There’s been a bit of a mini brou-ha-ha since the Cowboys-Redskins game last week over mimicked snapped counts. I didn’t see the game, but the Cowboy’s center had a bunch of errant snaps and stated after the game that some of the Redskins’ linemen were mimicking Romo’s snap cadence, thus causing him to errantly snap the ball and causing various problems at inopportune times in the game.
In the hyper competitive world of professional football, anything goes even if it’s against the rules. It’s a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty if an official catches the defense calling a cadence to screw up the offense. The Redskins, of course, deny any such nefarious rule breaking occurred.
For my part, I have no doubt the Redskins were actually doing it. The fact is it’s one of those penalties that a defense is more likely than not to get away with. The officials are paying attention to lots of things and with all the distractions, a well-timed “HUT” from a defensive lineman near the center (or a blitzing middle linebacker) is just not going to get caught.
With all that, I like the attitude the Cowboys are taking in dealing with the problem:
“There’s been noise on the line of scrimmage in the NFL since Pudge Heffelfinger was around,” Garrett said Thursday, referring to the first man to sign a pro football contract. “So, that’s how it works. We just have to understand what the issues are there and we have to focus on whose voices we’re listening to and just get locked in and snap the ball the way it needs to be snapped.”
The quote is from this article, in which its pretty clear that the NFL is aware of the problem in general, but has little effective means of dealing with it. Even owner Jerry Jones is sounding a similar tune.
For my part, Garrett is absolutely correct. It’s a problem for which the burden is on the Cowboys to find some kind of solution. The best way is to make the act so unlikely to work that it isn’t worth the attempt. Rather than just relying on some authority to conjure up another rule that will likely be broken in the pursuit of winning. Or worse, conjure up some other modification that will have other repercussions. I hadn’t known about the miked up centers and it seems pretty clear that capturing the audio from them is a good way to steal cadences, audible calls and the like.
Anyway, as far as the Cowboys are concerned, the resolution espoused by Coach Garrett and owner Jones speaks well to having the right attitude towards their play and conduct generally. Take responsibility for everything about the game. Don’t complain about problems, instead adapt and overcome. That’s the attitude of a winner.