Cowboys Video Rewind

With everything that's been screwed up about this season, and all the attention that's been grabbed by the rookies and Mike Vick, I'm starting to get the sense there's one new guy who hasn't been getting enough notice.

When Jason Peters went down during the Cowboys game, it looked bad.  He was clearly in a tremendous amount of pain.  But after they helped him off the field he went back into the locker room, had some x-rays, slapped on a football field's worth of tape, and got back out there to help protect his quarterback. 

It was the second time this year he's returned to the field after what looked in real time to be a season-ending injury.  This suggests a couple things about Peters:  He ain't fragile and he's tough as hell.

The knock on Peters coming out of Buffalo was that he wasn't a try-hard guy.  All the talent in the world, but once he got upset about his contract, the Bills decided there was simply no way they could keep such a, er, divisive influence in their, um, locker room.

Peters hasn't been quite the dominant force we expected when Reid heralded him as "the best left tackle in the league."  STATS Inc. puts him at four sacks allowed, three false starts and a holding.  He's shown some flashes in the run game, but he hasn't had that one signature play that would have fans saying, "Yeah, but remember when he pancaked DeMarcus Ware?"

What he has shown us, though, has been much more important.  We're gonna win with this guy.

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Yes, Chad Lewis still has me fired up.

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The video rewind was less fun this week than I thought it would be.  Partly that's because Cris Collinsworth has an annoying tendency of catching things during the broadcast that every other broadcaster would miss and leave for those of us doing these re-watch deals. 

The other part is simply that there wasn't that much to learn.  The Eagles played pretty well.  They didn't play great but they certainly did their 2009 Eagles things.  And Dallas also played well, without showing too much interesting beyond the Wildcat (which we'll get to next).  Just your typical NFCE street fight with a few interesting plays sprinkled within.

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First, the Wildcat.  It's surprising that a team that has spent so much time incorporating the Wildcat into its offense would have such a poor defensive approach to stopping it.  This is our defensive alignment (from two angles) on the Cowboys' first Wildcat play:

I realize we're not NFL coaches, but even when you take the wide side of the field into account, I just don't see why you would split your defense evenly between strong and weak when there are three extra blockers on the strong side.  Especially because the cornerback on that side is 10 yards off and in no position to help with run support. 

Predictable result:  student body left for a 10-yard game.  Called back on a holding penalty, but the play was there, just as it looks like it should be.

Here's another one, later in the first quarter:

I like the way McDermott has followed JJ's lead and inverted his safeties in goal line situations.  Sheldon does a good job back there playing center field -- when there's an actual quarterback taking snaps.  But all you're doing in this alignment is letting the offense play 9-on-8.  Sheldon's too far off to make a difference.  And that's, indeed, what happens, as Choice runs a little self-counter over the left side for a touchdown. 

Second quarter, more of the same:

Nine more yards on the carry.  Which brings up second and short:

And there's a defense that actually looks like it's ready to defeat the Wildcat.  The Cowboys converted, but only for two yards.  And that was the last Wildcat play we saw all game (except for one that Tony Romo ran, but Wade Phillips isn't as snippy about that stuff as Andy is).

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In our continuing series on That One Weird Counter Play The Saints Ran, we saw this from the Cowboys:

That appears to be exactly the play Peter King describes in his column, same tight end motion and everything. 

Further bulletins as events warrant.

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So no, this wasn't one of Donovan's best-ever games.  He definitely left a couple of opportunities on the field, although none as large as the ones his teammates either dropped or failed to block.  He was fine.

That first series, though.  Ugh.  Sandwiched between the play where Maclin kept running down the field, blissfully unaware that McNabb had thrown him the ball (after which Don gave him the universally recognized "turn your eyes back" signal), and the Maclin INT, was this "route" by DeSean:

It's not a great decision by McNabb.  Newman was all over that slant.  But quarterbacks really, really appreciate when their wide receivers sell out to keep their bodies between the defender and the ball.

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I'm skipping around a bit this week, but that's because this was more a game of plays than storylines. 

One of the things I've started to notice about the McDermott defense is that teams are deciding that if he's going to continually vacate the middle of the field on all-out blitzes (or ask his lineman to drop back and get a lot of depth to help out) then they might as well work that part of the field all day. 

Third-and-eight on the very first drive:

There's Collinsworth pointing stuff out in real time again, although his perspective was more about the offense.  Here's the thing, though, if you're Asante Samuel and you know what defense has been called ... giving a guy a free inside release to open up the easiest throw a QB can make (the post) is not necessarily the best choice you can make.

And lest you think I'm picking on Asante:

Obviously the other team is going to complete some passes.  I'm not suggesting our corners suck because they give up one catch.  I'm saying that when an offensive coordinator starts to get a sense of what a defensive coordinator is going to call in a given situation, that's when you start to see some of the easier pitch and catch plays.

But what, you may ask, if we try to help our corners by dropping a lineman back to play underneath:

Looks just like DeSean giving up on that slant!  (And damn you, Collinsworth.)

Speaking of overly complicated defenses:

Again, Collinsworth, I know.  But it's worth watching one more time, especially from the end zone angle, to see just what's happening with the guys in the secondary. 

It's honestly a pretty cool defense.  If Romo's reading blitz, he has to be thinking Mikell's going to be jumping the slot.  But it's an awfully boom/bust call to be making while the other team is running its two-minute drill.  Why not just play things straight and force them to march down into field goal range?  I'm not sure about flipping the coin on an Interception or Big Gain Because We're Asking A Back-Up Linebacker To Run All The Way Across The Formation And Cover A Slot Receiver play.

In the words of Omar Gaither, when they called the same coverage for him last year, "[You] die by the [blitz]."

