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By Jeff Cavanaugh 38m ago
Connor Williams — OG (#52)
The task before Connor Williams on Sunday wasn’t an enviable one. He entered the game when Zack Martin aggravated his existing knee injury. His mission, should he choose to accept it (as the backup guard, there really wasn’t much of a choice) is to step in to a tied game (9-9) at a position he had not played before (he’s been a left guard and was plugged in on the right). You line up against Fletcher Cox, Destroyer of Worlds. If your team wins, they all but clinch a postseason berth. Williams handled the task admirably. Williams entered the game with the football on the Cowboys’ 49-yard line on 1st & 10, and the rest of the drive went like so:
seven-yard run by Rod Smith.
seven-yard pass to Rod Smith.
five-yard run by Rod Smith.
13-yard pass to Amari Cooper.
five-yard run by Ezekiel Elliott.
28-yard touchdown pass to Amari Cooper.
It was a nice little return to the field for our guy. Let’s start with his run blocking, on the first play he entered the game.
This is what Williams does best. The Cowboys ask their guards to do a lot of work at the second level as a primarily zone-blocking team. His athleticism is outstanding for an offensive lineman and he’s able to easily lock up #47 Nathan Gerry to provide the clear cutback lane for Rod Smith to pick up five yards.
This is teaching tape. He’s going to use his right hand to help La’el Collins, making sure he’ll be able to get in front of Cox, then move on to clean up a linebacker and again provide a clear running lane. This one gets complicated a little bit because Dalton Schultz never had a prayer of blocking Michael Bennett. Fortunately, Ezekiel Elliott cannot be stopped by a single mortal human being so he can shrug off the tackle attempt and keep going.
Williams was a really good run-blocker on Sunday. He makes offering a little help to his tackle and then moving to the linebacker level to engage and maintain a block look relatively easy. Here on the left side, Joe Looney and Xavier Su’a-Filo couldn’t figure out how one of them was going to get the linebacker and Cole Beasley got beat on a block, but Williams is rock-solid.
Let’s move on to pass protection — but first, set a realistic expectation. Being able to mirror 300-ish-pound super-athletes while never moving backward or letting them get around you isn’t going to happen. Being able to provide your quarterback with somewhere around three seconds to get the ball out is the goal.
There’s been a lot of talk about Williams’ anchor or lack-thereof. This is one example of why questions exist, but it’s not a bad rep. He’s able to fight enough to let this ball get out. You’d like to see him be able to absorb the rush and give ground at a slower rate or be able to anchor after the initial surge, but he did enough.
Here he is able to anchor and stop the surge from Fletcher Cox. It takes him getting out over his skis a little bit to get it done, but he does the job. I know this write up is about Williams but glance over at the left guard on this play if you’d like. Su’a-Filo didn’t notice that a stunt was happening in front of him and got himself lost and flattened by the incoming defensive end. More on that in a minute.
This is Williams’ first truly problematic pass-protection snap. It’s a nice rush by Philadelphia because no one is going to make a move to the inside of either guard. Joe Looney can’t offer help and Michael Bennett is going to blow by Williams. Bennett is lined up wide and threatens to go inside before slipping back to the outside with a swat and swim move. You can charge this sack to whoever you like since La’el Collins got run over and Su’a-Filo got tossed aside as the entire defensive line met at Dak Prescott. But there’s no question Williams had a bad rep there.
This is the only other pass play where you can point out that Williams can be overpowered on the interior at times. Cox is about as good as it gets but Looney momentarily saves Williams’ proverbial bacon when Cox is able to club Williams’ hands off of him and toss him a few yards back towards the quarterback. Cox is going to eventually get to Prescott regardless of the help.
The last thing I want to point out while looking at him as a pass-protector is his awareness. This goes back to the fifth video of the article in which Su’a-Filo, playing left guard, never saw the stunt coming and got de-cleated. Williams is a very aware player in pass protection. He’s able to not only recognize what’s happening while it’s happening, but has the lateral agility to get where he needs to be after passing off the guy he’s initially blocking.
