Cole Beasley, an SMU product, quoted in WSJ.com

[GRGB]

Cowboys are Hoping Practice + Math = Playoffs
Dallas Coach Jason Garrett Is Using Geometry Quizzes to Kick-Start Their Offense
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... _Video_Top

By KEVIN CLARK CONNECT

Daniel Vasconcellos
Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett believes that geometry quizzes may help the team make the playoffs.

It has been three seasons since the Dallas Cowboys appeared in the NFC playoffs, and "America's Team" is understandably desperate to return to its former glory, even if it means hitting the books a little harder this off-season. In fact, the Cowboys are using one tactic in particular to kick-start their middling offense: geometry quizzes.

Last month, Jason Garrett, the team's Princeton-educated, offensive guru of a head coach, corralled his players in a closed-door team meeting and told them they needed to be intensely familiar with the Pythagorean theorem. That set off a panic in the room.

"There was just a long pause, no one really knew what was going on," said second-year wide receiver Jared Green. "I ran to my room, googled everything just to try to figure out what they were saying. I'm saying, 'What in the world are these people talking about?' I'm a young guy trying to pick up everything in the playbook and they are throwing that out there?"

Garrett's plan, strange as it sounds, wasn't totally without precedent. Sid Gillman, the legendary San Diego Chargers coach credited with inventing many modern offensive tactics during the 1960s and '70s, kept a math professor at a close distance to make sure his passing angles made sense. But never, players and coaches say, has math-based strategy been handed down so directly to a team.

"If you think about the depth of something for a receiver, if you're running a straight line from the line of scrimmage six yards deep, that's a certain depth, it takes a certain amount of time," Garrett said last month. "But if you're doing it 10 yards inside and running to that same spot, that's the hypotenuse of that right triangle. It's longer. They have to understand that."

Wide receiver Anthony Armstrong said Garrett uses the geometry lessons for both wide receivers and quarterbacks. Once they grasp the concept, Armstrong said, receivers can better understand how they're attacking different spots on the field and adjust their strides accordingly. Quarterbacks, of course, need to better understand how wide-receiver routes work together in concert on a given play. Giving them teaching points about angles will help simplify the quest to find holes in defenses, said veteran backup quarterback Kyle Orton.

"He's the first coach I've heard do this, but it's a great way to look at things," Orton said.

Armstrong said that Garrett will typically refresh the offense on Pythagorean theorem—which codified the distances of the sides of right triangles—and go from there. "He'll say, 'You know what the hypotenuse is? You'll say, 'Yeah, it's the long side of the triangle,' and he'll say, 'Well, you're taking the hypotenuse to get to this point instead of taking the two shorter distances, so don't run [long] around there.' "

Garrett, who still holds the Ivy League record for career completion percentage (66.5%), is also known to warn against concepts that are collinear, a math concept wherein two or more things are lying on the same straight line. It could be devastating for a team that values spacing for quarterback throws.

Other coaches say they've taught angles to their receivers in the past, but they've never approached anything like Garrett's geometry lessons. "I've worked with Jason. He's very smart and I wouldn't pass one of his geometry tests," said Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Scott Linehan.

Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator Norv Turner said he prefers showing players on the field which angles they need to take instead of educating them during team meetings.

Cowboys wideout Dwayne Harris, who said he took Algebra 3 at East Carolina University, said Garrett will give homework assignments if he doesn't think the players are understanding the concepts. That, of course, can present problems. "I'm terrible at math. The only know math I know is dollar signs," Harris said. "But he's bringing up good points. It's the value of running in a straight line."

Cole Beasley, another wideout, said that Garrett's lessons are a gift compared with the monotony of most football meetings, which typically offer the same tired teaching points over and over again. Beasley said Garrett is also known for referencing obscure historical figures, just to keep players on their toes (players rarely understand what or who Garrett is referencing, Beasley said). Still, despite the excitement of a Garrett meeting, Beasley, a Southern Methodist product, admitted he and his teammates aren't math geniuses and haven't yet grasped all the concepts.

"I attempted Calc 3 in college," Beasley said. "I didn't quite make it."

[Alaric]

Jerry + 17 years = 0 NFC Championship Games

[GRGB]

Jerry + 17 years = 0 NFC Championship Games

You like them 3 superbowl wins??

[blackoutpony]

Jerry + 17 years = 0 NFC Championship Games

You like them 3 superbowl wins??

Remember what happened when the Skins brought back Joe Gibbs (winner of super bowls) to be their head coach? Yeah that worked out great. Just because someone was once great at something, doesn't mean they are anymore.

Jerry Jones is the NFL's next crazy Al Davis. Al was a pioneer and innovator who changed the game and won super bowls, but eventually he turned his team into the biggest laughing stock in the league who have been relegated to football purgatory without a winning season for over a decade.

I really could care less about the cowboys, but for their own good, he really should go away.

[SMU2007]

that is an incredibly [deleted] article.

[SMU2007]

some people have no idea how to right.

[blackoutpony]

some people have no idea how to right.

What you did there.... I see it

[PK]

some people have no idea how to right.

When you're write...you're write.

[SMU2007]

Is the word "retar-ded" seriously filtered on this board? My oh my.

[Pony_Law]

Anyone else a bit disappointed that someone who went to college has to look up what the pythagorean theorem is?

[malonish]

Is the word "retar-ded" seriously filtered on this board? My oh my.

I recall seeing it so you may have gotten modded.

[GRGB]

Is the word "retar-ded" seriously filtered on this board? My oh my.

I don't know, but why is it the article somewhere above MORON?

0 - 25 = idiots
26 - 50 = imbeciles
51 - 70 = morons
71 - 90 = your analysis of this article

The point is, Cole Beasley was quoted in a national paper, and he came across as intelligent. Calc3 is somewhere WAY above most these guys Algebra3 classes...


Morons could communicate and learn common tasks; imbeciles stalled mentally at about six years old; and idiots couldn't respond to stimulus or communicate with any level of competency.

There are a lot of MORONS out there, and several IMBECILES in the NFL. I've seen a few IDIOTS interviewed and couldn't understand a damn thing.

[No Quarter]

Seems like, away back there, a funny piece of fiction was mentioned (maybe assigned) in my freshman English class that was about a physics or math teacher who was pressed into service as a football coach and was a great success. When questioned about his approach, he said it was simple - that football was all about angles and velocities and mass.

I'm not sure that Jason Garrett is the answer for the Cowboys or that there is one given the schemes of the owner. But I wish him the best and even more so I hope I read about Cole Beasley for a long time. And I don't think that it can be bad to see SMU football mentioned in the WSJ.

[SMU2007]

Is the word "retar-ded" seriously filtered on this board? My oh my.

I don't know, but why is it the article somewhere above MORON?

0 - 25 = idiots
26 - 50 = imbeciles
51 - 70 = morons
71 - 90 = your analysis of this article

The point is, Cole Beasley was quoted in a national paper, and he came across as intelligent. Calc3 is somewhere WAY above most these guys Algebra3 classes...


Morons could communicate and learn common tasks; imbeciles stalled mentally at about six years old; and idiots couldn't respond to stimulus or communicate with any level of competency.

There are a lot of MORONS out there, and several IMBECILES in the NFL. I've seen a few IDIOTS interviewed and couldn't understand a damn thing.

You lost me 9 words into your post.

[GRGB]

SMU2007, why is the article [deleted].