Chalk Talk: Cowboys’ Base Offense Flourishes in Opener

The Cowboys didn’t show a lot of their playbook in their 61-7 win over Southeastern Louisiana, and no one expected them to, but they still gave us a good glimpse of what we could see in the future. Schematically, there is much room for optimism, and the Cowboys have appeared to change things up a bit in both the running and passing game. Here’s a quick week one analysis of the Cowboys’ win over the Lions.

Run Game

The Cowboys have appeared to put a focus on the zone running scheme. They almost exclusively used it against the Lions, either with an inside zone/zone slice or with the outside zone. It worked effectively in both their two-back offense and even in their heavy sets.

The offensive line operated well within the zone scheme, and the running backs, who have an improved vision from last year, also fared well. In addition to said vision, their cut-ability fits well and wouldn’t be as heavily utilized in the frequent gap-blocking schemes that the Pokes used last year.

One of the biggest gripes of the zone is that it doesn’t really have a counter play like gap schemes do with the power and counter. But the Cowboys showed a counter play of their own. The play, which they only showed once, was a designed cutback with a tackle pulling play-side and the buck cutting off the back-side end.

I for one have never seen a play exactly like that before. Kudos to the Cowboy coaching staff for drawing up something unique like that.

Packaged Plays

In addition to their base zone schemes, they had plenty of route or screen attachments. This allowed them to take advantage of the defense when they played out of position. If the defense didn’t cover the perimeter, the quarterback had an easy throw to a receiver in space.

But if the defense played base, it opened up the run lanes for the handoff.

They also used a packaged two-back stick-draw, where the quarterback had the option to throw to the quick stick route or hand it off on the delayed give. Options like this give the offense opportunities for easy yardage and allow the run game to be used only when the numbers are in their favor.

Passing Game

OSU kept the passing offense fairly simple, but showed variations of some of their base concepts.

The Cowboys used the shallow cross, for example, multiple times, but showed different versions. In the clip below, they used shallow from a 21 personnel, with Blake Jarwin dragging across the field for an easy 15-yard reception.

Both the back and tight ends are going out on routes, which puts tremendous stress against a defense in man coverage. Pair that with a play that is designed to beat zone coverage and you have a high-efficiency passing play.

In addition to their base swing screen, the Cowboys also showed a nifty dual screen play with Barry J. on the receiving end.

The defensive end played it well, but Barry was able to use his elusiveness to juke a couple of defenders on his way to an 18-yard reception.

Miscellaneous

• The Cowboys’ tempo was the highest it has been in a very, very long time. They were moving quickly with the first unit out there. That’s the fastest I’ve seen since the first quarter of the 2015 Texas game, and before that, the 2013 UTSA game. If they consistently use that kind of tempo this season, watch out.

• We mentioned in a recent article how the Cowboys could see more success with an altered blocking scheme for their jet sweeps. They only ran it once on Saturday, but it was with that ‘flash’ scheme that we mentioned, with the offensive line blocking away from the jet sweep. The line held the linebackers at bay, which allowed Washington to get to the edge.

• Both John Kolar and Taylor Cornelius were used in the quarterback run game but Rudolph was not. Will Rudolph be used as a dual-threat quarterback or were those just plays installed with the second and third-team QBs? I’m not sure, but it will be interesting to watch.

That was week 1’s analysis! Leave your opinions below in the comments!