Patriots Stuff...
- Thread starter Cotton
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I could easily see a repeat of the Saints game. Tough defense we are facing. The Pats will dink, dunk and keep the ball away from our offense. And probably instead of field goals Brady will manage some TDs in there. In the end it's a loss where our offense won't do much but they won't have many opportunities either.
jsmith6919
Honored Member - RIP
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Yea I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Belichick come with his run/short pass gameplan
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When you consider how bad the kickoff and punt coverage was, giving Driscoll a short field, then yeah it makes sense especially with him only passing for 200 yards. But...WTF is up with this Defense? I say the Cowboys beat NE if the defense we saw against Philly shows up. But I don't trust that they will.
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Belichick has to love what he has seen of the Cowboys' ST units.
Nobody pays more attention to STs than the Hoodie.
I predict at least a big return or blocked punt.
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Yep, field position wins games. 10-20 yards field position means 2 less first downs for the offense. So our drives that die at the opponents 40 regularly would be more like the 30 or 20. Again, that's points on the board. It's crazy that more coaches don't take special teams more seriously.
Genghis Khan
The worst version of myself
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Yep. We're terrible at maximizing field position.
Genghis Khan
The worst version of myself
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In theory, we should match up well with the Patriots. We can pressure the passer and we can run the ball.
But somehow, it won't work out.
But somehow, it won't work out.
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Its crazy the number of drives we have that seem to die right past the 50. You have to figure field position contributes a lot to it.
p1_
DCC 4Life
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I think Williams has struggled again this year; Sua Filo is a stronger, thicker dude.
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Examining what the Cowboys are up against in Bill Belichick’s singular coaching mind
By Jon Machota 2h ago 5
FRISCO, Texas — During the 2015 season, the Cowboys had a mannequin in pads and uniform standing outside the locker room at their Valley Ranch team headquarters. They brought it on the road, too. It represented having nameless, faceless opponents. Ultimately, Dallas struggled that year, finishing 4-12 after Tony Romo broke his collarbone, and the mannequin was never seen again.
While there have been no signs of it resurfacing at The Star this week, Jason Garrett is keeping the same message as they prepare for the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. When asked Wednesday if playing the 9-1 Pats was a litmus test for the 6-4 Cowboys, running back Ezekiel Elliott responded, “This is the NFL. We play good teams every week. Nameless, faceless opponent.”
The goal is to prepare for New England as if it’s just another team on the schedule. Don’t treat this any differently than last week against the three-win Detroit Lions.
Good luck with that.
Whether you’re 37-year-old Jason Witten or 22-year-old Leighton Vander Esch, you know at least two names and faces of this Patriots team: head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady.
“He’s arguably the greatest coach ever,” Garrett said Monday. “Their quarterback is arguably the greatest player ever. What they’ve done up there is arguably the greatest dynasty — not only in football but in all sports, when you talk about their excellence over the last 20 years.
“I have an immense amount of respect for those guys individually, for their team, for their organization, everything they’ve done over the last 20 or so years. But we’re focused on us and going to play our best football.”
Belichick and Brady have been together for nine Super Bowl appearances and emerged with the Lombardi Trophy six times. They are forever linked as the greatest head coach-quarterback duo the game has seen. But for this story, we’re focusing on the head coach who is designing the game plan to stop Dallas’ top-ranked offense.
Belichick’s New England defense has been historically outstanding this season, holding opponents to 250 yards and 11 points per game. No team has forced more turnovers than the Patriots’ 28, and no team is better on third down, where opponents are only converting 19 percent of the time.
So how exactly has Belichick been able to lose key defenders like defensive end Trey Flowers in free agency and constantly draft at the bottom of every round yet still remain so elite?
“From a football mind standpoint, I really don’t know that I’ve met anybody really that close,” Romo said in July on 105.3 The Fan’s Ben and Skin show [KRLD-FM]. “Bill Belichick, he’s not going to go into a game feeling like, ‘We don’t have answers.’ And when I say that, I mean everyone says he’s going to take away what you do best. They think he just double teams the best player. I’m like, ‘No, you have to understand, he’s taking away the inside run while taking away the slot receiver or Antonio Brown.’ It’s like, they know he’s going to take away Antonio Brown, but he takes away multiple things, and he does it differently the next time he plays you, with different looks.
“When you have people that can teach you the game after you’ve been studying it for 15, 20 years, that’s a joy. I honestly learn every time I’m around him. He’s really, really special.”
The former Cowboys quarterback was referring to the time he has spent with Belichick in meetings since becoming CBS Sports’ lead NFL color analyst.
Romo went on to explain how Belichick separates himself from other coaches by not being scared to go outside the box.
“I find in the NFL, very few teams vary from what they do,” Romo said. “So what he does is he drafts people that he believes can adapt from week to week and really understand, ‘OK, you were the B-gap on this play call last (week). That’s the gap you had to fit, linebacker. Now, next week, you’re the C-gap.’
“You better have smart people. This is why they constantly move on from guys. He just needs people to do the stuff he’s able to come up with from week to week. He’s basically attacking what you’re doing, whereas I find most defenses do what they do, and that works, too. There are a lot of good defenses that play hard, but very few of them attack the coordinator and attack the quarterback and how he thinks.
