I just saw that John Lynch (who I really like as a player) made a statement that the Cowboys broke an unwritten "code" against blitzing during the preseason.
To a certain extent I do agree with him. I thought watching the game that the Cowboys blitzed more than I thought they would (although still not a lot). If that sort of thing is frowned upon in the PS they shouldn't have done it, or should have talked to Shanahan to see if they also wanted to work on blitz packages in a mutual agreement. From the Cowboys point of view, they have a new system and need to get work in since blitz packages are a big part of the Phillip's 34. What do you think?
The Lynch thing is being made a big deal when it isn't really anything. The entire quote doesn't reflect nearly as bad as what the media is making it out to be.
With that said, and like Woody Paige said in today's Denver Post, Berlin blitzed London 57 times during WWII and the Brits didn't complain, they just pushed them back.
I guess I'm a little fuzzy as to what cons utes a blitz in the 3-4. Since both of the clips ESPN showed during the report had the Cowboys rushing five guys, I'm not sure how that's a blitz. Even in a three wide receiver set, you'd still have five or six guys protecting the passer. If you're playing a team with three down linemen, are they required to send the same two linebackers every down? If so, what's the point of having talented linebackers? What's the point of preseason if you can't rush the passer?
I initially thought the Cowboys were blitzing during the game, because they were having so much success. Thanks to PVR I saw that they, for the most part, were just overwhelming the Broncos line without having to send an extra man.
I agree that ESPN's overblowing the story, but I recall someone else mentioning blitzing before Lynch did. Am I misunderstanding what a "blitz" is?
http://www.jt-sw.com/football/boxes/...998-02-dal-den
sept 13 1998 denver 43 dallas 23
them assholes.
a blitz is rushing anything more than your front 4. 5 cons utes a blitz.
I agree that the Cowboys blitzed a lot more than normal for a preseason game. And maybe it did have something to do with Wade being fired by the broncos. That being said, the Broncos patchwork offensive line should have manned up and stopped someone. They didn't and the Broncos offense looked like .
Im suprised Lynch has become a whinner.
Were the Cowboys out of line? no.
Did the Cowboys first team dominate the broncos first team? yeah.
The Cowboys run a 34 with only a front 3. In that scheme the OLB (Ware and Spencer) routinely rush the passer as a part of the base defense. As far as I know the definition of a blitz stays consistent with the 43 definition in the 34 where the down 3 + 1OLB would be considered a base rush. A blitz would be any one else rushing the QB in addition to that. So anytime both OLB rushed in addition to the front 3 would be considered a blitz I think.
The way I always understood it, a blitz required sending more people than the offense had blockers for. That being the case, sending five guys at the quarterback is NOT a blitz, whether two of them are linebackers or safeties. There are five offensive linemen, whose only mission in life during passing downs is to protect the quarterback. On passing downs, there's also a running back, and maybe a fullback or a tight end to help with the blocking. Again, there may be a nuance I don't understand here, but I'm pretty sure I'm right on this.
There may be some terminology somewhere that makes rushing five guys a blitz, but I don't remember there being some unwritten rule that you have to drop seven or eight guys into coverage just because it's pre-season. When a defense is set up so that guys are supposed to react to situations, I'm not sure where anyone expects a linebacker to just sit there and wait for the quarterback to throw the ball over his head.
Too ing bad.
Blitzes are only not allowed in the Pro Bowl.
Perfectly legal otherwise.
Next.
That's a good question. The reason I went with my definition is due to the concept of the zone blitz, in which the defense drops a down lineman into underneath coverage and sends a LB or DB on pass rush. In that case the defense would only rush the same number of people as if they just ran their base defense, but the rush would be coming from an unexpected place. I think it has more to do with the position being sent at the QB based on the formation than it does with the sheer number of players being sent on a rush. That would also make sense with heavy blitzing being frowned upon in preseason since many of the backup and new OL may not have their blitz pickup systems down and that could lead to unimpeded shots at the QB.
Since when did the PHX suns play American football.
I'm completely fine with it. Teams need to work on schemes and plays during the preseason so they know how to run them during the regular season. That's what the games are for. And especially for a team with a brand new coaching staff and scheme.
This is what the Cowboys' writer Micky Spagnola had to say on it, take it for what it's worth...
IRVING, Texas - This has nothing to do with scores, nor wins and losses.
Let's not even factor in the Cowboys have outscored their first two preseason opponents, 54-30, but more impressively, 44-9, when the predominant first units have been playing in those first halves.
