Could the Cowboys' biggest weakness actually benefit them Sunday?

[erod]

The league's best pass rushes often fall victim to running quarterbacks, especially Russell Wilson. The quicker they get upfield, the more holes they create for Wilson to run. Washington has a good pass rush. Wilson absolutely torched its overly aggressive defensive line.

Ironically, Dallas' biggest weakness might actually help this weekend.

Much like San Diego, the Cowboys don't have a prolific pass rush. The Chargers controlled Wilson by forcing him to stay in the pocket or escape around the edges. Much of that was because San Diego's defensive ends stayed even with a good push up the middle, which is similar to the Cowboys pass rush these days.

The result Is somewhat of a "flat" pass rush, and it limits Wilson's options. I much prefer him throwing from the pocket than running free and throwing on the run.

No doubt the Cowboys have dissected every frame of what San Diego did. This will be interesting to watch.

 

[Doomsday101]

The league's best pass rushes often fall victim to quarterbacks like running quarterbacks, especially Russell Wilson. The quicker they get upfield, the more holes they create for Wilson to run. Washington has a good pass rush. Wilson absolutely torched its overly aggressive defensive line.

Ironically, Dallas' biggest weakness might actually help this weekend.

Much like San Diego, the Cowboys don't have a prolific pass rush. The Chargers controlled Wilson by forcing him to stay in the pocket or escape around the edges. Much of that was because San Diego's defensive ends stayed even with a good push up the middle, which is similar to the Cowboys pass rush these days.

The result Is somewhat of a "flat" pass rush, and it limits Wilson's options. I much prefer him throwing from the pocket than running free and throwing on the run.

No doubt the Cowboys have dissected every frame of what San Diego did. This will be interesting to watch.

I do think it will be more important to maintain their gaps and outside guys hold the ends more than going full out on Wilson who seems to hit a lot more plays on the move both passing and running. They have their work cut out for them especially with Lynch attacking the middle.

 

[bark]

The league's best pass rushes often fall victim to running quarterbacks, especially Russell Wilson. The quicker they get upfield, the more holes they create for Wilson to run. Washington has a good pass rush. Wilson absolutely torched its overly aggressive defensive line.

Ironically, Dallas' biggest weakness might actually help this weekend.

Much like San Diego, the Cowboys don't have a prolific pass rush. The Chargers controlled Wilson by forcing him to stay in the pocket or escape around the edges. Much of that was because San Diego's defensive ends stayed even with a good push up the middle, which is similar to the Cowboys pass rush these days.

The result Is somewhat of a "flat" pass rush, and it limits Wilson's options. I much prefer him throwing from the pocket than running free and throwing on the run.

No doubt the Cowboys have dissected every frame of what San Diego did. This will be interesting to watch.

Good observation. Can't wait for this test.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

The problem wasn't Washington's pass rush. The problem was that Kerrigan kept on giving up contain as if he had never seen the read option before. I lost a ton of respect for him as a player watching him make the same mistake over and over again in light of RG3 running the same play and being on his team.

Mincey, Selvie, and Crawford cannot sell out like that when they see inside run out of the pistol. Now it might not matter if our DT get washed out -I'm looking at you Hayden- but we did a good job of covering that up against SF where Kaepernick runs the same play.

 

[perrykemp]

Erod:

Your theory makes a lot of sense to me. Admittedly I haven't analyzed it very deeply, however, I like it.

 

[Risen Star]

This is genius.

With the wave of new mobile, fraud pocket passing QBs entering the league, that should create a market for bad defensive linemen.

Once again the Cowboys are ahead of the curve.

 

[DandyDon1722]

The mantra in practice all week was discipline and gap control - we shall see.

 

[nalam]

This is genius.

With the wave of new mobile, fraud pocket passing QBs entering the league, that should create a market for bad defensive linemen.

Once again the Cowboys are ahead of the curve.

Have to acknowledge your sarcastic chiding Risen, point well made

 

[ActualCowboysFan]

This is genius.

With the wave of new mobile, fraud pocket passing QBs entering the league, that should create a market for bad defensive linemen.

Once again the Cowboys are ahead of the curve.

Funny and at least partly true, but could the OP be correct in that players who are more run-of-the-mill be so because they struggle with rushing the passer? Could the premiums for high-quality pass rushers not conceivably allow players more suited for setting the edge to fal through the cracks. I mean simply in size alone, neither of the team's DE's are prototypical fits. Maybe that's their skill set. They certainly had success on D against read option teams like Philly and Washington last year.

 

[ElGatoGrande]

The league's best pass rushes often fall victim to running quarterbacks, especially Russell Wilson. The quicker they get upfield, the more holes they create for Wilson to run. Washington has a good pass rush. Wilson absolutely torched its overly aggressive defensive line.

Ironically, Dallas' biggest weakness might actually help this weekend.

Much like San Diego, the Cowboys don't have a prolific pass rush. The Chargers controlled Wilson by forcing him to stay in the pocket or escape around the edges. Much of that was because San Diego's defensive ends stayed even with a good push up the middle, which is similar to the Cowboys pass rush these days.

