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IRVING, Texas — So far the Dallas Cowboys defense has played better than expected.
All those doomsday proclamations about this being the worst defense in league history in 2014 are wrong.
Yes, the Cowboys are better than that—much better.
And they are better than they were last year when they gave up the most yards in the league, the most in team history and the third-most in NFL history.
But before we starting singing the praises of a unit that still ranks a below-average 22nd in the league after three games, perspective is called for.
It’s one thing to have respectable at best showings against San Francisco, Tennessee and St. Louis and their average offenses and mediocre to bad quarterbacks.
It’s another to face off against the New Orleans Saints and future Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees.
It’s true the Saints haven’t been the offensive juggernaut in 2014 as they have been in past years because of a suspect offensive line and an average running game, which deserves some blame for their 1-2 start.
Brees still remains one of the league’s most potent passers, ranking second in the NFL in completions, second in completion percentage, fifth in attempts, fifth in yards and eighth in touchdowns through three games.
If the Cowboys (2-1) hope for a breakthrough victory against the Saints, extending their winning streak to three games and giving their fans legitimate hope—they could break away from their win-one, lose-one 8-8 past—the defense must find a way to contain Brees.
“Every week, you’ve got to affect the quarterback in some way, shape or form,” coach Jason Garrett said. “Oftentimes, it comes in the form of sacks. Other times, it’s getting the guy off the spot, making him feel uncomfortable, hitting him after the ball is out of his hand.
"When you’ve got a guy like Drew Brees, as good a quarterback as he’s been for as long as he’s been, you certainly want to affect him some way, and it starts up front. It’s a great challenge for our guys going up against a very good offensive line to somehow impact the game and affect him and make him uncomfortable.”
Of course, considering the Cowboys’ seeming inability to rush the passer in 2014, that might be as big a pipe dream as hoping to keep the Saints fans from invading AT&T Stadium.
The latter has no chance of happening, which owner Jerry Jones readily admits.
He says: "...I expect a lot of them there. I expect them to be loud."
The former remains a sore point for a Cowboys defense that cut defensive end DeMarcus Ware, the franchise all-time sack leader, in the offseason and let Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jason Hatcher and his career-high 11.5 sacks in 2013 leave via free agency for the Washington Commanders.
The big question then is the same that it is now. Where are the sacks going to come from?
So far the answer is from no where and from no one.
The Cowboys have three sacks as a team, putting them on pace for a franchise-low 16 sacks this season. The current team record for fewest sacks in a regular season is 20, set in 1960 and 1963. The fewest in a 16-game regular season is 23.
The Cowboys could obliterate both marks this year.
“We have to coach them better,” defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said. “They’ve got to rush better. No excuses. Just not getting it done. No question about it.”
Specifically, the Cowboys are not getting it done up front. They have a whopping 11 defensive linemen on the active roster—players most responsible for getting sacks in Marinelli’s Tampa 2 scheme—and they have a combined 0.5 sacks.
Make that defensive tackle Henry Melton, signed in free agency to be the linchpin in the middle at the all-important under-tackle position, has 0.5 sacks. The rest of the group has a goose egg.
The other 2.5 sacks came from linebackers Rolando McClain (1), Bruce Carter (1) and Kyle Wilber (.5).
Melton’s struggles can be blamed on groin and now hamstring injuries that have limited him since training camp. His Pro Bowl pedigree from his days in Chicago prove that he can and has been better. But he is not expected to play against the Saints due to the hamstring.
The failure of the rest of the group can be traced to the decisions to let Ware and Hatcher—who both have 2.5 sacks each for their new teams in Denver and Washington, respectively—go without bringing in any proven pass-rushers.
The Cowboys put their hopes in rookie second-round pick DeMarcus Lawrence. But the defensive end from Boise State suffered a fractured foot in training camp and is out for the first eight weeks of the season.
The Cowboys were counting on defensive end George Selvie building on his career-high seven-sack season from a year ago. But maybe that was a product of teams focusing on Ware and Hatcher because he has yet to get home to the quarterback in 2014.
The Cowboys believed that defensive end Tyrone Crawford, a third-round pick in 2012, was ready for a breakout season after missing last year with a torn Achilles. So far he’s gotten a team-high nine pressures but no sacks.
And now the Cowboys are counting on defensive end Anthony Spencer to return to form after being sidelined since Week 2 of last year because of microfracture surgery. Spencer is expected to get some time against the Saints Sunday, but any thoughts of him making a real impact in his first game are unrealistic.
