[ad_1]
The Cowboys took advantage of the week off by creating some high-profile movements.
First, Dallas traded a first round pick against wide receiver Amari Cooper.
Then the Cowboys sent off offensive line coach Paul Alexander.
Alexander's shots were somewhat surprised, just two seasons ago. The Cowboys were honored to have the best offensive line in the league. Tyron Smith, Ronald Leary, Travis Frederick, Zack Martin, and Doug Free have already been among the top five NFL editors and have helped Ezekiel Elliott make his way to stardom. The Cowboys were one of the darlings of the league, seemingly doomed to playoff glory until they were upset at home by the Packers in the divisional round.
Dallas is reorganizing itself, starting with its staff. The Cowboys are now leaving a different group at 60%: rookie Connor Williams succeeding the late Leary, Joe Looney replacing center Travis Frederick (absent for an indefinite period when recovering from Guillain-Barre Syndrome) and La & # 39; Collins since free retirement.
They struggled to regain their form in 2016 and 2017. Let's go behind the offensive line to understand what is wrong with the fifth of the Big D by watching his last three games.
Against Houston, Dallas seemed to be the weakest fighter in the ring. The Texans have often won the battle ahead and have enjoyed great success with stunts to two in the first game.
The stunt Texans enjoyed the speed and power of Jadeveon Clowney and J.J. Watt all night, with Clowney beating the stealthy tackles and Watt coming out of the line with blast, blowing up the pieces without recording the tackles as well. Both men caused trouble in Dallas all night as part of a hyper-aggressive defense of the Texans, the most powerful unit.
The Cowboys also show obvious weakness against the best accelerators coming from wide alignments. Houston presents a huge challenge in this department with Watt and Clowney, which was evident throughout their contest of the fifth week.
Range blocks on the slopes have also been a problem for the Cowboys lately, which has made sense of Alexander's dismissal decision. It's common for Dallas not to win the battle on the outside, whether it's against stunts or simply, and there's no particular lineman with these problems, but all .
There is also a lack of cohesion among Dallas linemen – perhaps a lack of confidence -. Sometimes they do a good job. Here, Elliott and Looney do well with the twisted blitzers, rather because they met a great vision, but it still worked.
A week later, Smith lost to rookie defender Connor Williams of Calais Campbell at the expense of the Jacksonville Jaguars, putting pressure on Dak Prescott and a missed pass with a hit ball in the line of scrimmage .
Cowboys like to shoot multiple linemen in a variety of scenarios, mostly on pass options and also on traditional runs. They never crash, but sometimes they work pretty well, like on this 20 yard Elliott run.
Zack Martin shoots wide and engages Jalen Ramsey, creating an outside wall in an alley, while Williams does enough to protect Elliott's Dante Fowler. It's already enough of an opening for the star to come back outside for a nice win.
The Houston game showed from the start that the Cowboys needed a better lock because Geoff Swaim and Blake Jarwin were involved in the offense. They also need a higher level of play from two-thirds of their linemen: Looney and Williams.
Williams continues to adapt to the professional game on the fly, sometimes stopping on the internal stuntman, but also shows an encouraging ability to adjust midway through. Take this inner race, a room in which Clowney reads and reacts by retreating inside. Williams manages to catch Clowney who rushes inside and clings enough to prevent him from getting to Elliott, who bounces him outside for a 14th win.
There are also games that show how much Williams needs to improve his performance against the speed of the NFL. On this game, he pulls from behind, but fails to identify a target in time (probably more on the inside than on the outside), missing the defender who attacks Almost Elliott in the backfield and falling off a decent base, which makes it all but useless on a play that could very well have ended up in the end zone. This was not catastrophic, but left much to be desired when one wondered if the Cowboys were close to a touchdown.
Williams needs to become stronger to pursue his career. Sometimes he is simply overwhelmed by a defender whom he engages. This happened during this race to the loss of two in a duel with Marcell Dareus.
Looney will never master a defender either, because he gets hit more than he lets go, and sometimes it gets him into trouble. His inability to maintain or finish his block on Dareus during this race changes Elliott's path, resulting in a winless race.
Most of the time, however, it is not a flagrant subject, which makes it effective enough to occupy Travis Frederick's place – for the moment.
Apparently aware of his problems with the front five, Dallas calls a good amount of short passes, game-action bootlegs and screens in order to limit the opponent's thirst for blitz with reckless abandon, and limit shots against Prescott, who is under pressure frequently. According to new generation statistics, 31% of Prescott's attempts were under pressure, making them 10% tied with skilled smugglers.
This group is very far from the line of striking that has imposed itself as the best unit of the league in 2016. In fact, the most powerful block I've seen in the last three weeks has been against the Washington Redskins, when Collins teamed up with Martin to drive Matt Ioannidis completely out of the B gap and create enough space for Elliott to gain the two yards needed for a first try.
This is a group at best adequate with a visible ceiling much lower.
Is this a product of Alexander coaching or a difference in staff? Williams and Looney are in free fall indoors, unlike Frederick and a guard such as Leary, who is now in Denver (and in the injured reserve because of an injury to Achilles). But there is also an underlying problem related to stunts, both in the vision needed to identify and adjust, and in familiarity with teammates to get the job done. These are corrected in time with familiarity (and the resulting confidence gained), as well as through communication and cinematographic study to solve problems and be able to prepare for future defensive approaches.
At this point, with the Cowboys at 3-4 and two games behind Washington (led by a tight loss against the Redskins), there is plenty of time to make things right. This may explain the dismissal of Alexander. But it's more than just coaching with this team.
Pro Football Focus scores (10th inning, 16th pass protection) are probably a bit too positive, or are an indication of the difficulties other NFL teams face, but that's not a reason for total panic . When you count Frederick (if and when he can return), it's not a bad group. It's just a group that needs more work and more time together with former O-line assistant coach Marc Colombo, who will now replace Alexander with nine games to play.
Source link
