Rod Marinelli, the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator, is not known for aggression in his play calling. He typically runs a lot of Cover 1 Man coverage using only four pass rushers. In this game, against the Washington Redskins, he dialed up the blitzes using free safety Barry Church off the edge while running one signature play-design: the Tackle-End (T-E) stunt.
This particular stunt produced two sacks and two tackles for loss for the Cowboys’ defense. Not to mention multiple quarterback hits. In this breakdown, we will dive deeper into the T-E stunt Rod Marinelli called that helped the Cowboys defeat the Redskins on Monday Night Football.
The first play we will take a look at is the first play of the game. The Redskins started at their own 20 yard line.
Play 1
1st and 10 at WSH 20
(15:00 - 1st) K.Cousins sacked at WAS 15 for -5 yards (D.Lawrence, B.Church)
- The Redskins line up in singleback with 11-personnel (1 running back - 1 tight end - 3 wide receivers) on the field.
- The Cowboys respond by replacing one of their linebackers with a defensive back in their nickle package and with lining up their defensive line in a 4-3 Under front.
- The Redskins run play-action after the snap with Cousins faking the handoff to running back #46 Alfred Morris.
- Tight end #86 Jordan Reed pulls across the formation to trap block #76 Greg Hardy.
- The Cowboys execute the T-E stunt with #98 T.Crawford immediately attacking the strongside B-gap, while #90 Lawrence loops around him aiming for the strongside A-gap, but due to the flow of the play he attacks the weakside A-gap.
- #42 Barry Church (off-screen in the image) rushes around the right tackle into the strongside C-gap to take on Morris in pass protection.
- Church bullrushes Morris backwards and meets Lawrence for the sack on Kirk Cousins.
Why does this stunt work so successfully? It works for multiple reasons:
- The release off the snap by #98 T.Crawford and the movement of the play as Crawford attacks the B-gap pulls three of the Redskins blockers (Moses, Scherff, and LeRibeus) into blocking him.
- The center, #67 LeRibeus, does not know that Lawrence is looping back inside or else he would not have committed to blocking Crawford in the combination block.
- The left guard, #61 Long, has a chance to block Lawrence, but he’s watching the backside B-gap to make sure no defender is penetrating. This opens the weakside A-gap hole between him and the center.
- Ironically, it was the Redskins’ trickery and play-action that opened the lanes for Marinelli to use Lawrence on the T-E stunt for the sack.
Let’s look at another T-E stunt by the Cowboys. This sack happened two plays later on 3rd and 6 with #90 DeMarcus Lawrence and is actually their best executed stunt they ran all game (in my opinion).
Play 2
3rd and 6 at WSH 24
(13:48 - 1st) (Shotgun) K.Cousins sacked at WAS 14 for -10 yards (D.Lawrence). FUMBLES (D.Lawrence), and recovers at WAS 14. K.Cousins to WAS 14 for no gain (R.Gregory)
- The Cowboys line up in a 4-3 Over Wide 9 front against the Redskins’ shotgun near formation.
- Just like in Play 1, the Cowboys substitute a linebacker for a defensive back to guard the three wide receiver set of the Redskins.
- After the snap, the Redskins’ offensive line drop back in a traditional pass protect using five men, while sending running back #31 Matt Jones on a 3×3 route as the checkdown receiver.
- #98 T.Crawford rushes towards the Redskins’ strongside B-gap again with his first three steps.
- #90 Lawrence is the looper on this T-E stunt rushing forward before cutting across the offensive line to penetrate the wide-open hole between the left guard and the center for the sack-strip fumble on Cousins.
- Cousins is able to recover the lost ball, but the damage is done making the Redskins go three-and-out.
Just like Play 1, this stunt worked for several reasons:
- First, the center and the left guard combination block #76 Greg Hardy, while #94 Randy Gregory rushes outside Trent Williams. Both of these pass rushers are nullified.
- Since the center helps block Hardy, this opens the hole for Lawrence to loop through.
- The most important part of this stunt is actually Crawford’s penetration. If you look at the second image (boxed in yellow), you can see rookie #75 Scherff turn his hips outside towards the penetrating defensive lineman. THIS is the key of the play.
- Once Lawrence sees Crawford’s helmet get past Scherff he knows to cut after stepping up the field towards Moses. Now, Scherff can’t block both, so he attempts to pass off Crawford to Moses, and then recover but it’s too late as Lawrence beats him inside.
The typical use of the stunt is on pass rushing plays, but it does have its uses in the run game.
Play 3
2nd and 7 at DAL 35
(11:59 - 1st) A.Morris left end to DAL 36 for -1 yards (N.Hayden)
- The Redskins run outside zone to the left against the Cowboys’ 4-3 Under front.
- The Cowboys run a stunt play-side while blitzing the free safety Barry Church play-side.
- This creates one-on-one matchups with the blockers, which is exactly what you want to counter the zone blocking scheme.
- The stunt creates penetration in the backfield which funnels Morris inside towards the A-gap for Hayden to take him down for a loss on the play.
Morgan Moses is left with an impossible solo block. Honestly, this is the part of the play that bothers me the most. #96 Hayden is certainly not a fast defensive lineman, but Moses has to come from the right tackle position to reach block a 2-tech defensive tackle. Show me one offensive tackle in the NFL that can do this successfully and I will be shocked. Predictably, he fails and this is why Morris is tackled in the backfield. How do you solve the offensive line issue with Moses? Scherff HAS to stay and combo-block Hayden to slow down the flow of the defensive lineman towards the play. Offensive lineman are taught to block first level, then second level. Scherff clearly is at fault here.
Play 4
1st and 10 at DAL 42
(2:32 - 2nd) (Shotgun) M.Jones up the middle to DAL 46 for -4 yards (G.Hardy)
In this play, the Redskins attempt to run a draw on 1st and 10 out of shotgun. Unfortunately, the Cowboys’ T-E stunt works to perfection again allowing Hardy to get the easiest tackle for loss of his entire career. Now draw plays work based on the expectation that the linebackers are dropping into coverage, while the defensive lineman rush outside and don’t stunt. The Cowboys already ran three stunts (by my count) this half alone… so why did the Redskins believe this play would work exactly? For me it’s realistically just a bad play call that got blown up by a well-timed/well-executed stunt.
The Cowboys’ third, and final, sack came on an A-gap blitz by linebacker #50 Sean Lee.
Play 5
3rd and 7 at WSH 31
(3:00 - 1st) (Shotgun) K.Cousins sacked at WAS 20 for -11 yards (S.Lee)
- The Cowboys blitz #50 Sean Lee through the strongside A-gap.
- Matt Jones is waiting for Sean Lee to pick-up the blitz correctly, but Sean Lee does something unexpected: he shoves left guard #61 Spencer Long to disengage him from blocking #76 Hardy.
- Now Matt Jones sees Hardy releasing freely into the backfield freshly disengaged from his block, so he blocks him completely disregarding Sean Lee who collects the sack on Cousins.
I don’t blame Jones for the sack. He was put in a 2-vs-1 situation and you are trained to attack the immediate threat (Hardy), while hoping that Cousins can avoid Lee.
The 5-7 Redskins are in a three-way tie with the Eagles and the Giants for first place having the edge with their division record at 2-2. The Cowboys, at 4-8, are only one game out, while missing their quarterback Tony Romo for most of the season. The rematch of this game in Week 17 looks to be even more important as the season is three quarters of the way over. Let’s see how the Redskins respond to this T-E stunt in future games.
Follow Samuel Gold on Twitter: @SamuelRGold.