The Cowboys hope he can return to his former Pro Bowl form at some point this season, but there's little history of players coming back from microfracture surgery and returning to their old dominance.
I certainly can’t name one.
“Oh, I’m sure there are a lot of different reasons,” said Garrett when asked about the team’s inability to get the quarterback. “We clearly need to do a better job there. We need to win some one-on-one matchups. Technically, we need to be better.
Our courses when we’re pressured need to be better. There’s a lot of different reasons. They’re working hard at it. I think we have a good rotation where guys are fresh going after the quarterback. We believe in the guys that we have. They can affect the quarterback and get home.”
The "rushmen" as Marinelli likes to call his defensive linemen, because their primary focus in his system is to rush the quarterback, have not gotten home, and it’s resulted in them bearing the brunt of his criticism in position meetings.
“He gave us the nickname ‘rushmen,’ and we’re not living up to it right now,” Crawford said. “It sucks for us because we know we've got to go in there and report to him every day. We know that he wants these sacks just as much as us.
"So it’s kind of a crappy feeling not to have gotten any yet. Obviously right now, we can’t even put a full sack together with the guys that we have in our D-line room, which is upsetting. It’s hard to even look in the mirror in the morning.”
It will be even harder to look in the mirror or at Marinelli if the Cowboys don’t find a way to get to Brees.
They might end up reliving last year’s embarrassing and humiliating nightmare when Brees completed 34 of 41 passes for 392 yards and four touchdowns in a 49-17 victory.
The Saints recorded an NFL-record 40 first downs, as the Cowboys gave up a franchise-record 625 total yards.
"Guys have got to dig down deep and remember that feeling walking out of the Superdome last year,” cornerback Orlando Scandrick said. “They embarrassed us. The team embarrassed us. They beat us in every phase of the game. We’ve got to figure out a way to come out and prepare and be ready to win.”
They have to be ready play on defense and find a way to affect the quarterback.
All quotations obtained firsthand, unless otherwise noted.
Clarence Hill covers the Cowboys for the (Fort Worth) Star-Telegram.
Read more Dallas Cowboys news on BleacherReport.com
Continue reading...
All those doomsday proclamations about this being the worst defense in league history in 2014 are wrong.
Yes, the Cowboys are better than that—much better.
And they are better than they were last year when they gave up the most yards in the league, the most in team history and the third-most in NFL history.
But before we starting singing the praises of a unit that still ranks a below-average 22nd in the league after three games, perspective is called for.
It’s one thing to have respectable at best showings against San Francisco, Tennessee and St. Louis and their average offenses and mediocre to bad quarterbacks.
It’s another to face off against the New Orleans Saints and future Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees.
It’s true the Saints haven’t been the offensive juggernaut in 2014 as they have been in past years because of a suspect offensive line and an average running game, which deserves some blame for their 1-2 start.
Brees still remains one of the league’s most potent passers, ranking second in the NFL in completions, second in completion percentage, fifth in attempts, fifth in yards and eighth in touchdowns through three games.
If the Cowboys (2-1) hope for a breakthrough victory against the Saints, extending their winning streak to three games and giving their fans legitimate hope—they could break away from their win-one, lose-one 8-8 past—the defense must find a way to contain Brees.
“Every week, you’ve got to affect the quarterback in some way, shape or form,” coach Jason Garrett said. “Oftentimes, it comes in the form of sacks. Other times, it’s getting the guy off the spot, making him feel uncomfortable, hitting him after the ball is out of his hand.
"When you’ve got a guy like Drew Brees, as good a quarterback as he’s been for as long as he’s been, you certainly want to affect him some way, and it starts up front. It’s a great challenge for our guys going up against a very good offensive line to somehow impact the game and affect him and make him uncomfortable.”
Of course, considering the Cowboys’ seeming inability to rush the passer in 2014, that might be as big a pipe dream as hoping to keep the Saints fans from invading AT&T Stadium.
The latter has no chance of happening, which owner Jerry Jones readily admits.
He says: "...I expect a lot of them there. I expect them to be loud."
The former remains a sore point for a Cowboys defense that cut defensive end DeMarcus Ware, the franchise all-time sack leader, in the offseason and let Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jason Hatcher and his career-high 11.5 sacks in 2013 leave via free agency for the Washington Commanders.
