Sturm: Decoding Linehan - Beating the Packers Blitz and the Lucky Whitehead Game

Cotton

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By Bob Sturm, Special contributor

Sunday was yet another impressive offensive showing for this young Cowboys squad, this time taking apart a decent Green Bay defense for what many of us would call a near-perfect offensive performance in this league.

We hear coaches talk about objectives quite a bit over the course of the many times they visit with the eager media. They talk about getting touchdowns instead of field goals. They talk about production in terms of yardage. And they talk about winning the turnover battle.

So, here is the checklist as I see it for a A+ offensive performance:


  • 28 points or more
  • 400 yards or more
  • Win the turnover battle

And by all of these measures, the Cowboys had quite a day in Green Bay.

6 scores on 11 possessions for 30 points. 424 yards of total offense. +2.

If you nail all of these, you are nearly unbeatable. In fact, they are 10-2 under Jason Garrett when they accomplish this with the two losses going down as two of the most insane losses in franchise history. The December 2011 "Lost in the Lights" game versus the Giants, 37-34, and the even more absurd 51-48 loss to Denver in 2013.

In fact, the Cowboys under Jason Garrett have played 48 regular season road games and have only hit the triple three times. At New York in his first game as coach in 2010, at Washington on Christmas weekend of 2014, and this game.

On the road, score 30, 400+ yards, and +2.

And that is why "grading the offense" was pretty elementary stuff this week.

There is a lot to look at this week, but I wanted to start by suggesting I will reference this game from henceforth as the "Lucky Whitehead Game", if you don't mind. Lucky is a 2nd year undrafted free agent who was brought in as merely a return man, but one more sign of the excellence of this offense is that they have a design in mind for every member of the squad, trying to find an extra edge that might win them a game along the way this season.

This was when you were going to see Whitehead in motion and see there was always a purpose for it. He plays about 15 snaps a game and most of them are in a package we call "13" because there is 1 RB and 3 TEs in the game:



This is a grouping that screams "run" to the defense. They are planning on pounding the ball at us because they have 8 run blockers of size. Therefore, you better beef up that defense or they are going to run Zeke right at you.

But, they also plan to keep you honest. If you do not respect that 1 WR, they will use him so that all future opponents know they are not bluffing. Often, it has been Dez Bryant as the lone wolf. But, recently, it has been a "little" like Cole Beasley or Lucky Whitehead who can destroy you if you only have one guy to match his quicks.

And on Sunday, there was destruction from Lucky Whitehead.



Above, I circled Whitehead in Blue and Julius Peppers in Red. Peppers is the key here and you will see on the video below that he is the unblocked player that the Cowboys will read.



As Witten says in that audio, they use the threat of Zeke to take Peppers out of the play. Then, Lucky needs just a sliver to get by with his speed, and once he does, the Packers have nobody else over there if the tight ends - Witten and Swaim can get out and block. It was so easy and yet so effective.

So, then, they come back to 13 later in the game. The Packers are terrified of the jet sweep again, so here comes the changeup to the changeup. Lucky on the sweep is the first changeup to a handoff to Zeke. Here is the next one which served as the killshot later in the game:



And the end zone view:



This is the genius of this offense right now. There are so many threats and if you demonstrate they can all hurt you, now you have the defense thinking and not attacking. You can hear the collective cussing of the entire Packers secondary on this play when they know they have been duped again. You can see the culprit is 36-LaDarius Gunter who had what we call a really rough day in the NFL.

That is why you cannot underestimate any injury on the field. Both coaching staffs are finding the weak spots. The Cowboys saw that the Packers did not have Sam Shields. They also did not have Quinton Rollins. They then lost Damarious Randall on that play in the 2nd Quarter. So, Gunter is their 4th corner and the Baylor basketball player Goodson is their 5th and both were playing all day. This changed the Packers blitz attack and also changed the places Dak would go with the ball. Once they saw Gunter struggle, they went at him again and again.

This is a merciless league. Back to that play after the jet sweep on the drive that may have changed quite a bit about this 2016 season for both teams and the NFC race:



So, Gunter switched sides after Randall got hurt and the Cowboys started attacking. This time, they try the undrafted corner out on the double move. He falls and Dak hits Terrance Williams for a huge gain.

Now, they have hit two huge plays in a row. What should they do for a 3rd?



That's right. Send Brice Butler over there for a turn against Gunter. Beautiful fade. Touchdown. Dak Prescott hits on all of his throws in this scenario and his counterpart, Aaron Rodgers did not.
And to prove they were watching Gunter all day, here he is again, being duped by yet another different Cowboy, Cole Beasley for a Touchdown.



There is a very good chance you had never heard of LaDarius Gunter until Sunday. Well, now you see his fingerprints all over this game.

This is what coaching can do. Find and destroy bad matchups.
WEEKLY OFFENSIVE DATA



What an impressive showing from the offense that accomplished a ton on the ground as well. In fact, this might also show how we take this offensive line for granted if I am hardly giving Elliott and the OL any time this morning after the way they carved up the "top rushing defense" in the league.

