Someone please explain this to me

[El Duderino]

KGB is out and we obviously weren't getting any pressure on Romo, he had all day to throw.

So what does Sanders do as every drive Dallas is moving up and down the field, rush four and often play zone. The point of not blitzing is to prevent big plays, well hello, even with not blitzing Dallas was gashing us all game long with big pass plays because Romo never was pressured.

Why not try something different then, what you're doing isn't working at all
!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get some balls and see if blitzing rattles Romo, what could it hurt??

You're play it safe game plan wasn't preventing anything. Why not blitz Romo alot more??? Send a corner blitz?? Do something/anything different, Dallas was picking apart you're vanilla scheme like there wasn't even a defense on the field. Without a TO drop in the end zone, Dallas would have scored 44 pfriggin points.

3rd and 19 with Dallas backed up. What do we do, rush four that gets nowhere, play soft zone, first down Dallas.

2nd and 20--What do we do, rush four, get zero pressure, first down Dallas which becomes a TD.

I've never screamed at my TV so much, yet Sanders just changed up nothing. UGGGGGGGGGGGG

[MickeyDavis]

Very disappointed in the defense.

One of the most critical things a coach has to do is make in game adjustments. It looked as if Sanders didn't/couldn't do that tonight.

[El Duderino]

Everytime Dallas had 3rd and 7 yards or more i was screaming at the TV, please blitz and try to pressure Romo. Each time he'd rush four, drop n a zone, and Romo stood back there with all day to scan the field and they'd get a first down. Every damn time.

How could he sit back and do the same thing each time when what he was doing never worked?

I'm truely baffled

It would be like the Bucks playing zone and all game long the other team was drilling one three after another, but staying in the zone all game.

[ClassicJack]

Did we even blitz once tonight? This whole game was just weird from a playcalling standpoint.

Instead of going with what has worked so well, McCarthey tried to catch the Cowboys offguard. He blinked first and got popped in the mouth by Bum's son.

[Ayt]

I didn't understand the zone scheme at all. Sanders never blitzes, so that didn't surprise me, but god did we play a lot of zone tonight. None of our CBs are any good at it, either.

[MickeyDavis]

Harris looked lost out there a few times, I though he switched jerseys (and hair) with Bush.

[Ayt]

Harris looked lost out there a few times, I though he switched jerseys (and hair) with Bush.

He goes from being a great CB to very mediocre in a zone. He just doesn't have the vision or quickness for it.

[El Duderino]

I didn't understand the zone scheme at all. Sanders never blitzes, so that didn't surprise me, but god did we play a lot of zone tonight. None of our CBs are any good at it, either.

We don't blitz because the front four gets there almost every game. That wasn't happening at all, it was the biggest reason Dallas shredded the defense.

So why not at least try blitzing? What would be the harm in seeing if it worked, rushing four certainly wasn't preventing the big play at all.

In fact on the one drive Dallas had to punt, we blitzed on third down and Romo made a bad throw. For whatever reason, that ended the blitz. Just because a defense isn't big on blitzing, it doesn't mean it's not ever worth trying when not doing it is leaving Romo all day to let receivers get open.

[Ayt]

-= original quote snipped =-



We don't blitz because the front four gets there almost every game. That wasn't happening at all, it was the biggest reason Dallas shredded the defense.

So why not at least try blitzing? What would be the harm in seeing if it worked, rushing four certainly wasn't preventing the big play at all.

In fact on the one drive Dallas had to punt, we blitzed on third down and Romo made a bad throw. For whatever reason, that ended the blitz. Just because a defense isn't big on blitzing, it doesn't mean it's not ever worth trying when not doing it is leaving Romo all day to let receivers get open.

I agree about the blitzing. I don't understand why we don't do it more. I didn't understand the zone at all though.

[Flames24Rulz]

Defense looked very Slowik-esque tonight.

[Siefer]

-= original quote snipped =-



He goes from being a great CB to very mediocre in a zone. He just doesn't have the vision or quickness for it.

Excellent point. Harris is outstanding in man to man, because he takes his receiver out of the play early. He has gotten exposed in the zone more than once in his career, so it's confusing as to why Sanders kept throwing it out there. We went away from what works tonight, and got completely schooled.

