Coach's Halftime Thoughts - Week 2

[Dallas94Ware]

1. Poor tackling stands out, particularly from the secondary. How can a zone based defense ever survive with poor tackling? They need to do a better job at technique tackling. Heath, carrol, Lewis, must step this up. Lee needs to stop going for big hits, it was never a strong suit - and for the love of all thats good, all need to learn to hold on until your team can come help if they cant do it alone 

2. Siemian's placement and accuracy is severely underrated, but thats no excuse for the questionable coverage. These are veteran DBs out there biting on pivots and double moves; I even saw Lee bite on an outside stutter step on a pass route off a play action on the first drive TD - veterans like these should not be biting on classic route diversion techniques.

3. Good protection. The tackles are holding the edge and the interior is creating a deep pocket. Clean and plenty of room to throw. Collins is holding his own quite well. But very little push inside on the run. Fredrick and Martin are all pros, they need to make more room for Zeke. Cannot see overrated big bodies inside gobbling up the interior and leaving no room for Zeke. Where is the mauling space creating well coordinated beasts we are used to seeing? 

4. Lawrence is this teams best defensive lineman, he captures the edge, he bulls back inside and really knows how to keep the Qb off his throwing foot - but still lacks the rushing moves to be consistent.

5. Beasley needs to show up in a big way this second half. The coverage is filtering plays inward, and this is where Beasley's lateral quickness in the short area can break a big play. None of these LBs are chasing him down.

 6. Weather delay can help the team make the adjustments they need to make use of the interior openings of the field. Cannot continue to attack the strong areas of the coverage.

7. The defensive line as a whole seems well improved over last year - all players get off the ball better, all are using their hands better, and Lawrence is playing hungry for the first time in 2 years. I am excited for when Irving is back in this rotation.

8. After Dez won man coverage one on one in the end zone, the Broncos havent called man clverage again since. Makes sense as they arent a man cover team - i am betting that playcall was in anticipation of another Zeke run. Dak made a great read and an outstanding timed throw. 

9. Heath is not a downgrade from Church; he plays just as fierce and hunts well for the ball. Has the same flaws as well, big hit attempts while swinging fkr the ball causing missed tackles and flat footwork causing coverage issues. But all in all Heath is a good team player and football player, he is quality on special teams and is a good safety at his price. 

10. These zones are too soft and lack aggressiveness, especially outside. Id like to see more press and much more proactive jumps on receivers entering the zone. None of these corners take a chance to make a play and its letting Siemian make way too many quick completions. Any QB would take those all day with a smile.

11. Zeke is a great singleback runner but Id try my luck with a lead blocker in the second half. With no push inside and the linebackers playing the edge with caution, the only option to try and make running room for Zeke is to put a lead man out there to take the edge or help push a lane up the middle.

12. The broncos are running OUTSTANDING route combinations to attack the cover 2 and cover 1/robber owl zone defense the Cowboys are running. That incomplete to Fowler, the route combination there was classic cover 2 attack playcall. Had the safety played it better, the shallow outside route on the short comeback would have been an easy play with the corner playing the deep wheel of Fowler to the deepest part of the available field. Lee would have been too occupied with the crossing route taking him away from the playside, and would not have been able to stop the route from turning into a big gain. Bad read by siemian. Good throw, however.

13. Jourdan Lewis is not playing poorly, he is playing inexperienced and getting fooled into releasing or trailing his man. A common mistake for young corners in a complex zone system. But when he sticks to the right area of the zone he does make a good break onto the play.

14. With the Broncos playing quarters and cover 4s, Id like to see Zeke making some plays in the passing game. This is where Zeke, Beasley and Witten need to be deadly to this coverage.

15. Story of the game: Both teams running soft zones, Dallas not attacking it with the right routes while Denver is. Denver getting inside push on the run, Dallas is not.

[Calvert28]

And short summery. Dallas did not show up.

[WizardHawk]

1 minute ago, Calvert28 said:

And short summery. Dallas did not show up.

This is most accurate post in thread.

[Dallas94Ware]

They were outcoached. Dez was winning his matchup for a change. The D line played pretty well. The D generated turnovers. Witten looked youthful.

But Denver called route concepts to capitalize on the soft zones. The run designs attacked the notoriously outside shoulders of the tackles. The defensive assignments were filtering plays inward and kept Dak isolated in the pocket. 

Dallas made no adjustments to any of it. The pass concepts remained our standard and stuck in the heart of the Denver zones. Dallas didnt try a lead blocker or any isolation, allowing Denvers line to move and hold ground to keep the linebackers stuffing holes. Dallas didnt attempt any press or under quarters to keep the quick routes in check. 

Sure, missed tackles and drops and penalties hurt. But they happen. The fact is, this teams obvious tendencies were blatantly exploited amd no changes were made to counter an obviously well studied defense or a well managed offense. The play calling stayed the same, halftime adjustments seemed non existant and the team lost as a large result of that.

[quiller]

It seems to me we always have been funneling the routes into the box area then depend on quick pursuit to the ball to prevent big plays.  Lee usually thrives here We had zero of that and Kee was non existant

and I see your point the routes Denver was running were designed to isolate coverage to give their WR space to run after the catch. That combined with the fact that  we did a real bad job containing the run made it easy for them to move the ball.  I say loosing Scandrick and the other injuries were key here  as they kept things in our backfield in a flux 

I always thought we are better at zone blocking and are weak at power running Denver did a good job eliminating the lanes and cut backs and there relentless push up field gave Dak very little time to get comfortable and or find the open man.  And while Dak has greatly improved his pocket passing it still is not a strength as compared to the roll out which Denver took away

One thing to remember  Denver is one of the few teams in the NFL hat has the personal to play this kind of D against us most can not maybe Seattle and the Giants only others.   

 

[Texas_OutLaw7]

I am less pissed with our defense as I am with our offense.

The only person who time-and-time again was able to beat man was Witten. Read that sentence again.