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Blognostication Review or "Analyzing the Analysis"

Jimbo

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After watching the game today, I went back to my blognostication to see how my analysis stacked up with the final result. Other than naming the wrong QB, which I obviously didn't know at the time, much of it held up.

When the Redskins have the ball.

Blog: Our O-Line will have to fend off what will likely be a fierce pass rush. Winning the field position and time of possession battles will be key.

Result: Rex was sacked 5 times and knocked down countless others yet the O-Line actually gave him time to throw on numerous occasions, considering he threw the ball 43 times. We didn't really win the field position battle and Dallas had the ball almost 11 minutes longer than the Skins.

Blog: That means Ryan Torain will need to be able to run the ball effectively enough to allow play-action to work. Once in the Red Zone, the Offense will HAVE to score TD’s, and NOT FG’s, in order to win.

Result: Torain only carried the ball 11 times but averaged 4.8 YPC, enough to keep the Dallas D from teeing off on Rex more often. Four TD's and NO field goals DEFINITELY gave us a chance to win. GREAT Red Zone execution.

Blog: Kyle Shanahan’s playcalling will need to be a hell of a lot more imaginative than it has been and he’d better have a few tricks up his sleeve. Donovan McNabb simply CAN’T turn the ball over and give Dallas a short field.

Result: Hard to tell if it was the playcalling or Rex's execution that made things look better. The reverses and fake reverses early on prevented Dallas from overloading and forced them to stay home. That gave Rex a little extra time. The calls in the Red Zone seemed better this week. While it wasn't McNabb, Rex gave Dallas a short field on two occasions, once on a pick and once on a fumble. Those proved to be costly.


When the Evil Empire has the ball.

Blog: Jason Garrett has committed to running the ball and effectively mixing in play-action.

Result: Dallas ran the ball 31 times and passed 37 times. This allowed Kitna to effectively use play-action.

Blog: Jon Kitna is deadly in the 3-step drop and has really developed a fondness for Jason Witten. If T.O. was jealous of Tony Romo’s affair with him, he’d downright HATE Kitna.

Result: Kitna used the 3-step drop extensively today and connected with Witten 10 times out of 15 looks (if I counted correctly). Several times, the Skins extended those 3-step drops and forced Kitna to look elsewhere. That was enough to disrupt things at times.

Blog: Our D-Line will have its hands full as it needs to not only stop the run but try to pressure Kitna. Almost 75% of his pass attempts are ten yards or less.

Result: I wasn't able to keep accurate track of this stat but it looked to me like the 75% number held true this game as well, other than the few times he went downfield to Witten. Those 3 and 5-step drops made it difficult to pressure Kitna as he was only sacked twice. Orakpo going out may have had something to do with that. As for stopping the run, well.....31/134 and 4.3 average is NOT stopping the run.

Blog: Our LB’s will have to keep Witten from getting open down the middle of the field while our secondary has to keep everything underneath and prevent the big play while limiting the number of plays over 20 yards. That means eliminating YAC (yards after catch) and the way our secondary has been tackling lately, that’s a major concern.

Result: This was huge. Witten was able to get open pretty much everywhere, including down the middle. He had three catches of over 20 yards while the Boys equaled the Skins 5 plays over 20. While our Defense was able to keep things underneath for the most part, and the tackling was pretty good, one poor decision by Deangelo Hall to go for the pick instead of the tackle, on the TD pass to Witten, was the difference between a TD and a FG.


Special Teams.

Blog: Prevent big returns and keep Dallas as deep in their own territory as possible. Eliminate stupid penalties and mistakes and give Banks a chance to make a play that counts.

Result: This proved costly in the first quarter as our Special Teams made Brian McCann look like a Pro Bowler. We WERE able to eliminate stupid penalties. Those actually fell on the Boys this time. Quite the surprise since they just don't get called for that stuff at home. Unfortunately, we weren't able to give Banks a chance to make a play since McBriar only punted twice and David "Ferris" Buehler's strong leg prevented the big kickoff return.


Out on a limb prediction – We will see a trick play from our Special Teams and no, it won’t be the swinging gate.

Result: Cutting Hunter the Punter ensured that wouldn't happen.


More likely prediction – One of McNabb’s passes will be returned by the Dallas secondary for a TD.

