Promoted to the front page, many thanks to our friend neithan20000 for this detailed post.
While it might be going overboard to say that Dallas's offensive line is struggling, it seems pretty common knowledge that they are not playing up to their potential. And if Dallas is going to tread water waiting for Tony Romo to return, they need the offensive line to dominate. So what's happening? After paving the way to a great first half running the ball, the running game stagnated in the second half against Atlanta. Is the line faltering? Is the running back by committee experiment a bust? Let's go to the tape to find out.
Play 1:
The first thing you'll notice is that Atlanta has eight men in the box (that eighth man will be walking over in a second). This is the first play of the game. A general belief after the game was that a lack of deep throws allowed Atlanta to start stacking the box, which in turn eventually affected our run game. But that's just not what happened. Atlanta came out with eight in the box, and that was the look they gave Dallas through most of the game, even when the running game was rolling.
There's the eighth man. Get used to this look because we'll see it a lot. Five on the line, and three just behind.
I'm going to be focusing on our rookie La'el Collins (yellow circle) for most of this breakdown. Here we have the run going right behind Collins, who is heads up on a defensive tackle. Look at the blue circle. Travis Frederick is going to chip the defensive tackle before heading upfield to block, and Zack Martin is going to come over and pick up Travis's block.
So far the play is working to perfection. Collins has sealed off his man, and both Frederick and Martin are heading to pick up their blocks. Meanwhile Tyron Smith and Jason Witten have gotten their side of the gap sealed off.
The result is a huge hole, and a big pickup for Joseph Randle. But...check out Frederick. He's still engaged with his man, but the defender has crossed him to the playside. Fredbeard is good enough that he's still able to maintain his block, but this is an issue that's going to come up again later.
Play 2:
The second play of the game, the deep play action to Terrance Williams. A few things to note: Atlanta is again in an eight man front, and Dallas is showing a 3 tight end set (yellow circle, right side). La'el Collins is highlighted by the smaller yellow circle on the left.
So pay attention to La'el Collins here. Notice where his feet are set at the beginning of the play (black line).
Collins is in trouble right away, the defensive tackle has him rocked back on his heels with a strong initial rush.
To his credit, Collins is able to reset his feet. But look at his hands, they're down by his side, which is definitely not optimal for an offensive lineman.
While the pocket is holding; Collins is continuously being moved backwards. And here the defensive lineman has gotten into Collins' body with a strong bull-rush, collapsing the pocket.
Fredbeard has noticed Collins' distress and is coming back to try and help out. To Weeden's credit, he's standing strong in the pocket, looking downfield.
Now Weeden overthrows Terrance Williams on the pass. But I have to wonder, if he had been able to step up into his throw, would he have had more accuracy? You can see that he's releasing the pass as he's leaning backwards to avoid the defensive lineman. Not a good start in pass protection for Collins.
Play 3:
Another eight man front from Atlanta.
Pretty simple blocking scheme from Dallas; they are man blocking, not zone blocking. Doug Free is going to be tasked with chipping the man in front of him, then slipping off to block the playside linebacker, and Tyler Clutts will pick up the first threat on the edge. The only other interesting blocking note is Frederick blocking the non-playside linebacker.
Free makes his initial block, then slips off to pick up the linebacker (black circle). Meanwhile Clutts is coming to pick up the man that Free has chipped (blue circle). At the top of the screen, you can see Fredbeard heading towards the weakside linebacker. Everything is going to plan...except that Free has just plain stopped moving for some reason .
Instead of moving on to pick up the playside linebacker, Free has turned to seal off the player that Clutts is already blocking (black circle). And worse, it appears that Frederick has missed his block completely (yellow circle).
Free and Clutts end up double teaming the defensive tackle (black arrow). Frederick, despite missing his initial block, is still with his man (yellow circle). Meanwhile, there is a free linebacker in Randle's path (red circle). The result is a play that was positive, but not what it could have been. Fredbeard does end up making his block. He pushes the linebacker past Randle, but the free linebacker ends up making the play.
Play 4:
Another eight man front.
This looks like a power running play to the left side, with both guards pulling playside.
The result is both Atlanta linebackers crash hard to get to the edge of the line.
But no. It's play-action, with a naked bootleg to the weakside. The protection is set up perfectly; the run fake caused the entire defense to shift to the strong side, letting the offensive line effectively seal off the weakside (black lines). Meanwhile, look at the yellow circle. That's Jason Witten, who has now gotten depth on one linebacker, and is about to cross the other linebacker who hasn't seen the bootleg and is still charging full steam towards the run fake.
