The One Area the Cowboys Must Improve the Most

plasticman

plasticman

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Interceptions - When you look at the profiles of past SB winners there are a few attributes that almost always exist. One of those are takeaways.

That is bad new for the Cowboys. Since 2000, they are ranked at the bottom of the league in takeaways. They are actually average in terms of fumble recoveries but their interceptions are historically dismal over the past 20 seasons.

In four of their last five seasons they have single digit interceptions. In the only season they had more, 2017, they had 10 interceptions. If you listed all the NFL teams over the past five years then you would have 160 seasons. All five of the Cowboys seasons are ranked in the bottom 30. That is pathetic.

From there, it only gets worse. Over the past five seasons, the defender with the highest number of INT's in one season was safety Jeff Heath. In 2017, he had three.

The last time a cornerback had 4 or more interceptions was 2011. That was Terrence Newman in his last season as a Cowboy. The last time any defender had 5 interceptions was 2014, linebacker Bruce Carter.

Here is the Dallas Cowboy "Top 20" in interceptions for the decade of 2010 to 2019:

1 Sean Lee 14
2 Terence Newman 9
3 Jeff Heath 8
4 Brandon Carr 7
5 Orlando Scandrick 7
6 Gerald Sensabaugh 7
7 Bruce Carter 5
8 Barry Church 5
9 J.J. Wilcox 5
10 Xavier Woods 5
11 Anthony Brown 4
12 Morris Claiborne 4
13 Jourdan Lewis 4
14 Chidobe Awuzie 3
15 Alan Ball 3
16 Rolando McClain 3
17 Mike Jenkins 2
18 Byron Jones 2
19 Danny McCray 2
20 Leighton Vander Esch 2

Only three of the top ten were cornerbacks. When your INT leader.....by far.....is your middle linebacker, for an entire decade, then there is a problem.

55 NFL defenders had more interceptions then Lee from 2010 to 2019. One of them was Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.

Yes, there are less INT's recorded in the NFL these days. Over the past five seasons, a player could lead the NFL with 7 or 8.

However, while the Cowboys average 8.5 a season, there are a handful of teams that have 15 or more INT's three or more times in the past 5 seasons. The Kansas City Chiefs had 15 or more INT's in all five seasons. The Steelers and Eagles did it three times as did the Bills. I believe this is where the greatest area of improvement must be made.

Again, according to the statistical profile of past champions, here is the high probability that in order for the Cowboys to acheive their goal of a championship, INT's must be the area of greatest improvement.
 

Eanwen

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That's rather eye opening. I certainly believe turnovers and better special teams play are key to having a better season.

I'm glad Woods is up there but it would be more impressive on a list that had more turnovers overall.
 
Tangle_Foot

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Wow that is bad, when you consider Lee as the interception leader with all of the time that he's missed, we do have a problem. I guess the only saving grace is we have five on the current roster that have already cracked the top 20 "such as it is" we drafted a couple of guys that should help, and we should have a better pass rush.

Hopefully there is also a philosophy change of playing the ball and not the hands, never could figure that one outo_O
Yes I tend to look on the bright side:flagwave:
 
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Big_D

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Hopefully this D line is better at creating some pressure, getting their hands up and then we can take a few floaters the other way.
 
plasticman

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big dog cowboy said:
While I agree that is very important, the one area I felt the Cowboys needed to improve the most this off season was HC/coaching staff. They upgraded that big time!!!!
Click to expand...
The lack of interceptions is over 2 decades old. It has been a reality through five different coaching changes.

My hope is that scouts and coaches begin to look at more than defending passes and tackling, This defense desperately needs playmakers like Lee was in his younger days.
 
817Gill

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You don’t need to have a shut out defense in order to win the SB in today’s game, especially with an elite offense. You need one that can get to the QB and create turnovers.

Do that and you’re playing in January every year.
 

ondaedg

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plasticman said:
Interceptions - When you look at the profiles of past SB winners there are a few attributes that almost always exist. One of those are takeaways.

That is bad new for the Cowboys. Since 2000, they are ranked at the bottom of the league in takeaways. They are actually average in terms of fumble recoveries but their interceptions are historically dismal over the past 20 seasons.

In four of their last five seasons they have single digit interceptions. In the only season they had more, 2017, they had 10 interceptions. If you listed all the NFL teams over the past five years then you would have 160 seasons. All five of the Cowboys seasons are ranked in the bottom 30. That is pathetic.

From there, it only gets worse. Over the past five seasons, the defender with the highest number of INT's in one season was safety Jeff Heath. In 2017, he had three.

The last time a cornerback had 4 or more interceptions was 2011. That was Terrence Newman in his last season as a Cowboy. The last time any defender had 5 interceptions was 2014, linebacker Bruce Carter.

