Spring break 2015 Dak and some MSU mates got the crap kicked out of them by a group of real gangsters; he’s lucky to be alive and physically well.
For the most part the rookie wall is no longer a real thing; College teams do play 7-11 games less; but its the hitting in practice that wears ya down. NFL rules greatly limit practice time and reducing hitting to almost nothing, a player going to NFL from a major college program probably feels like he’s relatively going for spa treatment.
This doesn’t apply to QBs ‘cause they don’t get hit in college or NFL. But, the mental workload Prescott’s been under is a billion times what it ever was for him at MSU. Now the pressure of playoffs is heaped on top, plus playing at home with talk about resurrecting the great Dallas dynasties. Dak has to be feeling mental fatigue and pressure that adds to the mental fatigue, he’d have been better served for his first PO game to be on the road.
Dak looked like Hundley in week 17 on 8 throws; so basically Dak has had 3 weeks off. And this is what will undermine his ability to play on Sunday. For the season metaphorically Dak has mentally run a hard 10K race for the first time. Then he sits down for an hour and eats a couple of bagels. Now an hour later [Sunday] he’s gotta get up and start running again. He won’t be running anywhere near as fast as before he took his little break.
Prescott throws deep accurately as long as conditions are perfect. If he cant step up comfortably in the pocket or if he feels pressure he loses his deep accuracy. Aaron loses 5% of his accuracy when he moving on the run; Dak loses A LOT more.
The Dallas game plan has Prescott, hand off, and throw a lot of very very short passes. He throws a lot more passes short right than anywhere else. If the D plays the run with DL first playing run and LB first looking run; the play action will freeze the D and Prescott will hit some longer throws.
I want CM3 rushing in the center of the field. Line him up in A gap and have him time the snap count [not on 3rd and 5]. If he jumps offside a couple of times, that’s good, he’ll be cat quick all over Dak’s grill, and this will stick in Dak’s head.
Elliot will not beat us; let him have his 150 yards. Use run blitzes, one gaps, if Elliot gets 1 yard, he’ll probably get 7 or 8 or 12; that’s okay. We need to blanket those short receivers and get pressure up the center. If we shut down Dak, we win. I see GB rarely having more than 1 deep safety, Burnett will be in box stopping short passes and runs. If Dak hits a deep one, so what. In red zone, I want zero coverage.
When bringing a 4 man rush; only 3 guys should rush against the weakest OLman, and the 4th should act like a shadow. Dak can run. When Dak runs or does that zone read crap, ya gotta a hit him, even if he doesn’t have the ball. And this should have been worked on; Dallas could try to Kapernick us. This offense is similar to that SF team that ran over us.
Dallas fakes to Elliot and then passes to him; if Dak fakes hand off to Elliot TACKLE HIM and sit on him ‘til whistle.
If things go bad in 1st half for Dak [this is what my Magic 8-Ball is calling for]; Romo could come in; GB needs to spend a few morsals of some time preparing for this.