YR's My Meaningless Thoughts on the Defense...

[FLcowboy]

Originally Posted by IrishAnto

YR nice post and I agree with what you say up to a point.

To me the single biggest thing a defense needs to do, it to generate turnovers as turnover ratio have the biggest single impact on the outcome of the game.

Now it seems to be an orthodoxy around here that in order to generate we need better pass rush/safety play.

Now while I don’t say that this isn’t true I also don’t think that one automatically follows the other.

And the reason I say this…

Back in 2010 just after Wade Philips got canned, Paul Pasqualoni took over the defense and in eight games generated 20 turnovers, a rate that hasn’t been seen in these part for many a long year.

Who were Pasqualoni’s starting safeties?

Gerald Sensabaugh and Alan Ball.

Starting DEs?

Marcus Spears and Igor Olshansky.

ILBs

Bray James and Keith Brooking

[View Full Quote]As you can see hardly a who’s who of Ring of Honour Candidates.

The point I’m making which is the one you made yesterday in your post on the offense is that you need to run a scheme that makes the best use of your available talent and clearly Pasqualoni could.

So far Roy Ryan hasn’t.

Seems the round peg in a square hole is evident on both sides of the ball. I agree with your observation

[IrishAnto]

Originally Posted by Yakuza Rich

Giving up 26 points a game is terrible. Better than we were doing, but crediting the defense for going 5-3 is terribly misguided. We went 5-3 because the special teams play was much better and our offense improved as well. The defense improved, but was still lousy. You don't hear people saying that all of the games Drew Brees and Peyton Manning won were due to the defense. There's a reason for it.

Meanwhile, I watched Pasqualoni's coaching for 13 straight years at Syracuse. He then came to Dallas to coach TE's for a year, and that was one of Witten's worst years blocking. Granted, Pasqualoni is not a TE coach by nature. So they move him to LB coach in 2006 and what KILLED us in 2006? The LB's being clueless when it came to defending RB's or even FB's out of the backfield. Either that or Mike Karney is the greatest pass receiving back in the history of the game.

[View Full Quote]He went to the Dolphins where he lucked out with one of the easiest schedules and the defense played alright for them. But the following year he was fired by his friend who hired him, Tony Sparano. We then hired him back, when nobody else was interested in hiring him (and when he was fired at SU, no college team wanted him either at that time).

And how good was our DE play under Pasqualoni?

And I don't think it's a coincidence that Hatcher is suddenly a great player when he didn't do jack under Pasqualoni.

Now he's coaching UConn. The Huskies went 16-10 in the 2 years prior to Pasqualoni. In the year before, they made it to a BCS game. In just 2 seasons, the Huskies have gone 10-13 in the lighter scheduled Big East and have not been bowl eligible either year.

He has never shown me anything on the pro level to suggest he's a good coach, much less a good coordinator. And his best years as a coach were from him catching a tan off of Dick MacPherson's sunshine.

I understand that some coaches are great Coordinators and/or position coaches, but are incompetent as head coaches. I always thought Wade was a much better coordinator than a head coach. The same with Norv. But Pasqualoni has never showed that to me and nobody has ever made a legitimate case for him that would make me think otherwise.






YR

Yes 26 points a game is bad, but it has to be put into perspective.

If the offense is scoring 30 points a game then you’re playing winning football and conversely you could only be allowing 16 points a game but if the offense is only scoring 13 points a game then you’re playing loosing football.

Ultimately it about each phase of the game playing in a way that complements what the other two phases can do to help the team win and Pasqualoni’s defense was a big part of that 5 and 3 record in the final 8 games of 2010.

I’m not going to disagree with you over Pasqualoni’s overall ability as a coach and as I said to Idgit my reason for pointing out what his defense did in 2010 was not to pimp him up but to challenge the common perception that a better pass rush/safeties/defensive personnel would automatically help us generate more turnovers which is what we will need if this team is to take the next step irrespective of how much the offense improves.

It’s how you use what you’ve got, not who you’ve got that will make the biggest difference.

[IrishAnto]

Originally Posted by Idgit

I was pot-stirring earlier because Paul Pasqualoni is a persona-non-grata in YR threads, so I thought we might get some fireworks. But, sadly, no dice, though.

You just didn't ask the right question

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by IrishAnto

Agreed they’re not going to be great with all the injuries but let’s be real here they weren’t generating much in the way of turnover before the injuries.

As for Pasqualoni’s defense their turnovers were a very big part on why we won 5 of eight games (and were competitive in the three we lost)

We may have given up 26 point per game but we were winning the majority of our games under Pasqualoni weren’t we?

We exactly have a stellar offense under Kitna, but it was good at not turning the ball over, combine that with out (brief) ability to generate turnovers and you had a winning team.

So why are you 100% confident that Pasqualoni couldn’t have managed something similar in 2011?

