DE nightmares-Is coaching the problem?

[Nors]

Originally Posted by Thefourteenthwarrior

The scheme, the sceme, the sceme that is the problem. Unlike so many defenses in the nfl the cowboys defense is so vanilla its just disgusting. Our basic alignment of the 4 dl and 3 lbs 5-7 behind them is archaic. Even if the assignments don't change u still have to disguise the coverage or something. Our de's never have a chance to succeed because they are accounted for before the snap on every play. With no one else near the line of scrimmage, no threat of a blitz our dl is basically outmanned. We rush 4 against 5 o lineman, heaven help us if the offense keeps in a back or te to block then we're really outnumbered. How many times have we watched the cowboys for example play philly and see mcnabb have all day to make decisions. Our best d lineman is doubled (lately glover) and our best rush de is chipped by a te or rb. I believe the ends we have are adequate but they are not getting any help from the scheme. The o line is not under any pressure to make calls because nothing [View Full Quote]changes. If nothing else disguise the coverage fake the blitz or something, make the o line have to adjust some kind of way. Thats the only reason the 3-4 is effective it creates confusion at the line of scrimmage. You have to know who you have to block. Indecisiveness and confusion creates sacks.

Another reason why sceme and coordinator (zimmer) are to blame, the defense we run doesn't force the action. We rely on the offense to make mistakes when we don't blitz or apply pressure. Thats no way to influence mistakes or create turnovers. A lot of people were down on newman last year (including myself) til i started watching the def play. We run the worst version of the cover 2 scheme ever. Newman is a shut down corner who is being asked to play zone constantly. Its not newmans fault that his job is to play the short flat where slants and hitches are constantly completed in front of him. We could have drafted any corner in any round to play zone, bottom line this guy is being misused, just like roy williams. Williams one of the best in the box safeties in the game presently was being asked to play free safety, WHY? What we accomplished by doing that was shooting ourselves in both feet. Instead of finding a feasible replacement at fs we took our ss out of his natural position and hurt ourselves at both safety spots. That makes no sense at all, because he doesnt cover well enough to play fs. The secondary was in shambles all year, and how did we help them; by not bringing pressure and asking them to cover and extra 2 - 3 seconds. Not very smart at all. As all you cowboys fans remember when we went to the playoffs in parcells first year we blitzed more than we have in quite a while and the results were good. We weren't great offensively but we forced the action on def. So yes the scheme and the coordinator are to blame for all of this, i personally would have preferred to see zimmer go.

Our talent isn't the greatest. That said our passif 4-3 defense was indeed vanilla, rarely blitzed and put Roy into coverage. Thats heinous but was a knee jerk reaction to our RCB situation being a mess.... Coaching in this league matters too....

The 3-4 will be much more aggresive and cause issues for an Oline. iMaGiNe ThaT

[Scotman]

A sincere thanks for all the replies and input. There's a lot of opinions and information to chew on.

I'm hoping that whatever has caused us to have such an anemic pass rush and overall non-aggresive defense will be solved as this year progresses.

I agree with a lot of the opinions on here. I agree that we lacked talent, too. I had forgotten some of the question marks and problems some of these guys had brought with them.

But, I don't think the scheme and/or coaches get a walk on this. Zimmer apparently has some real talent at his disposal this year. I sure hope he does something exciting for the fans with it.

My dad always used to say that the secret to winning on defense was to put the QB on his butt early and often. Here's looking forward to some of that this year.

Thanks again,
Scot

[kartr]

Originally Posted by Chief

I think there are several reasons.

Let's start with Carver. He was highly productive at Arizona State and was considered a first-rounder by most clubs. The guy had some character flaws and weaknesses/addictions that helped derail his career.

Pittman: A reach by Jerry. Not a real bad player, but Dallas picked him too high.

Ekuban: I still believe (I'm in the minority, apparently) that Eb lacked natural football instincts. He was an explosive athlete, who lacked the "naturalness" that guys like Haley had. His back problem didn't help.

Wiley: He was awful at San Diego the last year or so, and was reportedly a locker room cancer. He was pretty good at one time, but I don't think this guy has worked hard enough to have an extended career. You can get by on natural ability for only so long. The great ones extend their careers by really working at it.

[View Full Quote]Having said all that, I'm not convinced Jim Jeffcoat is a very good coach. Apparently, Bill Parcells came to that conclusion, too.

Scheme? I don't know. You hear things about the hobbles Zimmer puts on the defensive ends. I don't know enough about football to know if that's true.

So, I think it's just a combination of things. The players were partly to blame, as well as Jeffcoat.

\


I think if you look at all of our previous good RDE's, they had one thing in common, a stud RDT next to them to take the pressure off. Look at the change in Ekuban's numbers once he went to Cleveland and played next to
I believe it was Gerard Warren. Now Warren's career hasn't been an over-
whelming success, yet he probably would be an upgrade over Brandon Noble,
Michael Myers and Leo Carson, so maybe the real problem is that we scrimped
on the d-line after Jimmy left and didn't put together a complete unit. Think
about this, do the Saints,Pats,Eagles,Vikings,ie. that is teams with good pass rushes spend more and higher draft picks on their d-lines than we have in the recent pass.

[Nors]

I think sometimes too much emphasis is put on rush from the edge - which is great. Best way to collapse a pocket is straight up the gut. Pressure up the middle is very disruptive to QB's....

[Thefourteenthwarrior]

Originally Posted by Nors

Our talent isn't the greatest. That said our passif 4-3 defense was indeed vanilla, rarely blitzed and put Roy into coverage. Thats heinous but was a knee jerk reaction to our RCB situation being a mess.... Coaching in this league matters too....

The 3-4 will be much more aggresive and cause issues for an Oline. iMaGiNe ThaT

The 3-4 will be much more aggresive and cause issues for an Oline. iMaGiNe ThaT


In response to that i simply beg the question of how zimmer can coordinate a 3-4 when he can't even be creative with a 4-3 def. As i said earlier we havent had decent de's on our team because of the scheme. No de can put up with a solid double team on every play, and i believe that while many come here motivated none can succeed because of the scheme, which i talked about in an earlier post. So if zimmer is a decent coordinator we'll soon find out. I personally think he sucks, and should be gotten rid of as it would almost completely severe all the ties with the dave campo regime.

[Hostile]

Originally Posted by Nors

I think sometimes too much emphasis is put on rush from the edge - which is great. Best way to collapse a pocket is straight up the gut. Pressure up the middle is very disruptive to QB's....

There is some truth to that. By doing this you also allow the mobile QBs to leave the pocket to either side. Making pressure from the edge still necessary and in fact more so to contain and trap the ball. Very few QBs any more are taught to step up in the collapsing pocket like Aikman could and deliver an accurate throw at the last moment.

Every defense has flaws built right in. Even the magical 3-4, which still needs and needed the proper personnel to run.