Dez Bryant was, as this blogger has asserted, making technical arguments, and not a “gimme the ball” rant that the media immediately interpreted in a great example of media institutional racism.
Dez Bryant’s assignment was to run a crossing pattern, but he wasn’t given the standard, Bill Walsh Offense instructions to ‘sit down’ when faced with a zone defense. In other words, when running the crossing pattern against a zone, if you don’t stop at a point, the defender can and will smash you when the ball is thrown, forcing an incompletion, or (as happened) the quarterback will miss you because he is throwing to a spot, not to the man.
Dez was reacting to Romo’s miss on the throw, but what he didn’t know was that he was supposed to “throttle it down” as Coach Derek Dooley was saying to him in the video.
That’s not Dez fault, it’s the fault of the design of the Cowboys Offense. Again, that should be part of the playbook, not a sideline conversation. It’s like they’re making fundamental adjustments on the fly, not working a plan from playbook design and training camp work.
The media, in its collective rush to judgment of a black wide receiver for not knowing his place, totally missed the more intelligent conversation of why Dez did what he did, and the coverage issues the Cowboys were dealing with from the Detroit Lions in that game.
Stay tuned.