The big question then is the same that it is now. Where are the sacks going to come from?
So far the answer is from no where and from no one.
The Cowboys have three sacks as a team, putting them on pace for a franchise-low 16 sacks this season. The current team record for fewest sacks in a regular season is 20, set in 1960 and 1963. The fewest in a 16-game regular season is 23.
The Cowboys could obliterate both marks this year.
“We have to coach them better,” defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said. “They’ve got to rush better. No excuses. Just not getting it done. No question about it.”
Specifically, the Cowboys are not getting it done up front. They have a whopping 11 defensive linemen on the active roster—players most responsible for getting sacks in Marinelli’s Tampa 2 scheme—and they have a combined 0.5 sacks.
Make that defensive tackle Henry Melton, signed in free agency to be the linchpin in the middle at the all-important under-tackle position, has 0.5 sacks. The rest of the group has a goose egg.
The other 2.5 sacks came from linebackers Rolando McClain (1), Bruce Carter (1) and Kyle Wilber (.5).
Melton’s struggles can be blamed on groin and now hamstring injuries that have limited him since training camp. His Pro Bowl pedigree from his days in Chicago prove that he can and has been better. But he is not expected to play against the Saints due to the hamstring.
The failure of the rest of the group can be traced to the decisions to let Ware and Hatcher—who both have 2.5 sacks each for their new teams in Denver and Washington, respectively—go without bringing in any proven pass-rushers.
The Cowboys put their hopes in rookie second-round pick DeMarcus Lawrence. But the defensive end from Boise State suffered a fractured foot in training camp and is out for the first eight weeks of the season.
The Cowboys were counting on defensive end George Selvie building on his career-high seven-sack season from a year ago. But maybe that was a product of teams focusing on Ware and Hatcher because he has yet to get home to the quarterback in 2014.
The Cowboys believed that defensive end Tyrone Crawford, a third-round pick in 2012, was ready for a breakout season after missing last year with a torn Achilles. So far he’s gotten a team-high nine pressures but no sacks.
And now the Cowboys are counting on defensive end Anthony Spencer to return to form after being sidelined since Week 2 of last year because of microfracture surgery. Spencer is expected to get some time against the Saints Sunday, but any thoughts of him making a real impact in his first game are unrealistic.
The Cowboys hope he can return to his former Pro Bowl form at some point this season, but there's little history of players coming back from microfracture surgery and returning to their old dominance.
I certainly can’t name one.
“Oh, I’m sure there are a lot of different reasons,” said Garrett when asked about the team’s inability to get the quarterback. “We clearly need to do a better job there. We need to win some one-on-one matchups. Technically, we need to be better.
Our courses when we’re pressured need to be better. There’s a lot of different reasons. They’re working hard at it. I think we have a good rotation where guys are fresh going after the quarterback. We believe in the guys that we have. They can affect the quarterback and get home.”
The "rushmen" as Marinelli likes to call his defensive linemen, because their primary focus in his system is to rush the quarterback, have not gotten home, and it’s resulted in them bearing the brunt of his criticism in position meetings.
“He gave us the nickname ‘rushmen,’ and we’re not living up to it right now,” Crawford said. “It sucks for us because we know we've got to go in there and report to him every day. We know that he wants these sacks just as much as us.
"So it’s kind of a crappy feeling not to have gotten any yet. Obviously right now, we can’t even put a full sack together with the guys that we have in our D-line room, which is upsetting. It’s hard to even look in the mirror in the morning.”
It will be even harder to look in the mirror or at Marinelli if the Cowboys don’t find a way to get to Brees.
They might end up reliving last year’s embarrassing and humiliating nightmare when Brees completed 34 of 41 passes for 392 yards and four touchdowns in a 49-17 victory.
The Saints recorded an NFL-record 40 first downs, as the Cowboys gave up a franchise-record 625 total yards.
"Guys have got to dig down deep and remember that feeling walking out of the Superdome last year,” cornerback Orlando Scandrick said. “They embarrassed us. The team embarrassed us. They beat us in every phase of the game. We’ve got to figure out a way to come out and prepare and be ready to win.”
They have to be ready play on defense and find a way to affect the quarterback.
All quotations obtained firsthand, unless otherwise noted.
Clarence Hill covers the Cowboys for the (Fort Worth) Star-Telegram.
Read more Dallas Cowboys news on BleacherReport.com
Continue reading...