Not directed at you, but when people champion that 5-3 at the end of 2010 , it hits a nerve. That last win was vs Philly who rested their starters and Dallas started S McGee to boot. I guess its a win in the books, but Philly wins that game 95/100 if they cared and that 5-3 / 2 game over .500 mark goes to 4-4 and .500 (just like we continue to be)

[CowboyMcCoy]

Originally Posted by Yakuza Rich

Are we allowing more points or is the offense allowing more points?






YR

Good point.

Aside from a couple dropped INTs, I think Scandrick has played silently well too. Maybe not worth the money, but he's much much better than I expected. When you say stuff like that, it makes sense. A lot of posters on this board don't get what his role is and that it's a lot more difficult in some ways.

[CowboyMcCoy]

I don't know for a fact, but by judging this year's defense I'd say they have a better percentage of stopping teams on 3rd down. Or no?

[CowboyMcCoy]

Originally Posted by Bluestang

Rob Ryan is sending 4 rushers or fewer about 76% of the time and is blitzing 24% of the time.

This is a really big contrast from what he did last year.

Rob has really gotten very conservative because of the injuries of Church and Lee.

Danny McCray - he is not a deep safety at all and can't be relied to cover a deep half of the field. He is good in the nickel LB/S role in Rob's hybrid dime defense but that means playing Carr out of position at S.

Ernie Sims - is not a good run defender whatsoever and we are starting to see why Detroit gave up on him and why the Eagles did too. Drafted as a 4-3 WOLB he lacks instincts to play the LB position period. I can't really fault him for playing in a new defense and trying to learn but I don't see any natural instincts from him when he plays.

Marcus Spears - the very definition of JAG

[View Full Quote]Jay Ratliff - his injuries that caused him to miss time have been his problem. When he's in he offers a good push of the interior of the pocket.

The part about Sims is silly. Sims has been solid for coming off the streets. You must have a short memory.

And Spears is a JAG?

And compensating with being conservative after injuries is what most coaches would do.

[jday]

Originally Posted by Yakuza Rich

Yesterday I did a post giving my thoughts on the offense after watching a bunch of All-22 games.

http://cowboyszone.com/forums/dallas...s.php?t=247959

First, I’ve went back and forth on Rob Ryan as the D-Coordinator. I have concluded that at this moment he is a ‘good coach.’ That does not guarantee that he gets better or even remains a ‘good coach.’ Sometimes good coaches have a ‘blind spot’ that prevents them from getting better. Or they may have their defense exposed by the league and struggle to adjust to it.

[View Full Quote]But from what I see on All-22 is a defense that is advanced schematically, that adjusts well to its personnel and to the opponents and that new players can pick up fairly quickly. I sometimes question his initial gameplan, but given the injuries and the offense having turned the ball over so much, I do not know if that is really an issue we have to consider in the future.

I see 3 issues with this defense this year:

1. Safety Play
2. Defensive End
3. Injuries

I have always been a bit lukewarm on Sensabaugh. Couchscout mentioned his problems in zone coverage and All-22 exposes that. However, he is quite good in man-to-man coverage. So I can see why he appeals to coaches, he plays man-to-man better than most safeties. But, it’s part of the recurring theme with this team…a poor job of meshing skill sets. I liked what I saw out of Barry Church, but I thought he had some issues on deeper zone coverage. Short and intermediate zone coverage, I liked what I saw. IMO, you would want somebody like Sensy paired with a good deep zone coverage safety so Sensy could take away short-to-intermediate pass patterns in man coverage.

I thought McCray looked good early on, but teams caught on quickly to him being a liability in coverage. I can see why Rob Ryan is not afraid to move Brandon Carr to safety. I haven’t seen enough of Peprah and company. But, I think Ryan lost confidence in McCray in the Redskins game when he botched his assignment on the long pass to Robinson. I think Rob could live with getting beat athletically, but getting beat mentally is unacceptable.

Even if Church was still playing, I think the safety play would still not be where it needs to be. And personally, I’m more interested in athletic, good tackling safeties who play zone coverage well versus athletic safeties who play man coverage well. We have to remember that we will face RG3 and Mike Vick in 25% of our games for the year and their scrambling ability means much more zone play and requires the DB’s to help out in tackling them. Plus, my gripes against the lack of INT’s from the safeties are justified when you watch them play zone coverage in All-22. Lastly, I think the zone play of the safeties becomes even more important given Rob’s scheme. He likes to have the ILB’s and Safeties run north and south. We have ILB’s in Carter and Lee that can do that, but we don’t quite have that at safety. If Matt Johnson ever gets healthy and is nearly as good as advertised, expect to see a big north and south style running defender.

Because the safety play is poor, that has Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne playing less press coverage. Mo can handle it. I think the kid is really impressive to watch. He may end up being our version of Revis. Revis plays more with his upper body strength, Mo plays more with his long arms and athleticism. Furthermore, he’s really starting to play better and better in zone coverage. And while his tackling could be better, it has improved and is actually better than I expected it to be.