The Cowboys have an interesting situation on their hands. If Zack Martin is able to play against Indianapolis they may have seen enough from Williams to insert him back in at left guard. He played a fairly solid game in the snaps he saw, was a good run-blocker and a passable-at-worst protector on pass plays. All that while coming into a game against a tough defensive front and playing a position he hasn’t before. If the Cowboys ask my opinion (shockingly, they haven’t yet) I’d plug Williams back in at left guard for Su’a-Filo when Zack Martin is ready to go.
Grade: B [HR][/HR]
Byron Jones – CB/Human Who Covers Ertz (#31)
We’ll get this out of the way first.
With 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter this play happened. The Cowboys look to be in Cover-3, meaning Byron Jones has his deep third of the field. He got caught peeking at the quarterback and gave up a big play that led to the game-tying touchdown. That’s a negative. It’s also the end of the negatives.
I chose Jones this week because I noticed a trend during the game that I thought indicated a wonderful strategy by the Cowboys. Byron Jones is a cornerback these days. He plays the right cornerback spot. He also traveled some with Michael Thomas when Dallas played New Orleans. With Philadelphia in town, the Cowboys decided they were going to learn from their previous encounter when Zack Ertz hit them for 14 catches, 145 yards, and two scores. They decided they’d prefer that not to happen again.
It didn’t start ideally in that regard because on the Eagles’ opening drive, they threw a 3rd-and-4 pass to Ertz and got a first down against a Dallas zone defense.
This is Philadelphia’s second third-down of the opening drive. Byron Jones isn’t playing right cornerback. He’s on the left side where Ertz is. On third-and-long, the Cowboys weren’t going to let Ertz go anywhere without Byron Jones in his hip pocket. The coverage is fine but it looks like the two Philadelphia receiving options were confused on who was supposed to be the over and who was supposed to be the under on their pick play, and Randy Gregory gets a sack. No first down, punt.
On the next Eagles drive, Jones spends first and second down playing his right cornerback spot. Because that’s his position.
On 3rd & 11 Jones is —surprise — on the defense’s left side of the field with Ertz. The tight end goes in motion and Jones follows. The result is that Ertz is blanketed and Wentz overthrows Golden Tate. No first down, punt.
On this 3rd & 9 early in the second quarter, we see Jones following Ertz again. Wentz is throwing to him and winding up with incomplete passes.
You get the point now. When the Eagles had third-and-long in this game, the Cowboys deployed Jones as they’ve done in his past life as a safety. He was the tight-end shadow that took their best weapon out of the game on the biggest downs. Until…..
This is 3rd & goal from the 8-yard line in the fourth quarter with the Cowboys up 9-6. I’m doing some guesswork here but I believe what we saw here is a little bit of chess from Rod Marinelli and/or Kris Richard. All game on third and long, we had seen Jones following Ertz and playing man coverage. By my count, Ertz had zero catches in those situations (he made one catch between Jones and Vander Esch when they were in zone).
Now we have a huge snap and the Eagles know the plan. So they have a play ready to attack it. They’ll just line up Ertz where Byron Jones already plays and use a little bunch with Alshon Jeffrey. The plan is to run Ertz underneath Jeffrey where Jones won’t be able to get through, then score an easy touchdown. But for the first third-and-long all game, Byron Jones isn’t playing man. The Cowboys seamlessly pass off the underneath route to Anthony Brown, who is going to force the incompletion and Philadelphia settles for a field goal.
Byron Jones is a weapon. He plays his own spot, he’ll travel to shadow a top-flight wide receiver when they want him to and he’ll go back to covering tight ends on key downs when they think the situation dictates it. He gave up a couple of catches on the day, one of them was a big one late in the fourth quarter. But his ability to eliminate the Eagles’ best playmaker on money downs was massively important and a stroke of genius by the Cowboys staff.
Grade: B+ (It was the two minute warning and you’re up by seven. Don’t give up a deep ball, Byron!)