Here is the Dallas Cowboy "Top 20" in interceptions for the decade of 2010 to 2019:

1 Sean Lee 14
2 Terence Newman 9
3 Jeff Heath 8
4 Brandon Carr 7
5 Orlando Scandrick 7
6 Gerald Sensabaugh 7
7 Bruce Carter 5
8 Barry Church 5
9 J.J. Wilcox 5
10 Xavier Woods 5
11 Anthony Brown 4
12 Morris Claiborne 4
13 Jourdan Lewis 4
14 Chidobe Awuzie 3
15 Alan Ball 3
16 Rolando McClain 3
17 Mike Jenkins 2
18 Byron Jones 2
19 Danny McCray 2
20 Leighton Vander Esch 2

Only three of the top ten were cornerbacks. When your INT leader.....by far.....is your middle linebacker, for an entire decade, then there is a problem.

55 NFL defenders had more interceptions then Lee from 2010 to 2019. One of them was Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.

Yes, there are less INT's recorded in the NFL these days. Over the past five seasons, a player could lead the NFL with 7 or 8.

However, while the Cowboys average 8.5 a season, there are a handful of teams that have 15 or more INT's three or more times in the past 5 seasons. The Kansas City Chiefs had 15 or more INT's in all five seasons. The Steelers and Eagles did it three times as did the Bills. I believe this is where the greatest area of improvement must be made.

Again, according to the statistical profile of past champions, here is the high probability that in order for the Cowboys to acheive their goal of a championship, INT's must be the area of greatest improvement.
Click to expand...

Ro McClain has more INTs than Byron.

:muttley:
 
plasticman

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Contrast that with this fact. Here are the top 5 Cowboys that lead the franchise in INT's all time:

Player Int
Mel Renfro 52
Everson Walls 44
Charlie Waters 41
Dennis Thurman 36
Michael Downs 34

We have HOFer Mel Renfro in first place

2nd through 5th are all Thurman's Theives!

That's right. In the first season of Thurman's thieves, 1981, here are their INT numbers:

Everson Walls 11
Charlie Waters 3
Dennis Thurman 9
Michael Downs 7

The starting defensive backfield had 30 INT's. The starting CB's alone had 20.

Two of these starting DB's were undrafted rookies that year. Another was a 9th round pick a few seasons back. In the modern day drafts he would have also been an undrafted player. Charlie Waters was a 33 year old former 3rd round pick.

Again, times have changed and I'm not expecting those kind of numbers. All that I am trying to show is that it is possible to fix this quickly with the right players and the right attitude , the right leadership and especially the right coaching.

And the secondary coach for the Dallas Cowboys in 1981?

None other than the legendary Gene Stalling, one of the "Junction Boys" from Texas A&M, 14 seasons with the Cowboys, would later become the Head Coach of the University of Alabama going undefeated 13-0 winning the national championship in 1992, the same year the Cowboys won their first Super Bowl under Jimmy Johnson.

Going off on a tangent but when Gene Stallings coached six seasons as the secondary coach for the Cowboys, the defensive coordinator was a guy named Dick Nolan.
 
JoeKing

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Better coaching generates more opportunities for interceptions. We've got the first part of that equation accomplished. Let's hope the rest of that equation is as intrinsic as I just suggested it is.
 
OGCowboy

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Middle D especially vs the run....I’m not big on research and stats but my feeble brain seem to remember teams busting our sand running the ball up the gut...OG style
Hopefully the new beef in the middle will solve that bangin issue.....
 

buybuydandavis

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plasticman said:
Interceptions - When you look at the profiles of past SB winners there are a few attributes that almost always exist. One of those are takeaways.

That is bad new for the Cowboys. Since 2000, they are ranked at the bottom of the league in takeaways. They are actually average in terms of fumble recoveries but their interceptions are historically dismal over the past 20 seasons.

In four of their last five seasons they have single digit interceptions. In the only season they had more, 2017, they had 10 interceptions. If you listed all the NFL teams over the past five years then you would have 160 seasons. All five of the Cowboys seasons are ranked in the bottom 30. That is pathetic.
Click to expand...

Bend but don't break doesn't get you turnovers, we've been weak on the dline for a long long time, didn't believe in blitzing or confusing QBs, and our CB technique has been to keep eyes on the receiver.

That didn't get us turnovers. What a shock.

When was the last time we paid a safety 5mil+? Maybe Sensabaugh in 2012? We did spend a 1st trying to make Byron a FS. Otherwise, it's been a lot of Heath and Church. Beside the Byron attempt, we've been cheaping out on safety for a long time.
 
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