Or something like that.

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Ok, so now it's time to pick on Asante.  No, not for coming back on the field and not wanting to tackle anyone at the end of the game.  The guy was playing hurt and needed to be out there once Hobbs went down.  There was nothing wrong with that.

No, I just want to point out that the Cowboys ran four screen passes in the first half while Asante was on the field.  All four went to his side.  That's not a coincidence.

I sort of feel like Asante's like the new guy in prison, warily watching all the other dudes size him up to see how tough he is.  Might be time to bite someone's ear off so they stop %$#&ing with him for awhile.

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On the big play touchdown to Miles Austin, Collinsworth again stole my video deal.  I swear I was explaining/screaming the same point about Mikell just as he started to make it.

Anyway, a couple people have tried to mount something of a defense for Sheldon, claiming its only natural for a CB to break on a guy who's making a move at the sticks, since that's what so often happens on third down.  Leaving aside the other issues with that "defense," I'd point out the following screenshot, taken at the moment Austin was making his fake inside (click for full size):

Perhaps there some confusion as to which stick?

Anyway, note as well the position of Sean Jones playing center field on this one.  Sure seems like he should have had an angle, doesn't it?  He did.  Missed the tackle.

The lesson on that one:  it's rarely just one guy.

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Although sometimes it is.  This Jason Babin fellow sure knows how to make an impression, doesn't he (LDE on this one):

Right tackle looked like he'd been shot. 

If I saw it correctly, Babin was the first defensive line substitute in this game.  He's also third on the team in sacks, despite really only playing parts of three games.  Not to mention he's completely nuts out there. 

If there's an "anti-whipping boy" contest, Babin is currently sneaking up behind Jason Avant, although he still has a ways to go to catch Celek.

Of course, since he plays like a roughing the passer penalty waiting to happen, maybe he'll make it on to both lists.

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Another impressive individual effort was this play by Leonard Weaver, which unfortunately never happened:

Nice feet for a big man.  My new theory is that the Eagles might be more inclined to keep him around next year if it looks like Brian Westbrook c--- l--- a------ y---.  Good guy to have in the backfield meetings at that point. 

Oh, and on that penalty for Herremans not lining up on the line, the Eagles were doing it all night.  We noticed it both before and after they called that one.  JJ looked like the point of the spear out there.

Ok, big point, but still.

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While we're here, we might as well talk about the fourth-down play.  Honestly, I'm not seeing it.  Yes, the spot was wrong and they really should have re-spotted the ball and measured again.  I don't know how a ref staring at a 10-inch screen could either miss the fact that the spot was well off OR see that the spot was off but then somehow just know that it still wasn't a first down.

With that said, I still don't think it was a first down.

Here's a side-by-side on spot vs. replay (click for full-size):

Looks to me, as it did at the time, that Donovan got the ball almost just to the tip of the beak, when it really needed to be the width of the yellow line past it.

This is in no way definitive, but if you're ok with photo manipulation, here's a look at the top two photos skewed, scaled and overlayed:

Again, you're not winning any court cases with that kind of evidence, but to my eye, he looks short.

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Lots of people talked about how the Cowboys schemed to take DeSean out of the game.  Luckily, at one point we got a nice end zone shot of how that sort of thing works:

I froze it a bit at the beginning so you can see the alignment.  The Eagles have trips left with a tight end.  DeSean is outside on that side. 

The Cowboys are showing a cover-two look pre-snap, but watch the counter-clockwise rotation on the snap.  They go to a cover three up top and the linebackers bust to the right of the screen to rotate and cover the underneath zones.  Donovan does an excellent job dropping the ball in over the linebackers and in front of Newman, who immediately chewed out the OLB for not getting more depth on that play.

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Almost near the end.  Of all the plays that most bothered me about this game, here's the one that killed me:

We talked above about how great a route the post is when the middle of the field is empty, and here the Cowboys are showing an all-out blitz.  Yet the Eagles are in a slow-developing play where McNabb has to give DeSean enough time to run a post-corner to the end zone. 

Yes, he had Maclin in the middle of the field, but there's underneath coverage over there and the rush forces him away from that side of the field (although he seems to be looking to Maclin just as he's getting tripped).  I truly don't understand why Donovan can't audible to something like double skinny posts on that one.  There's trusting your line and then there's just taking what the defense gives you. 

I don't know, I'm sure I'm blaming all the wrong people, but when the defense lined up like that and I saw where our outside receivers were, I started shouting POST-POST-POST at the screen.  Not so much.

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Other notes:

• McNabb might be the one quarterback in the league who's made more than 16 starts and still hasn't figured out you don't have to run out of bounds with the ball any more if you're about to get sacked.  Just throw it away. 
• All anyone will remember is the Ratliff sack, but Stacy Andrews looked surprisingly impressive as a run blocker in this game.  Combine that with the way Nick Cole got literally driven into McNabb's face on a couple of plays and it's pretty clear St. Andrews is going to be starting again before too long.  In fact, funny thing happened when Peters came back in.  Andrews came off, Cole slid over ... and Marty called another run over right guard, which went nowhere.  Andy had an unhappy look on his face after that play.
• No snap counts, but it sure seemed like Bunk and Patterson played a lot more of this game than they had been back in the silly season.  The rest rotation may have done its job.
• Romo saved three points by avoiding that sack at the end of the first half.  Slippery little fella.
• At the end of the game, when the Cowboys were running the same play three times in a row to taunt us and we couldn't stop it, it's worth mentioning that:
• • Trotter wasn't on the field.
  • That wouldn't have been a bad time for the five-man line.
  • Trent Cole was responsible for the first big run of 16 yards because he dashed upfield and abandoned his gap responsibilities.