By Jeff Cavanaugh 38m ago
Connor Williams — OG (#52)
The task before Connor Williams on Sunday wasn’t an enviable one. He entered the game when Zack Martin aggravated his existing knee injury. His mission, should he choose to accept it (as the backup guard, there really wasn’t much of a choice) is to step in to a tied game (9-9) at a position he had not played before (he’s been a left guard and was plugged in on the right). You line up against Fletcher Cox, Destroyer of Worlds. If your team wins, they all but clinch a postseason berth. Williams handled the task admirably. Williams entered the game with the football on the Cowboys’ 49-yard line on 1st & 10, and the rest of the drive went like so:
seven-yard run by Rod Smith.
seven-yard pass to Rod Smith.
five-yard run by Rod Smith.
13-yard pass to Amari Cooper.
five-yard run by Ezekiel Elliott.
28-yard touchdown pass to Amari Cooper.
It was a nice little return to the field for our guy. Let’s start with his run blocking, on the first play he entered the game.
This is what Williams does best. The Cowboys ask their guards to do a lot of work at the second level as a primarily zone-blocking team. His athleticism is outstanding for an offensive lineman and he’s able to easily lock up #47 Nathan Gerry to provide the clear cutback lane for Rod Smith to pick up five yards.
This is teaching tape. He’s going to use his right hand to help La’el Collins, making sure he’ll be able to get in front of Cox, then move on to clean up a linebacker and again provide a clear running lane. This one gets complicated a little bit because Dalton Schultz never had a prayer of blocking Michael Bennett. Fortunately, Ezekiel Elliott cannot be stopped by a single mortal human being so he can shrug off the tackle attempt and keep going.
Williams was a really good run-blocker on Sunday. He makes offering a little help to his tackle and then moving to the linebacker level to engage and maintain a block look relatively easy. Here on the left side, Joe Looney and Xavier Su’a-Filo couldn’t figure out how one of them was going to get the linebacker and Cole Beasley got beat on a block, but Williams is rock-solid.
Let’s move on to pass protection — but first, set a realistic expectation. Being able to mirror 300-ish-pound super-athletes while never moving backward or letting them get around you isn’t going to happen. Being able to provide your quarterback with somewhere around three seconds to get the ball out is the goal.
There’s been a lot of talk about Williams’ anchor or lack-thereof. This is one example of why questions exist, but it’s not a bad rep. He’s able to fight enough to let this ball get out. You’d like to see him be able to absorb the rush and give ground at a slower rate or be able to anchor after the initial surge, but he did enough.
Here he is able to anchor and stop the surge from Fletcher Cox. It takes him getting out over his skis a little bit to get it done, but he does the job. I know this write up is about Williams but glance over at the left guard on this play if you’d like. Su’a-Filo didn’t notice that a stunt was happening in front of him and got himself lost and flattened by the incoming defensive end. More on that in a minute.
This is Williams’ first truly problematic pass-protection snap. It’s a nice rush by Philadelphia because no one is going to make a move to the inside of either guard. Joe Looney can’t offer help and Michael Bennett is going to blow by Williams. Bennett is lined up wide and threatens to go inside before slipping back to the outside with a swat and swim move. You can charge this sack to whoever you like since La’el Collins got run over and Su’a-Filo got tossed aside as the entire defensive line met at Dak Prescott. But there’s no question Williams had a bad rep there.
This is the only other pass play where you can point out that Williams can be overpowered on the interior at times. Cox is about as good as it gets but Looney momentarily saves Williams’ proverbial bacon when Cox is able to club Williams’ hands off of him and toss him a few yards back towards the quarterback. Cox is going to eventually get to Prescott regardless of the help.
The last thing I want to point out while looking at him as a pass-protector is his awareness. This goes back to the fifth video of the article in which Su’a-Filo, playing left guard, never saw the stunt coming and got de-cleated. Williams is a very aware player in pass protection. He’s able to not only recognize what’s happening while it’s happening, but has the lateral agility to get where he needs to be after passing off the guy he’s initially blocking.
