4th down play in OT, missed receivers.

Texas Ace said:

Even with a new coordinator, we're still running way too many vertical routes under pressure.

Look at that play and look at the space Dez has between himself and the DB. That is a an easy catch and run with a lot of yards if they just call a slant.

Do these guys not understand making adjustments in games like this?

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This is 100% the problem on that play and I suspect most plays where the blitz has been an issue.

Here, the Cowboys keep in 7 blockers, plus Romo, which means three receivers. The Redskins send 8, which means all 3 receivers are one on one.

It also means they bring one more rusher than we have blocking.

Which means there's a good chance at least one rusher will be basically be coming free, which is what happened.

And that's fine, it just means they have to get the ball off faster than the free rusher can get there. Do that a few times and they stop with the jailbreak blitzes.

It's the perfect time to call a slant, a come back, a screen, a wheel route, those types of plays.

But look at the 3 routes...all deep routes, routes that take way too much time to develop. I mean, when Romo is brought down, all three receivers are 15 yards downfield, and only one has broken off his route yet. It's beyond ridiculous, beyond retarded.

And it's a huge coaching failure. You can't call a game this way. And yet they do it over and over and over.

Adjust, for Christ sake. The whole damn stadium and every one of the millions of viewers knew the redskins were bringing the house on passing downs. Get the ball put quickly. A slant to Dez kills them. Hell, if you still run those deep routes and run Murray underneath or on a naked screen you have one less blocker but a wide open receiver on a route that can be completed in a split second with loads of open field in front of him.

What a huge coaching failure this was.

Christ look at that again makes me sick to my stomach. So goddamn stupid.

Look at the outside corners. 7 or so yard cushion and back peddling at the snap. A slant to Dez would have killed them. Why the fuck are all 3 receivers going 15 or more yards down field?

Seriously, Romo had no chance with play calls like that.

Genghis Khan said:

Christ look at that again makes me sick to my stomach. So goddamn stupid.

Look at the outside corners. 7 or so yard cushion and back peddling at the snap. A slant to Dez would have killed them. Why the fuck are all 3 receivers going 15 or more yards down field?

Seriously, Romo had no chance with play calls like that.

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Yup.

What makes it worse is that this isn't anything new. We've been guilty of this so many times in the Garrett era. We have a new playcaller, but yet we still did this crap again.

I don't know why it's so hard for this team to grasp the idea of getting the ball out quickly to counter constant pressure and blitzing.

jsmith6919 said:

Murray's guy never gets close to Tony on the play he got hurt

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I suspect the issue is you are supposed to take the inside guy first - the quickest route to the QB. Romo has no chance against the inside guy. If Murray picks that guy up, Romo has a chance to elude the outside guy, either stepping up, rolling out away from him, or at least has another second to get the ball off.

Definitely looks to me like Murray blew his blocking assignment.

Texas Ace said:

Yup.

What makes it worse is that this isn't anything new. We've been guilty of this so many times in the Garrett era. We have a new playcaller, but yet we still did this crap again.

I don't know why it's so hard for this team to grasp the idea of getting the ball out quickly to counter constant pressure and blitzing.

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Exactly right. This is not new.

Texas Ace said:

Yup.

What makes it worse is that this isn't anything new. We've been guilty of this so many times in the Garrett era. We have a new playcaller, but yet we still did this crap again.

I don't know why it's so hard for this team to grasp the idea of getting the ball out quickly to counter constant pressure and blitzing.

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New play caller, same old play book. Linehan's fault too though. RUN IT. If we run the ball and stick to the script that got us here in the 4th the Skins fold and don't even get to overtime.

Genghis Khan said:

I suspect the issue is you are supposed to take the inside guy first - the quickest route to the QB. Romo has no chance against the inside guy. If Murray picks that guy up, Romo has a chance to elude the outside guy, either stepping up, rolling out away from him, or at least has another second to get the ball off.

