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By Bob Sturm 4h ago
Our memories work in weird ways. Sometimes they help us cope with bad experiences or compact four years of high school into a few mind pictures of a few seconds that somehow summarize the whole darn thing. These memories abbreviate it all into an easy-to-consume, manageable reminder that doesn’t take all day.
Welcome to this trip inside your own memory.
I was talking with someone recently about the Cowboys’ offseason this spring and summer and how they were a little frustrated with the current state of affairs. I get it. You want shock and awe. You want something substantial to bite into, and since everyone opened their Christmas gifts back in October when Amari Cooper came to town, the new names and toys are tougher to see.
Robert Quinn is certainly a nice addition and Randall Cobb will make you forget about Cole Beasley rather quickly, I might wager. Who knows about these draft picks, but their names might sell some jerseys by Halloween. But I wasn’t trying to sell my buddy on any of those things when we were talking this offseason. I was simply fired up to get “Fred” back in the middle.
Travis Frederick had perfect attendance from 2013 to 2017. From the time he was drafted until this time last year, he never came close to missing any time for any reason, and you could have argued he was as durable as it came. He was solid as a rock who and the best of both worlds: Huge on ability and perfect on availability. There was no reason to not pay him as one of the best at his position, because he was one of the best – if not the best.
Consider each of those years individually.
2013: As a rookie, he was a no-brainer selection to the All-Rookie Team.
2014: Frederick went to the Pro Bowl and made first-team All-Pro. There is no higher honor for his position.
2015: Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro. (Carolina’s Ryan Kalil wason the first team.)
2016: Frederick was again a Pro Bowler and first-team All-Pro selection.
2017: Just a Pro Bowl player and no All-Pro considerations. So, yeah, his “worst” season merely featured a trip to the Pro Bowl.
Then word came down during camp last year that Frederick’s run at top form would be going on hiatus. Late in August, Travis was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome and would miss the entirety of 2018. This was not your normal physical situation or even diagnosis: Some were concerned he might never play again. One year later, Frederick is back, and everything seems to be going very well. He looks, talks and acts like this great player we all remember. Make no mistake, though, there is certainly some guesswork being done for now.
We literally have no idea what to expect moving forward. All of the correct things are being said, but I think in the interest of common sense, we should probably make note that we are venturing into some territory that is not well-worn. If Travis Frederick returns to his top level of performance, that is awesome. But we should not assume it’s a given until it is demonstrated on a week-in, week-out basis by midseason. Fletcher Cox and Aaron Donald will not take it easy with the guy trying to return from a major illness. They will bring their world-beater games to the table to see if Frederick can answer their challenges like he did from 2013-2017. But it will be up to him to prove he remains “that guy.”
We have time to over-analyze that in August and September, I promise. For now, what was “that guy” all about? [HR][/HR]
If I had to pick out one game from Frederick’s career that sticks out to me, I would probably go back to his performance in Pittsburgh on November 13, 2016. It was a game for the ages that the Cowboys won in dramatic fashion, 35-30. Many players had memorable performances, but Pro Football Focus graded Frederick as the best of anyone in a Dallas uniform that day. He was simply phenomenal. The beauty of his game over the years is that there are almost no performances where he isn’t at least “very good,” but on this day, almost any observer would say he was just wonderful.
So, in an effort to remember just what a player the Cowboys might be adding this offseason, I give you that day in November 2016 to help remind us all just how good #72 truly is.
I looked at every snap, of course, but captured 14 of the snaps that are most worthy of your attention. Let’s pop in the All-22’s and see what we can see.
1Q – 15:00 – 1st and 10 – DAL 25
I realize it is silly to highlight the center, but I want to make sure everyone is familiar with #72. Anyway, this is the first snap of the game, and you can see it is his job to go dig out the MLB and then to allow Elliott to key off him by trying to gain some advantage. From there, Elliott will basically evaluate and read the proper path. This snap is easy, as you just follow Frederick’s rear end. Clearly, this study can also see many other great-looking blocks, but this isn’t about Doug Free here. This is about Travis and how he is a real force in the middle. The LB has no prayer here.
1Q – 8:44 – 1st and 10 – PITT 49
The All-22 here was not available for some reason, so I switched to the TV copy. I just wanted to show you Frederick on pass protection as he holds off the NT with one arm; he is basically flat-footed, composed and barely seeing his pulse rise. He is very difficult to move. And when he is comfortable in his block – as he generally is – you aren’t going to move him. His hands are strong, and he clearly only needed one here.
1Q – 6:01 – 3rd and 10 – PITT 23
I only show you this attempted WR screen because the Cowboys knew in this game that Pittsburgh is a pressure team and were going to try to challenge a rookie QB in their house with as much pressure as he would face in his first three years. (Only the Colts this past December blitzed more, and that is likely because the Cowboys’ entire OL was in shambles). This play certainly did not work, but you can see the OL getting down the field and Dallas felt they had something because they would run a similar concept just two offensive snaps later….
1Q – 0:27 – 2nd and 18 – DAL 17
Here is quite possibly the signature play from this game, and maybe from 2016. I have watched this play enough times to know it by heart, but it is still fun to give it another viewing. Here, let’s focus on Frederick running 31-Ross Cockrell right into his coaching staff. I cannot stress how difficult it is for men of this size to be able to get defensive backs blocked up in the open field. They are great at being elusive, but you can clearly see here that this isn’t really working out for Cockrell. So you have uncommon open field mobility and a very impressive “finish” to blocking. This is what sets Frederick apart. When you get blocked, you stay blocked.
Same play, different view:
That deserves a second look, and we can only wonder which coach Frederick picks out to be the target of this cornerback toss. Dominance in the open field and a massive play in the game. Football is beautiful sometimes.
