Romo's Many Targets Pose Threat to Packers Secondary
For as good as Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers' season was in 2014, there's a case that the Dallas Cowboys' top passer, Tony Romo, had a better year.
In the efficiency metric most used for quarterbacks, passer rating, Romo posted a 113.2 score for the season, one point better than Rodgers' 112.2 effort. In ESPN's QBR statistic, the Dallas thrower hit the 82.7 mark, 0.1 better than Rodgers' 82.6.
From a film standpoint, it's fairly obvious that the Packers have the most astonishing talent in the league dropping back for the squad, but the statistics do tell a story. Romo and the Cowboys are a threat in the air.
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Against the Detroit Lions last week in the Wild Card Round, the team proved so. Down 14-0 at home in the first quarter, Dallas never quit. Romo put up 293 yards and two scores, including the winning touchdown to put the Cowboys up 24-20.
One of the reasons the team is so dangerous through the air is new offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, who was previously known as the head coach of the St. Louis Rams. Linehan, who is peaking the interest of teams in need of a head coach, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, has done wonders for Romo and the offense in general.
To put it simply, someone is always open in the scheme. With teams compensating for the strong run game, headed by DeMarco Murray, who broke the franchise record for rushing yards this season, the lanes in the passing game have opened up.
Against the Lions, Romo's four premier targets all made game-changing plays.
The first came by way of Cole Beasley, the Cowboys' third-year slot receiver from Southern Methodist, a Dallas university.
On 3rd-and-10, an obvious passing situation, the Lions felt safe enough from a run threat to combat the Dallas 11 personnel set with two high safeties. Beasley, in the slot with tight end Jason Witten, would run a deep out route on the play.
Typically, two high safeties signifies Cover 2, which means each one of them would have the deep half of the field he was lined up on. As long as another passing target occupied them, Beasley could run underneath in what is assumed man-to-man coverage.
That's essentially what happened. With the great Cowboys offensive line stalling the defense five yards behind the line of scrimmage, Romo had time to get the pass off, too.
Hit and caught in stride, there's nothing more a defender could have done to prevent the first-down conversion.
The next key 3rd-and-long conversion came by way of Witten. Lined up in the slot next to Beasley, he ran a concept route known as "seams to win." Running a straight vertical route would have him as one of the seams when facing a Cover 3 defense, but this route has an adjustment. His job was to get open, so he only was supposed to take the route vertically until he had clear space inside to make a reception.
Romo had to break from his pocket on this play, rolling to the left side of the field, not an ideal spot for a right-handed quarterback. Luckily, Witten on the "win" portion of the route was slated to break inside, which was also the left. On a bit of a scramble drill, the tight end had a head start.
The two connected, hitting on a chunk play to convert the first down to end the first quarter.
It wasn't until later in the game that the boundary receivers began to make an impact, but their performances may have mattered the most.
Dallas needed 12 yards here, and Detroit consistently came out with the same look pre-snap: Cover 2. The weakness of that defense is hitting between the safeties deep, as the safeties tend to swing toward the sideline, where the vertical-threat targets are.
For this play, Terrance Williams, the Z receiver, ran what looked like a short post. In man-to-man coverage in Cover 2, cornerbacks are taught to send receivers inside and protect the outside area deep. This means running their vertical threat right into the safety's zone. If the passing target made the right angle after the catch, though, he could split the two deep assigned defenders for a score.
When the cornerback missed the tackle after Williams' reception, he had two defenders to beat before a footrace. One was a linebacker covering Witten, who still hadn't turned back around to the ball, and the other was a downhill safety. If he could shake the two and get to the left sideline, there was a chance for six points.
Taking the ball for 76 yards, he did just that. The potential for the Cowboys to completely bust conservative coverage on 3rd-and-long for a heartbreaking score is exactly why their passing game needs to be taken so seriously.
The last of Romo's favorite targets might just be the best on the squad: Dez Bryant. He is usually a boundary receiver, but as flexible as his game is, the Cowboys try to mix his spot around. Here, he's a slot receiver, needing 10 yards to keep their hopes alive down 13 in the third quarter.
A mesh concept play, one in nearly every playbook in the NFL, was the call. For it, both Bryant and Witten, the nearest slot target from the left side, ran shallow crossing patterns.
The plan was to use Bryant's "make you miss" potential in space. As a slot target, he was matched up against a linebacker. When securing the catch, Bryant came down to the ground still a step ahead of the defender. The only thing standing between a first down and a four-yard gain six yards short of a conversion was an extraordinary effort from the singled-out Lion.
Not able to make the play, the linebacker was left behind. Bryant, on the other hand, willed his way to yardage. After overcoming more and more defenders, he was finally brought down around the 10-yard line. He earned more than 35 yards on the play after contact.
The Packers secondary has been banged up at times this season. Green Bay's rookie safety, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, is still fairly inexperienced for a defensive back at the next level. The entire secondary will need to play as perfect of a game as it can imagine to not only stall Romo's air assault but do so well enough to allow maximum effort in the run game from the front-seven defenders, who might be facing the best offensive line and running back in the league as well.
A heavyweight fight of elite offenses is slated for Lambeau Field on Sunday. It's on Green Bay's defense to avoid getting knocked out. Just a few days ago, the Cowboys left another NFC North squad down for the count.
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