Dallas Cowboys perform ‘Landry Shift’ in Week 4 win (GIF)
By Josh Sanchez
The Dallas Cowboys offensive line has been a huge part of the team’s success throughout the past three weeks, and on Sunday night they performed a great tribute to legendary head coach Tom Landry as they ran out the clock in their blowout win over the New Orleans Saints.
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After breaking the huddle, the Cowboys line took their place before simultaneously standing straight up and then going into their three-point stance.
This is known as the “Landry Shift” and was prominent in the Cowboys’ offense in the 70s and 80s as a deception tactic to disguise any shift that the backfield would make.
The tribute was pointed out by a reddit user.
Here is a GIF of the shift:
GIF via r/NFL
From IQFB.com:
"The idea was that even if you could delay the defense by half a second in seeing what formation you were running a play from, you might gain an advantage. The value of this maneuver is debatable as although the Cowboys were successful while using it, no other teams put it into practice and the Cowboys may have been just as successful without it. The truth though is that while Landry was with the Cowboys they did have 20 consecutive winning seasons (1965-1985) and the “Landry Shift” may have been partly responsible."
While it isn’t the most effective shift while in the victory formation, it is always great to see a NFL team give us a little throwback and honor the game’s past.
It is also something that football historians and Dallas Cowboys fans appreciated.
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