Because you know it, and I know it - they know it - preseason records are hollow. Just go ask Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones about that 1989 preseason, their first with the Dallas Cowboys, when they bounded merrily off the Texas Stadium turf toward the tunnel with a 3-1 preseason record thanks to a last-second, game-winning, field goal in the final preseason game against Houston to solidify a 3-1 record that summer.
(Aside: And to think their only loss that preseason was in overtime to the Denver Broncos when Dan Reeves - pay attention here now, John Lynch - evidently broke some preseason code of ethics by playing his starting quarterback John Elway in overtime just so he could beat the guys who sent his former coach, Tom Landry, packing after 29 years. Telling you, Elway threw the longest cross-field pass you've ever seen for the game-winning touchdown.)
No, that the Cowboys are 2-0, having won both preseason games at home and are fixing to meet Houston down south this coming Saturday, is all about indicators - factors suggesting there might be something to all this.
Some are tangible: The Cowboys did not commit a penalty in the first half against Denver and only committed one that first half against the Colts.
Some are intangible: A former NFL player Monday at Texas Stadium for the unveiling of Greatest Team Ever, a picture book of the 90's Cowboys by Ron St. Angelo (photos) and Norm Hitzges (words) told me this: "Just watching this team you can see this certain oomph."
Simple word this oomph. Meaningful word this oomph. Acute observation by someone not on the inside.
Oomph means get-up-and-go, and for those of us old enough to remember that old gasoline slogan, it's as if the Cowboys have "put a Tiger in their tank."
Something.
To me, it's unheard of this early in preseason to play as efficiently as the Cowboys have. Come on, one penalty in two first halves? Get out of here.
Only two turnovers, period, and one of those caused by the receiver (Miles Austin) slipping down out of his break, leading to Dre' Bly's easy-pickin's of a Tony Romo pass.
Not a single false start on the offense or an offsides by the defense, that lone first half penalty a delay of game call when Romo couldn't seem to get his guys in the right formation in time.
While certainly they have not been perfect, but there seems to have been few offensive play busts, meaning the quarterback turning the wrong way or the tailback going the wrong way or the receiver not on the same page with his route as the quarterback.
With the offensive line being shuffled at times, the starting offensive tackles playing only the first quarter of the second game, Romo has been sacked only twice for a grand total of six yards in his nine possessions and runs for losses have been held to a minimum.
The Cowboys have run the ball both times effectively, totaling 329 yards rushing on 80 carries in the two preseason games (four-yard average) while rushing for four touchdowns. Conversely, the defense has given up just 84 yards rushing on 34 carries (2.4-yard average) and no rushing touchdowns.
Or take third down. The Cowboys offense has converted 18 of 32 third-down opportunities into first downs. Conversely, the Colts and Broncos have converted on just 7 of 23, but 30 percent, which is a far cry from the opponents' 54-percent conversion rate in the final seven games last year. And the Broncos on Saturday night were 0-for-5 in the first half against the Cowboys' ones.
Indicators.
"Our team looks pretty solid right now," said head coach Wade Phillips, who later was hesitant to admit his concerns were minimal since last time he was asked something like that and he said going into the draft his team didn't have any holes to fill he was taken to task for supposedly saying he had a real good team on his hands.
Romo takes a pragmatic approach to this 2-0 preseason start, quick to remind it's just preseason, but wants to point out none of this doesn't matter because "if you can't do it in preseason, I don't know you have a great opportunity to do it in the regular season."
Now evidently some of the Broncos got their tails braided too tight Saturday night, something about Phillips unleashing all these blitzes, which is supposed to be in Preseason According to Mr. Lynch, a no-no.
What a compliment to the Cowboys defense. Those guys were so suffocating, it must have appeared to the Broncos the Cowboys were throwing the kitchen sink at them since to a man they insist they did nothing differently in the game from what they practiced four times in two days against the Broncos.
But what's a blitz? If you are playing a 3-4, does that mean you are only allowed to rush three guys? So if I send one linebacker, that's a blitz? Gimmie a break.
If you are playing Phillips' style of the 3-4, and your base defense calls for each man up front to slant into predetermined gaps, does that mean you are blitzing when Bradie James simply fires into his gap next to nose tackle Jason Ferguson? And if Fergie gets a sack - he did - was he blitzing?
"Believe me, we didn't show it all," Ferguson insisted. "We might have shown two bullets."
Listening to the Broncos, you'd have thought the Cowboys had emptied a Gatling gun.
