Dallas surprises the football world beating the Giants on the road on opening night for a big division win. How did they do it?
It took me several days to watch all the film and analyze what it means. I had to a few questions I started with and find the answers.
1. How did the new offensive line do against perhaps the best pass rush in football?
2. Is Kevin Ogletree the new Laurent Robinson?
3. How did Dallas defensive line consistently stuff the Giants running game?
4. What did Rob Ryan do to keep Eli's passing game in check?
5. How did first year starters Barry Church & Morris Claiborne in their debuts?
I will post in five sections addressing these questions.
Lets get started.
1. The outlook was not good heading into this one with Jason Pierre-Paul vs Tyron Smith at left tackle, his first career start on the left side. Nate Livings coming over from the Bengals, known as a better pass blocker than in the running game, highly suspect Phil Costa, Mackenzy Bernadeau who wasn't a full time starter with the Panthers and Doug Free hoping for the 2010 Free vs the 2011 one.
The right guard Bernadeau is supposed to be a power run blocking guard with poor footwork and hand placement in pass protection. He doesn't do much to change that thinking as early on in the first quarter, he gives up almost immediate penetration, Murray doesn't react quickly enough to help his guard and down goes Romo. He let the defensive tackle get his hands into his body and all his upper body is for not.
Phil Costa does not make it out of the first quarter with a back injury, I did not see the injury on film but honestly Costa gets knocked on his tail so often from last season it doesn't surprise me. Insert newly acquired Ryan Cook, #63, to play center with less than a week of practice in Dallas.
10:45 in 2nd Quarter. Cook gives up pressure back into Romo who can't get the ball off like he wants. Kevin Ogletree is coming across the middle but runs behind the linebacker. By this point the ball has already left Romo's hands for the interception. It was a extremely small window for Romo and the ball should not been thrown here but Ogletree did not do any favors to his quarterback.
This is the window Romo was throwing into when he fired the ball, the linebacker in red just sitting in the middle of the field drifting toward Ogletree.
As the ball arrives, he has extended his route 4 yards downfield which gives the defender perfect room to jump in front for the easy pick. Bad read by Romo, pressure by Cook and receiver not helping matters with the route.
Doug Free is the weakest link on the team, keeping in mind that he had to keep the Giants pass rush at bay but keeping in mind the preseason and training camp, Free has not improved. He is extremely susceptible to counter moves and Uymenora defeated him regularly as did Pierre-Paul. The competition will get easier in week 2 but the 2012 version of Doug Free is far too much like 2011 than 2010.
Free was not alone in his struggles at tackle, Tyron Smith had a hard time keeping Pierre-Paul at bay but the younger player who's a first round pick will get the benefit of the doubt. He did get better in the 2nd half as did most of the line as well, running the ball with success can do that to a pass rushing team. I graded Nate Livings as the most consistent lineman, as expected better in pass protection than getting push in the running game but was plenty serviceable. Neither of the guards were good at pulling either missing the moving target or getting no push once they locked on.
No comments:
Post a Comment