Rouxble
Pro-Bowler
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As stated in another post about the Saints' early tendencies, it is somewhat early to start judging teams on one game. This is particularly true when both the Cowboys and Saints did not break a sweat in their victories, but since I updated my template anyway, I'll start with the birds eye view:
These teams seem to have plenty of similarities. For starters, neither team has any tendency on run frequency when behind in the second half since neither team has been behind in the second half. At least one team will start to show their tendency in that situation on Sunday.
When looking at formations, the Saints have claimed the top spot in the NFL on using multi-back sets, and I would expect that to continue unless the game somehow gets away from us early. By contrast, the Cowboys use 3+ WR nearly twice as often as the Saints, which is reflected in their overall pass frequency in a game they led by 2+ scores from the 2nd quarter on (59% for the Cowboys, 42% for the Saints). The Cowboys' pass heavy game plan may have been driven by their difficulty running against the Browns, with their RB's only averaging 3.7 yards/att during the game. If our defense can keep their run game from generating big gains, we may be able to force them into testing our secondary (which appears to be without Lattimore this week).
On offensive strategy, both teams utilize a lot of play action, screen passes, and motion relative to the league, and both teams have shown a preference for taking shots downfield. The difference in week one is that the Saints threw most of their deep attempts on 3rd down while the Cowboys took most shots on 1st and 2nd.
On defense, both teams were aggressive in week one going after the QB, but I'll be interested to see how that changes, as each team likely respects the QB of their week two opponent a lot more than the QB of their week one opponents.
DOWN/DISTANCE TENDENCIES
As shown in another thread, the Saints showed a preference to run in most down/distance scenarios, but the Cowboys showed the opposite against the Browns. It's hard to put much stock in any tendency based on just a few plays, but I think there is enough to show that the teams are reasonably similar in being balanced on both 1st and 10 and 2nd and long. If we combine 3rd and medium with 3rd and long to grow the sample sizes, the Cowboys leaned on the pass (throwing 88% of the time) on most of their 3rd downs while the Saints leaned on the run (running 57% of the time).
PASS DISTRIBUTION
Here is the depth of target for passes in different down/distance scenarios:
Only 1st and 10 seems to have enough data for any big conclusions, with the Saints showing a preference for throwing behind the LOS more than their opponent. As noted earlier, the Saints took most of their deep shots (2 of 3 deep attempts) on 3rd down while the Cowboys looked downfield more on 1st and 2nd (3 of 4 deep attempts).
More data to come in future weeks (and possibly this week), but I'm well behind on gathering info at a time when a few of my data sources have been lost. I've found more information through different sources that I think will be of interest, but I will need to build on my templates to make it easy to update that information from week to week. I hope you all enjoy the data.
These teams seem to have plenty of similarities. For starters, neither team has any tendency on run frequency when behind in the second half since neither team has been behind in the second half. At least one team will start to show their tendency in that situation on Sunday.
When looking at formations, the Saints have claimed the top spot in the NFL on using multi-back sets, and I would expect that to continue unless the game somehow gets away from us early. By contrast, the Cowboys use 3+ WR nearly twice as often as the Saints, which is reflected in their overall pass frequency in a game they led by 2+ scores from the 2nd quarter on (59% for the Cowboys, 42% for the Saints). The Cowboys' pass heavy game plan may have been driven by their difficulty running against the Browns, with their RB's only averaging 3.7 yards/att during the game. If our defense can keep their run game from generating big gains, we may be able to force them into testing our secondary (which appears to be without Lattimore this week).
On offensive strategy, both teams utilize a lot of play action, screen passes, and motion relative to the league, and both teams have shown a preference for taking shots downfield. The difference in week one is that the Saints threw most of their deep attempts on 3rd down while the Cowboys took most shots on 1st and 2nd.
On defense, both teams were aggressive in week one going after the QB, but I'll be interested to see how that changes, as each team likely respects the QB of their week two opponent a lot more than the QB of their week one opponents.
DOWN/DISTANCE TENDENCIES
As shown in another thread, the Saints showed a preference to run in most down/distance scenarios, but the Cowboys showed the opposite against the Browns. It's hard to put much stock in any tendency based on just a few plays, but I think there is enough to show that the teams are reasonably similar in being balanced on both 1st and 10 and 2nd and long. If we combine 3rd and medium with 3rd and long to grow the sample sizes, the Cowboys leaned on the pass (throwing 88% of the time) on most of their 3rd downs while the Saints leaned on the run (running 57% of the time).
PASS DISTRIBUTION
Here is the depth of target for passes in different down/distance scenarios:
Only 1st and 10 seems to have enough data for any big conclusions, with the Saints showing a preference for throwing behind the LOS more than their opponent. As noted earlier, the Saints took most of their deep shots (2 of 3 deep attempts) on 3rd down while the Cowboys looked downfield more on 1st and 2nd (3 of 4 deep attempts).
More data to come in future weeks (and possibly this week), but I'm well behind on gathering info at a time when a few of my data sources have been lost. I've found more information through different sources that I think will be of interest, but I will need to build on my templates to make it easy to update that information from week to week. I hope you all enjoy the data.