Just hope the Cowboys didn't unleash some exotic plays to produce those 190 yards rushing for gosh sakes.
Whatever.
None of that matters. What matters is there is this growing sense of confidence building in that locker room, along with this underlying camaraderie evidenced just from listening to the exchange between Ferguson and Leonard Davis, whose lockers are now next to each other, but with very little room to spare between them on the benches when they are sitting down at the same time.
This is a team starting to feel good about itself.
"You can see it in our faces," James says of the excitement, and that is important, preseason or not, especially with basically a new coaching staff onboard needing some results to qualify its methods and teachings.
Now if you are looking for that same excitement in the head coach's face, you are wasting your time. Phillips is a sly ol' fox, one of those Texas-bred, aw-shucks, understaters. But if you listen carefully, he says a lot not saying much, if you get what I mean.
And don't think for one minute this isn't important to him, or he doesn't have the reins properly clutched on this team.
"It means something to Wade Phillips to be the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys," said former Cowboys special teams assistant Joe Avezzano at the book unveiling Monday afternoon. "He's from Texas."
A mouthful, really, but yet another one of those many indicators floating around The Ranch suggesting something just might be a brewin' out here.
Beware the oomph.
The Phillips Family was never known for keeping it classy.
Typical Cowboys fan...........living in the past.
Seriously, this thing is blown out of proportion, but I'll bet Shanahan is a touch upset that his guys are throwing quotes like this out there.
Explain..
Guess that makes me an atypical Cowboys fan.typical Cowboys fan...........living in the past
I was a bit stunned at Lynch saying that. Still, I have mad respect for what he has done...just think it was a little off on this one.
Whoops. Thought he was a Broncos fan. Sorry about my reply.
BTW, why would someone think the Broncos were assholes for whipping the Cowboys in a regular season game? It was 35-17 at halftime. I don't think TD played in the second half. That Broncos team could have won by seventy points. Seems pretty classy to me.
I've hated the Broncos ever since Shannon Sharpe made that fake phone call talking about killing the Patriots. em.
Good point.BTW, why would someone think the Broncos were assholes for whipping the Cowboys in a regular season game? It was 35-17 at halftime. I don't think TD played in the second half. That Broncos team could have won by seventy points. Seems pretty classy to me.
Its not college ball where the big school beats up Little Sisters of the Poor State Tech.
Its the pros, if you get your asses handed to you, you deserved it.
Let's see.
One team has a new coach, a new defensive and offensive philosophy and they are expected NOT to use the preseason to practice?
When did they begin allowing vags in the nfl?
cowboys are just trying to win as mainy games as they can now when other teams aren't trying because they know they won't be winning many games as soon as the regular season starts.
I don't think defining a "blitz" in numerical terms is ever correct. I don't know who started perpetuating that myth, but it's just plain damned wrong.
If a team plays a 4 man defensive front, but drops an end into coverage and uses the strong safety or a corner to attack the quarterback, a numerical analysis would say it's no blitz. But if you think of it in terms of offensive protections, you can bet that the fat guys on the o-line would consider that a blitz (or a "game," to be more specific). To me, a blitz has everything to do with where the rush comes from and specifically, whether it comes from an unexpected part of the defensive formation.
If a team that plays a 3-man front shows base pass schemes that involve the 3 down linemen and the 2 outside linebackers attacking the QB, when that team sends one of its inside linebackers, it's blitzing. If that defense sends a safety, a corner, a nickelback, or a dimeback at the QB, it's blitzing. It's blitzing even if, in any of those scenarios, the nose drops off into coverage and the defense only sends 4 rushers. Again, it's all about the expectations as to where the pass rush will come from and not how many players attack.
As for Lynch's complaints, I have no idea why a team or its players wouldn't want its offense to be tested with blitzes. If I'm the coach of a team, I want to see if my o-line and my backs are prepared for that stuff; pass blockers (linemen and backs) are being taught blitz pick-up principles every day and it would always be worthwhile to me to evaluate how well those principles have been grasped by my team. I'd also prefer to do that without game-planning because who knows what sorts of blitzes your fronts will see in regular season games -- it's a great tool for evaluating players, I think. On the defensive side of the equation, you can learn a lot about how disciplined your players are by putting them into blitz situations and ensuring that you don't have any blown assignments or things like that.
I can make a distinction between using the blitz in pre-season, which I'd support, and using blitzes in the Pro Bowl, where nobody is trying to win a job or to evaluate a player.
Exactly. When is the new defensive coordinator supposed to try out his new packages?
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