Basically every analyst says pretty much the same thing

[links18]

So how long will it take for the calls for Marinelli's head to start if we come out in a soft zone?

 

[DallasEast]

So how long will it take for the calls for Marinelli's head to start if we come out in a soft zone?

Trick question. The calls have already started.

 

[jblaze2004]

why do we suck in zone coverage so much year after year. I mean wr's are always wide open with plenty of room to run. Atleast have someone smashing the wr as soon as he touches the ball. We leave guys wide open. Catch and run. Heck when brandon marshall bobbled the ball last week he should of been tooken out the game on that play or atleast not caught the ball. Church is just slow. Our safeties seem to play real far off the line of scrimmage and never in position to make a play.

 

[CyberB0b]

The Cowboys played a lot of man against the Eagles last year, and were pretty successful.

 

[TwoDeep3]

The component left out of this Defend-Against-The Eagles-For-Dummies is a pass rush.

If you do not get Sanchez off his spot and change the timing of the pass play, then all the man or zone or single high, or Ridgemont High won't matter. This game will be the same game and for the season it will be game over for the Cowboys.

No pass rush, no pass defense.

No pass rush, no difference in outcome.

 

[erod]

Philly moves the ball great, but they are awful in the red zone.

That's why you play soft zone with their uptempo offense. You don't want a guy breaking a tackle and going 60 yards for a score. They get bottled up with the short field in the red zone.

But I'd like to see less of it, too.

 

[CF74]

Sanchez can only throw it about 40 yards, man/press/up and send in LB blitzes...

 

[NoLuv4Jerry]

Because Rod Marinelli has been at this a long time...I was dumb struck with the approach he took. Perhaps he was setting them up for Sunday night?

 

[erod]

Because Rod Marinelli has been at this a long time...I was dumb struck with the approach he took. Perhaps he was setting them up for Sunday night?

It takes time to prepare for Philly because they're so different than everybody else. It's like Air Force in college.

Dallas had an incredibly short week because they got back from New York at 6 am. And Romo was awful and not ready to play physically. Marinelli tried to manage the game and hoped the offense would win a shootout.

He will approach this game much differently with the time to prepare he needed.

 

[CATCH17]

why do we suck in zone coverage so much year after year. I mean wr's are always wide open with plenty of room to run. Atleast have someone smashing the wr as soon as he touches the ball. We leave guys wide open. Catch and run. Heck when brandon marshall bobbled the ball last week he should of been tooken out the game on that play or atleast not caught the ball. Church is just slow. Our safeties seem to play real far off the line of scrimmage and never in position to make a play.

IMO we don't have the right guys to run zone in the secondary...

We need DB's with speed but we have these big tall corners that play off the receiver and Safeties that could pose as LB's.


If we're going to play zone it needs to be in a physical manner. Jam those receivers at the LOS and use our size and strength instead of just passing them off freely.



IMO, in this game, we just need to get out of the first quarter not down 2 scores.

Once Chip can't go to his scripted plays our defense will settle in.

In a perfect world... We get the ball first and score 7.

 

[Sydla]

The Cowboys lost the 1st game to the Eagles because the Cowboys offense only scored 10 points and didn't keep the ball long enough.

LOL.

That's part of it but their defense got shredded. The only thing that changed is that when the Eagles got into the red zone they spit the bit. Why? Because as pointed out by Aikman, Marinelli was more liberal with going man because he didn't have to worry about getting beat deep.

As shown last week again, Philly can stop the run. So if the game plan is to try to run the ball down their throats again, control the clock and let the defense play that soft zone again, guess what?

We are losing again. Plain and simple. Offense needs to be more aggressive, especially on first down. Not as predictable with the run. Also, less stretch plays IMO. Philly moves well to the ball. Jam it more between the tackles when they do run. Defensively, they simply can't play passively.

 

[NoLuv4Jerry]

It takes time to prepare for Philly because they're so different than everybody else. It's like Air Force in college.

Dallas had an incredibly short week because they got back from New York at 6 am. And Romo was awful and not ready to play physically. Marinelli tried to manage the game and hoped the offense would win a shootout.