The result Is somewhat of a "flat" pass rush, and it limits Wilson's options. I much prefer him throwing from the pocket than running free and throwing on the run.

No doubt the Cowboys have dissected every frame of what San Diego did. This will be interesting to watch.

I was thinking the same thing. Provided that they can get off of their blocks if Wilson runs, this style of just collapsing the pocket might be the best approach with Seattle.

 

[jobberone]

This is genius.

With the wave of new mobile, fraud pocket passing QBs entering the league, that should create a market for bad defensive linemen.

Once again the Cowboys are ahead of the curve.

I understood him fine. I might have said it differently but we all say things differently. I think staying in their lanes will help but the OLBs must be most aware. Everyone must watch him carefully.

 

[ConstantReboot]

This is genius.

With the wave of new mobile, fraud pocket passing QBs entering the league, that should create a market for bad defensive linemen.

Once again the Cowboys are ahead of the curve.

Innovation by subtraction. I like that!

 

[CCBoy]

The league's best pass rushes often fall victim to running quarterbacks, especially Russell Wilson. The quicker they get upfield, the more holes they create for Wilson to run. Washington has a good pass rush. Wilson absolutely torched its overly aggressive defensive line.

Ironically, Dallas' biggest weakness might actually help this weekend.

Much like San Diego, the Cowboys don't have a prolific pass rush. The Chargers controlled Wilson by forcing him to stay in the pocket or escape around the edges. Much of that was because San Diego's defensive ends stayed even with a good push up the middle, which is similar to the Cowboys pass rush these days.

The result Is somewhat of a "flat" pass rush, and it limits Wilson's options. I much prefer him throwing from the pocket than running free and throwing on the run.

No doubt the Cowboys have dissected every frame of what San Diego did. This will be interesting to watch.

Some solid stuff here...

I'm thinking the biggest shortfall of the Dallas present defense is a lack of a true rush dominant defensive lineman. That immediately would tend to give the Seahawks some built in flexibility. The Dallas side of the ball, has to be exploited for this to matter, although.

If the Cowboys can dominate Seattle's running game and keep their QB in the pocket, I think the direction of the game goes to Dallas. (if without turnovers)

If Seattle is forced to win by pocket passing, against the Dallas secondary... I would be disappointed if the Dallas secondary didn't do enough for a win.

 

[spook930]

I don't think it will help much because Wilson is not your typical mobile qb, he has no prob standing in the pocket and throwing. He scramble as a last resort.

 

[JBS]

This is some of the worst analysts you will find.
You clearly saw nothing of that sea SD game..seattle moved the ball at will vs SD...wilson was carving up the secondary and the ground game wasn't bad either...

You want to know what slowed down Seattle? He wears 17...and 85 was pretty Damn good that day too..Rivers and gates made play after play after play...SD had the ball for over 41 minutes...Seattle didn't even reach 18 minutes in TOP and STILL put up 21 points..

SD D was awful that day...the SD offense just so happened to be unstoppable and it carried them to a W

 

[CCBoy]

This is some of the worst analysts you will find.
You clearly saw nothing of that sea SD game..seattle moved the ball at will vs SD...wilson was carving up the secondary and the ground game wasn't bad either...

You want to know what slowed down Seattle? He wears 17...and 85 was pretty Damn good that day too..Rivers and gates made play after play after play...SD had the ball for over 41 minutes...Seattle didn't even reach 18 minutes in TOP and STILL put up 21 points..

SD D was awful that day...the SD offense just so happened to be unstoppable and it carried them to a W

Really thinking that it was as simple as QB pitch and TE catch?

 

[jazzcat22]

Could be something to this, as I mentioned it in another post. Broaddus was talking about this on The Ticket Thursday morning too. I think Commanders blitzed a lot, but not sure on how much. And the times Wilson got away, he ran for a lot of yardage.
Rush your normal guys, but keep a guy on the outside too to force him back inside.

 

[jazzcat22]

This is genius.

With the wave of new mobile, fraud pocket passing QBs entering the league, that should create a market for bad defensive linemen.

Once again the Cowboys are ahead of the curve.

Glad you can recognize innovation....

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I think it is the key to the game. I think ideally we may see a boring game like we did in 2006 against the Titans and Vince Young. We really didn't rush Young as much as we tried to keep him in the pocket. It was boring to watch, but it was effective. The issue could be the read option and the jet sweeps to Harvin. But, I think this is where playing a 4-3 is more beneficial than playing a 3-4.





YR

 

[erod]

This is genius.

With the wave of new mobile, fraud pocket passing QBs entering the league, that should create a market for bad defensive linemen.

Once again the Cowboys are ahead of the curve.

It's odd, but it's true. You're better off rushing Wilson essentially with four defensive tackles than with speed edge guys. Remember when Kaepernick torched Green Bay's edge guys in the playoffs a few years ago in this same manner? Same thing at work here.

Go watch the the Chargers game against Seattle. They just created a solid inner push and kept Wilson behind his offensive line. In order to run, he had to loop around really wide, and he couldn't hurt them much. They forced him to throw it. Washington and others, however, have done the opposite, and he just steps up and runs for 20 yards at will.