2Q – 3:22 – 3rd and 2 – DAL 33
Frederick did lose a snap in this game, and in the interest of fairness, I want to show it to you. Stephen Tuitt is a large man, and the Steelers were trying to get 5-on-5 as they did many times in this game. That means Frederick has to take care of big Tuitt on his own, and he easily gets walked back. To his credit, #91 cannot get his hands free, but you can tell that Dak is affected by seeing Travis pushed into him. We don’t see this often, but this would clearly be a QB pressure conceded by the big center. He did not play a perfect game.
3Q – 13:05 – 1st and 10 – DAL 26
Here is the first snap of the second half for the Cowboys offense and Frederick goes to work quickly to get back on the right path with a dominating snap of the talented rookie 79-Javon Hargrave. Just look at him attack off the snap and completely erase the big man from the screen. What a beautiful seal off of the weak side A-gap as he just turns his ample rear end as a signal for Zeke to run to daylight. It was an inside zone run to perfection, a common sight in 2016.
3Q – 11:55 – 3rd and 1 – DAL 35
It’s an unbalanced line up the gut. Zeke cuts back to the short side and Frederick again seals to the left. Zeke just has to beat the linebacker in the hole, and on 3rd and short, those chains are going to be moving. Again, Joe Looney did a fine job, but we forget how easily Frederick wins on third and short. Even when he gets pushed a bit, he recovers so easily and so well.
3Q – 3:23 – 1st and 10 – PITT 49
This is a masterpiece. What Frederick does here is execute a reach block without any assistance against a DT in the A-Gap where he has to get to his outside. He is so quick off the snap that the DT never has a clue what is happening until Frederick is outside him. Usually, the LG 65-Leary will combo-block him before coming off to the second level, but the Cowboys don’t even help Travis with that this time. They are quite confident that he can get this done on his own – because he always does. Beautiful work here. Again, Zeke’s job is so easy when you have a line making these blocks without a hint of penetration and then both guards getting to the second level with ease. It was a machine up front.
3Q – 1:43 – 3rd and 11 – 50
A holding play pushed them into a 3rd and long, and look at this. A six-man pressure from Pittsburgh that is picked up expertly – Ryan Shazier overpowers Lance Dunbar, but still – and then Dak side-steps the rush to deliver a pass to Dez Bryant, who had no issues with the corner on his size who had no safety assistance at all. Live by the blitz and die by the blitz, I suppose. What a play and what a game we had here.
4Q – 12:37 – 2nd and 8 – DAL 13
Did you think Frederick was going to lose to Stephon Tuitt again? No chance. This time he is ready for the five-versus-five pass rush and seems to put a little conviction into tossing aside the big man. Lovely work there from #72.
4Q – 5:16 – 2nd and 10 – PITT 41
We see this all game long here, so there is nothing necessarily special about the pass protection on this play other than how easily this line could block back then versus the 2018 version. This game was against a superb pass rush in a loud environment, with a ton of blitz looks and pressure situations, and yet the Cowboys gave their QB plenty of time to do what needed to be done. Again, if you want to find the biggest issues with 2018, pass protection is right up the list, and the blame on the QB relative to what he showed he could do in 2016 as a rookie just doesn’t add up.
4Q – 4:49 – 3rd and 1 – PITT 32
3rd and 1, up the gut. The Cowboys printed money with Zeke behind this line. Remember what tripped them up in 2018? They employed a weak interior OL and short yardage was not a given anymore. Last year they were using this 2016 version’s reputation. But in this setting and with the game on the line, it was ground and pound to move the chains. The results were different in nearly the same spot in Los Angeles last January.
4Q – 2:00 – 1st and 10 – PITT 14
And now the two plays that won the game. First, the Cowboys thought they won the game here right out of the two-minute warning. Watch Frederick and Hargrave again do battle at the point of attack. Ron Leary puts up a nice pancake and Zack Martin is chasing his man out of the paint, too, and the Cowboys could drive a truck through the middle of Pittsburgh. What a great play this is, and what a flashback to the 1992 Cowboys on this front. It is SO impressive with 13 personnel to run an inside play and just destroy a strong opponent like this.
4Q – 0:15 – 1st and 10 – PITT 32
The Steelers would come down and score again on a five-play drive that took the game down to 0:42, and the Cowboys would get the ball back down a point. Prescott then hit Beasley for 10 yards, Witten for 13 and then Witten again for five plus a facemask. Those three passing plays put Dallas in field-goal range. Without this moment, maybe all the Cowboys want to do here is to pick up a few more yards and give a chance to Dan Bailey probably win the game. We didn’t have to find out, though, because the Cowboys dealt with another blitz courtesy of Frederick putting 94-Timmons right on his head, sending Zeke off to the races. Frederick then tries to race everyone else to Elliott in the end zone and wins. [HR][/HR]
This was the kind of game that made us think the Cowboys had a run-dominant juggernaut in a pass-first league. They walked into Pittsburgh and were unstoppable with a rookie QB/RB combination. Whether it was Ron Leary’s exit, Ezekiel Elliott’s suspension, Dez Bryant’s decline or a combination of a dozen things, we haven’t seen a whole lot of this since 2016. That game featured 422 yards of offense on the road – the 11th-biggest total in the “21/4” era. The trouble with that truth is that seven of those 11 games came in 2016, three more were in 2017 and just one –the overtime game in Week 14 against the Eagles – came in 2018.
In other words, they have been chasing 2016 ever since this day. For all who wish to see them succeed, one can only hope that the return of the All-Pro center who did so many things very well that day can be the key to restoring some semblance of that form in 2019. He was a real difference-maker then.
And the Cowboys sincerely believe he still is.