DMN: New secondary coach Jerome Henderson should help fix communication breakdowns

[WoodysGirl]

ByRainer Sabin / Reporter
rsabin@dallasnews.com | Bio

2:12 PM on Sun., Jan. 22, 2012 | Permalink
There were many theories posited attempting to explain the woes experienced by the Cowboys' secondary this past season. Some believed that the root cause of their failures was the personnel.

Cornerback Terence Newman appeared to be deteriorating before everyone's eyes while safety Abram Elam showed he didn't have the required range to make enough impact plays. Others suggested that defensive coordinator Rob Ryan's scheme was too complicated.

"All the calls we've got are on one sheet of paper," Ryan crowed in August, "and it is the smallest print you've ever seen."

But the overarching issue that led to the defensive backfield's struggles, cornerback Mike Jenkins asserted, was simple to understand.

Read the rest: http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2012/01/there-were-many-theories-posit.html

[Doomsday101]

One thing about Henderson as he said at the press conference as a player he hated when a coach would jump on him and scream at him then walk off without explaining what he should have done on a play or in a certain situation. As he said he will jump on players and get in their face then he will explain what and how they should have gone about doing the job.

[Chocolate Lab]

So sick of these excuse-making articles. So now Campo and Maxie only having months to learn the calls was the problem? Give me a break. Coverages aren't that complicated or that different from team to team.

[Doomsday101]

So sick of these excuse-making articles. So now Campo and Maxie only having months to learn the calls was the problem? Give me a break. Coverages aren't that complicated or that different from team to team.

I would agree but I would also say no DB coach plays the game and it is the player who ultimately must make the plays. I think most would agree that Dallas needs to add talent to that secondary regardless of who the CB coach is.

[Idgit]

Elam's play is getting called into question generally after the fact this season. I'm not sure why that is. The safety meltdowns we had this year were primarily the result of completely blown coverages and not a case of a guy being in position but just a step too slow. And, as far as I recall, the blown coverages weren't all on Elam.

The first NYG game was the worst game our safeties had by a large margin, and IIRC, the endzone PI call and the blown coverage for the gimme TD in the third quarter weren't on Elam.

I actually buy that, apart from obviously needing to upgrade Newman's play at the end of the year, our problems were more with communication and insufficient pressure. I think the players we have now at safety are adequate, and that Jenkins is an above-average CB at one position. We can solidify the second/third CB slot in either the draft or FA and be in ok shape if we could just fix the pass rush. Not sure how we do that part, though.

[DBOY3141]

yada, yada, yada.

More with communication issues. OK, if you say so.

How about, "our players suck and we need new ones". That's were change needs to come from.

[JakeCamp12]

Yeah it didnt seem like a communication problem when Newman turned into a human hurdle. Our problems are that our corners drop easy Int's and also never look for the ball when it is thrown. Too many guys making business decisions on the field. Deion could do that because he could cover AND when the ball was any where near him he caught it and went the other way. No one else has that kind of talent on this team...

[JohnsKey19]

Whatever the reason, these problems must be fixed. You can't have the entire back half of your defense scrambling around looking confused right before 70-75% of the snaps. Honestly i don't see how that can be happening 3 months into the season with mostly veteran players.