As I indicated in the preview, Green Bay had not seen anything like this offensive line and they were going to be in for a long day.

PRESCOTT THROW CHART


Ah yes, the Dak Prescott deep shot made its debut. They had a real chance to hit on that long pass to Brice Butler right before the interception, but it didn't quit connect. We will see more of that in the future, because the pass is there with all of this running.

With Dak Prescott as your QB, play-action should be so effective. He seems to have way more Russell Wilson tendencies that we ever imagined.

PERSONNEL GROUPINGS



On days like this, we can see that it really isn't a question of what worked. Nearly everything they tried worked and they saw a Green Bay team that likes to play nickel all day and therefore made them change that. This is what versatility brings. You make a defense leave its comfort zone by changing things up.

If they like to play big, you counter with "11 personnel" all day. But, if they like to play small, you force them to defend multiple tight ends and even a fullback all day. One of the best sayings about offensive play-calling these days is to "make them wrong", which is to say that as a text book offense, you can never let the defense choose correctly. They cant defend everything.

BEATING THE BLITZ

At the risk of making this report too long, I wanted to also circle back to the theme of last week where I wrote that this would be a wonderful test. Going to Green Bay was going to force the Cowboys to prove they could beat pressure.

And that is the thing about blitzing. You can't count it in raw numbers because it is not something that can be counted blitz for blitz. If you can't deal with the blitz, they send more. If you burn it, they send less. And for a number of reasons - including Green Bay realizing their corners were outclassed - the Cowboys saw some blitzes early, dealt with them, and chased them all away.

By my count, they faced 6 blitzes on Sunday. 5 were in the 1st half. Here they all are:



A beautiful quick out to Cole Beasley who has an easy gain. This is how you stop a defense from blitzing. It looks so easy when you hit them right in their weakness.



Another blitz, another 1st down for Dak. Easy slant and nice gain. This is easy, although that hit hurt a bit. By the way, you can see, a blitz almost always means man coverage. Cover 1 here.



3rd blitz. Dak has a 1st and 10 and he is confident. He moves Zeke out to iso against the safety in another Cover 1 look. With protection, he finds a matchup and goes to work. This didn't connect, but it is enough to stress out a defensive coordinator about what happens if he tries it again.



4th blitz. Still in the 1st Quarter and the Packers get home and a takeaway. You can see Dak is looking at Zeke at the top versus Clay Matthews and Clay is planning on jumping that route. This is the one point the Cowboys looked a bit stressed themselves.



5th blitz. This is the play where the Packers lost Randall the corner to the groin. He blew his groin trying to deal with another Dak decision. He also has Cole Beasley for a big gain across the middle. Dak makes very quick decisions and delivers a fastball. So, the Cowboys have seen 5 blitzes and deal with them very well 4 times.

This and the poor personnel that was trying to play man coverage behind these blitzes caused the Packers to stop until they were very desperate late in the game. One last try:



One last blitz. Cover 1 behind it. Prescott sees Jason Witten to move the chains again. Nice and easy.

If you beat the blitz, you stop seeing the blitz.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Standing ovation. There is nothing to nitpick, really.

Enjoy your bye week. You earned it.
 

NoDak

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[FONT=&]Standing ovation. There is nothing to nitpick, really.
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One small nitpick. If Dak had led Lucky just a little more, that was a runaway TD. But hard to complain, really. He was so wide open, he might have just been worried about making sure he caught the ball.
 

Jiggyfly

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One small nitpick. If Dak had led Lucky just a little more, that was a runaway TD. But hard to complain, really. He was so wide open, he might have just been worried about making sure he caught the ball.
Lucky said he asked him why he did not lead him more and Dak said he just wanted to make sure he completed the pass.
 

Jiggyfly

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This was the most imaginative gameplan that actually was logical and worked than I can remember in a long while.

These beginning of the game scripted drives are starting to look lie the 49'ers did back in the day.

I can't help but think that Linehan has been a bit held back by Romo and his intrusion into the offense.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Lucky said he asked him why he did not lead him more and Dak said he just wanted to make sure he completed the pass.
Yeah it's third and 1 and the receiver is wide open. Could you imagine trying to lead the receiver in that situation and overthrowing it? Or hell even just making the catch more difficult leading to a drop. Plus I think 21 catches him regardless.
 

NoDak

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I can't help but think that Linehan has been a bit held back by Romo and his intrusion into the offense.
I think it was just the opposite. They coached lazy with Romo under center. You rarely if ever saw bad match ups exploited by our offense. Either running or passing. We just lined up and tried to out talent teams. Now we see that every week. They started off calling plays trying to help the rookie QB, and are slowly opening it up. And along with doing that, they're using more and more wrinkles that fit with his play style instead of just telling him to just drop back and wing it.
 

townsend

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All it took for Linehan and Garrett to have an effective offense is all-stars at every position.

Meanwhile Marinelli's holding the defense together with duct tape.
 

UncleMilti

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This offense is beautiful the way its playing right now. Lot of weapons, and Dez hasn't even been in the lineup.

