Let's put some things into perspective about the defense

kumizi

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I wish I shared your optimism. I think the only reason they wont be a bottom 5 defense is because we get to play the weak offenses in the NFC East.

Diggs was a bright spot. DLaw is solid. Hopefully Parsons keeps getting better. The other 8 starters could be on the unemployment line tomorrow and I wouldnt care. Hard to overcome that much of a dearth in talent.
 

Big_D

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They'd be in the running for worst defense in the NFL if they didnt get to play the weak NFC East so much.

Diggs was a bright spot. DLaw is solid. Hopefully Parsons keeps getting better. The other 8 starters could be on the unemployment line tomorrow and I wouldnt care. Hard to overcome that much of a dearth in talent.


This really makes no sense since they looked like far from the worst defense against the best team in football. All with a lot of young players and the most competition we've seen on that side of the ball in a long time.. All in 2 drafts and one offseason.

That was a legit offense with a lot of weapons. Besides Tom Brady you have Evans, Gooodwin, Brown, Gronk and also Fournette catching a ton of passes.

Now lets take a peak at the defensive roster before McCarthy? You mentioned 1 "solid" player? lol That's what they did in 10 years right there!
 

Big_D

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Another observation. But it definitely looks like punching at the ball has become a serious priority! How often did we see that the past decade? Certainly not the way it is being utilized right now.
 

Stargazing

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The just faced the Super Bowl champs. If not the best offense in the league....one of them.

New Defensive Coach.

Micah Parson is a rookie. He's incredibly important to this defenses success. Let's remember what Diggs looked like in week 1 last year and let's remember what he looked like by week 17. You will see the same jump in Micah. You won't find too many QB's int his league that can manipulate a player like Parson's...I expect him to be a beast week 2 with a younger guy under center in Herbert.

They continued the trend of forcing turnovers that they started with towards the end of last season.

Gallimore is coming.

Diggs shut down Mike Evans. One of the better receivers in the league...I won't scream elite yet.....but he picked up right where he left off.

Jourdan Lewis once again finds himself around the football. I can't speak on how great of a game he had.

Anthony Brown should be better with more limited reps...he won't face guys the caliber of Antonio Brown every week......but he's going to get tested and for his sake they need to limit his reps or we're going to find ourselves in shootouts more times than not.


It sucks because I think the Buccs was a great test for our offense......but our defense wasn't ready. I would've rather faced them a little later in the season......The defense we saw week 1 won't be the same defense we see by years end. They will get better. I mean, even Mike Nolan's crappy defense got better. The question is how better? I don't know but Chargers like to air it out and this will be a nice test for a young defense that's looking to get better.

I know I'm in the minority but I'm somewhat optimistic by this defense.
 

TheMarathonContinues

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Another observation. But it definitely looks like punching at the ball has become a serious priority! How often did we see that the past decade? Certainly not the way it is being utilized right now.
I felt like it was coached in the past and then by the time the games would come around nothing would happen. But we saw even in the Falcons game that seems to be what Quinn emphasizes.....who's the linebacker that was just KILLING us last year? He was punching everything.

I don't know what's Maranelli's MO was but man it was like he just wanted to lineup and don't give up the big play. Nevermind actually making plays or getting pressure to force a turnover.....
 
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Good post.

I was very pleased with the defense and how they played Tampa. That is a really good offense, led by an offensive genius as the head coach and one of the best QB’s to ever play. They should and will score points by the boatload.

The young Dallas defense played their first game ever under Quinn and did so with a rookie at DT and a rookie at LB. They played one hell of a game, despite allowing a good bit of points. Grind and Brady know every trick in the book and they broke them out in game 1.

Once the Cowboys defense gets a couple of games with Quinn under their belt and the young guys get their feet wet… they are going to be a real problem for offenses, IMO. They are very clearly going to be light years ahead of last year’s defense. They played sound football, everybody ran to the ball, and they were like a bunch of crazed dogs going after turnovers.

Frankly, if you watched that game and you aren’t really excited about the Dallas defense going forward… then I question how much you really understand football. They are going to be good. How good? We can’t know yet… but they will be a formidable unit very, very soon.

The same goes for the offense. They played one of the best defenses in the league and they moved the ball up and down the field all night. They are going to score in bunches this season. When the opposing defense isn’t the top rated run stopping unit, they should be able to run the ball and they are going to be among the very best passing offenses.

The Dallas offense is going to be very dangerous.

You put those two together and you have a team that should win a lot of games this season. Again, if you are down on the team after this first game… then you’re either perpetually down on the team, or you didn’t really understand what you were seeing Thursday night.

The team looked sharp, prepared and well coached, the offensive line performed extremely well against a very good defense, and that was without their best lineman.

This ain’t 2020.

This should be a very fun season if they can just get special teams settled.
Where is the pass rush?

Without a pass rush the only chance of winning games is to outscore everybody
 

AsthmaField

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That is my biggest issue.All the talk about Parsons, Diggs and everybody else won't mean much without pressuring the passer.
I hear you. I think they will be able to pressure the QB, but they’re going to have to do it. They got to show us.
 

Big_D

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I felt like it was coached in the past and then by the time the games would come around nothing would happen. But we saw even in the Falcons game that seems to be what Quinn emphasizes.....who's the linebacker that was just KILLING us last year? He was punching everything.

I don't know what's Maranelli's MO was but man it was like he just wanted to lineup and don't give up the big play. Nevermind actually making plays or getting pressure to force a turnover.....


It's one minor detail and you already see a huge difference. Plus the level of competition brought in on the D side in comparison. Marinelli, I don't really know what was happening? Never seemed like there was an actual plan.
 

TheMarathonContinues

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It's one minor detail and you already see a huge difference. Plus the level of competition brought in on the D side in comparison. Marinelli, I don't really know what was happening? Never seemed like there was an actual plan.
Nah.....seemed like he didn't have one and if he did he could fool me.
 

plasticman

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Let me help with perspective:

The Cowboy defense forced 4 turnovers. Do you know how long it took for the defense to get 4 turnovers last season?

8 games. That's right. After one game, the 2021 Cowboys defense has the same number of turnovers that the 2020 Cowboys defense had at the midpoint of the season.

Moreover, those turnovers were forced from the defending Super Bowl champions led by one of the best QB's in history.

Tom Brady doesn't just give away interceptions. In 2016 his season total for INT's was 2. In 2015, it took half of the season before he had 2 INT's. He's had single digit INT's in 9 of his seasons.

Hopefully, they can continue the intensity and even increase it in time.

Most of us would have accepted 4 sacks in that game. Which is better, 4 sacks or 4 turnovers?
 

TheHerd

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In this present day, the measure of a defense is how they pressure and create something at the end of the game when it’s on the line. Our defense can’t do that yet.
 

NotForLong

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I agree and I think Quinn is going to fix it…it won’t come easy or fast but these first couple of weeks he’s trying to get a feel for what he’s working with. Offense is going to have to win some of these games for them to start the season.
As of now I am ecstatic about the takeaways and I hope it continues
 

Doomsday101

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I expect defense to get better moving forward, to see where they made mistakes in this past game and look to correct them. However vs the top team in the NFL to go out and create the turnovers was big.
 

Whyjerry

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Other than DT there is talent on this defense. Very underrated in my opinion. Lots of high draft picks. It should be decent.

Last season they were insanely under coached.
 
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