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August, 11, 2010
By Calvin Watkins
IRVING, Texas -- The Cowboys went 0-3 in the red zone with the first-team settling for a field goal in the preseason opener.
Last season, the Cowboys converted just 52 percent of their opportunities in the red zone.
If the Cowboys expect to get better in this area, several things have to happen:
1. Jason Witten needs to become a pass catcher instead of a blocker again. Last year, Witten blocked more inside the red zone because teams provided pressure, and it forced Tony Romo to hurry some of his throws.
Romo noted in the preseason opener that the Bengals came after him a lot on the first drive, including on two passes directed toward Roy Williams in the red zone.
"It's funny, Cincinnati, I think we looked at it pressured like over half the snaps," Romo said. "You're not going to see that much in 14 of the 16 games of the regular season. For the first preseason game, that was good. It was good for us to handle it, we picked up a couple of things that we hadn't even seen in training camp."
2. Sometimes, it's about the play call. Nothing against the Cowboys throwing two passes at Williams in the red zone on Sunday, but on a regular basis the team has to become more physical. Dallas has to run the ball more so defenses can respect it. If everyone knows you're going to pass most of the time, then you get in trouble.
"You want to score, but other than that we were moving the ball alright," Miles Austin said. "We did some good things and we did some bad things we just got to correct it."
The Cowboys will be short-handed Thursday, with only one tight end who has command of the offense in Witten. Newly signed tight end DajLeon Farr is limited in what he knows and fullback Chris Gronkowski is playing tight end in small doses.
Tight ends coach John Garrett said Farr and Gronkowski know a handful of plays, just enough so that when they see a specific formation, they have one or two assignments to carry out.
The Cowboys won't show their entire offensive package, especially in the red zone and with the tight end depth an issue, scoring inside the 20 could be problematic.
"I know it’s a fine line because you always want to be perfect but we also can't," Romo said. "It's not smart to go out there and do all the stuff, you’ve taken the approach in the offseason, and show [in the games]. So I'm sure we’ll stay vanilla and we still want to execute with that. If you fall short of that, it's part of the team learning and you can get better the next time you go out there."
By Calvin Watkins
IRVING, Texas -- The Cowboys went 0-3 in the red zone with the first-team settling for a field goal in the preseason opener.
Last season, the Cowboys converted just 52 percent of their opportunities in the red zone.
If the Cowboys expect to get better in this area, several things have to happen:
1. Jason Witten needs to become a pass catcher instead of a blocker again. Last year, Witten blocked more inside the red zone because teams provided pressure, and it forced Tony Romo to hurry some of his throws.
Romo noted in the preseason opener that the Bengals came after him a lot on the first drive, including on two passes directed toward Roy Williams in the red zone.
"It's funny, Cincinnati, I think we looked at it pressured like over half the snaps," Romo said. "You're not going to see that much in 14 of the 16 games of the regular season. For the first preseason game, that was good. It was good for us to handle it, we picked up a couple of things that we hadn't even seen in training camp."
2. Sometimes, it's about the play call. Nothing against the Cowboys throwing two passes at Williams in the red zone on Sunday, but on a regular basis the team has to become more physical. Dallas has to run the ball more so defenses can respect it. If everyone knows you're going to pass most of the time, then you get in trouble.
"You want to score, but other than that we were moving the ball alright," Miles Austin said. "We did some good things and we did some bad things we just got to correct it."
The Cowboys will be short-handed Thursday, with only one tight end who has command of the offense in Witten. Newly signed tight end DajLeon Farr is limited in what he knows and fullback Chris Gronkowski is playing tight end in small doses.
Tight ends coach John Garrett said Farr and Gronkowski know a handful of plays, just enough so that when they see a specific formation, they have one or two assignments to carry out.
The Cowboys won't show their entire offensive package, especially in the red zone and with the tight end depth an issue, scoring inside the 20 could be problematic.
"I know it’s a fine line because you always want to be perfect but we also can't," Romo said. "It's not smart to go out there and do all the stuff, you’ve taken the approach in the offseason, and show [in the games]. So I'm sure we’ll stay vanilla and we still want to execute with that. If you fall short of that, it's part of the team learning and you can get better the next time you go out there."