Fix the defense, tweak the offense and overall ST's

[Montanalo]

I don't think your wrong, but... a lot depends on what happens in FA and the draft. I could actually see the team taking a step back under a new coach as some of the "deadwood" is cleared out.

The devil is in the details.

 

[Whyjerry]

Coaching, coaching, coaching....

 

[Rayman70]

I don't think your wrong, but... a lot depends on what happens in FA and the draft. I could actually see the team taking a step back under a new coach as some of the "deadwood" is cleared out.

The devil is in the details.

the devil is in he owners box.

 

[CowboyRoy]

Heck no. I may find myself rooting for my hometown Browns if he is brought back. That is how desperate I am for a new coach.

Garrett couldn't even sniff a SB.

 

[Montanalo]

the devil is in he owners box.

Now, that's funny.

 

[Dak_Attack_09]

Nah... blow it all up. It’s the only way.

You should switch team, Dak ain’t going no where.

 

[LoneStar84]

Isn’t this the same stuff they’ve been trying to fix each offseason for the last 10 years? At some point, you have to admit there’s a bigger problem.

 

[Wood]

Coaching, coaching, coaching....

that might be wishful thinking. Jaylon Smith looks limited especially in space, Lee looks cooked and LVE is having a serious procedure on his back while playing a violent position. Its possible they need to completely revamp LBs group. CB are avg. Need big upgrade at S. With Quinn likely not resigning and the need for big upgrade at both DT positions you could make case entire DL needs to be rebuilt (outside of Tank). That's almost entire Defense that needs to be upgraded to be true contenders. On OL, Smith is aging at LT, LG is total unknown. Frederick needs to continue to recover to justify his contract. QB has major accuracy issues and Dallas won't be able to retain Cooper (do we remember Dak pre-Cooper?). TE needs big upgrade and RB didn't look like same player. So I am not sure new HC gets this fixed. I think Cowboys drafts have been vastly over-credited. New HC is only the first step. Need to improve in draft and GM is absolute abomination. In other words higher power would need to intervene for this to become championship team.

 

[BIGS87]

We need to build up the d-line, get pressure on the qb with just rushing 4 guys. That’ll help everything else and get a ballhawk safety.

 

[Kaiser]

The craptactular special teams, along with a defense that rarely gave the offense a short field, is why games were lost.

Exactly. One more win would have put us in the playoffs. The Pats game was purely about the punt team allowing a block and we lost 3 other games by a total of 10 points. Any one of those four games and we win the Division.

 

[Floatyworm]

We did not abandon the run. We did not run efficiently. The mistake was forcing the run early, especially on early downs, which led to 3 and outs and getting behind by multiple scores. That caused those 45-50 pass attempt games. In the games where they came out passing early, especially on first down, we scored, built leads, and that allowed us to run more effectively. Forcing the feed Zeke cost wins and actually caused MORE PASSING.

Yes we need a tweak, but it is not running more, it is running MORE EFFICIENTLY.

Go back and watch the Eagles game.....on 1st down....8 in the box....constantly. Just daring us to throw. But this was a Garrett game plan...all the way. Run it even if the line is stacked against us. Just stupidity. Run play action on first down..to set up the run game... on 2nd and 3rd down.

 

[Whyjerry]

that might be wishful thinking. Jaylon Smith looks limited especially in space, Lee looks cooked and LVE is having a serious procedure on his back while playing a violent position. Its possible they need to completely revamp LBs group. CB are avg. Need big upgrade at S. With Quinn likely not resigning and the need for big upgrade at both DT positions you could make case entire DL needs to be rebuilt (outside of Tank). That's almost entire Defense that needs to be upgraded to be true contenders. On OL, Smith is aging at LT, LG is total unknown. Frederick needs to continue to recover to justify his contract. QB has major accuracy issues and Dallas won't be able to retain Cooper (do we remember Dak pre-Cooper?). TE needs big upgrade and RB didn't look like same player. So I am not sure new HC gets this fixed. I think Cowboys drafts have been vastly over-credited. New HC is only the first step. Need to improve in draft and GM is absolute abomination. In other words higher power would need to intervene for this to become championship team.

None of it matters unless they get a real head coach.

 

[DuncanIso]

As we all wait on the decision regrading Garrett, whom I think will ultimately be gone by week's end, how do we fix this so called talented roster:

1) Tweak the offense - play calling still remains an issue, especially with a green OC abandoning the run so often. A Head Coach playing far too conservative. The offense didn't struggle moving the ball, but had it's difficulties finishing drives. They couldn't get out of their way at times, too many mental mistakes. Certainly, doesn't help when their FG kicker destroyed momentum on a weekly basis. We have seen Dak make improvement, but still had his struggles against the better defenses around the league. The arrow is pointing in the right direction, better coaching, more development with our QB, the offense isn't far away.

