Quote Originally Posted by Smidgeon View Post
When I watched the last game Romo called (don't remember which), he was often calling plays ahead of time. If he knows it, then the defensive stars know it too. It's just a matter of execution or playing against your own tendencies. It makes me think from film study that most players can guess the plays based on personnel and field position (Charles Woodson was exceptional at this), and success is based on "beating your guy".
Smidgeon is again correct and the panicky masses over Stafford's comments are wrong.

1. Pre snap reads almost always reveal whether a team is playing man, or some combo. The Lions took this a step farther by putting someone in motion on almost every pass play. Rodgers does this all the time. Its nothing new.

2. Blitz. Capers likes to pressure on 3rd and long and Stafford said they expected 2 different kinds of pressure most often. Between motion and cadence, Stafford can make the D reveal the blitz as well if he has some play clock.

3. Capers himself said the playbook for the Lions game was thin because of communication issues they have when Burnett is out. They wanted to eliminate the mistakes.

So we are back to the oldest two critiques of this defense. Played with the full playbook, the team cannot function without its vets (and Burnett was lost in the first half). And left to their own devices, the players do not defeat and offenses passing game enough on third down.