The Lions will travel to Dallas this week to face a Cowboys team fresh off of an ugly divisional win over the rival Redskins. Dallas will have a short week of preparation and will likely focus on repairing their lackluster passing game, as well as an unproductive red zone offense. The key to addressing both of these deficiencies is one in the same, and his name is Jason Witten. The All-Pro tight end has long been the focal point of the Cowboy offense, and quarterback Tony Romo will be focused on feeding him the ball early and often.

Detroit will use a variety of personnel and coverage schemes to negate Witten throughout the afternoon, but success rests in the hands of Western Michigan product Louis Delmas. Witten has long been a matchup nightmare for opponents, with an athletic advantage over most linebackers, and a significant size advantage over most safeties. Detroit will most likely use a combination of Delmas and linebacker DeAndre Levy in coverage, as well as nickelback Eric Wright when Witten lines up as the slot receiver. All must contribute in some capacity in order to effectively neutralize the tight end, but Delmas’ role will be most crucial. Jason Garrett’s offense is built for down field passing, and flourishes when able to exploit the middle of the field and open up the sidelines for Dallas wide receivers. Delmas will often be responsible for covering Witten downfield, and preventing him from making the types of plays that serve as a lightning rod for Romo and the Cowboy offense. If Delmas and the Lions can hold Jason Witten in check, the Dallas passing game should be largely ineffective.

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This week, the Detroit Lions will be facing off against a surprising 2-7 Dallas Cowboys team. The last few years, the Cowboys defense was coached and coordinated by their head coach Wade Philips, but since he was fired two weeks ago, Paul Pasqualoni has taken over. Pasqualoni was the Dolphins defensive coordinator for the last two seasons, so he is an experienced play caller and is quite qualified for the position. Where Wade Philips and Paul Pasqualoni differ is their demeanor. While Philips was known for being the “player’s coach”, Pasqualoni is known for being tough on his players and preaching discipline. Last week, a lot of Pasqualoni’s style of coaching showed up on the field as the Dallas defense held the Giants 6^th ranked offense to just 20 points.

Schematically, nothing has changed between Pasqualoni’s defense that the Lions are going to face and Wade Phillips’ defense. The Dallas Cowboys will regularly be in a 3-4 defensive set, but they play a ton of 4-3 and 5-2 sets also (probably the most in the league). While you could call the Dallas defense a zone blitz defense, I think the best way to describe what the Cowboys do defensively would be to call it a Tampa-2 version of the 3-4 defense. In the regular Tampa 2, which is run out of a 4-3 set, the middle linebacker is almost like a midfielder in soccer as he almost always drops back to shallower depths than middle linebackers normally would and tries to take away the middle of the field.

In Dallas’s defensive scheme, Brady James and Keith Brooking almost always play that role as they will often drop back into coverage. This is really why I call Dallas’s defense the Tampa 2 version of the 3-4. Other defenses around the NFL like the Steelers and Jets do things that are similar, but you can expect all four linebackers of both of those teams to blitz at some point.  On the other hand, DeMarcus Ware will almost always (if not all the time) rush the passer, even though he is an outside linebacker. The only guy that will consistently drop back into pass coverage and rush the passer is Anthony Spencer. In addition to that, the corners and safeties play a zone coverage scheme most of the time. (more…)