2) The defense and special teams are the team's biggest weaknesses. Team needs a new punter, hopefully they have found a long-term answer at kicker. The return and cover units are among the league worst. No, we don't want to see another special teams draft, but why not target some veteran fa's to bolster the unit. Tony Pollard was an electric returner in college, we have to find a way to turn him into a weapon/

3) The defense or lack thereof. Team struggles defending the run, has no idea how to deal with a simple screen pass, among the league worst to creating defensive turnovers for over a decade. The defensive gameplan isn't game specific, every team knows what we are doing. The worst QB's around the league have looked elite against us. We all know a complete overhaul for the coaching side is needed, but plain and simple, there aren't enough good player on this side of the football. Is there one starter that you can say is pro bowl level? Perhaps DLaw, maybe Lve, down the line if healthy, that's it. The rest are all overrated. The team has to rebuild the defense period!

agree.

they should never have created the Marinelli-KRichard problem.

KRichard should have been named DC last season.

 

[DuncanIso]

the elephant in the room now and all year was our shoddy defense,PERIOD. We lacked adjusting,lacked fundamentals,scheme effectiveness, and coaching. WORST OF ALL, I don't think we are very talented as we been led to believe.

this has been a problem since 2014.

 

[quickccc]

As we all wait on the decision regrading Garrett, whom I think will ultimately be gone by week's end, how do we fix this so called talented roster:

1) Tweak the offense - play calling still remains an issue, especially with a green OC abandoning the run so often. A Head Coach playing far too conservative. The offense didn't struggle moving the ball, but had it's difficulties finishing drives. They couldn't get out of their way at times, too many mental mistakes. Certainly, doesn't help when their FG kicker destroyed momentum on a weekly basis. We have seen Dak make improvement, but still had his struggles against the better defenses around the league. The arrow is pointing in the right direction, better coaching, more development with our QB, the offense isn't far away.

2) The defense and special teams are the team's biggest weaknesses. Team needs a new punter, hopefully they have found a long-term answer at kicker. The return and cover units are among the league worst. No, we don't want to see another special teams draft, but why not target some veteran fa's to bolster the unit. Tony Pollard was an electric returner in college, we have to find a way to turn him into a weapon/

3) The defense or lack thereof. Team struggles defending the run, has no idea how to deal with a simple screen pass, among the league worst to creating defensive turnovers for over a decade. The defensive gameplan isn't game specific, every team knows what we are doing. The worst QB's around the league have looked elite against us. We all know a complete overhaul for the coaching side is needed, but plain and simple, there aren't enough good player on this side of the football. Is there one starter that you can say is pro bowl level? Perhaps DLaw, maybe Lve, down the line if healthy, that's it. The rest are all overrated. The team has to rebuild the defense period!

- OFFENSE:
- i wanna see this offense and this QB and next coaching staff perform well vs the better teams, more competitive defenses
that's why i constantly keep telling some people stats can be misleading and doesnt tell you everything, the stats can get padded because we are leaning more to passign than the past zeke led run game it does show that dak's mechanics are much improved, the pass designs are much better than the Linehan dayz, but Kellen still suffers thru inexperience and confusion.

- Moore will abandon the run, he goes conservative On the Road (see at NO, at Philly) as we dont see the pre-snap motion and multiple formations near as much, and he vastly under-utilized Pollard/Jarwin, imo.
We also did a poor job of utilizing our RBs in the pass game, imo. i can only remember 2-3 big plays with our RBs all year.

- Not having a poor game managing HC further hinder the needed halftime game-adjustments Moore was poor at.
Note: we vastly need a much better TE than sluggish-slow Witten, and need overall revamping of TE unit. Poor in line blockers.

- Expect a change at WR coach. i'm luke warm on Cooper but we've invested a 1st rd on him already. Gallup had up-down year,
but hes'a terrific No.2 WR Will we re-sign vet Cobb, if hes' out-priced in FA, then team will seek another vet WR in FA, i'm betting.
Bye Austin, useless as 4th WR and returner, Expect a vet WR and WR draftee in late rounds, dunno if Devin Smith returns.

- also need to revamp Run game- get RBs back to a scheme that better springs them to 2nd level and outside. and the screen game went invisible under Moore, than was surprisingly much bette under Linehan.
Expect team to draft a new backup QB mid-round to groom..

 

[quickccc]

DEFENSE:
Get a new very qualified DC ..and entirely new defensive staff.
We missed out on Jack Del Rio, a proven quality 4-3 schemer, imo

You're right;
- Poor vs run and screen passes. TE's still threatens us, and our rush is still very inconsistent and this team simply cannot force turnovers.
- Must get rid of Rod Marinelli and change how we play in the trenches - absolutely HUGE key imo.

