As bad as it was for this Cowboys offense to surrender six sacks on the day, how the Lions managed to get them at times was more difficult to understand. Let me walk you through each of them and try to explain what happened:
On the first one,
Jermey Parnell never got out of his stance, and Darryl Tapp just ran right by him untouched. On the next one, early in the second quarter, it appeared that there was some confusion between
Tyler Clutts and Parnell in how they were supposed to sort out the blitz on the outside. Romo even moved Clutts to the right to help with the rush. At the snap, both
DeMarco Murray and Clutts started working wide -- but Parnell went with them instead of working back inside, leaving defensive end Devin Taylor a free run at Romo.
Murray did his best to adjust back inside to block Taylor, but that allowed James Ihedigbo to come off the outside unblocked. Romo was able to avoid Taylor but not Ihedigbo for the sack. On the play, Witten was running a “Hot” route, but because of the pressure Romo was unable to get the ball out.
On the next sack, the Cowboys went with max protection on the right side, with Witten and Hanna staying in to block. There was a play action fake to the right with Murray, which took him in that direction. On the left side,
Ronald Leary blocked down inside, and Smith stayed outside, allowing linebacker Tahir Whitehead a free run at Romo – who couldn’t avoid him.
Next, Romo tried to throw the ball to Bryant on the crossing route, but the big wide out got knocked to the ground. Romo pulled ball back and started to search the field.
Terrance Williams came open late, but Parnell got beat late by Ezekial Ansah, which didn’t allow Romo the opportunity to see him.
Later in the game there were back-to-back sacks by Suh, both of which were total coverage sacks by the secondary. To their credit on both plays, they managed to double Bryant and Witten which meant that Williams and Beasley had to win on the outside and they didn’t. Romo could have tried to get rid of the ball both times, but it has always been his nature to try to extend the play and he was unable to do so.