Carr has really lost his confidence. He’s not allowed to play press coverage enough because Rob can’t trust the safeties if the WR gets a break off press coverage. And then they have Carr playing safety. I actually think all things considered, Carr has put an admirable effort. But unless we get safeties behind him and get him playing to his strengths, we’ll just have wasted his time here.

Oh and Scandrick has been downright excellent in coverage for almost the entire year. This really surprised me how well he’s played. Unfortunately, he botched 2 crucial plays against Atlanta and had a stupid roughing the passer penalty. Then he went on I-R.

Where we did a great job of meshing skill sets is in the LB corp. We could use Lee and Carter in a variety of ways. We could give Carter deeper zone responsibilities and deeper man-to-man responsibilities. We could give Lee more short responsibilities and take on blockers. It also helps that both are smart football players as well. And we can switch up the responsibilities from time-to-time to throw off the opposing offense.

I’ve flip flopped on Spencer, but All-22 exposes the problems better. Spencer is a really good player. He can rush the passer, is really good against the run and sometimes elite against it. And he’s capable in pass coverage. The problems we have had are at safety and Defensive End. Unless we were able to get another elite pass rusher like an Aldon Smith, there’s just no reason to let Spencer go unless he’s asking for way too much. And good luck finding another Aldon Smith in the draft.

Lastly, we get to the DE’s. I recommend people focus on Jason Hatcher in the All-22. You may be surprised how great he has played this year. He’s thoroughly impressive out there and is a top-5 player on the team right now. I think our scouting on defense has been very good, we just don’t go after safeties or DE’s that much. Guys like Hatcher give me hope that somebody like Crawford is the real deal and perhaps the same with Matt Johnson.

But, what’s disappointing is that the team seems to be afraid to send a message to a player in the middle of the season. I thought they did a nice job of sending a message last year when the released Gurode and company. This year, there is just no way that Marcus Spears should be starting. And the only thing that would prevent me from releasing him is the injuries. In fact, if Lissemore comes back and Ben Bass shows some desire, I would then release Spears. There is no way he deserves to start over Tyrone Crawford.

I will say this, there is some real hope for this defense in 2013 if they can stay healthy and make an upgrade at safety. Yes, they need to be better on the D-Line, but I think that moving Crawford to starter and getting Lissemore as a passing down rusher and getting another year out of Ratliff will make for a very good D-Line. And if we get some real safeties, we can get Carr back to playing more press coverage, a very underrated Scandrick in the slot and hopefully Mo just gets better with another year of experience and becomes ‘Revis-esque.’

For right now, we are just seeing a sad replica of the defense with all of the injuries. Sims is pretty good in space, but stands no chance if blockers get on him. He does put up an admirable fight. Connor has gotten better, but is still limited. I’ve already gone over McCray.

But, whoever is the head coach here next season, I think it’s an imperative to keep Rob Ryan on the team. And I did not quite feel this way a little while ago.








YR

Excellent post. Very informative. Please keep them coming.

[InmanRoshi]

I have no problem with returning the same defensive unit in entirety from coaching staff down to personnel, other than maybe switching out the McCray safety. When you go up and down the list of safeties that have started for the Cowboys over the last ten years, the list is a amazing collection of nobodies. Danny McCray will soon join Killer Keith Davis and Willie Pyles and Pat Watkins and broken down Marcus Coleman in the "How in the heck did he ever start games for us?" list of nostalgia and disbelief. Easily the most neglected unit on the team over the last 10 years. I'm not even talking about talent misevaluation, I'm talking just straight up neglecting the position because you put absolutely no value in it.

Marcus Spears is pretty much a walking example of how difficult it is to lose a starting position or roster spot once you've been designated "trusted veteran" in this organization. You pretty much have to pull a Brodney Poole and outright dare the organization to get rid of you through insubordination and lack of interest.

I really think Matt Eberflus is a valuable asset to his team, not just in the progress of Lee and Carter, but in being able to pick up unwanted street free agents like Ernie Simms and at least have them playing at a serviceable level inside the defense inside a few days. Regardless of what happens with the coaching staff, I hope he's in Dallas and contributing to the Cowboys defensive brain trust for a long, long time.

[Bluestang]

Originally Posted by CowboyMcCoy

The part about Sims is silly. Sims has been solid for coming off the streets. You must have a short memory.

And Spears is a JAG?

And compensating with being conservative after injuries is what most coaches would do.

I guess the wide open touchdown to Paul wasn't a blown coverage by Sims either huh?

You have the short memory.

But by all means keep over rating FAs off the street, don't let me stop you.

[IrishAnto]

Originally Posted by McLovin

Not directed at you, but when people champion that 5-3 at the end of 2010 , it hits a nerve. That last win was vs Philly who rested their starters and Dallas started S McGee to boot. I guess its a win in the books, but Philly wins that game 95/100 if they cared and that 5-3 / 2 game over .500 mark goes to 4-4 and .500 (just like we continue to be)

No offence taken , but the record is what it is regardless.