AHHHHHHHH!!!! TRAINING CAMP!!!!!

The sun is shining a little brighter, the birds are chirping a little sweeter, food tastes a little better, and it’s still way too hot. That’s right everyone, training camp has begun, and your favorite blogger is excited about it. What I’ll be writing about today was going to be my speculation article about the offense a few days ago when I designed the article outline, but now, after the “state of the team” address (a press conference held by Jerry “JJ” Jones and Wade “WP” Phillips), it can be a factually based article. You’ll have to take my word on all the things I claim to have written down days ago, but my football foresight is not the point of this entry, the point is to get you excited about the offense, and after what I heard in the press conference, I am VERY excited about it.

When I designed the outline for the offense article I was going to write about three things

1.) Strengths — big offensive line, this will help the running backs, RBs are great, o and also Tony

2.) Weaknesses — no established deep threat, lack of depth at WR and OL, few established WRs

3.) How to accommodate that — more running, scheme needs to fit personnel, not vice versa

Fast forward to the press conference, which I, your loyal football servant, listened to and waded through the JJ jargon so as to impart some Cowboy’s brouhaha into your cerebrum. I have plenty of notes from the press conference, like about how the new signing Igor Olshansky is the self proclaimed strongest player in the league and a great run stopper, and how the team will really focus on playing better on special teams by starting practices with those drills, which is exciting, but the most exciting comments came after a question concerning the term, “Romo Friendly.” This was a term coined by JJ earlier in the year after TO was released, JJ said his reasoning was to make the team more “Romo Friendly.” Everyone speculated this meant no more TO being a distraction on the team, and no more TO demanding passes. Those are the reasons TO was released, but that’s not what Romo Friendly meant to JJ.
JJ defines this term as an offense with multiple tight ends that runs the ball with our three great running backs, but because we have studly tight ends and solid possession receivers, we are able to pass the ball to keep the defense honest. The passing game, the spread offense (3 or 4 receivers, usually in shotgun) and the QB will not be the focal point of the offense; it takes the pressure off Romo, making it “Romo Friendly.” This, if you look back to my accommodation notes, is exactly what I felt the team needed to succeed (not that I’m bragging). This team needs to use its strengths, which are a big line and solid running backs, and use the passing game to keep the defense honest, not the other way around (how we played last year). This alone addresses the lack of depth at WR, because with multiple tight end sets there will be fewer WR’s on the field, most likely Williams and Crayton, so as less are used, the depth increases. They also mentioned the depth at OL is improving, as over the course of last year and this off-season they feel the line has vastly improved, which is excellent, considering I’m toying with the idea of writing an entire entry about a lineman I felt torpedoed the Cowboys last season.
The most exciting thing though, is that we have a special ability on the Cowboys, which is run a 2 or 3 tight end set and still have a scary passing attack from the TE position (Witten and Marty B). This is, and will be, extremely stressful for opposing defenses. You’ve got to understand, in football, but especially the NFL, the more linemen, the higher percentage the next play is a running play. Tight ends are linemen, so if a defense sees 2 tight ends run onto the field, they’re thinking the next play very well might be a run. To stop the run the defense either places bigger men on the field to counter, or walks more people into the box (the typical number is 7 players in the box, on a passing down it’ll usually be 6 or maybe 5, and if a team is worried about the run it’ll be 8). For my less cultured readers, the box is the invisible, imaginary area from one end of the offensive line to the other, and up to the linebackers on the defensive side of the ball.
Now here’s the kicker, against the Cowboys, a defense will have a few against this two tight end set, and the Cowboys will have some wonderful counters:

The defense could run out bigger (which means slower) men to stop the run

This makes running the ball tough, as big men are harder to move out of the way so that the running backs have a place to go, so what do the Cowboys do? Pass the ball. We have extremely fast, athletic tight ends that run excellent routes, meaning they should be able to get open against bigger, slower defenders.

The defense could walk more men into the box, usually the strong safety

Instead of having big men, the defense decides to just put more men close to the line of scrimmage in hopes to simply overwhelm the offensive line into submission and tackle the running back before he gets anywhere. These men have to come from somewhere though, and that somewhere is usually pass protection, so where there were 4 men covering 2 receivers, there are now only 3. This means 1 of them should end up in single coverage, meaning there should be plenty of room for Romo to throw a great pass and gain some positive yards.

The defense realizes and fears the passing threats discussed, and plays a standard 7 man box

This, if the Cowboys have a fullback, means there will be 8 blockers (5 linemen + 2 TE + 1 FB) against 7 defenders. A defense never wants to be more than half a man down on either side of the ball during a running play, which is more technical than I care to discuss (comment if you want to know what this means, and I’ll write about it for the next blogget). Shall we say the Cowboys will be able to do that with ease? This means they should rip apart this defense with the running game.

Anyway, this is just something to think about. I was very excited to hear that this is the direction our beloved Boys are headed, because, frankly, it needed to be. Running the ball and defense wins championships; hopefully we’ll execute those two things well enough to find ourselves in the playoffs by season’s end.