Jon Gruden NFL Monday Night Football Fact Check – Week 3

Welcome to week three of the 2011 Jon Gruden NFL Monday Night Football Fact Check. A division rivalry in Cowboys Stadium? Tony Romo? Mike Shanahan? Rob Ryan? This could have all the makings of a great Gruden game.

So, with apologies to the people who read this to see what crazy nonsense Gruden says each week, he wasn't so bad on Monday. Alas, we present the Jon Gruden NFL Monday Night Football Fact Check – Week 3.

FIRST QUARTER

All in all a clean first quarter for Gruden, again focusing more on analyzing coverages than wowing the audience with inane statistics and effusive praise of players and coaches. He did get in a little early love for Tim Hightower, however:

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"This Tim Hightower is a perfect fit for this Redskins offense. I call him my AC/DC back. Every run is hard. He finishes. He's had 48 carries coming into the game which is tops in the NFC. He's never seen the ball as much as he's seen it these first two weeks in Washington."

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I'm Thunderstruck, but Gruden is right about Hightower. The most carries he had in one game was 22 and he never had more than 18 in any other game. So far, for Washington, Hightower has been a power-load. He's dynamite. Early on, it felt like he was abusing every one of them and running wild; them being the Cowboys defenders, of course. Not only that, but Hightower seemed to be shaking defenders all night long, like a fast machine, of sorts. Running, catching passes and blocking: doing all of Washington's Dirty Deeds.

After a forced fumble late in the quarter, Gruden gave us this: "Laron Landry…can play." Fact.

With just over a minute to play in the first quarter, Gruden said, "[the] Cowboys just substituted three more defenders. Rob Ryan mixes his personnel on defense more than any coach I've seen in the NFL."

I don't want to say this isn't provable, but for the purposes of this assignment, I'm not going to try and prove or disprove the fact. I put it here to illustrate that he could have said Rob Ryan mixes his personnel "a lot" or "extremely well" or using any number of phrases that aren't as superlative as what he used. He may be right. But a team in Ryan's division, the Philadelphia Eagles, has been rotating eight linemen and often play nickel in run situations. The point is, a lot of teams use a lot of personnel. If Gruden was doing an Eagles game or a Ravens game or a Steelers game or any number of teams, he might have said the same thing about them.

SECOND QUARTER

Gruden was very high on both defensive coordinators last night, saying this about the Redskins' play caller:

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"Jim Haslett, the defensive coordinator, he's driving quarterbacks crazy with his third down defense…the Redskins are number one in the NFL on third-down defense."

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Fact.

Fact! And yet, less than a minute later, he glossed over history:

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"Tirico: The Dallas Cowboys have not had a run over eight yards all year and they are desperately trying to find a running game to help out Tony Romo here tonight. The head coach (pictured at the time) calls the plays."

"Gruden: Yeah, and the offensive line coach is Hudson Houck, he's been here since the glory years."

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Houck was in Dallas during the glory years, but certainly not since the glory years. He left Dallas in 2001 and coached in San Diego and Miami before returning to Dallas in 2008.

I've never been a football coach, but this confuses me:

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"They can run the same blitz from four different packages. I mean, he'll tell three guys on the sidelines. 'we're going to run the same blitz we ran on the last play but you three guys are coming and you three guys are dropping.' Lot of good stuff."

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If you're dropping three guys and three different guys are coming, doesn't that make it a different blitz? How is that the same blitz? I don't understand this, and I'm willing to admit I just don't understand football coaches. It's the same, but different. That would make it different.

Midway through the quarter, effusive Gruden came back, saying this about Redskins backup running back Roy Helu:

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"It must be slippery down there because normally Helu sticks that left foot in the ground and he's off to the races."

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Normally? How would he know? The guy has played three games in the NFL. Maybe he saw some preseason games and maybe he saw some college tape, but I find it hard to believe that Gruden would have any idea what Helu – or any rookie with 11 career rushes a three catches – would "normally" do.

THIRD QUARTER

The third quarter was Jason Witten time!

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"That's just a great job by Jason Witten. He knew exactly where that stake was. He drives off the ball, backs the defender off him and secures the first down. He knows exactly where to get to.

"What I love about Witten is when they need him the most, he plays his best. And he can catch the ball and protect it. You see him snatch that ball and put it away? Great football player. His name will be in the rafters someday."

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I'm not sure Witten will be in the rafters, as the Cowboys have a total of zero tight ends in their Ring of Honor, but he sure is great. Not only was Gruden right that he plays his best when the team needs him the most, according to his splits, he plays the game at his best all the time! He's incredibly consistent.

By the way, when did Monday Night Football start showing on Animal Planet?

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"I like this Redskin offensive line. They used to have the Hogs. I don't know what you call these guys; the huntin' dogs? They're a little lighter. They're more athletic than they've been. Everybody fits this scheme. They come off, it's like elephants on a parade. They get on their man, they work as hard on the back side as they do their play side and third and short."

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So are they hunting dogs or are they elephants, because those are two really different animals. Either way, they aren't as good as Gruden thinks. The Redskins are 12^th in the league in rushing yards per attempt (3.7) and yards per game (103.7). They are 23^rd in the league in sacks allowed and 26^th in quarterback hits.

FOURTH QUARTER

Another close game didn't leave much time for Gruden to loosen up the tie (and the facts). He did a really good job during the fourth quarter. There were just two nitpicky points to discuss.

First, the overenthusiastic love of Mike Shanahan continued, talking about how much character is important to him:

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"Mike Shanahan's done a great job acquiring quality players and quality people. He doesn't just keep his best 53 players. He's going to keep the right 53 players. Character guy, believes in character football players. And he's been an innovator of offense for a long time."

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Maybe Mike Shanahan cares about character now, but it's hard to believe he cared too much about it in Denver. Travis Henry was a bad character guy in Denver but only got cut when he was too hurt to help the team. Todd Sauerbrun? Maurice Clarett? Heck, you can go back as far as Dale Carter. That guy sure was a character.

With under two minutes to go in the game, Gruden challenged the Cowboys defense to win them a game, commenting on how terrible the defense was last year:

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"Here's where the Dallas Cowboys get an opportunity to show all that stuff they've been talking about. Rushing the passer, closing the game out, winning on defense. This was the most scored against defense in franchise last year. What a turnaround it would be if they could close out with their defense."

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Technically he's right. They were the most scored-upon defense in franchise history last year, if you count total points. The Cowboys gave up 436 points in 16 games in 2010 for an average of 27.75 points per game. That's atrocious.

Having said that, it's not the most point per game in franchise history. In 1962 the Cowboys allowed 402 points in 14 games, for an average of 28.71 per game. In 1960, the Cowboys gave up 369 points in 12 games, a whopping 30.75 points per game en route to an 0-11-1 season.

This defense isn't nearly that bad. And neither was Gruden this week.