Result: It wasn't McNabb, but Grossman's pick in the first half was an "almost". :(


Even more likely prediction – As is usual with almost ALL Dallas home games, penalty flags, lack thereof, and disputed/controversial calls will go the home team’s way. We will all initially be angry but will shake our heads when we come to the conclusion it’s simply par for the course this season.

Result: Wasn't even CLOSE on this one which is a bit of a shock. Boys has 9 penalties for 70 yards while the Skins were only flagged 3 times for 25 yards, although the roughing the QB call was total BS.


I predicted a 27-16 victory for the Boys. While the result was correct, we had a much better shot than I expected. Ultimately, two costly turnovers (I won't count the last one), a costly drop by Santana and that crappy 3-4 Defense and no pressure on the QB did us in.

I was proud of the comeback though. Even though we lost, I don't have as bad a taste in my mouth as I originally thought.

The last three games might even be interesting. :cheers:
 
you were pretty bang on Jimbo, the core was better than you thought but the way the cowpies kept trying to give it to us it would have been nice to capitalise.

This 3-4 is so frustrating because I wonder what we could do with a real DC who runs a real scheme suited to his players.

Kitna? really?
 
Is this a self-applause thread? LOL. :banhim:

Boys has 9 penalties for 70 yards while the Skins were only flagged 3 times for 25 yards, although the roughing the QB call was total BS.

Both roughing calls were BS - we got one and they got one.
 
Lanky, this, I think, is more a self-analysis thread-something I do a lot of myself as a check on my thinking and to make sure I don't get to cocksure of my own judgement.

Jimbo, Our scoring drives didn't eat up much clock-we were operating pretty efficiently on those which I think helps explain the TOP difference and, perusing the game stats, one stat jumped out at me.

Redzone efficiency. We held Dallas to a 3-7 42% red zone percentage and 2-5 40% goal-to-go which was very good while we, almost unbelievably, managed 4-4 for 100% redzone and 3-3 100% goal-to-go percentages.

The two consecutive two-point conversions were fun to watch and trying that may be something we might want to consider making more use of in the future.
 
Blog: Kyle Shanahan’s playcalling will need to be a hell of a lot more imaginative than it has been and he’d better have a few tricks up his sleeve. Donovan McNabb simply CAN’T turn the ball over and give Dallas a short field.

Result: Hard to tell if it was the playcalling or Rex's execution that made things look better. The reverses and fake reverses early on prevented Dallas from overloading and forced them to stay home. That gave Rex a little extra time. The calls in the Red Zone seemed better this week. While it wasn't McNabb, Rex gave Dallas a short field on two occasions, once on a pick and once on a fumble. Those proved to be costly.
I think what really affected this was McNabb's unwillingness/inability to change and fully pick up the offense. According to Sally Jenkins, Shanny Jr. had been limiting the offense to accommodate McNabb. I think we saw the results of the offense having Shanny Jr.'s full playbook available yesterday.
 
you were pretty bang on Jimbo, the core was better than you thought but the way the cowpies kept trying to give it to us it would have been nice to capitalise.

This 3-4 is so frustrating because I wonder what we could do with a real DC who runs a real scheme suited to his players.

Kitna? really?


defense was bad yesterday...but you have to concede.....the goal-line D has been good all season long. a major inmprovement over previous seasons.
 
I think what really affected this was McNabb's unwillingness/inability to change and fully pick up the offense. According to Sally Jenkins, Shanny Jr. had been limiting the offense to accommodate McNabb. I think we saw the results of the offense having Shanny Jr.'s full playbook available yesterday.

hey Y...long time no hear! It may be more basic...McNabb just couldn't throw a short pass. How in thw world did that click with Westbrook in Philly?!!!!
 
defense was bad yesterday...but you have to concede.....the goal-line D has been good all season long. a major inmprovement over previous seasons.


I think thats a function of players playing with more emotion, one thing I will credit haslett with is he gets guys ready to play, thats always been his strength. I also think adding holliday helps, he is a big strong guy to have at end even if hes lost his explosion he still has strength.
 
hey Y...long time no hear! It may be more basic...McNabb just couldn't throw a short pass. How in thw world did that click with Westbrook in Philly?!!!!


FS in my wtf thread about Mcrapp I brought up that the fecals ran a lot of empty packages where westbrook was matched against linebackers in space, yet often the balls were so poorly thrown that instead of homeruns he would get 5-10 yards, he had great hands and ability so he would catch a lot of high, short, behind him type passes that Mcrapp throws on short passes. they also had him run a lot more slants and outs, which Mcrapp seems to throw far better than the passes requiring touch.
 
