DMN Blog: Mike Jenkins on the secondary's woes: 'We know what the cancer is' - Dallas Cowboys Forum

**WoodysGirl** · 12-13-2011

ByRainer Sabin / Reporter
rsabin@dallasnews.com | Bio

5:06 PM on Tue., Dec. 13, 2011 | Permalink

While failure by the Cowboys' secondary is not a new phenomenon, the recent collapse prompted questions. Was defensive coordinator Rob Ryan overwhelming the players with complicated schemes? Was the absence of an effective pass rush leading to breakdowns in coverage? Had the talent of the personnel been overestimated?

Cowboys cornerback Mike Jenkins pointed to another reason as he attempted to explain why there have been so many problems within his unit.

"Communication," he said. "We know what the cancer is. It's communication. If you look at the film, we're all not on the same page. We're all looking at each other with our heads chopped off. Once we get that together, we're going to be all right."

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ThreeSportStar80 · 12-13-2011

You shouldn't have communication problems this late into the season... It's a talent problem more than anything. Alen Ball and Frank Walker should be on the street.

28 Joker · 12-13-2011

The two major busts in the secondary were killer in this game.

The Cowboys have a first round pick (Anthony Spencer) who is not the pass rusher they need opposite of Ware. Spencer's disappearing act was obvious in this last game.

Plus, I'd play zone coverage against Manning and rush four guys. It worked last year, and Dallas won. There was too much blitzing and man coverage in that game.

dadymat · 12-13-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThreeSportStar80

You shouldn't have communication problems this late into the season... It's a talent problem more than anything. Alen Ball and Frank Walker should be on the street.

they never had an offseason to put in the new scheme correctly....we should have expected alot of players to not be ready

CooterBrown · 12-13-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by dadymat

they never had an offseason to put in the new scheme correctly....we should have expected alot of players to not be ready

personally, I think the communication issue is there because Ryan uses all his players. I understand getting them all involved and keeping them fresh, but without a real off season to teach everyone the defense, frequent substitution leads to frequent miscommunication.

**Idgit** · 12-14-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by 41gy#

The two major busts in the secondary were killer in this game.

The Cowboys have a first round pick (Anthony Spencer) who is not the pass rusher they need opposite of Ware. Spencer's disappearing act was obvious in this last game.

Plus, I'd play zone coverage against Manning and rush four guys. It worked last year, and Dallas won. There was too much blitzing and man coverage in that game.

There was too much blitzing two safeties and blowing a coverage for an easy 6. And killer holding penalties in the end zone and on Walker on the final NY drive that killed us. Throw in Ware's off sides, and those were basically three hidden turnovers that led directly or (in Walker's case) indirectly to 21 points.

If it's communication, fine. Fix it. But it begs the question why communication is worse in week 13 than it was earlier in the year. They're supposed to be getting better at this stuff, and not worse.

**Idgit** · 12-14-2011

Quote:

"We know on the defensive side what's the issue," safety Abram Elam said. "We just know we have to correct it. We know we have to play better as a unit."

Sounds like the players do believe the issue is communication. Hard to say what can be done about it, though, or whether or not understanding a problem they've been unable to solve is a good thing in this case.

TheCoolFan · 12-14-2011

They had plenty of communication issues under Wade's scheme too so you can't really blame it completely on learning a new scheme. It's just about the players and coaches not improving upon their weakness.

Campo and Maxie were here for those issues in the past and they're still here. They're not the main culprit but they sure aren't making it any better. Getting rid of them would be the first step in the right direction.

**big dog cowboy** · 12-14-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by dadymat

they never had an offseason to put in the new scheme correctly.

This.

DBOY3141 · 12-14-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by big dog cowboy

This.

I say Bull. They had training camp and 13 weeks of football. Communication is a lame excuse this late in the season. It's the players, no different than last year when they said it was communication.

We need better players. Newman, Ball, Brooking, James, Walker, all need to be gone.

BraveHeartFan · 12-14-2011

Normally I'd say that this shouldn't be an issue late in the season.

But with a shortened offseason, no minicamps and such, and then with the revolving door thats been in that secondary due to injuries it's not hard to see how they're having issues.

I mean how many games has our actual starting secondary been in together for full games? It seems like only 4 or 5 all year and the rest 1 or 2 guys were in and out of the line up all the time.

Bull Frog · 12-14-2011

The Texans seem to communicate ok with their new coordinator with the same offseason as us.

**BrAinPaiNt** · 12-14-2011

As others have noted, It is hard to lay all of this on the lack of a training camp because there were "communication" problems when wade was here. As someone else stated, other teams started new Defensive systems even going so far as switching from a 4-3 to a 3-4 (texans) without training camp.

Oddly enough...it seems lack of training camp has not hurt Sean Lee as he seems to know what to do and other people's assignments as well.

Might just be an issue of some players not studying hard enough or maybe some players just don't have the ability to absorb and retain some things half as well as others.

Zaxor · 12-14-2011

So what happens is it like Elam yells at Scandrick "hey Scandrick" and OSCAN replies you can call me Orlando, or you can call me Lando, or you can call me...and somewhere in the background a "hike" is heard.

casmith07 · 12-14-2011

Well, Mike, here's a chance for you to take up the leadership mantle and demand better communication in practice.

One player that I've noticed makes a lot of secondary calls based on what he sees is Scandrick. Scandrick has an ability to sniff out a screen pass seemingly before the snap.