GTripp0012
11-20-2008, 11:37 PM
The prevailing thought about the game is that the Redskins offense cost a pretty nice effort by the defense a win. However, I'd like to share with you the tale of the tape, and the tale of the statistics.
Overall Defense
Below I will list the statistics of three offenses during single games of the 2008 season. We'll call them A, B, and C.
Vital Statistics: Offense 'A'
Total Adj Yards = 471
Yards per Play = 6.73
Success Rate = 45.7%
Vital Statistics: Offense 'B'
Total Adj Yards = 367
Yards per Play = 5.32
Success Rate = 49.3%
Vital Statistics: Offense 'C'
Total Adj Yards = 322
Yards per Play = 5.83
Success Rate = 50.9%
Offense A is the Redskins offense at it's highest yards per play this season: against the New Orleans Saints. Offense B is the Redskins offense in Dallas this year, the highest success rate they've produced all season. Those are the best the Redskins offense has done this year.
Offense C is the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. That's right: in a 14 point effort in which the Dallas Quarterback struggled mightily to grip and throw the football, the Cowboys offense actually had every bit as good of an offensive performance, on a play by play basis, as the Redskins have had at any point this season. The big issue is this: looking at the tape, this is entirely on the shoulders of the defense. The Cowboys changed up their offensive scheme and the Redskins couldn't adjust to it. At all.
Pass Defense
Vital Statistics
Total Adj Yards = 204
Yards per Play = 7.56
Success Rate = 51.8% (14/27)
Look at those numbers. Consider that Tony Romo made about 5 good downfield throws all game and that's including the shovel pass. I don't understand how the Redskins allowed this to happen. It's like they didn't ever challenge Romo's ability to throw downfield or to the outside. I didn't think there was anything wrong with the scheme by Blache, either, save perhaps the end of the first half. Romo was just brutally effective without the ability to get anything behind the football on the majority of his throws. Was anyone in particular at fault here?
Coverage
(Targets, Completions Allowed, Success Plays against, YPA)
Fred Smoot - 6, 4, 3, 7.17
Carlos Rogers - 5, 4, 2, 5.8
London Fletcher - 3, 3, 2, 8.33
Rocky McIntosh - 2, 1, 0, 1.5
DeAngelo Hall - 2, 1, 1, 3.0
HB Blades - 2, 2, 2, 17.0
LaRon Landry - 2, 2, 2, 22.0
Marcus Washington - 1, 1, 1, 5.0
Chris Horton - 1, 1, 1, 25.0
Well, who isn't to blame? Don't blame Horton, he had good coverage on the only play he was targeted on. Washington didn't see a lot of action before leaving with an injury. HB Blades on Jason Witten in a non-blitzing situation is a mismatch, but Witten's one big play came in man with no help against Blades. Carlos Rogers had the prototypical solid day against the No. 1 target, which wasn't always Terrell Owens. DeAngelo Hall did fine. He was beat badly on his interception, and luckily, Romo threw it right to him. Fletcher really struggled in both zone coverage, and man coverage. Fletcher has always been Mr. Consistent, and I was surprised that he had such an awful game. Fletcher was awful against the run as well, but I'll address that in a second.
The center of the Cowboys passing gameplan was to go after Fred Smoot, and they attacked him early and often with the expected amount of success. Smoot is helpless when you get him one on one on the outside after picking up a blitz. This happened way too often on Sunday. Thankfully, Greg Blache adjusted by not blitzing Romo, and had a bit more success. But the damage was already done. The final five blitzes of the game for the Redskins resulted in gains of: 13, 28, 26, 16, and 10 yards for Romo and the Cowboys. Needless to say, this was an awful strategy that Blache adjusted to after he realized that he was just making Romo's job easy by blitzing.
Pass Rush
To say the Redskins didn't get any pressure on Romo would be inaccurate. The four man rush did it's job most of the night, and Romo spent most of the first three quarters dumping the ball over the line, and just generally chucking and ducking. However, any time the Redskins blitzed it got picked up, and any time that the Redskins didn't get pressure on Romo, he found himself a wide open receiver. So these guys didn't play well enough. But they weren't the main weakness.