“The reason is that it’s just really hard to get these players not to bust a play, not to have a situation where a guy gives up a touchdown because he forgot. That’s why they study. That’s why they work really hard there. They work really, really hard to know football there. That is as big a thing as anything. He just gets players who will buy into changing and morphing from week to week, and that’s hard to do.”
As is the case every week against the Cowboys, Belichick will start with a plan to limit Elliott. Although the running game hasn’t been clicking recently, a big day from Elliott will likely lead to a Patriots loss. The Cowboys are 4-1 this season when Elliott goes over 100 yards. They are 20-4 since 2016 when that happens. Belichick will have a plan to take that away.
Next will be Dak Prescott and the passing game. New England is very talented on the back end. Belichick could choose to put elite cover corner Stephon Gilmore on Amari Cooper the entire game and then double-team Michael Gallup, or put Gilmore on Gallup and double-team Cooper. Either way, it won’t be easy to pass against a defense that has 19 interceptions on the year, five more than any other team. To compare, the Cowboys’ defense has intercepted 23 passes in the last three seasons combined.
For Dallas to have success through the air, it might have to rely on a big day from Randall Cobb, Jason Witten or Blake Jarwin. Maybe even take a page out of the Patriots’ offensive game plan and throw more to Elliott and Tony Pollard out of the backfield.
Baltimore is the only team to beat New England this season. The Cowboys could look to that blueprint, which saw Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson run 16 times for 61 yards and two touchdowns. Prescott isn’t the runner that Jackson is, but his legs could certainly make a difference. He ran a season-high six times last week. The Cowboys are 15-4 when Prescott has more than five rush attempts.
Another key aspect of this game will be adjustments. Belichick is known as the best in this department as well. Not even being down 28-3 in the Super Bowl a few years ago seemed to bother him, as he calmly looked over paper printouts of previous plays, circled things he saw and shared them with defenders on the sideline in Houston. He’ll have answers if the Patriots get behind early on Sunday.
After being traded from New England to Dallas, defensive end Michael Bennett said earlier this month that transitioning to the Cowboys’ 4-3 scheme wouldn’t be difficult because “I just came from the place with the most defenses in the league.”
Bennett, an 11-year veteran, thought he saw just about everything before joining the Pats.
“As a player, you go into the situation, and you think you know football, then you meet somebody who’s above you and knows everything about the game,” Bennett said. “For me, I learned a lot about football in that situation, learning how to execute at a high level, learning what it takes to develop players. I learned what it feels like to breakdown a game plan from a different perspective. I think it was good for me as a player.”
What did he learn behind the scenes about Belichick?
“I think Bill’s just seen a lot of football,” Bennett said. “At the end of the day, I just think Bill is a great motivator. I think he understands football from the beginning. He’s a historian when it comes to football. He can remember anything when it comes to (plays). He’s just a savant.
“I think he just knows how to put people in great positions to make plays. And I think you always go over every single thing about the game, the things that teams do, the chances that they might take and I think probability plays a lot into the execution of the team.”
There’s no one quite like him. But the Cowboys will do their best to treat the NFL’s most feared strategic mind as just another coach on the opposing sideline.
By Jon Machota 2h ago 5
FRISCO, Texas — During the 2015 season, the Cowboys had a mannequin in pads and uniform standing outside the locker room at their Valley Ranch team headquarters. They brought it on the road, too. It represented having nameless, faceless opponents. Ultimately, Dallas struggled that year, finishing 4-12 after Tony Romo broke his collarbone, and the mannequin was never seen again.
While there have been no signs of it resurfacing at The Star this week, Jason Garrett is keeping the same message as they prepare for the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. When asked Wednesday if playing the 9-1 Pats was a litmus test for the 6-4 Cowboys, running back Ezekiel Elliott responded, “This is the NFL. We play good teams every week. Nameless, faceless opponent.”
The goal is to prepare for New England as if it’s just another team on the schedule. Don’t treat this any differently than last week against the three-win Detroit Lions.
Good luck with that.
Whether you’re 37-year-old Jason Witten or 22-year-old Leighton Vander Esch, you know at least two names and faces of this Patriots team: head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady.
“He’s arguably the greatest coach ever,” Garrett said Monday. “Their quarterback is arguably the greatest player ever. What they’ve done up there is arguably the greatest dynasty — not only in football but in all sports, when you talk about their excellence over the last 20 years.
“I have an immense amount of respect for those guys individually, for their team, for their organization, everything they’ve done over the last 20 or so years. But we’re focused on us and going to play our best football.”
Belichick and Brady have been together for nine Super Bowl appearances and emerged with the Lombardi Trophy six times. They are forever linked as the greatest head coach-quarterback duo the game has seen. But for this story, we’re focusing on the head coach who is designing the game plan to stop Dallas’ top-ranked offense.
Belichick’s New England defense has been historically outstanding this season, holding opponents to 250 yards and 11 points per game. No team has forced more turnovers than the Patriots’ 28, and no team is better on third down, where opponents are only converting 19 percent of the time.
