Are you concerned about the size of our DL?

[speedkilz88]

76, 98, 92, and 90 do not look small.

 

[RonSpringsdaman20]

no

 

[JoeyBoy718]

Lawrence was light last year but he should have ideal size for a SDE in this scheme this year. Crawford has good size for a 3-tech in this scheme. Hardy is the same size as Crawford, and he'll be at DT 60% of the time in the Nickel so our Nickel DTs will have good size. Gregory is still light but he'll only be in at WDE in the Nickel. Mincey has good size at DE and DT. And Hayden is about as big as they get in Marinelli's scheme. Only undersized guy is Gregory and he'll put on weight. Most of those teams have a 350 pounder bringing their average up.

A more accurate number is 280 average for the Base (Hardy 275, Crawford 285, Hayden 295, Lawrence 265) and probably about 265-270 in the Nickel depending on how big Gregory is at that time.

 

[burmafrd]

Your point, while correct in general, was not the case in this game.

They ran the ball 31 times in the game.

For the season, they averaged 31 carries per game.

In the Super Bowl, they ran for 103 yards.

They averaged 115 yards per game during the season.

For the season, the Steelers averaged 244 net yards per game passing, and 1.3 interceptions per game.

In the Super Bowl, they threw for 207 net yards, and threw three interceptions, one of which came on the last play of the game.

If anything, Pittsburgh played to their statistical model for the 1995 season. There was no inability to rely on the running game - it performed the way it had all season. The passing game also performed the way it had on the average for the season, if anything, it performed below average in terms of output.

The Cowboys didn't perform to their season level offensively. Not even close, in fact. But, when they needed to gain yards on the ground, they did.

And when Pittsburgh needed to, they couldn't.

That was the game when I saw the Great Wall beginning to crumble. A lot of that was Nate just running out of gas late in the season. But also losing our Center and that mess then Tui was also beginning to drop. All the pounding they did that year caught up to them in the SB. Pitt had a very strong D line and stymied our run game m,ost of the time. BUT when it really mattered they reached down and like all true Champs did it when it really was important. But I was thinking after that game that we really needed to rebuild the O line. We had LA and Erik but we were going to have to soon replace the rest. Interestingly we did replace Tui with the Hotel and we had LA but with Erik getting injured and then fading we never really replaced anyone else. That was of course on Jerruh and his idiotic no first rd picks on the O line and try and draft low and develop fixation.

 

[Plankton]

That was the game when I saw the Great Wall beginning to crumble. A lot of that was Nate just running out of gas late in the season. But also losing our Center and that mess then Tui was also beginning to drop. All the pounding they did that year caught up to them in the SB. Pitt had a very strong D line and stymied our run game m,ost of the time. BUT when it really mattered they reached down and like all true Champs did it when it really was important. But I was thinking after that game that we really needed to rebuild the O line. We had LA and Erik but we were going to have to soon replace the rest. Interestingly we did replace Tui with the Hotel and we had LA but with Erik getting injured and then fading we never really replaced anyone else. That was of course on Jerruh and his idiotic no first rd picks on the O line and try and draft low and develop fixation.

The biggest issue was once they lost Mark Stepnoski, who was 28 years old, and replaced him with 35 year old Ray Donaldson, they were really rolling the dice on Donaldson remaining healthy and effective. He ended up breaking his leg in the Thanksgiving day game against the Chiefs, and they had nothing behind him. They had to sign Derek Kennard again, after he had been sitting on the couch for the first half of the season. Kennard was dominated by Joel Steed in the game, and that shut down the running game.