The confusion among the linebackers creates a natural pick; with the weakside linebacker effectively picking the strongside linebacker (red circle). Witten is left wide open, and it's an easy pitch and catch for a first down. This was just a beautiful play design, and is probably my favorite play of the game.
Play 5:
Yes, it's another eight man front. For this play we're going to keep an eye on La'el Collins (yellow circle) and Travis Frederick (blue circle). One other thing to note, the play is starting at the 41 yard line.
Nothing unusual about the blocking scheme. The guards man up against the defensive tackles, Fredbeard and Doug Free block the linebackers, and Tyler Clutts is supposed to kick out the defensive end. One issue: Collins' man has crashed hard inside, and Collins misses the initial block.
To his credit Collins is athletic enough to recover and pick up his block (yellow circle). This play is going pretty much textbook, and Randle has an easy path to the edge. Pay attention to Fredbeard (blue circle). He's about to engage the linebacker at the 45 yard line.
Play is still going well, but Collins has again lost his block (yellow circle). Look at Fredbeard, and how far downfield he's blocking (blue circle).
Despite never quite getting a good block, Collins sticks with his man, and it pays off (yellow circle). Meanwhile look at Fredbeard, who has now blocked his man all the way to the 50 yard line.
A great run play for Dallas. Fredbeard is blocking his man a good 15 yards past the line of scrimmage, and the linebacker has finally just thrown up his hands in frustration (yellow circle). And it's nice to see the WR's getting in on the action, as Terrance Williams has a good block going on downfield (yellow circle).
Play 6:
And.....another eight man front.
Another power run to the edge. La'el Collins is pulling around, and Tyler Clutts is coming across the formation to seal the edge.
Despite getting burned earlier on a similar look that turned into play action, the linebackers again attack the edge of the line.
Or at least one linebacker does (red arrow). The weakside linebacker stays back. Meanwhile La'el Collins has initiated contact on the edge. Lastly, pay attention to where Randle is in comparison to Tyler Clutts.
Collins is doing a great job of sealing the edge, and is helped by the fact that the linebacker is attempting to come inside his block (yellow circle). Now look at Randle. He's right on Clutts' backside....but for some reason he's starting to look upfield (red arrow).
And for some reason Randle turns upfield, right into the arms of the weakside linebacker (red circle). Some people might argue that he did so because Fredbeard is losing his block, but Randle had enough depth where he should have gotten by the defender with no problem. This turns into a one yard gain, which is a shame, because Collins has two players blocked by himself, and there is nothing but clear field and a lead blocker if Randle had followed Clutts.
Play 7:
Finally a seven man front! Let's pay attention to the guards, Zack Martin and La'el Collins (yellow circle).
Collins has engaged his man (yellow circle). Martin looks like he is going to cut block his man (red circle). The block scheme makes this look like a dive play, right between the guards, with Martin blocking the linebacker; but Randle is running between the left tackle and guard.
If Martin makes his block there is a huge hole between the guards (dotted black line). But the defensive tackle is athletic enough to avoid the cut block (red circle). Meanwhile, Collins is struggling, and is beginning to be pushed back (you can see his back bowing in the yellow circle).
This could have been a huge play; both Doug Free and Travis Frederick have blocked their respective linebackers. But Collins is just being overpowered (red circle) and Zack Martin is lying on the ground (red arrow).
Here you can see where two different lanes could have been. This play is a good example of what I called Randle "dancing" earlier this week. If he had stuck to his initial decision he might have been able to get around the defensive tackle in the "black lane". If he had chosen to cut upfield earlier he might have "gotten small" and made it past the defensive tackle in the "yellow lane". But because he was indecisive, he's stuck between the two with nowhere to go. Was the blocking bad? Yes, but it was compounded by Randle's indecisiveness.
Play 8:
And yet again, an eight man front.
This gets pretty interesting. La'el Collins chip blocks the defensive tackle, then blocks downfield and picks up the linebacker. Fredbeard chips the man in front of him, then moves over and picks up the man that Collins vacates. Finally Zack Martin comes over and picks up the man that Fredbeard vacates. Lastly Doug Free chips the DE, then heads downfield to pick up the weakside linebacker.
Right away we're in trouble. Collins didn't chip long enough and Fredbeard can't cross the defender's face, meaning he's actually just pushing the defender into the hole (red arrow). Ideally, Clutts sees this and peels back to help Frederick block, which doesn't happen. And Free can't get to the linebacker, as the defensive end has a nice good hold on him.
Frederick is still carrying his man, but they're heading right into Randle's path (red circle). It's possible that Frederick could add some depth and head for the edge, but there's no doubt that his initial read is gone.
