Mish Mashing A Month of Football

First thing first, it's tough to be far from people that you love, if you have them close, don't take them for granted. It's also hard to be away from Football... It isn't THAT hard... But I guess that you know what I mean... How many months of CBA problems? And how many desperate people around here during that time? Guilty here.

I've been away for a while and I'll continue to be away, but I think that I'll try to get back to things in a month's time and I'll be writing this kind of post.

The usual, opinions and points for discussion. So, let's get to it:

To be, or not to be, that's the question.

We know it, the NFL knows it and the Cowboys D should know most of it by now, Rob Ryan is going to try his hardest to mask some of the deficiencies in the Cowboys D with smoke and mirrors. He has done the same with the Browns and Raiders. But he's no David Copperfield, and some of the deficiencies with which he has had to work with make the Statue of Liberty look smallish.

So he works on objectives.

It may not be pretty, not something which you can brag about, but Rob Ryan is confident that he can play ball with his unit. And I'm confident that he has some very talented pieces in his tool shed.

How is it going to be like?

• Versatility. We have seen some of it by now, the 3-4, the Nickel 2-4 and 3-3 and some specialty packages including a "hat tip" to Tom Landry and his Flex D. Wouldn't be surprised to see papa Ryan's 46 and some other historic schemes.
  
• Movement. Keep your eyes on 3 guys, the pressure that this team will be able to get is going to depend on them: DeMarcus Ware (d'oh), Jay Ratliff (d'oh) and Jason Hatcher (who finally seemed to take off), and the movement in which Ryan is going to keep them to create favorable matchups. It's likely that they are going to be in a different position and stance in a snap-to-snap basis.
• Adaptation. Look at the drive in which McNabb was intercepted, the change of tempo and scheme is evident, and McNabb, with his experience, was schooled. Ryan is known for this, for throwing monkey wrenches into the paths of opposite QBs, his success or not depends entirely on what he has to work with and their understanding of it. That's a big problem of a complex D.

Are they going to be good? Average? Or bad? That's the question and it depends on Ryan, the players and the Offenses of the teams in the schedule.

ZBS? ABS? Garrett likes big bodies on the move (yeah, that reads wrong on so many levels and was on purpose).

ZBS (Zone Blocking Scheme) and ABS (Area Blocking Scheme) are a couple of fixtures of the Offenses that we have seen the Cowboys use for several years now. Parcells started using it as a change of pace for Julius Jones. Garrett agrees with its use as a change of pace but was also forced to use it because his inherited OLine couldn't be trusted to drive block with consistency. For further information, back in August 2010 I wrote this piece: Run Blocking. Not as simple as it sounds.

The acquisition of DeMarco Murray also told me something about the future of the Cowboys Offense, Felix Jones and Murray look capable of running on a drive blocking scheme (they have the vision to do it), but their speed and quickness makes them ideal fits in more of a zone or area scheme.

Today, with a change of 80% of the starting positions on the OLine (remember that while Kosier is still around, he played in the left side), the story has a much deeper meaning.

It doesn't just talk about the scheme, it also talks about the opinion that Garrett had of the veterans that aren't around any longer, about Colombo's knees or lack thereof, the INCONSISTENCY of Davis and the inconsistency of Gurode (yeah, the use of CAPS means magnitude). There was no more room for those guys in Garrett's bunch.

But, scheme is what we're going to see, so what can we expect?

• Doug Free looks like Pro Bowl material for years to come. He's obviously good on the move, but he has the grit and power to turn and maul his guy out of the way.
• Kyle Kosier is a known quantity. Really good on the move, kind of bad in the power department, but he knows how to work with the guys around him, look for combo blocks with Costa or Smith in drive blocking plays.
• Tyron Smith right now looks like a talented athlete with some power. A fixture in zone and area plays looks like a definite. Help should come in drive plays.
• Phil Costa makes me think Kosier. Gritty with smarts, not very strong. Can do everything, block on the move, drive block and protect the pocket.
• Bill Nagy/David Arkin. They look like the same guy to me. Nagy has the starting job because he's been more consistent in the strength department, while Arkin looks like the better player on the move. Both look like long term fixtures.

