Film Study - A Brief Look at Cowboys vs Vikings
Nov 2, 2021 18:29:32 GMT -6
Reignman, Funkytown, and 3 more like this
Post by Danchat on Nov 2, 2021 18:29:32 GMT -6
I wanted to take an in-depth look at the Vikings-Cowboys game using the Sideline/Endzone camera on NFL's Game Pass, but unfortunately I found it limited. You can only view a handful of the plays with the zoomed-out view, so this Film Study is going to be short and incomplete, but I would like to show what I saw. I've got a couple of screenshots and a couple of .gifs. The screenshots didn't come out looking great because Game Pass darkens the screen when paused... so that's an annoyance.
"Checkdown Blues"
Here is a checkdown to Alex Mattison for a loss of 2 yards. Micah Parsons was patiently waiting for Kirk to throw it there, and he made an easy clean up tackle. Nobody else is open, but Kirk has a large running lane open with Darrisaw flanked to the left. There are better options than throwing a bad checkdown to your backup RB covered by an elite LB - step up and buy time for the WRs, scramble and get 7-9 yards, or just throw it away. All were better options on this play.
"Locked In On Mediocrity"
This play did not go well from the snap, but Kirk has Thielen wide open. The play looks brilliant if he just lobs it in over the LBs, who were following his eyes and saw the awful checkdown to Ham coming (loss of 4 yards). Osborn looked open, but there was a safety deep off-screen, so a throw to him in double coverage would not be a good idea.
This play looked like a screen to Ham with Darrisaw and Ham both chipping a block on DE Chauncey Golston, but they collided and slowed the screen down. LG Ezra Cleveland abandoned the left side to assist Bradbury, whom had Udoh doing nothing to his right. This looked like a failure to execute on someone's part - if this is a screen to Ham, why isn't Bradbury part of it? And if it isn't, what the heck is Darrisaw and Ham doing?
"Nowhere To Go"
In contrast to the last two, here's a 3rd down where Kirk throws the ball short to Cook, but the OL did not hold up long enough and he is not going to make that throw to Thielen in that arm angle. I don't fault him on this one.
"Breeland Sucks"
Amari Cooper gains a good 8 yards of separation after reaping Breeland's soul. Bashaud is lucky that A) Rush's throw was bad and B) Woods is there to clean the play up. Breeland is cooked and never should have been starting ahead of Dantzler, but here we are.
That is all I have, since time is limited and I couldn't get much from NFL Game Pass. A couple lessons I noted:
1) When pressure comes, Kirk telegraphs his throws. Micah Parsons and the Cowboys' DBs simply had to watch Kirk's head and they knew where the ball was going. It was notable that Jefferson wasn't getting as open as he usually did, but the Cowboys' secondary played like they were facing a backup QB.
2) Having a scrambling QB makes a huge difference - there were other plays where Kirk had a chance to step up and escape the pocket, and being a pocket passer allows the defense to put an extra man in coverage that would normally have to be a spy on the QB. Lamar Jackson and others have the luxury of having teams account for their running ability, thus allowing more room for plays to be made.
3) Kirk wins this game if he has Dallas' OL. Rush did not play all that well, but his mistakes (like a few noodle-arm throws) were masked by a really good WR group, and an OL that protected him from making more mistakes. Still, on the Vikings' side of things, continually fielding a bad OL with a super expensive QB who can't overcome it is a fatal flaw that will prevent this team from doing any real damage.
4) Really random note, but I think the Cowboys were foolish to stop using Tony Pollard in the second half (unless he got hurt?), as I think he's the more dynamic back and Zeke wasn't doing much in the 2nd half until that inexplicable catch and run. Pollard was the one who scored the long TD on the Chris Jones "give up" tackle in last year's matchup.
Any thoughts?
"Checkdown Blues"
Here is a checkdown to Alex Mattison for a loss of 2 yards. Micah Parsons was patiently waiting for Kirk to throw it there, and he made an easy clean up tackle. Nobody else is open, but Kirk has a large running lane open with Darrisaw flanked to the left. There are better options than throwing a bad checkdown to your backup RB covered by an elite LB - step up and buy time for the WRs, scramble and get 7-9 yards, or just throw it away. All were better options on this play.
"Locked In On Mediocrity"
This play did not go well from the snap, but Kirk has Thielen wide open. The play looks brilliant if he just lobs it in over the LBs, who were following his eyes and saw the awful checkdown to Ham coming (loss of 4 yards). Osborn looked open, but there was a safety deep off-screen, so a throw to him in double coverage would not be a good idea.
This play looked like a screen to Ham with Darrisaw and Ham both chipping a block on DE Chauncey Golston, but they collided and slowed the screen down. LG Ezra Cleveland abandoned the left side to assist Bradbury, whom had Udoh doing nothing to his right. This looked like a failure to execute on someone's part - if this is a screen to Ham, why isn't Bradbury part of it? And if it isn't, what the heck is Darrisaw and Ham doing?
"Nowhere To Go"
In contrast to the last two, here's a 3rd down where Kirk throws the ball short to Cook, but the OL did not hold up long enough and he is not going to make that throw to Thielen in that arm angle. I don't fault him on this one.
"Breeland Sucks"
Amari Cooper gains a good 8 yards of separation after reaping Breeland's soul. Bashaud is lucky that A) Rush's throw was bad and B) Woods is there to clean the play up. Breeland is cooked and never should have been starting ahead of Dantzler, but here we are.
That is all I have, since time is limited and I couldn't get much from NFL Game Pass. A couple lessons I noted:
1) When pressure comes, Kirk telegraphs his throws. Micah Parsons and the Cowboys' DBs simply had to watch Kirk's head and they knew where the ball was going. It was notable that Jefferson wasn't getting as open as he usually did, but the Cowboys' secondary played like they were facing a backup QB.
2) Having a scrambling QB makes a huge difference - there were other plays where Kirk had a chance to step up and escape the pocket, and being a pocket passer allows the defense to put an extra man in coverage that would normally have to be a spy on the QB. Lamar Jackson and others have the luxury of having teams account for their running ability, thus allowing more room for plays to be made.
3) Kirk wins this game if he has Dallas' OL. Rush did not play all that well, but his mistakes (like a few noodle-arm throws) were masked by a really good WR group, and an OL that protected him from making more mistakes. Still, on the Vikings' side of things, continually fielding a bad OL with a super expensive QB who can't overcome it is a fatal flaw that will prevent this team from doing any real damage.
4) Really random note, but I think the Cowboys were foolish to stop using Tony Pollard in the second half (unless he got hurt?), as I think he's the more dynamic back and Zeke wasn't doing much in the 2nd half until that inexplicable catch and run. Pollard was the one who scored the long TD on the Chris Jones "give up" tackle in last year's matchup.
Any thoughts?
... and neither is this Chris guy.