Redzone efficiency. We held Dallas to a 3-7 42% red zone percentage and 2-5 40% goal-to-go which was very good while we, almost unbelievably, managed 4-4 for 100% redzone and 3-3 100% goal-to-go percentages.

The two consecutive two-point conversions were fun to watch and trying that may be something we might want to consider making more use of in the future.

Our Red Zone and Goal Line defense looks a LOT like our old 4-3. The players we have seem to play better when there is less space for them to roam. That tells me they are STILL having issues adapting to the 3-4. Unfortunately, I think this will be a slow, arduous process. Still, stuffing them at the goal line was a great thing to see.

Love the two-point conversions, especially the one to Sellers. Nice job of selling the run. Next time Rex, don't wait so darn long to get Cooley involved.

As for the the thread itself, I just wanted to see if the results of the game matched up with what I initially thought would be important and needed to happen. Sometimes the predictions match up and, more often in my case, they don't. One thing I didn't initially mention was winning the turnover battle. It was a key factor. We lost that battle and that was a main factor in us losing the game.
 
One thing I didn't initially mention was winning the turnover battle. It was a key factor. We lost that battle and that was a main factor in us losing the game.

You just brought up something that's been bugging the crap out of me. We started the season getting the turnover advantage on a pretty consistent basis and it indeed was a factor in the games we won and then our ability to do that just seemed to "go South" and I've been trying to figure out why that has happened.
 
You just brought up something that's been bugging the crap out of me. We started the season getting the turnover advantage on a pretty consistent basis and it indeed was a factor in the games we won and then our ability to do that just seemed to "go South" and I've been trying to figure out why that has happened.


Serv (I'm just gonna follow you around like a puppy today and respond to your posts :)), I have wondered the same thing. I wonder if maybe it is a result of opposing teams getting more film on us as the season has worn on. Zorn's offense was unstoppable for 6 games, until teams figured out what we were doing, and then it was whatever the opposite of unstoppable is. Very-stoppable? Easily-stopped?

Anyway, the other factor is Landry's injury. For the first time in years, Landry was being played correctly, and was wreaking havoc on the field. There was legit talk of putting him in the same category of safety as Polamalu, Reed, etc. Once he went down, I think our D took a huge step back, particularly in the turnovers dept.
 
I've wondered about the same thing Serv. It wouldn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that our offense was/is extremely limited and that if you coach your guys to NOT turn over the ball on pain of death, it would greatly increase your chances of beating us. Then subtract Landry from our lineup and the ability of opposing players to actually comply with that coaching directive got much, much easier.
 
we got a lot of turnovers early because teams played us as though we were playing sound football. thats the thing about playing unsound, you can get turnovers because you are doing something unexpected but once teams figure that out, they will attack those spots and get yardage easily. Eagles game one vs game 2 is a case n point, they didnt adjust well in game but with a week to prepare they knew where to attack easily.
 
we got a lot of turnovers early because teams played us as though we were playing sound football. thats the thing about playing unsound, you can get turnovers because you are doing something unexpected but once teams figure that out, they will attack those spots and get yardage easily. Eagles game one vs game 2 is a case n point, they didnt adjust well in game but with a week to prepare they knew where to attack easily.

I have to say I tend to agree with you, ryman, on this point. For a while I've been thinking that early on the team was frustrating to watch because everyone seemed confused in the new systems-both offense and defense. It was bothersome to fans because we acted on the field in an almost chaotic and unpredictable manner. The thing was that that very chaos was also confusing opposing HCs, OCs and DCs making it harder for them to scheme against us. The system installation approach seems to have been a piece-by-piece "get the simple components down first and then we start on the more complicated stuff" mode and as the "simple stuff" started becoming more the norm the norm became easier to scheme against simply because there was a normal mode of play.

Another issue I wonder about is the fact that not all players are going to pick up an understanding of a new system at the same rate or to the same level of understanding in the same time-frame and thus what might become nearly automatic to player A on defense after 7 or 8 games is still requiring a level of conscious thought by player B and if player A's ability to function is partially dependent upon player B's ability to function that can cause problems. I guess what I'm saying is that the combination of personnel upgrading combined with new system installation and assimilation is not going to be a one-or even two-season affair.

And fans are not usually known for being terribly patient....especially if they've been deprived of success for an extended period of time.
 

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