Pass Defense has dropped to 27th in the league

[perrykemp]

The pass defense has dropped to 27th in the league as measured by opposing QB rating which is now 94.9.

In 2011 the opposing QB rating was 88.4.

Is this all on the safeties?

In my worst nightmare I wouldn't expected the pass defense to be one of the worst in the league like this. I know the lack of interceptions play a big part of the QB rating, however, the fact that all these rookie QB are tearing the Cowboys pass defense to a tune of 100+ QB rating (on average) is beyond shocking to me considering the investment made in the secondary over the past two years of signing Carr for $50m, drafting Claiborne, signed Scandrick to the top nickle corner contract in the NFL, and extending Sensy.

[SDCowboy85]

It's on the entire D. Nobody is getting pressure on the QB, they aren't getting any turnovers and the secondary play 10-15 yards off their receiver.

[Frozen700]

Not a surprise...we have Alan Ball 2.0 at safety.....and another 1 playing out of position.

Claiborne is our only defender back there worth a damn.

Surprised we were able to fool the league for so long that our secondary was good.

Better safeties, and another pass rusher or 2....

[Gaede]

Same thing that haunted previous Cowboys' secondary continues to haunt them.

Just throw the ball up, and you'll get a catch. Somehow, someway. You'll come down with the ball or get a penalty. You certainly won't get intercepted.

[AdamJT13]

It's pretty much all because of the lack of interceptions. Give us four more interceptions to match the NFL average for interception percentage, and we'd be 18th in passer rating allowed -- and we would have been 14th before yesterday's game.

[JonJon]

Horrible safety play leads to horrible CB play. CB's can't be confident and aggressive when the guys behind them are consistently in the wrong place and/or taking bad angles to the ball. CB's need dependable help behind them in order to play efficiently. Until the Cowboys resolve finally resolve our safety issues, the pas game will continue to struggle down the stretch when it matters most.

[RS12]

Its the pass rush.

[iRepDatStar]

We spend this money and draft picks on dbs only to play some switch zone type coverage... i mean not once have a seen a jam on the wr...or agressive play like ive seen vs the giants in both games

i think they should play man a lot more

[visionary]

Originally Posted by RS12

Its the pass rush.

this cant possibly be true

[Ken]

Finally...a thread about the biggest cow in the room.

I was lead to believe in other threads that Romo was the cause of our defensive ineptitude.

Our defense is a sham.

[percyhoward]

Originally Posted by AdamJT13

It's pretty much all because of the lack of interceptions.

We're 26th in yards per attempt allowed.

[tupperware]

Originally Posted by percyhoward

We're 26th in yards per attempt allowed.

I just had to chime in from my posting absence to say this.

The Redskins have a worse pass defense than we do according to yards per game. Also, they sack the opposing QB less than we do so it's not due to lack of pass rush. They also have triple the INTs we do. How is it though, they sack the QB even less than we do and still have so many more INTs? I thought the problem with our secondary was due to a lack of pass rush?

Makes you wonder..

[visionary]

Originally Posted by tupperware

I just had to chime in from my posting absence to say this.

The Redskins have a worse pass defense than we do according to yards per game. Also, they sack the opposing QB less than we do so it's not due to lack of pass rush. They also have triple the INTs we do. How is it though, they sack the QB even less than we do and still have so many more INTs? I thought the problem with our secondary was due to a lack of pass rush?

Makes you wonder..

no it doesnt

this is statistics in a nutshell

you can always point to a team that able to do something that goes against the norm, that does not mean the thing is not true

when you run multiple variables in a post-hoc manner, these sort of "exceptions" are the expectation not the exception

any person who deals with statistics in the context of large databases will agree with me

when you factor in the fact that many of our "measures" of success or failure are not validated, there is a lot of error in the system

that is partly why statistics get a bad name because people interpreting them can make them "say" whatever fits their agenda (pre-conceived notion or bias)

i know this will get under the skin of a lot of "statisticians" on this board, but its true

[percyhoward]

Originally Posted by tupperware

The Redskins have a worse pass defense than we do according to yards per game.

That's only because their pass defense has faced 11 more attempts per game than ours. We give up more yards per attempt than the Skins--and 24 other teams.

[EPL0c0]

I think the lack of a consistant pass rush. Yes, guys might get a sack or two a game, but it seems that for the most part, when needed, Dallas' pass rush falls well short