Definitely looks to me like Murray blew his blocking assignment.

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Depends on what protection is called, Murray never looked inside, really does not matter because the routes were still too long.

Genghis Khan said:

I suspect the issue is you are supposed to take the inside guy first - the quickest route to the QB. Romo has no chance against the inside guy. If Murray picks that guy up, Romo has a chance to elude the outside guy, either stepping up, rolling out away from him, or at least has another second to get the ball off.

Definitely looks to me like Murray blew his blocking assignment.

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Not buying it, Romo calls the blocking assignment. He has to change who Murray blocks. He read the blitz wrong or thought he could get off the pass before the guy in the middle got there or planned on spinning away from him but then went full retard.

jsmith6919 said:

Not buying it, Romo calls the blocking assignment. He has to change who Murray blocks. He read the blitz wrong or thought he could get off the pass before the guy in the middle got there or planned on spinning away from him but then went full retard.

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Guess Romo couldn't see or hear the Mike.

L.T. Fan said:

Guess Romo couldn't see or hear the Mike.

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hate when they lie too

jeebs said:

The play he was injured on was brutal. The vaunted o line needs to own that one.

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Like I have said, I'm not going to blame an O-line of 5 guys for not being able to block 7. Depending on what pass play you call, they can't even cover all of your receivers doing that. It's something a defense should very rarely do because it can so easily be exposed. Yet Romo looked clueless and Garrett even said we had no answer for it.

Man. That was like a tecmo super bowl blitz when you call the same play.

Cowboysrock55 said:

Like I have said, I'm not going to blame an O-line of 5 guys for not being able to block 7. Depending on what pass play you call, they can't even cover all of your receivers doing that. It's something a defense should very rarely do because it can so easily be exposed. Yet Romo looked clueless and Garrett even said we had no answer for it.

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Then the guys on the outside should have been unblocked

Random observation - Hatcher leaned over to make sure Romo was ok.

I respect that.

jeebs said:

Then the guys on the outside should have been unblocked

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Yea, if I'm not mistaken, I believe the inside guy always takes priority.

Clay_Allison said:

New play caller, same old play book. Linehan's fault too though. RUN IT. If we run the ball and stick to the script that got us here in the 4th the Skins fold and don't even get to overtime.

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Yup, it is the same playbook which is why I didn't think Linehan would make any difference when he was hired, but to all of our surprise, he's been excellent.

If he can have such an influence on the offense that we're seeing our run calls vastly increased coupled with a number of nicely designed plays that didn't exist before, then I'd like to think the guy has both the authority and the knowledge to create some adjustments to our route tree, especially in games where we're constantly under pressure.

It was Linehan's first bad game of the year, so I can live with that if he goes back to what we saw the previous 7 weeks.

Texas Ace said:

Yea, if I'm not mistaken, I believe the inside guy always takes priority.

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The guy that got to Romo came on a delay. By the time he was coming, the Oline and TE were already engaged, and the RB was moving left to pick up the guy coming from the left. That blown play was all on the fact there was no hot route and Romo shitting down his leg.

NoDak said:

The guy that got to Romo came on a delay. By the time he was coming, the Oline and TE were already engaged, and the RB was moving left to pick up the guy coming from the left. That blown play was all on the fact there was no hot route and Romo shitting down his leg.

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Exactly right.

lostxn said:

You guys do realize that Romo is about 6 feet tall and everyone immediately in front of him is significantly taller. I think people forget that Romo's height affects his ability to see the field. Manning (well both of them) can see everything because they are tall as hell. Romo, not so much. He sees through cracks between the players. Amazing he can function that way. Brees is the same way.

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This. The guy is barely 6-2. He's not seeing what people in the press box are seeing.

Well...we have a chance to fix things this week. Linehan has been excellent this year and I think we'll see many quicker routes to combat the blitzes we'll surely see. We are still that team that was 6-1 before MNF. Have faith.