[SteveScheffler]

this game was all part of the master plan. we knew we were gonna get dallas again in the playoffs, this game doesnt put you out of superbowl contention, why exploit all the cowboys weaknesses and allow them to learn from them? when the nfc championship game comes, sanders will put it on them, and so will ted thompson.

[rilamann]

this game was all part of the master plan. we knew we were gonna get dallas again in the playoffs, this game doesnt put you out of superbowl contention, why exploit all the cowboys weaknesses and allow them to learn from them? when the nfc championship game comes, sanders will put it on them, and so will ted thompson.

You might be on to something here,I want to disagree with you but the play calling was realy strange & vanilla compared to what we've seen all year ecspecially on defense.

It almost seemed like the Packers plan in this game was to just stand there and let the Cowboys hit em clean in the mouth a couple times so that they (the Packers) could set up a vicious knockout sucker punch in January.

Heres my theory.

The Packers might have thought this would be a tough game to win with the D so banged up.So their thinking might have been why not let our banged up guys get healthy and use this game as sort of a practice game or a ''gameplan game'' while not showing Dallas our best hand/best plays/best gameplan.

The entire gameplan on both offense & defense was so strange it realy does make you wonder.

One thing that makes you wonder is what we saw on offense.On the Packers first drive they went with their usual spread it out short passing attack and it worked,granted we only got a FG but we moved the ball like we usualy do with those sets.

Then after that (untill Favre got hurt) we went totally away from it with Favre throwing Bombs and deep throws we havent realy seen this season,at least in those situations.It made zero sense.

Its like the Packers said ''cool the short passing attack works vs these guys but lets not show them our best hand,instead lets test their secondary and see what might or might not work vs these guys on offense.

On defnese the Packers played vanilla defnese,pretty much played a prevent the entire game.

They didn't play the style of defense they have played all year.And the Packers made zero adjustments on D when the 4 man rush and zone wasnt working,strange.And the Packers where going with a 4 man rush and zone on almost every play.

MM isnt the type of coach that sticks with something if its not working and he's pretty solid at making adjustments.Even if they wanted to try the 4 man rush & zone defense they would have scrapped it by halftime,but they didn't.Did our entire coaching staff that lead this team to a 10-1 record going into this game suddenly become fools? I don't think so.

Lets say Dallas looks at film from this game to work on a gameplan in january should there be a rematch,there will be no film with Woodson,KGB,Jolly,Cole,Rouse out there.

There will also be no film of the Packers showing their best hand on defense with the players that played.

The Packers didn't blitz at all and went with a zone.If the Cowboys use film from this game based on how we played D in this game and then we play agressive D with all our guys healthy in Janaury we are going to knock their ass off.

The Packers based on thier approach just didn't seem to play this game to win but rather to test what would and wouldnt work vs Dallas while not showing Dallas their best hand.

On the flipside Dallas seemed to be realy be geared up to win this game and play great,now the Packers will have some useful film on them.

And the injury situation kind of makes you scratch your head from this prespective,MM said Woodson & KGB would have played if it was a playoff game.But if the Packers put any stock in this game wouldnt they approach it like a playoff game with homefield pretty much at stake?

I know some will shoot this down as crazy talk or maybe sour grapes,Hell I wanna say that myself but the way the Packers approached and played this game I can't help but think this might have been part of a master plan.

Tonights game might have very well been a decoy game and foundation of a championship caliber gameplan for the NFC Championship,just from the impression I have gotten from MM & TT it wouldnt shock me one bit.

[El Duderino]

I don't really buy that rilamann, Bob Sanders just almost never blitzes. For this season he really hasn't had to blitz because in most games the front four gets to the QB.

The injury to KGB was a double whammy on passing downs. On those downs KGB comes in and Jenkins slides to tackle next to Williams. With KGB out, Jenkins spent the whole game at end. So we not only lost the pass rush of KGB off the edge, we lost the pass rush ability Jenkins bring at DT. Mix in Dallas has a good line, Romo could read a book before deciding who to throw to.

That's why in was bothered by Sanders yesterday. He's been fortunate this year that the front four gets pressure without needing to blitz. It wasn't working yesterday though and he failed to adjust and to try and see if something else would work better.

Biggest frustration for me in the game yesterday