‘Kellen is dialing them up.’ What to expect from new Dallas Cowboys OC against 49ers
One of the most interesting aspects of the Dallas Cowboys’ preseason opener against the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday night is not just the first impression of the rookies and young players, but also the play-calling debut of offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
This will be his first trip around the proverbial track.
It will be a blank canvas, of sorts, for the Cowboys because Moore has no track record. He has no tendencies.
So what should Cowboys fans expect from the first-year OC? A watered-down, preseasonversion of the creativity and new wrinkles he’s said to be ready to unleash.
That was on full display in practice on Wednesday when Moore dialed up a few flea-flicker trick plays.
On the first one, quarterback Dak Prescott handed the ball off to running back Tony Pollard, who pitched back to Prescott, who then tossed a deep pass to receive Michael Gallup. It fell incomplete but it was an example of the Cowboys willing to take shots under Moore.
The second one started the same way but instead of Prescott throwing deep after getting the ball back from Pollard, he threw a screen pass to tight end Jason Witten.
This was not a check-down to Witten because the routes were covered deep. This was a screen to Witten off the flea-flicker.
“Kellen is dialing them up,” Witten said. “It is part of the wrinkles that he is adding . It’s different things each day. Yesterday we had some wrinkles in the red zone. Today it was some shot plays, the flea flicker pass and the screen off of it. Just mixing things into this system
People talk about the unknown of the signal-caller and what that presents. But really there are no tendencies.”
This story was originally published August 9, 2019 at 9:00 AM.