But this is Fredbeard we're talking about! He got beat, and used that to his advantage, carrying his man past the running back (like a OT carrying a DE upfield past the QB). Randle's initial lane has opened back up (black arrow). But because Randle has had to slow down and let this develop, the backside end has become a threat.
A threat compounded by Randle reversing course and running right into the DE. I originally thought that Randle wasn't reading his blocks correctly; but I think what's actually happening is he doesn't trust his blocks yet. Murray had enough repetitions with this offensive line that he understood how they blocked, and trusted them to do their job. Randle doesn't have that comfort with them yet, and if his first read is altered, I think he's looking to bounce outside.
Play 9:
And now we're into the second quarter. Let's focus on La'el Collins for this play.
Straight man blocking, with the guards blocking the linebackers downfield.
Collins has engaged with the linebacker. The running back is going to make his cut based on how the block goes.
Collins gets a good initial block on the linebacker (yellow circle). Meanwhile the other linebacker wants nothing to do with Zack Martin (blue circle).
But despite that initial good block, Collins can't maintain his block in space (keep that in mind everyone who wants him to play tackle!) and overextends, eventually flat falling down. This enables the linebacker to make a play, turning what could have been a great play into a merely good one.
Play 10:
Another eight man front from Atlanta. Dallas is running another power run to the edge, this time with Tyler Clutts lead blocking and Travis Frederick pulling.
There's only one problem. La'el Collins gets pushed backwards, right into Fredbeard's path. We were told all offseason that Collins needed to add strength, and this game was a good example of why.
By getting pushed backwards, Collins effectively creates a logjam, stopping both Frederick and Clutts from getting to the edge.
Fredbeard pulls off the logjam to go downfield and block a linebacker (blue arrow), but the defensive tackle just overpowers Collins and blows up the run.
Play 11:
Let's now take a look at Collins (yellow circle) and Tyron Smith (red circle).
Dallas has an interesting blocking scheme, with Tyron Smith pulling to the inside as a lead blocker.
La'el Collins heads downfield to block the linebacker. But look at Smith...for some reason he's looking into the backfield.
Not only is he looking into the backfield, Smith completely turns towards the backfield. I have no idea what's going on here. I have a guess...I mentioned earlier that our running backs hadn't developed a comfort level with the OL. That probably works both ways; something that the RB did has thrown Smith off and he's trying to figure out what's going on. Meanwhile Collins is about to engage with the linebacker.
Smith recovers from whatever was going on, and turns to make a block. Unfortunately, he turns the wrong way, and ends up blocking the DT, whom Jason Witten has already blocked. This leaves the DE completely unblocked.
Look at the lane McFadden has here. If Smith makes his right block, McFadden probably scores a touchdown on this play. Instead the DE stops McFadden after a decent gain.
Play 12:
An interesting blocking scheme here. Frederick blocks down, and La'el Collins pulls behind him. Meanwhile Zack Martin (purple circle) looks like he's going to engage the DT across from him.
Instead Martin also blocks down, taking on the linebacker, and Collins traps the DT, that Doug Free allows by (black circle). Doug Free then also goes to block downfield.
So Frederick and La'el Collins have trapped the DT's, and Doug Free (black line) and Zack Martin (purple circle) should be taking on the linebackers. There's just one problem, instead of taking on the immediate linebacker, Doug Free is looking to the side.
Martin has blocked his linebacker, and has given McFadden a clear lane. But Free is in a conundrum. Instead of blocking the most immediate threat (the middle linebacker) he's taking on the weakside linebacker (who has no real chance of making a play).
Actually, Free doesn't block either linebacker (but he does put his hands out). The middle linebacker is able to make it over and tackle McFadden. Instead of a touchdown, it's just another nice run for the boys.
Conclusion:
That's it for the first half of the game. Even as good as the run game was from a production point of view, there were clear problems. Not systematic problems, but individuals were missing assignments, and there was a definite lack of chemistry between the running backs and the offensive line.
Speaking just for La'el Collins, there were definitely some good mixed with bad. We were told that he lacked strength, and that showed on a number of plays. But he never gave up on a play and there were no obvious blown assignments, so all in all a good showing for the rookie.
Whew, that was a long one. I'll have Part II out tomorrow afternoon. And at 8pm, I'll be tweeting my live reactions to breaking down the All-22 tape on DeMarcus Lawrence! I'd love it if any of you would join me, ask questions, and just have a general dialog. If you don't do Twitter, I'll be compiling the best tweets into a fanpost to be posted late Saturday night.
[Ed. Note: Follow this link for Part II]