Damn great work by Linehan, and by Dak.
 

UncleMilti

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I think it was just the opposite. They coached lazy with Romo under center. You rarely if ever saw bad match ups exploited by our offense. Either running or passing. We just lined up and tried to out talent teams. Now we see that every week. They started off calling plays trying to help the rookie QB, and are slowly opening it up. And along with doing that, they're using more and more wrinkles that fit with his play style instead of just telling him to just drop back and wing it.
Remember when Jerry came out and told everyone that Romo was cerebral like Manning, and they wanted to take advantage of that?

Then, for some reason on every 3rd and 8, it was "kill, kill" and a 6 yard pass to Witten.

Romo shares the brunt of the responsibility for changing all the plays at the LOS, and it seemed like a never ending merry go round.

I think Romo could have the same success if he just...ran...the..play..that..was..called.
 

mcnuttz

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This is what coaching can do. Find and destroy bad matchups.

Love it, and hope they keep firing.

Biggest grief with this team for last decade would be (other than Jerry) that they always seem to play down to the level of lesser teams.

Good to see this offense having their way with respectable defenses.
 

Simpleton

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All it took for Linehan and Garrett to have an effective offense is all-stars at every position.

Meanwhile Marinelli's holding the defense together with duct tape.
Meh, we have an all-star OL and RB, even if he's a rookie, but they deserve alot of credit for rolling two solid defenses with Terrance Williams, Brice Butler and Cole Beasley at WR. And while Witten is still very good, you can't really call him an all-star at 34 years of age, he is a borderline Pro Bowler at best right now.
 

Smitty

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All it took for Linehan and Garrett to have an effective offense is all-stars at every position.

Meanwhile Marinelli's holding the defense together with duct tape.
What all stars did we have at WR the past few weeks?

Or do you mean that the best offense's generally have good players at QB and have good OLs? I mean, there are so many top offense's out there with crappy QBs and crappy QBs.
 

Smitty

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Remember when Jerry came out and told everyone that Romo was cerebral like Manning, and they wanted to take advantage of that?

Then, for some reason on every 3rd and 8, it was "kill, kill" and a 6 yard pass to Witten.

Romo shares the brunt of the responsibility for changing all the plays at the LOS, and it seemed like a never ending merry go round.

I think Romo could have the same success if he just...ran...the..play..that..was..called.
While I definitely support Romo I am convinced there is truth to this.
 

townsend

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What all stars did we have at WR the past few weeks?

Or do you mean that the best offense's generally have good players at QB and have good OLs? I mean, there are so many top offense's out there with crappy QBs and crappy QBs.
Let's be clear. We don't have a good OL, we have an OL that's the consensus best unit in football. We don't have a good RB, we have a back that looks like a Tomlinson/Peterson level, once in a generation running back. Dak isn't just good, he's the QB that's drawing comparisons to Tom Brady, because he just broke Brady's rookie passing streak.

Even without Bryant, we still have Witten, Beasley, Williams, and Butler which is still an outstanding unit.
 

Cowboysrock55

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he's the QB that's drawing comparisons to Tom Brady, because he just broke Brady's rookie passing streak.

Even without Bryant, we still have Witten, Beasley, Williams, and Butler which is still an outstanding unit.
That wasn't even a rookie record. That was the most passes to start a career without an INT. Regardless of a QB being a rookie or a 3 year vet to start his career. Basically Dak is off to one of the best starts anyone has seen out of any QB.
 

townsend

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That wasn't even a rookie record. That was the most passes to start a career without an INT. Regardless of a QB being a rookie or a 3 year vet to start his career. Basically Dak is off to one of the best starts anyone has seen out of any QB.
Right, I keep forgetting Brady didn't step in as a rookie.
 

Angrymesscan

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That wasn't even a rookie record. That was the most passes to start a career without an INT. Regardless of a QB being a rookie or a 3 year vet to start his career. Basically Dak is off to one of the best starts anyone has seen out of any QB.
regarding int's...
 

Cowboysrock55

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regarding int's...
Well I said one of the best. He actually is off to the best in terms of INT's. I said one of the best because he also has a 5-1 record, 103.9 QB rating, 10 total TD's and a 68.7% completion percentage. Numbers I'd say probably rival or are better then most QBs first 6 games of their career.
 

Jiggyfly

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Remember when Jerry came out and told everyone that Romo was cerebral like Manning, and they wanted to take advantage of that?

Then, for some reason on every 3rd and 8, it was "kill, kill" and a 6 yard pass to Witten.

Romo shares the brunt of the responsibility for changing all the plays at the LOS, and it seemed like a never ending merry go round.

I think Romo could have the same success if he just...ran...the..play..that..was..called.
Yeah that's what I was referring to and his BFF threw him under the bus about this after the GB game.
 

shane

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All it took for Linehan and Garrett to have an effective offense is all-stars at every position.

Meanwhile Marinelli's holding the defense together with duct tape.
Lol, but Linehan seems like he is scheming to get the most out of the immense talent. Marinelli's a miracle worker and we have needed it.
 
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