Week 4 Dallas Cowboys coaches film analysis

Good breakdown as always Jonnydel. I was noticing the breakdowns from Purcell and others all game. I was yelling at someone how Purcell is hurting us. Now I see Armstead blowing assignments as well it's no wonder Bow has to work so hard and now it has come to a sad end for him.

Originally posted by thl408:
The bolded is so true for good defenses. I've seen more than one occasion where Purcell sheds his block to try to make a play, but all that ends up happening is he falls behind the play and a huge running lane opens. Just play the damn assignment given and if the offense has a successful play, then it's on the coaches. Don't be that guy that didn't follow the assignment and allowed the offense to have a chunk play. I'm going to show play later where AA tries to rush the passer instead of eating a block to free up a team mate. The result of the play was a key 3rd down conversion by DAL.

They have not done enough in the league to go off script. They do not even have the experience to diagnose the play that is in front of them. Purcell keeps doing it, how are the coaches letting him get away with it.

Originally posted by northoakland510:

They have not done enough in the league to go of script. They do not even have the experience to diagnose the play that is in front of them. Purcell keeps doing it, how are the coaches letting him get away with it.

No alternative.

Nice breakdown, jonnydel.

Originally posted by jreff22:
No alternative.

They need to bring some veteran free agents in, at least they will know to play their assignment.

Defense really seems to be in bad shape. I knew the loss of Ian Williams would be huge, but I was honestly expecting Purcell to play better than he has. Hopefully Dorsey gets a crack at starting NT duties soon, although he hasn't exactly looked great either.

The loss of Bowman is insurmountable. The defense was struggling as is. Once Bowman went down, the floodgates completely busted open. He was the glue that barely held everything together. Dallas got everything they wanted on the ground and through the air once Bow went down. I don't see how this changes for the rest of the year.

Only thing to look forward to is the continued development of the young players. Buckner, Armstead, and Robinson have a lot of promise. Young vets like Reid, Lynch, Ward, and Dial really have to step up and become the leaders of this unit.

Originally posted by northoakland510:

Originally posted by jreff22:
No alternative.

They need to bring some veteran free agents in, at least they will know to play their assignment.

Yep, it's why I said that we need Ian Williams back and some more depth behind him. Purcell was gashed several times against Seattle and against vs Dal. I keep hearing that it's our offense's fault for these things - but it's not a matter of fatigue - to me. Especially when it's early in games and fatigue can't be a factor. Also, we rotate so many D-lineman through that fatigue shouldn't be a factor. We're just not good.

Originally posted by Bay2Bay9erAllday:

Originally posted by awp8912:

One thing I do know. Kap hits Torrey Smith in stride there. And he out edges Sean Lee on those QB keepers. And he throws further than 3 yards on 4th down with the game on the line, giving our WRs a shot at making a play.

Thats brandon Lloyd

Originally posted by awp8912:

One thing I do know. Kap hits Torrey Smithin stride there. And he out edges Sean Lee on those QB keepers. And he throws further than 3 yards on 4th down with the game on the line, giving our WRs a shot at making a play.

Torrey smith started with us in 2015....these clips are from the ram Monday night game of '14 and it's Brandon Lloyd. The other one is Vernon Davis and it was from the 2014 season opener.

jcool probably still thinks AA is the best DE in the game since PFF says he's doing well.

AA is a bust just like many thought he would be.

Here's a great example of how Dal D-line executed their assignments on similar plays against us and how they defended our zone-read.


here, we're going to run an inside zone with a read off the unblocked DE


here, we have a numbers advantage in blocking. There's 6 defenders and we have 6 blockers. Unlike Dal who had 6 blockers against 7 defenders and had a run of +17. We should have a win here. You see the DE crashing down against the run, so the read for the QB is to take the ball. Notice how 2 of Dal defenders take on 4 blockers. Now we have a numbers disadvantage. We have 2 blockers against 4 defenders.

Dal knew that if we ran the zone-read that they'd send Lee around the edge to contain the QB run. Neither Staley or Beadles are able to break free in time to get to the 2nd level and Lee is able to set the edge.


Lee is fast enough to set the edge and Gabbert tries to cut it back up inside but Lee is a pretty sure tackler. This is how D-lineman are supposed to execute their assignments in a team defense scheme and allow their LB's to make plays. BTW, this is pretty similar to how a lot of teams started shutting down the zone-read with CK when his rushing numbers started to decline as well. The key on these plays is more on the offensive line being able to get to the 2nd level or by scheming out a way to take advantage of this - which we do later in the game to a small degree of success.

WR separation?

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Also, if T. Smith wants his QB to throw him the ball more, he's got to block more. Dude was the one that Kelly talked about in his presser when he said the QB runs, "didn't get a lot of help from blocking on the edge". Yeah...that was Torrey.

JD, I've been noting this since pre season (just swap out TS for Patton) and have seen it in every game since. What do you think the issue is? I can't tell if the WR's don't know the QB kept the ball and is running to their area so the DB just runs right by them to make the easy tackle, if it's a sideline play call fracture, just poor play recognition by the WR's and even worse execution on blocking, disinterest, etc.

Originally posted by jreff22:
WR separation?

not much, lol. There were some on occasions. But when your receivers can't get a lot of separation your QB has to be absolutely pinpoint on with his accuracy. If not, you'll still only have minimal gain. Which is what happened several times. We saw there were a few throws where Gabbert perfectly placed the ball and others where it was on the wrong shoulders. It wasn't consistent enough to make up for our lack of ability in the WR corps.