Dallas’ pass defense hasn’t been sharp, but they’ll need to watch for these concepts when on the field in Chicago
The Dallas Cowboys 2019 season sits at a tipping point entering their Week 14 Thursday Night Football matchup with the Chicago Bears.
In many ways, the Cowboys and Bears are mirror images of one another, teams with very high level talents in many areas, playoff teams in 2018 and entered 2019 considered Super Bowl contenders in the NFC. 13 weeks into the season, they sit at 6-6 with as many questions as answers.
For the Bears, the questions begin at the quarterback position, where third-year signal caller Mitchell Trubisky has struggled to take the step the team expected and needed him to take for the team to become the mainstays at the top of the ultra competitive NFC North.
Trubisky’s problems with accuracy, pocket management, and decision making have put the clamps on the offense that through it’s design and creativity propelled head coach Matt Nagy to win the Coach of the Year award in the 2018.
How will Nagy try to help Trubisky attack a Cowboys defense that has been inconsistent at best this year?
First off, he’ll use design to create easy completions on early downs.
On this play, the concept is extremely simple, to the top side, its Slant/Flat which is a staple concept of the west coast offense tree that Nagy comes from. On the near side, Nagy is going to use the tight end to create traffic for the linebacker trying to run inside-out to cover the running back.
Combine this “rub” with the deep comeback from the nearside receiver, and there is a lot of room for running back David Montgomery to make the catch and run for the first down, keeping Trubisky from having to deal with the designer pressure packages and coverage looks that come on third downs.
When he does get to third down, Nagy will use formations and motions to give Trubisky’s best weapon, wide receiver Allen Robinson opportunities to win and move the sticks.
On this play, Nagy lines Robinson up as the #3 receiver to the trips side. The explosive Anthony Miller is lined up as #2 and versatile running back Tarik Cohen is lined up as the #1 on the outside.
The slot fade from Miller, along with the short hitch from Cohen give Robinson the room to win one on one on the inside.
Having Robinson lined up so far inside, not far from where a tight end might traditionally line up, is a brilliant way for Nagy to clear up the picture for his quarterback, and shorten the distance the ball has to travel to move the sticks.
When the Bears get into Dallas territory, the Cowboys need to be prepared for them to take a shot down the field.
Teams know the Cowboys prefer to line up in single high, and play Cover 1 and Cover 3 variations, many of which involve pattern or man-match principles. One of these variations is often called when offenses line up in 3×1 sets against them.
Dallas likes to roll the coverage towards the three wide side of the field, and leave the single receiver to the back side in man coverage. This allows them to maintain a numerical advantage to the trips side, without leaving the single wide out to roam free.
But because offensive coordinators know this tendency they have developed ways to attack it.
On this play, the Bears are in 3×1 with a bunch to the top side, and they are running a variation of 4 verticals. What this allows them to do against a defense like Dallas’ is to put the deep safety in a major bind using the deep over route.
This route, run here by Miller, creates issues because it transitions from the zone half of the coverage into the man half of the coverage. The free safety has to stay on top of this route because with the backside corner in man coverage, there’s not a deep third defender to that side to pick up that route as it comes across the field, so an underneath defender, usually a linebacker or strong safety, has to pick up the route and run with it.
With a player like Miller on this route, that’s a mismatch so the deep safety has to over play it. But if he over plays it too early, or too far, the seam route, here run but the tight end has a huge window to the inside for the easy completion.
Releasing the running back to the man coverage side adds even more effectiveness to this concept because it pulls an underneath defenders eyes forward and might cause him to pause his feet, rather than sinking to give him a chance to run with Miller on the deep route.
If the Cowboys defense is going to shut down the Bears and pave the way for a Dallas victory, they’ll need to have answers for these concepts, many of which will have to come from high-level performances from coverage players like Jourdan Lewis and Xavier Woods, and from their stable of pass rushers led by Demarcus Lawrence, Robert Quinn, and Michael Bennett.
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