Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy met with the members of the media on Thursday ahead of the Week 2 match-up with the Atlanta Falcons.
The biggest question the coach faced was regarding his former quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ comments that McCarthy wasn’t a big fan of pre-snap motion. The answer was diplomatic, refusing to throw the Green Bay Packers signal caller under the bus.
“You got to remember we played a lot of football together. As your offense changes you have to evolve, and really a lot of the credit goes to Aaron who can recognize defenses at the line of scrimmage. That’s really the chess game you play as a coordinator. When it’s over a 10-year period you evolve because you never stay the same.”
Unfortunately, in 2020, pre-snap motion is part of the offensive evolution and if McCarthy and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore aren’t going to hop on the bandwagon, they may be left in the dust. Correlation is often confused with causation and of course this is a small sample size, but ESPN’s Seth Walder released the use of pre-snap motion league wide.
How often did each team use motion in Week 1? First column is motion at the snap, second column is all pre-snap motion.
Shoutout to our video trackers who make this stat possible. pic.twitter.com/mDf6aPEgyI
— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) September 16, 2020
The top 16 teams went 13-3. The bottom 16 teams went 3-13. McCarthy went on to say that “you can’t tilt too far to one and not the other.”
It seems clear that for at least one week, the Cowboys went too far one way, the vanilla way. When he was asked about the lack of motion against the Los Angeles Rams, he offered up that the “defense was on the field for a very long time.”
One would think playing more effectively on offense and scoring points would accomplish two things simultaneously: keeping the defense off the field while relieving pressure for them while on it.
#Cowboys' Mike McCarthy says his personal preference is pre-snap motion. Take a look at how he ran things with the #Saints in the early 2000s. Says they were doing motion coming off the bus.
— Mark Lane (@therealmarklane) September 17, 2020
Outside of the presnap motion conversations, Dallas’ secondary ruled the day.
Jourdan Lewis is looking to increase his practice reps today and looks “comfortable” while it’s clear that Darian Thompson will lose some of his playing time to Brandon Carr.
McCarthy won’t reveal any strategy for how to contain Julio Jones come Sunday, but there was praise for Trevon Diggs, whith his coach saying, “I don’t have any hesitations on playing the young man. He’s earned the starting position.”
#Cowboys' Mike McCarthy says Trevon Diggs' ball skills "jump off the tape." Says he's impressed with the way he's got a patience and calmness in coverage.
— Mark Lane (@therealmarklane) September 17, 2020
Falcons WRs Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley can threaten. But Mike McCarthy wouldn't hesitate to match rookie Trevon Diggs on either.
McCarthy: "I don’t have any hesitations playing the young man. He’s earned the starting position at corner for so many good reasons."
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) September 17, 2020
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