He will approach this game much differently with the time to prepare he needed.

I don't buy that. We played Philly TWICE last year. There is over 20 games of pro film on Chip Kelly. Tons of college film. Jerry even claims we had been preparing for them for weeks. You simply lineup and tell you guy to cover the guy in front of him...get physical.....and deploy timely blitzes. They really do not beat people with trickery...they beat you with pace. Something the Cowboys..with a young OL and young skill position players should be doing....playing uptempo...but that is a debate for another day.

 

[MissouriCowboy]

I hope Patmon comes back and makes a difference. It should give the secondary more flexibility to go to the dime package.

Patmon was playing before he got hurt like he been here before.

 

[CrownCowboy]

I think I'd rather live and die with man coverage than see them get picked apart like they're not even there in zone coverage.

But, to do that, they have to do a better job containing the run game, because if they can't, you don't want your corners running downfield facing away from the line of scrimmage.

Yeah I agree. Man up in the secondary all day.

Their run game is all misdirection. They have had almost all of their success in the run game from that college style read option from the shotgun where McCoy is lined up directly beside Sanchez and they'll put a receiver in motion. All we have to do is maintain our gap integrity and seal the edges and we should contain it. I'm sure they'll pop off a decent run or two but that should control it. Throw in some occasional run blitzes as well.

I don't think Sanchez can beat us deep. I hope we do take our chances with the man to man, stack the box some, and pressure Sanchez. I couldn't believe my eyes when we came out against them on Thanksgiving in the zone. Of course I should have known better than to be shocked at that though.

 

[Red Dragon]

Man-to-man coverage sounds great, but it only works if your DBs are good.

 

[dfense]

The Cowboys lost the 1st game to the Eagles because the Cowboys offense only scored 10 points and didn't keep the ball long enough.

The Eagles were able to convert 3rd downs easily. They controlled the clock. They just have some red zone problems and settled for field goals.

 

[xwalker]

The Eagles were able to convert 3rd downs easily. They controlled the clock. They just have some red zone problems and settled for field goals.

Any possession under 3 minutes that does not result in a TD is bad. The defense had nothing to do with these failed drives:

DAL DRIVE TOTALS: 3 plays, 7 yards, 1:52, Punt
DAL DRIVE TOTALS: 1 play, 9 yards, 0:16, Fumble
DAL DRIVE TOTALS: 4 plays, 3 yards, 2:09, Field Goal
DAL DRIVE TOTALS: 6 plays, 38 yards, 1:34, Failed 4th down
DAL DRIVE TOTALS: 3 plays, 7 yards, 1:29, Punt
DAL DRIVE TOTALS: 4 plays, 46 yards, 0:39, INT

 

[Alexander]

You don't want a guy breaking a tackle and going 60 yards for a score.

True, you can just give up a 58 yard catch and run by Maclin on 2nd and 20. Playing soft to prevent a big play is only useful if, you know, you don't give them up.

 

[Sydla]

Any possession under 3 minutes that does not result in a TD is bad. The defense had nothing to do with these failed drives:

DAL DRIVE TOTALS: 3 plays, 7 yards, 1:52, Punt
DAL DRIVE TOTALS: 1 play, 9 yards, 0:16, Fumble
DAL DRIVE TOTALS: 4 plays, 3 yards, 2:09, Field Goal
DAL DRIVE TOTALS: 6 plays, 38 yards, 1:34, Failed 4th down
DAL DRIVE TOTALS: 3 plays, 7 yards, 1:29, Punt
DAL DRIVE TOTALS: 4 plays, 46 yards, 0:39, INT

That's great and no one is suggesting the offense didn't have a bad game.

But any analysis that blames that game solely on the offense is misguided IMO. Cowboys couldn't get off the field early in the game either before the lack of offense started to leave them out there too long.

 

[erod]

True, you can just give up a 58 yard catch and run by Maclin on 2nd and 20. Playing soft to prevent a big play is only useful if, you know, you don't give them up.

I expect a different approach since they have more than 60 hours to prepare this time around.