in on just 1 of 5 targets that come your way. Romo was perfect to everyone except 3 guys. Austin was 6 of 8 for 171. Witten was 5 of 7 for 53. And then Roy was just 1 for 5? Oh dear. This is not getting better, is it?

Season Target Distribution To Date:

Table Tutorial

Here, as we look at the season stats, Austin’s emergence looks even more scary. The WR corps have all had between 30 and 35 balls thrown at them, and Austin has caught more, done more per catch, and more overall than any of the others. Can he make a run at a 1,000 yard season? It would seem that he can. What a find. Meanwhile, 40% for Roy after 30 targets is bad. The league leaders routinely catch over 50%, and 60% is not that uncommon.

40%? Put it this way. 100 receivers in the NFL this year have 28 or more targets. 3 have fewer than the 12 catches that Roy has. Michael Clayton, TB (11 for 36, 31%), Chansi Stuckey, NYJ/Cle (11 for 32, 34%) and Chris Chambers, SD (8 for 30, 26%). And there is your entire list.

Some of the best? Hines Ward, Pit (42 for 55, 73%), Wes Welker, NE (46 for 62, 74%), and Steve Smith, Car (45 for 64, 70%).

3rd Down Target Distribution:

3RD Down Targets – Week 7 – Atlanta

Table Tutorial

Good News or Bad News? The Good news is that Romo and the Cowboys were very solid on 3rd down passing. We demonstrated last week that this is a season long negative, so to go 6-8 on 3rd down for 5 First Down conversions is very solid. Bad News? When you go 6-8, you would wish that the other 2 were not the only 2 times you pass it to your #1 WR. Roy Williams, 0-2. There is no way to sugar coat his performance this season.

3rd Down Targets – Season Totals

Table Tutorial

One of these days, I will get tired of telling everyone how money Jason Witten is. That day has not arrived yet. He is 8 for 8 on 3rd Downs, which makes you wonder what Romo was thinking the other 45 times he threw it elsewhere.

SACKS

Atlanta got to Tony Romo for 2 sacks, although his escape-ability reached legendary status right before halftime as he figured out how to get out of that amazing mess when pretty much all 4 Falcons’ pass rushers beat their man. To see Romo surrounded by ATL rushers followed by the TD was the thing that will be talked about for years if this season has a happy ending.

The 2 sacks were both caused by the Falcons dialing up a blitz at just the right time.

In the 3rd Quarter, they sent 7 when the Cowboys had just 6 blocking on a 3rd down. This left Leonard Davis and Tashard Choice with choices to make. Davis picked up a guy who Gurode already had, and Choice opted for the edge linebacker (54 Nicholas) over the blitzer through the “B” gap (28 DeCoud). Blitzing defenders are ALWAYS to be picked up from the inside-out and therefore Choice needed to go for 28 over 54, and leave Nicholas for Romo. The play was doomed to fail the second everyone realized that the Falcons sent more than the Cowboys left in, but Choice did not make the right choice. And, Romo, as Troy said, has to get the ball out of there.

Next, in the 4th Quarter, Nicholas blew up Deon Anderson in a 1-on-1 situation. It also looks like Davis is beat on the play, but he did not directly give up the sack. This was a rare man-up loss for Anderson on a drill we see 1,000 times at training camp where LBs and RBs do battle on the practice field to simulate this situation.

Table Tutorial

The Cowboys have had more successful days on offense than they had on Sunday, but when it came time to make a play, Tony Romo was absolutely up to the task. His new found favorite target, Miles Austin, has seemed to be the target that Romo has been missing for quite a while around here. Now that he has him, the offense does not rely on a running game to carry them.

A big WR who makes plays and demands coverage changes everything for the Cowboys. Hope he is not a mirage.

As well as they ran the ball against Kansas City out of the “22″, the Cowboys had no success out of that look against the Falcons (7 carries for 19 yards). Instead, the Cowboys picked there spots and ran the ball out of “13″ the best. I don’t quite understand the pattern, but there seems to be a reason in certain games when Jason Garrett prefers a 3rd TE to a FB in many of the same running situations. Email me with a theory if you have one, because I am out.

All in all, if your QB can make those plays he did on Sunday, football seems pretty easy, and strategy takes a bit of a backseat. A rare treat in 2009 for the Cowboys, indeed.

Let’s look at the Cowboys use of Personnel in their offensive snaps:

Totals by Personnel Groups:

Table Tutorial

Definition of the Personnel Groups, click here .