You're right on them not recognizing the decline taking place, and they couldn't identify good replacements. After the 1993 Super Bowl win, the Cowboys lost/let go Kevin Gogan, John Gesek, and Frank Cornish, and replaced them with Larry Allen and Derek Kennard. Big win on Allen, big loss with Kennard. They drafted Allen, George Hegamin, Shane Hannah, and then in 1996, Clay Shiver and Kenneth McDaniel. They missed on all of them except for Allen. They needed to hit on some of these guys, but just couldn't identify good linemen. Donaldson came back again in 1996, and started the whole season, but he was completely shot. Newton's decline really began to take hold in 1996, and Tuinei was less than he was as well. Erik Williams went from being a nasty dominator to a dirty player who held his own. Sad to watch. Williams for a three year span was as intimidating and as dominant a lineman as we have seen.

 

[cowboyschmps3]

Are they using Gregory at 230? most 4-3 D ends are around 270. Hardy is bigger than that, Mincey is bigger than that and Lawrence looks thick. He is probably around 270. Crawford is a beast, I am not worried about his weight. In short, no, I dont think our d line is too small. We will have a great rotation to keep everyone fresh.

Hardy is 285

 

[dfense]

1. Stats don't lie. People just are bad at using critical thinking skills to interpret them

2. The graph clearly notes 4-3 Ds.

3. Another issue with statistics is that people fail to take the time to try to understand what is being presented.

Yup, you're right. I missed the 4-3 right above.

So I took some more time and decided Atlanta's defense sucked as well as the Giants.

 

[speedkilz88]

That was the game when I saw the Great Wall beginning to crumble. A lot of that was Nate just running out of gas late in the season. But also losing our Center and that mess then Tui was also beginning to drop. All the pounding they did that year caught up to them in the SB. Pitt had a very strong D line and stymied our run game m,ost of the time. BUT when it really mattered they reached down and like all true Champs did it when it really was important. But I was thinking after that game that we really needed to rebuild the O line. We had LA and Erik but we were going to have to soon replace the rest. Interestingly we did replace Tui with the Hotel and we had LA but with Erik getting injured and then fading we never really replaced anyone else. That was of course on Jerruh and his idiotic no first rd picks on the O line and try and draft low and develop fixation.

The biggest issue was once they lost Mark Stepnoski, who was 28 years old, and replaced him with 35 year old Ray Donaldson, they were really rolling the dice on Donaldson remaining healthy and effective. He ended up breaking his leg in the Thanksgiving day game against the Chiefs, and they had nothing behind him. They had to sign Derek Kennard again, after he had been sitting on the couch for the first half of the season. Kennard was dominated by Joel Steed in the game, and that shut down the running game.

You're right on them not recognizing the decline taking place, and they couldn't identify good replacements. After the 1993 Super Bowl win, the Cowboys lost/let go Kevin Gogan, John Gesek, and Frank Cornish, and replaced them with Larry Allen and Derek Kennard. Big win on Allen, big loss with Kennard. They drafted Allen, George Hegamin, Shane Hannah, and then in 1996, Clay Shiver and Kenneth McDaniel. They missed on all of them except for Allen. They needed to hit on some of these guys, but just couldn't identify good linemen. Donaldson came back again in 1996, and started the whole season, but he was completely shot. Newton's decline really began to take hold in 1996, and Tuinei was less than he was as well. Erik Williams went from being a nasty dominator to a dirty player who held his own. Sad to watch. Williams for a three year span was as intimidating and as dominant a lineman as we have seen.

They did hit on OG Ron Stone but didn't match the gnats contract in 1996 and lost him after 3 years of development.

 

[RS12]

Are you concerned about the size of our DL?

Nope. Throw a couple cheese burgers at Gregory.

 

[Plankton]

They did hit on OG Ron Stone but didn't match the gnats contract in 1996 and lost him after 3 years of development.

Good one. Stone was a very good player with the Giants and Raiders after he left Dallas.

The coaching staff completely screwed up in the 1994 Championship Game against the 49ers. Larry Allen had badly sprained his ankle against the Packers the week before. He could barely move laterally in the game. They had Stone available to play RT if needed. They didn't make the switch until very late in the 4th quarter after the game was largely decided. Aikman faced a ton of pressure in the game from Tim Harris coming off of the left defensive side of the formation.