Pressure Chart
Sacks
None
QB Hits (1)
LaRon Landry (pass was intercepted)
Pressures (11)
Andre Carter x4
Demetric Evans x3
London Fletcher
LaRon Landry
Lorenzo Alexander
Jason Taylor
Passes Deflected at Line
None
In a few packages, the Redskins used a three down line with Jason Taylor as a standup rush end. This wasn't particularly effective, but it helps solve the problem of having too many DEs in pass rushing situations when you can bring the tallest guy on the field on an interior rush. Demetric Evans continued to be a monster against Dallas, this time taking Marc Columbo to school instead of Cory Proctor, who is back on the bench.
Andre Carter got mauled, raped, and abused by Flozell Adams in every possible illegal way. Twice, Adams got called, but he probably should have been called on every passing play of the game for holding or facemask. He had Andre Carter's grill all night, and still was helpless to stop him.
Run Defense
Vital Statistics
Total Adj Yards = 118
Yards per Play = 4.2
Success Rate = 53.5% (15/28)
Okay, this was the real problem with the defense. They allowed the Cowboys to rush the ball consistently without stuffing them at the line. Credit the Cowboys for coming in with a great gameplan for attacking the Redskins, but at the same time, fault the Redskins for not coming up with a method for stopping the Cowboys no matter how many chances they got.
Tackle Chart
(Tackle Attempts, Successful, Yards per)
Chris Horton - 9, 4, 4.44
London Fletcher - 5, 2, 3.6
Fred Smoot - 4, 2, 7.5
Rocky McIntosh - 3, 2, 2.67
Carlos Rogers - 3, 2, 4.67
Corneilius Griffin - 2, 0, 1.5
HB Blades - 1, 0, 0
Demetric Evans - 1, 1, 7.0
I can't really tell you if Kedric Golston made himself a non-factor, or if the Cowboys' interior OL made him a non-factor, but he did not make a single charted play the entire game. He was getting the double team focus from the Cowboys, but Ratliff was getting the same treatment from the Redskins and he was still a force. The biggest decisive factor in this game was just this: the Cowboys had their way with the interior DL of the Redskins.
Once the Cowboys accomplished this, they used crack back blocks in the exact same way the Patriots used Wes Welker against us last year. Crayton was used a lot to hit players like Taylor, Evans, and Carter on the crack toss. Predictably, Taylor had no idea what was happening, while Carter played the crack toss the best.
But because they dominated the interior line (especially on draws) the whole game, that last drive where they iced the clock...it was embarrassing to watch. Here's why: the Cowboys used their receivers and their tight ends to set up walls of blocking for Marion Barber once he got outside the Redskins defensive line. They would line Terrell Owens up in the slot, with Rocky Mac splitting the difference between him and the line of scrimmage, and they would run right at McIntosh. McIntosh would run up and take on the fullback as he has been taught. The Cowboys would counter this by sending Owens up the field 5 yards to crack back on Fletcher, and trusted that Fletcher's instincts would take him right to Owens.
Now, I thought that the Cowboys got away with a ridiculous amount of jersey-grabbing to make this work, but it's still inexcusable that they wouldn't bring Landry up on the slot receiver and counter this strategy. Usually in defenses like this, the slot receiver goes from the OLB to the FS in terms of blocking, but they changed their blocking schemes to beat our defense, and we never did figure them out. Of course, Blache was likely relying on the defensive line to blow up the plays while the Cowboys were worried about the second level, but they did a great job manhandling us at the first level, and Barber made a lot of people miss -- including Fletcher about 3 or 4 times.
The Final Word
This entire post has been very negative towards the defense, as my feelings after watching them on tape are pretty negative. We did get one more offensive play in than they did, and a lot of the damage was done in the fourth quarter. The one thing the Redskins did right all game is catch the ball when it came to them. This should have been a four touchdown game for the Cowboys, and we did turn them around at the most opportune times, keeping us in the game.
If that trend can continue, I see a lot of points in the future for the offense, and a playoff birth for the team. But the Redskins have to be ready to stop other teams that copy the offensive blueprint the Cowboys used to run the football, because this effort will not be sufficient in future games, especially with the Giants coming to town in two weeks.