41 snaps from under center against the Falcons out of 59 snaps is quite remarkable. First, it says the Cowboys, despite not running the ball very well stayed out of 3rd downs and situations where they must pass the ball. Of those 41 snaps, only 5 times did they not have 2 Tight Ends on the field. In fact, I counted about 5 times where they had 2 TEs and it was Witten and John Phillips instead of Witten and Martellus Bennett. I think they like all 3 TEs when it comes to run blocking.

Despite the big day in Kansas City for the FB, Deon Anderson, there was not much work for him on Sunday as they used the fullback just 13 times out of 59 snaps (22%). They only used “21″ personnel 3 times, which is a season low for that look.

What worked best? Why the “12″ package again. For some reason, people call sports radio with sarcasm mocking the “12″ package for the Cowboys this season as if it has been some big failure. I wonder if they actually understand what is going on with it? Because, the fact is that once again they had great success with it. 12 snaps for 135 yards (11.25 yards per snap)! I think that is pretty good, right? The “12″ gave us 4 pass plays of over 20 yards – 4 to Austin – which suggests that the “12″ brings the safeties in to the center of the field, leaving the 2 WRs out wide in single coverage. And that is where Austin makes you miss and dashes for the goal-line.

Shawn, my expert statistician during this project, sent me some observations I wanted to share with you here:

Bob,

I need to watch the game again, but a few notes from the Playbook.

22 Run: 7-19 yards 2.71
13 Run: 9-44 yards 4.89

Most 12 Passes, since the Bucs game.

Falcons Game: 12 Pass: 8-116 yards 14.50
2009 Season: 12 Pass: 35-336 yards 9.60

S11 Pass: 10-41 yards 4.10
S12 Pass: 6-56 yards 9.33

Falcons game combined 12 and S12 Pass: 14-172 yards 12.29
2009 Season combined 12 and S12 Pass: 70-712 yards 10.17

2009 Season S11 Pass: 73-473 yards 6.48 and 3 interceptions

Shawn

His findings are further proof that the best passing/shotgun package has moved from “S11″ to “S12″. It is just playing to your strength. “S12″ is Bennett versus “S11″ being a 3rd WR. I think the difference is more based on the defensive coverage rather than something Martellus is doing. He just attracts different coverage and it is making the whole group more effective.

Video Breakdowns:

Thanks, Brian at DC Fanatic.com who provides the videos (and the biting commentary) for this exercise. Despite the fact that I keep asking more and more out of him, he keeps saying yes!

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The Play: Austin TD 2Q – 1/10/41 5:59 left

What Happened: This play is not only important for why it happened, but let’s also remember when it happened. This is offensive snap #15 for Dallas, and the first 14 have been pretty forgettable. 4 Drives: 2 3-and-outs, 1 red zone failure, and 1 fumble. So, to start Drive #5, the Cowboys go to “21″ personnel, a look they only had 3 times on Sunday. 2 RB, 1 TE, and 2 WR. Witten is off LT, and Williams Wide Right with Austin in the slot right.

The Falcons show 8 in the Box off this power run look from Dallas, and Dallas throws on 1st down out of “21″ which is against their tendencies. At the snap, the Falcons rush 6, and drop the LDE, and a LB into coverage on Barber when he rolls into a safe route. I cannot get a clean look at the Falcons personnel, but they certainly have to be disappointed that the Cowboys only have 2 WRs in route and Austin is running that wide open. Also, pay attention to the perfect protection, with Deon Anderson doing a nice job with the LB blitz off Left Tackle. Romo makes a perfect throw, and Austin does the rest. A 1 play drive that shows the explosiveness of the offense as they have plenty of big pass plays this season.

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The Play: Crayton TD 2Q 2/G/9 – 0:15 left

What Happened: This is not how the play was drawn up. “S11″. Without any timeouts, remember that a sack likely ends the half. Now, the Falcons are going to throw a somewhat exotic pass rush at the Cowboys and see if the Cowboys can handle it. They obviously cannot. The Falcons run a twist, with the LDT and RDE diving Left, and the LDE and RDT twisting around to the Right. Honestly, in the NFL, offensive lines see this a million times, and it would be nice if someone got their man blocked. Flozell is the first to bust, as Jonathan Babineaux #95 runs right past him and has Romo dead. After that, it is just a full out fire drill as all protection breaks. How Romo escapes is unlikely and amazing. Meanwhile, Roy Williams runs the fade to the right corner of the end zone. Barber slips out to into the middle flat. On the left, Witten and Austin run routes off eachother, and Crayton in pre-snap motion heads to the left sideline, to work the back of the end zone. The Falcons just rush 4, remember, so 7 Falcons covering 5 is still a tough find for Romo under normal circumstances. But, under this rush for him to eventually find a man is all Romo. Crayton eventually shakes loose from Chris Houston #23, and despite a total failure from the OL, this play is a success.
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The Play: Big pass to Austin 3Q 5:26 1/10/20 unbalanced line!

