Anatomy of the analyst.

I've just and watched the latest 'Anatomy of a Play' on NFL.com, and to be brutally honest, I was disappointed. For 4 mins and 20 seconds I had to watch a nauseating account of Miles Austins 59-yard TD grab and how the Cowboys had apparently prepared all week for just this particular look and that when they got it, they nailed it. We were regaled with stories of great protection by the Tight End and fullback, of the many hours that the coaches had spent developing this play to beat this blitz and to get the ball to Miles Austin deep and in space. We heard repeatedly from Tony Romo blessing his coaching staff for this work of football art. It was put together in a way only NFL films knows how. But it wasn't until 3 minutes into the segment that we finally get to the crux of the matter. We then get a nice description of what the safety was doing and what he was looking at etc. And at this point you begin to wonder why the whole thing lasted any more than about 2 seconds. You literally could have come on and just said "The deep third safety on strong side blew his assignment. Touchdown." And that would have been that. And to be honest, that's really all there is to it. The Falcons were playing Cover 3, which meant that both safeties and one corner each had to drop back and account for a deep third of the field. Erik Coleman, the safety on the right hand side (from the Falcons perspective) is supposed to take a few steps back and start looking for people coming into his deep zone. The corner back on his side was assigned to blitz to force an early throw and the Linebacker on the opposite side (the 'Will') comes right across the formation to cover the short zone. But the trouble is, Coleman didn't drop. His first steps were forward, towards the Line Of Scrimmage. When he realises that the TE Jason Witten isn't releasing into a route, he stalls, turns, and then notices with no doubt wide eyed horror, that he has blown his assignment completely and that Austin is about to tear through his deep zone and get the ball. All this is independent of the Cowboys. It was just a dumb mistake by the Coleman. That's the key to the play. He should have dropped back and stayed there. The Will backer coming across the formation would have covered Jason Witten in the short zone. If Coleman had dropped back deep then Romo would have been forced to hold the ball for a bit longer and the pressure would have got to him. That's the whole point of a zone blitz. Make the QB hold the ball while the extra pressure gets to him and when it does you get a sack or a badly thrown, often dangerously interceptable (??), pass. If Coleman drops back properly, the Falcons likely get a sack or a pick. That's it. There really is no more to it than that. And this is why I kinda hate listening to TV pundits. There are some good ones. Jamie Dukes and Rod Woodson make a great combo. Jason La Canfora has proved to be a steal for the NFL network. Charles Davis is one of the more relaxed and informative analysts out there that I know of. And then we have the already unbeatable looking combo on NBC of Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth. But other than that, you have to question what some of these guys are up to. There seems to be a big culture in football punditry of "I know more than you at home, especially about X's and O's." But as this weeks anatomy of a play shows, that's not always true. Later tonight I'll give you my picks for the week. After going 10-3 last week (should have taken the damn Saints and Eagles) I'm concerned, because this week there are some seriously tough calls to be made. As the saying goes "Who dares, wins." Most of the time.