Get that middle DT interior addressed, Dlaw needs re-emergence,(maybe injury that he couldnt recover per season) we need to re-sign Quinn on a 2 year deal, (he was a 10 sack rusher, even minus 2 suspended games) while we draft his eventual replacement,
- i'd resign Lee to another 1 year deal - while we find and groom his eventual replacement.(late round draftee gem perhaps?)
- Draft will be very heavily invested in new starting DBs,.. vs Byron Jones,Heath and eventual replacement vs Awuzie. and they need to
be reputable ball hawks !

- Ditto with getting a top notch special teams coach then work on personnel preseason/camp. No more Tavon Austin, useless!.
Both Punter and kicker camp competition.

 

[blindzebra]

- OFFENSE:
- i wanna see this offense and this QB and next coaching staff perform well vs the better teams, more competitive defenses
that's why i constantly keep telling some people stats can be misleading and doesnt tell you everything, the stats can get padded because we are leaning more to passign than the past zeke led run game it does show that dak's mechanics are much improved, the pass designs are much better than the Linehan dayz, but Kellen still suffers thru inexperience and confusion.

- Moore will abandon the run, he goes conservative On the Road (see at NO, at Philly) as we dont see the pre-snap motion and multiple formations near as much, and he vastly under-utilized Pollard/Jarwin, imo.
We also did a poor job of utilizing our RBs in the pass game, imo. i can only remember 2-3 big plays with our RBs all year.

- Not having a poor game managing HC further hinder the needed halftime game-adjustments Moore was poor at.
Note: we vastly need a much better TE than sluggish-slow Witten, and need overall revamping of TE unit. Poor in line blockers.

- Expect a change at WR coach. i'm luke warm on Cooper but we've invested a 1st rd on him already. Gallup had up-down year,
but hes'a terrific No.2 WR Will we re-sign vet Cobb, if hes' out-priced in FA, then team will seek another vet WR in FA, i'm betting.
Bye Austin, useless as 4th WR and returner, Expect a vet WR and WR draftee in late rounds, dunno if Devin Smith returns.

- also need to revamp Run game- get RBs back to a scheme that better springs them to 2nd level and outside. and the screen game went invisible under Moore, than was surprisingly much bette under Linehan.
Expect team to draft a new backup QB mid-round to groom..

Why do people keep insisting we abandoned the run, did you guys watch the games?
We did not run well. In only 2 games were we good starting out games running. We consistently did well on offense when we came out passing early. We got leads and ran well the rest of the game. When we forced the run, we fell behind early by multiple scores, and had to pass and lost the game.

 

[Future]

the elephant in the room now and all year was our shoddy defense,PERIOD. We lacked adjusting,lacked fundamentals,scheme effectiveness, and coaching. WORST OF ALL, I don't think we are very talented as we been led to believe.

All of these problems and they ranked 8th in rushing Y/A, 8th in passing Y/A, and had the most effective passrush in the NFL.We lost 3 games - maybe the 3 biggest of the year - and the opponents scored 12, 13, and 17 points.

Honestly what NFL are people watching? The idea that the defense is some huge problem is not based in any sense of reality for today's NFL.

 

[silvrNblue]

We missed out on Jack Del Rio,

Naw, we didn't miss, Jack would NEVER come here and coach under Jerrah….I'd bet the farm on that

 

[12+88=7]

Offense is fine actually. It just needs a real coach and quality scheming and game planning. All the pieces are there. Another good TE would help.

The real problem is defense. If we can hold teams to an average of under 20 points a week and create more turnovers then this team is a contender already.

Points allowed were 321, divided by 16, gives you 20.06 points allowed per game, 10th in the league. Not the problem.

Look at the 8 losses.

New Orleans 12 points, offense was problem.

Green Bay 34 points, defense was problem.

NYJ 24, NY scored 21 in 1st half and 3 points in 2nd half. Offense was the problem.

Minnesota 28 points, defense gives up 14 in 1st quarter and 14 the rest of the game. Offense had a chance to win it late, but couldn't make a play. Good game no ones fault.

New England 13 points, 10 off turnovers. Enough said.

Buffalo 26 points, 13 in both halves. The offense went 51 minutes in between scores. Offense was problem.

Chicago 31 points, defense was problem.

Philadelphia 17 points, offense doesn't score a TD. Offense is problem.

So in 8 losses the offense was responsible for losing 5 games and the defense 2 games, one no fault. On the flip side in wins the defense only messed up once, against Detroit.

But the take by some is the defense is the problem and not the offense. Look at each game over the course of the year and you'll see differently.