Overall Defense
Below I will list the statistics of three offenses during single games of the 2008 season. We'll call them A, B, and C.
Vital Statistics: Offense 'A'
Total Adj Yards = 471
Yards per Play = 6.73
Success Rate = 45.7%
Vital Statistics: Offense 'B'
Total Adj Yards = 367
Yards per Play = 5.32
Success Rate = 49.3%
Vital Statistics: Offense 'C'
Total Adj Yards = 322
Yards per Play = 5.83
Success Rate = 50.9%
Offense A is the Redskins offense at it's highest yards per play this season: against the New Orleans Saints. Offense B is the Redskins offense in Dallas this year, the highest success rate they've produced all season. Those are the best the Redskins offense has done this year.
Offense C is the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. That's right: in a 14 point effort in which the Dallas Quarterback struggled mightily to grip and throw the football, the Cowboys offense actually had every bit as good of an offensive performance, on a play by play basis, as the Redskins have had at any point this season. The big issue is this: looking at the tape, this is entirely on the shoulders of the defense. The Cowboys changed up their offensive scheme and the Redskins couldn't adjust to it. At all.
Pass Defense
Vital Statistics
Total Adj Yards = 204
Yards per Play = 7.56
Success Rate = 51.8% (14/27)
Look at those numbers. Consider that Tony Romo made about 5 good downfield throws all game and that's including the shovel pass. I don't understand how the Redskins allowed this to happen. It's like they didn't ever challenge Romo's ability to throw downfield or to the outside. I didn't think there was anything wrong with the scheme by Blache, either, save perhaps the end of the first half. Romo was just brutally effective without the ability to get anything behind the football on the majority of his throws. Was anyone in particular at fault here?
Coverage
(Targets, Completions Allowed, Success Plays against, YPA)
Fred Smoot - 6, 4, 3, 7.17
Carlos Rogers - 5, 4, 2, 5.8
London Fletcher - 3, 3, 2, 8.33
Rocky McIntosh - 2, 1, 0, 1.5
DeAngelo Hall - 2, 1, 1, 3.0
HB Blades - 2, 2, 2, 17.0
LaRon Landry - 2, 2, 2, 22.0
Marcus Washington - 1, 1, 1, 5.0
Chris Horton - 1, 1, 1, 25.0
Well, who isn't to blame? Don't blame Horton, he had good coverage on the only play he was targeted on. Washington didn't see a lot of action before leaving with an injury. HB Blades on Jason Witten in a non-blitzing situation is a mismatch, but Witten's one big play came in man with no help against Blades. Carlos Rogers had the prototypical solid day against the No. 1 target, which wasn't always Terrell Owens. DeAngelo Hall did fine. He was beat badly on his interception, and luckily, Romo threw it right to him. Fletcher really struggled in both zone coverage, and man coverage. Fletcher has always been Mr. Consistent, and I was surprised that he had such an awful game. Fletcher was awful against the run as well, but I'll address that in a second.
The center of the Cowboys passing gameplan was to go after Fred Smoot, and they attacked him early and often with the expected amount of success. Smoot is helpless when you get him one on one on the outside after picking up a blitz. This happened way too often on Sunday. Thankfully, Greg Blache adjusted by not blitzing Romo, and had a bit more success. But the damage was already done. The final five blitzes of the game for the Redskins resulted in gains of: 13, 28, 26, 16, and 10 yards for Romo and the Cowboys. Needless to say, this was an awful strategy that Blache adjusted to after he realized that he was just making Romo's job easy by blitzing.
Pass Rush
To say the Redskins didn't get any pressure on Romo would be inaccurate. The four man rush did it's job most of the night, and Romo spent most of the first three quarters dumping the ball over the line, and just generally chucking and ducking. However, any time the Redskins blitzed it got picked up, and any time that the Redskins didn't get pressure on Romo, he found himself a wide open receiver. So these guys didn't play well enough. But they weren't the main weakness.