Everything depends on the new starters and it isn't just the blocking philosophy, but also the consistency in the level of play. I'm expecting some problems, OLines need time to gel and time was hard to find in this offseason. But I'm pretty confident that they are going to be better than last year's OLine.

ZBS to Drive blocking ratio? What about 60-40%?

Romo: "Time is on my Side"

Rolling Stones Time Is On My Side -HQ (via TheRollingStonesHQ)

If there's a benefit from the changes along the OLine this is it, there may be some sort of a dropback in the power department, because let's be fair, when Colombo, Davis and Gurode were ON in their games they could maul their competition out of the way. But consistency, age, health, athleticism and football smarts are some of the things that their level of play in the past few years have brought to my mind.

The new guys look good because they have a certain mold:

• Decent or better athletes.
• Football smarts.
• Good communication.
• Different levels of grittiness.
• And a bit of a nasty side.

If you can get your hands on early 90s tapes, you should look at them, especially playoffs tapes, which is when Aikman showed up his Hall of Fame credentials.

We have seen some glimpses of the kind of the passing Offense that Garrett would prefer to employ while he was a Coordinator under Wade, which is the Turner-Coryell kind of Offense. To summarize the kind of passing game that Garrett prefers a while ago I found this explanation by Dan Pompei:

Basic principles of the Coryell offense:

1. Stretch the field. The concept is to soften up defenses by going long, then running the ball. The Redskins have been the best, as 19 percent of Johnson's passes have resulted in gains of 25 yards or more, and Davis has dealt with fewer defenders in the box. Zampese says he has made an effort to go deep more this season as well to take advantage of his fast receivers and strong-armed Drew Bledsoe. The Rams had six passing plays of more than 20 yards last Sunday alone.

2. Protect the passer. "There's a premium on keeping the quarterback healthy," Zampese says. "It's the most important thing you can do."

Both the Redskins, with three new offensive line starters, and the Rams, with three new line starters and a fourth in a different position, have allowed six sacks. The blockers have been helped by the scheme. Seven-man protections also have allowed deep drops and deep passes for all three teams. The Redskins and Patriots are using a lot of play-action, which slows down the pass rush.

All three teams-especially the Rams-use a lot of rhythm passes, which also prevent sacks and quarterback hits. "The system gets the ball out of there fast," Martz says. "It's a timing-oriented passing game."

3. Confuse the defense. Through multiple formations, mind-boggling motions and shifts, and misdirection running plays, this offense takes advantage of mental lapses. Giants defensive coordinator John Fox says he had to prepare his team for more than 30 formations for the Redskins. Anything goes with these offenses. The Rams, for instance, have put Bruce in the backfield and used four receivers on first down with regularity.

The Rams used 14 different pre-snap motions against the 49ers. Shifting and motioning is so important to Turner that he has gone so far as to devote a 10-minute period before each practice to it. So far, the Redskins have shown almost 40 motion combinations. With versatile players such as Larry Centers, Mike Sellers, Brian Mitchell, Stephen Alexander and James Jenkins, the Redskins have plenty of bullets for the philosophy. For instance, the Redskins might start a play with two tight ends on the left, shift one to the right, have him reset, then motion the other tight end to the right just before the snap. Or the tight end could line up in three places before the ball is snapped.

"They can jack your front all around by doing that kind of stuff," Fox says. "They try to get a certain linebacker to a side, or get a matchup like a little Will (weakside) linebacker against a 260-pound tight end."'

Even if defenses line up correctly, this offense still can be tricky. Misdirection in the running game can open up huge holes. The Redskins in particular have been using the old "counter trey," which has been reincarnated as the "Jab O.'

Whether the Coryell offense will continue to dominate depends largely on one player from each team with a history of fragility. Johnson, Glenn and Bruce have to stay on the field for their offenses to stay on top of the rankings.

Last year, we hardly had a glimpse of that kind of Offense, due to all the problems of protection Garrett was forced away from the stretching part and into a more of a dink-and-dunk kind of offense. They were also forced into being more vanilla due to the execution problems.

With the current lineup, I'm also convinced that this unit can do a better job of protecting the pocket for Romo than last year's unit, the question is how much?

An improvement in both the passing and rushing games from last year? Yeah, I can't wait for the season to start.