So how exactly has Belichick been able to lose key defenders like defensive end Trey Flowers in free agency and constantly draft at the bottom of every round yet still remain so elite?
“From a football mind standpoint, I really don’t know that I’ve met anybody really that close,” Romo said in July on 105.3 The Fan’s Ben and Skin show [KRLD-FM]. “Bill Belichick, he’s not going to go into a game feeling like, ‘We don’t have answers.’ And when I say that, I mean everyone says he’s going to take away what you do best. They think he just double teams the best player. I’m like, ‘No, you have to understand, he’s taking away the inside run while taking away the slot receiver or Antonio Brown.’ It’s like, they know he’s going to take away Antonio Brown, but he takes away multiple things, and he does it differently the next time he plays you, with different looks.
“When you have people that can teach you the game after you’ve been studying it for 15, 20 years, that’s a joy. I honestly learn every time I’m around him. He’s really, really special.”
The former Cowboys quarterback was referring to the time he has spent with Belichick in meetings since becoming CBS Sports’ lead NFL color analyst.
Romo went on to explain how Belichick separates himself from other coaches by not being scared to go outside the box.
“I find in the NFL, very few teams vary from what they do,” Romo said. “So what he does is he drafts people that he believes can adapt from week to week and really understand, ‘OK, you were the B-gap on this play call last (week). That’s the gap you had to fit, linebacker. Now, next week, you’re the C-gap.’
“You better have smart people. This is why they constantly move on from guys. He just needs people to do the stuff he’s able to come up with from week to week. He’s basically attacking what you’re doing, whereas I find most defenses do what they do, and that works, too. There are a lot of good defenses that play hard, but very few of them attack the coordinator and attack the quarterback and how he thinks.
“The reason is that it’s just really hard to get these players not to bust a play, not to have a situation where a guy gives up a touchdown because he forgot. That’s why they study. That’s why they work really hard there. They work really, really hard to know football there. That is as big a thing as anything. He just gets players who will buy into changing and morphing from week to week, and that’s hard to do.”
As is the case every week against the Cowboys, Belichick will start with a plan to limit Elliott. Although the running game hasn’t been clicking recently, a big day from Elliott will likely lead to a Patriots loss. The Cowboys are 4-1 this season when Elliott goes over 100 yards. They are 20-4 since 2016 when that happens. Belichick will have a plan to take that away.
Next will be Dak Prescott and the passing game. New England is very talented on the back end. Belichick could choose to put elite cover corner Stephon Gilmore on Amari Cooper the entire game and then double-team Michael Gallup, or put Gilmore on Gallup and double-team Cooper. Either way, it won’t be easy to pass against a defense that has 19 interceptions on the year, five more than any other team. To compare, the Cowboys’ defense has intercepted 23 passes in the last three seasons combined.
For Dallas to have success through the air, it might have to rely on a big day from Randall Cobb, Jason Witten or Blake Jarwin. Maybe even take a page out of the Patriots’ offensive game plan and throw more to Elliott and Tony Pollard out of the backfield.
Baltimore is the only team to beat New England this season. The Cowboys could look to that blueprint, which saw Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson run 16 times for 61 yards and two touchdowns. Prescott isn’t the runner that Jackson is, but his legs could certainly make a difference. He ran a season-high six times last week. The Cowboys are 15-4 when Prescott has more than five rush attempts.
Another key aspect of this game will be adjustments. Belichick is known as the best in this department as well. Not even being down 28-3 in the Super Bowl a few years ago seemed to bother him, as he calmly looked over paper printouts of previous plays, circled things he saw and shared them with defenders on the sideline in Houston. He’ll have answers if the Patriots get behind early on Sunday.
After being traded from New England to Dallas, defensive end Michael Bennett said earlier this month that transitioning to the Cowboys’ 4-3 scheme wouldn’t be difficult because “I just came from the place with the most defenses in the league.”
Bennett, an 11-year veteran, thought he saw just about everything before joining the Pats.
“As a player, you go into the situation, and you think you know football, then you meet somebody who’s above you and knows everything about the game,” Bennett said. “For me, I learned a lot about football in that situation, learning how to execute at a high level, learning what it takes to develop players. I learned what it feels like to breakdown a game plan from a different perspective. I think it was good for me as a player.”
What did he learn behind the scenes about Belichick?
“I think Bill’s just seen a lot of football,” Bennett said. “At the end of the day, I just think Bill is a great motivator. I think he understands football from the beginning. He’s a historian when it comes to football. He can remember anything when it comes to (plays). He’s just a savant.
“I think he just knows how to put people in great positions to make plays. And I think you always go over every single thing about the game, the things that teams do, the chances that they might take and I think probability plays a lot into the execution of the team.”
There’s no one quite like him. But the Cowboys will do their best to treat the NFL’s most feared strategic mind as just another coach on the opposing sideline.
Chocolate Lab
Mere Commoner
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Haha, what a joke to compare Belichick's brilliance and complexity with Garrett's silly "nameless, faceless opponent."
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For some reason this doesn't help.....
:
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We always have so many back issues