Pressure Chart
Sacks
None
QB Hits (1)
LaRon Landry (pass was intercepted)
Pressures (11)
Andre Carter x4
Demetric Evans x3
London Fletcher
LaRon Landry
Lorenzo Alexander
Jason Taylor
Passes Deflected at Line
None
In a few packages, the Redskins used a three down line with Jason Taylor as a standup rush end. This wasn't particularly effective, but it helps solve the problem of having too many DEs in pass rushing situations when you can bring the tallest guy on the field on an interior rush. Demetric Evans continued to be a monster against Dallas, this time taking Marc Columbo to school instead of Cory Proctor, who is back on the bench.
Andre Carter got mauled, raped, and abused by Flozell Adams in every possible illegal way. Twice, Adams got called, but he probably should have been called on every passing play of the game for holding or facemask. He had Andre Carter's grill all night, and still was helpless to stop him.
Run Defense
Vital Statistics
Total Adj Yards = 118
Yards per Play = 4.2
Success Rate = 53.5% (15/28)
Okay, this was the real problem with the defense. They allowed the Cowboys to rush the ball consistently without stuffing them at the line. Credit the Cowboys for coming in with a great gameplan for attacking the Redskins, but at the same time, fault the Redskins for not coming up with a method for stopping the Cowboys no matter how many chances they got.
Tackle Chart
(Tackle Attempts, Successful, Yards per)
Chris Horton - 9, 4, 4.44
London Fletcher - 5, 2, 3.6
Fred Smoot - 4, 2, 7.5
Rocky McIntosh - 3, 2, 2.67
Carlos Rogers - 3, 2, 4.67
Corneilius Griffin - 2, 0, 1.5
HB Blades - 1, 0, 0
Demetric Evans - 1, 1, 7.0
I can't really tell you if Kedric Golston made himself a non-factor, or if the Cowboys' interior OL made him a non-factor, but he did not make a single charted play the entire game. He was getting the double team focus from the Cowboys, but Ratliff was getting the same treatment from the Redskins and he was still a force. The biggest decisive factor in this game was just this: the Cowboys had their way with the interior DL of the Redskins.
Once the Cowboys accomplished this, they used crack back blocks in the exact same way the Patriots used Wes Welker against us last year. Crayton was used a lot to hit players like Taylor, Evans, and Carter on the crack toss. Predictably, Taylor had no idea what was happening, while Carter played the crack toss the best.
But because they dominated the interior line (especially on draws) the whole game, that last drive where they iced the clock...it was embarrassing to watch. Here's why: the Cowboys used their receivers and their tight ends to set up walls of blocking for Marion Barber once he got outside the Redskins defensive line. They would line Terrell Owens up in the slot, with Rocky Mac splitting the difference between him and the line of scrimmage, and they would run right at McIntosh. McIntosh would run up and take on the fullback as he has been taught. The Cowboys would counter this by sending Owens up the field 5 yards to crack back on Fletcher, and trusted that Fletcher's instincts would take him right to Owens.
Now, I thought that the Cowboys got away with a ridiculous amount of jersey-grabbing to make this work, but it's still inexcusable that they wouldn't bring Landry up on the slot receiver and counter this strategy. Usually in defenses like this, the slot receiver goes from the OLB to the FS in terms of blocking, but they changed their blocking schemes to beat our defense, and we never did figure them out. Of course, Blache was likely relying on the defensive line to blow up the plays while the Cowboys were worried about the second level, but they did a great job manhandling us at the first level, and Barber made a lot of people miss -- including Fletcher about 3 or 4 times.
The Final Word
This entire post has been very negative towards the defense, as my feelings after watching them on tape are pretty negative. We did get one more offensive play in than they did, and a lot of the damage was done in the fourth quarter. The one thing the Redskins did right all game is catch the ball when it came to them. This should have been a four touchdown game for the Cowboys, and we did turn them around at the most opportune times, keeping us in the game.
If that trend can continue, I see a lot of points in the future for the offense, and a playoff birth for the team. But the Redskins have to be ready to stop other teams that copy the offensive blueprint the Cowboys used to run the football, because this effort will not be sufficient in future games, especially with the Giants coming to town in two weeks.