What Happened: “12″ Personnel, and look at what we have here. Colombo #75 breaks huddle andlines up at TE outside Adams. Witten, meanwhile, lines up next to Davis #70 at Right Tackle. This will freak out a defense a bit as it shows heavy run left. Then, in presnap, Bennett #80 motions to that same strong side, and now every LB is fighting that urge to dive right and get ready for a collision with a Barber carry to LT. Play Action now leaves Romo with a fine pocket to throw, with Austin on the left, and Williams on the right. Both are running deep patterns, and I think this shows Romo’s confidence level right now. Even though Austin is attracting the safety, and Williams appears to be in a 1-on-1 situation against press coverage, Romo still tries to fit it in to Austin rather than look Roy’s way. A perfect demonstration of how making plays gives you more opportunities to make more plays. Romo makes a perfect throw and it is a big gain, but I wonder if they asked him why he didn’t take the 1-on-1 in the film room.

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The Play:2/10/48 4:52 3Q – Felix for 9

What Happened:Now let’s look at 2 consecutive plays in the 3rd Quarter. This first one is on 2nd and 10. Last week, we showed you the Cowboys pass 68% of the time on 2nd and 8+ , but here they show “13″ personnel, with all 3 Tight Ends on the field. Bennett is lined up next to Colombo, Witten outside on the right, and Phillips, the rookie TE from Virginia, is in motion to the right to put a huge overload on the right. This is a true power run, and like last week in Kansas City, the question is asked if you can stop it. There is no mystery in what the Cowboys want to do here. Crayton is lined up as the only WR, and he tries to pull a CB and safety out of the box in case of play action. From there, the hand off to Felix gets 9 yards. Watch Kosier #63 continue his wonderful year in the running game as he gets a huge block on poor Eric Coleman #26. Witten is right in the middle of it as well, and Leonard Davis ends up on the 2nd level almost 10 yards downfield. This team can run the football at the most important time – when the opponent knows that what you want to do. This is a very good sign that we have seen almost every week so far.

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The Play: 3/1/39 4:14 3Q – Felix pitch left -

What Happened: This is the very next play. 3rd and 1. Cowboys take off a TE and put on a FB to go “22″ in short yardage. The success of this pitch to Jones, I believe, is totally based on getting the RDE (#92, Davis) to take his read off the FB. They don’t block him, so if he takes one step toward the lead blocker, then the pitch works and Felix gets the outside lane and is gone. If he stays honest, this play could be doomed. The entire OL blocks toward the center of the line as if the play is a run up the gut, and once the pitch happens, watch #82 Witten help the play get 10 more yards by making sure #28 DeCoud cannot even consider getting to Felix. Another interesting idea in the running game that works best with Felix’s skill set.

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The Play: 2/3/20 0:14 3Q – MB 3 for 13 yards with unbalanced line again.

What Happened: This is that unbalanced line again with Colombo lined up next to Adams. I only saw this twice on Sunday, and remember the 1st time they ran it was play action over the top to Austin, so the Falcons are wondering what Garrett is up to again. This time, in “12″ again, they show that they can run strong-side. Phillips is the 2nd TE and he comes in motion to the left. This play has to happen quickly, because the play calls for Leonard Davis to pull to the left. With Colombo, Adams, Kosier, and Phillips already left of center, and Davis pulling left, this means you have plenty of weight on that side, but only Witten watching the right flank. You can see at snap that Witten has no chance, so if the handoff is delayed even a second, those players will destroy the run. But, it is timed perfectly, and as they run upfield, Barber is already through the hole. Again, watch Davis on the 2nd level destroying a poor DB. You can see Colombo celebrating as Barber runs by him. There is nothing the OL enjoys more than gashing you with the run.

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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 5 – Kansas City
Week 4 – Denver
Week 3 – Carolina
Week 2 – New York Giants
Week 1 – Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Garrett ‘08