The Cowboys have an interesting situation on their hands. If Zack Martin is able to play against Indianapolis they may have seen enough from Williams to insert him back in at left guard. He played a fairly solid game in the snaps he saw, was a good run-blocker and a passable-at-worst protector on pass plays. All that while coming into a game against a tough defensive front and playing a position he hasn’t before. If the Cowboys ask my opinion (shockingly, they haven’t yet) I’d plug Williams back in at left guard for Su’a-Filo when Zack Martin is ready to go.
Grade: B [HR][/HR]
Byron Jones – CB/Human Who Covers Ertz (#31)
We’ll get this out of the way first.
With 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter this play happened. The Cowboys look to be in Cover-3, meaning Byron Jones has his deep third of the field. He got caught peeking at the quarterback and gave up a big play that led to the game-tying touchdown. That’s a negative. It’s also the end of the negatives.
I chose Jones this week because I noticed a trend during the game that I thought indicated a wonderful strategy by the Cowboys. Byron Jones is a cornerback these days. He plays the right cornerback spot. He also traveled some with Michael Thomas when Dallas played New Orleans. With Philadelphia in town, the Cowboys decided they were going to learn from their previous encounter when Zack Ertz hit them for 14 catches, 145 yards, and two scores. They decided they’d prefer that not to happen again.
It didn’t start ideally in that regard because on the Eagles’ opening drive, they threw a 3rd-and-4 pass to Ertz and got a first down against a Dallas zone defense.
This is Philadelphia’s second third-down of the opening drive. Byron Jones isn’t playing right cornerback. He’s on the left side where Ertz is. On third-and-long, the Cowboys weren’t going to let Ertz go anywhere without Byron Jones in his hip pocket. The coverage is fine but it looks like the two Philadelphia receiving options were confused on who was supposed to be the over and who was supposed to be the under on their pick play, and Randy Gregory gets a sack. No first down, punt.
On the next Eagles drive, Jones spends first and second down playing his right cornerback spot. Because that’s his position.
On 3rd & 11 Jones is —surprise — on the defense’s left side of the field with Ertz. The tight end goes in motion and Jones follows. The result is that Ertz is blanketed and Wentz overthrows Golden Tate. No first down, punt.
On this 3rd & 9 early in the second quarter, we see Jones following Ertz again. Wentz is throwing to him and winding up with incomplete passes.
You get the point now. When the Eagles had third-and-long in this game, the Cowboys deployed Jones as they’ve done in his past life as a safety. He was the tight-end shadow that took their best weapon out of the game on the biggest downs. Until…..
This is 3rd & goal from the 8-yard line in the fourth quarter with the Cowboys up 9-6. I’m doing some guesswork here but I believe what we saw here is a little bit of chess from Rod Marinelli and/or Kris Richard. All game on third and long, we had seen Jones following Ertz and playing man coverage. By my count, Ertz had zero catches in those situations (he made one catch between Jones and Vander Esch when they were in zone).
Now we have a huge snap and the Eagles know the plan. So they have a play ready to attack it. They’ll just line up Ertz where Byron Jones already plays and use a little bunch with Alshon Jeffrey. The plan is to run Ertz underneath Jeffrey where Jones won’t be able to get through, then score an easy touchdown. But for the first third-and-long all game, Byron Jones isn’t playing man. The Cowboys seamlessly pass off the underneath route to Anthony Brown, who is going to force the incompletion and Philadelphia settles for a field goal.
Byron Jones is a weapon. He plays his own spot, he’ll travel to shadow a top-flight wide receiver when they want him to and he’ll go back to covering tight ends on key downs when they think the situation dictates it. He gave up a couple of catches on the day, one of them was a big one late in the fourth quarter. But his ability to eliminate the Eagles’ best playmaker on money downs was massively important and a stroke of genius by the Cowboys staff.
Grade: B+ (It was the two minute warning and you’re up by seven. Don’t give up a deep ball, Byron!)
