Cowboys defense - Not all bad

[xwalker]

The defense has been good enough to give them a chance to win all but the Broncos game. Even the Broncos game was largely determined by the Cowboys offense not being able to run the ball and keep the Broncos offense off the field and 2 INTs on the Cowboys offense doomed any chance for the defense.

Packers game
Cowboys defense gave up less points than the Packers defense (28 vs 31). Thanks TWill for giving the Packers the other 7 points.
Held Rodgers to 19 completions for 221 yards.

Rams game
Rams 7 field goals and 2 punts

Cardinals game
Cowboys win
Cardinals 6 punts and 2 field goal attempts

Broncos game
Zeke only 9 carries for 8 yards.
Time of possession 34-26 Broncos-Cowboys
Broncos QB 22/32 for 231 yards.
Broncos 3 punts, 1 field goal attempt

Giants game
Cowboys win.
Giants 6 punts, 1 field goal attempt
Giants 220 yards passing, 35 yards, rushing

 

[Staubacher]

You're just trolling now.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Only reason Packers didn't score more was because the Cowboys had it the whole 4th quarter and their defense scored.

I do somewhat agree though...people keep discussing the secondary...they haven't been the major problem...it's been the safeties and linebackers.

Broncos and Packers games were the only games this season I was disappointed in the defense.

 

[Reality]

Our defensive scheme relies on the other team's offense making self-inflicted mistakes or our defense getting turnovers. Long ago, that philosophy worked, but in today's NFL, teams are less likely to make mistakes against weak defenses and our defense is not generating turnovers.

 

[lostar2009]

The D stink and couldn't stop a team to save their lives when it count. Moving forward this team should focus strictly on offense. At as if there is no defense. They should be very aggressive moving forward.

 

[StylisticS]

Yes. This D is bad. No matter how anyone tries to dress it up, it's bad.

 

[Gameover]

The defense has been good enough to give them a chance to win all but the Broncos game. Even the Broncos game was largely determined by the Cowboys offense not being able to run the ball and keep the Broncos offense off the field and 2 INTs on the Cowboys offense doomed any chance for the defense.

Packers game
Cowboys defense gave up less points than the Packers defense (28 vs 31). Thanks TWill for giving the Packers the other 7 points.
Held Rodgers to 19 completions for 221 yards.

Rams game
Rams 7 field goals and 2 punts

Cardinals game
Cowboys win
Cardinals 6 punts and 2 field goal attempts

Broncos game
Zeke only 9 carries for 8 yards.
Time of possession 34-26 Broncos-Cowboys
Broncos QB 22/32 for 231 yards.
Broncos 3 punts, 1 field goal attempt

Giants game
Cowboys win.
Giants 6 punts, 1 field goal attempt
Giants 220 yards passing, 35 yards, rushing

Correct

But they can't continue to allow 166 yards per game on the ground

 

[Hawkeye0202]

Our defensive scheme relies on the other team's offense making self-inflicted mistakes or our defense getting turnovers. Long ago, that philosophy worked, but in today's NFL, teams are less likely to make mistakes against weak defenses and our defense is not generating turnovers.

Bingo!!!!!!!!! Everything about the Tampa 2 of old is about turnovers and quite in the old days, they got a bunch. Also one real problem not with this D, not mention by OP is they simply can't get off the field w/o giving up points. I haven't check but my guess is we're ranked dead last or close in allowing 3rd down conversions.

 

[Zman5]

Rams scored 2 TDS. Why is it missing on your post?

 

[pitt33]

And our record is?

C'mon xman. Don't sugarcoat it.

One of the most telling stats is scoring defense.

And we are right near the bottom.

 

[cowboys1981]

Bend but don't break will play into the hands of GB and ATL. We need to stop with the Tampa 2 look and look at what this franchise has historically done with their defense that was the pinnacle of all defenses. We had two eras of being a dominating force in the 70s and 90s. We didn't do that playing soft or by having soft personnel on defense. We need DTs that move the LOS more often than not over the fast twitch approach. It places QBs in an uncomforting situation throughout the game and that eventually leads to turnovers. This season we're losing that battle in the A gap. This concerns me more than us losing Elliott.

 

[bark]

Our defensive scheme relies on the other team's offense making self-inflicted mistakes or our defense getting turnovers. Long ago, that philosophy worked, but in today's NFL, teams are less likely to make mistakes against weak defenses and our defense is not generating turnovers.

When in reality (you see what I did there)
It's our defense that makes the mistake 99 percent of the time. Blown coverage, too deep or too shallow of a lb drop, slip while in coverage/tackling, stupid penalties to sustain a drive, line up in the wrong position or two people covering the same person in this "simple to learn" scheme. And don't even get me started on turnovers.

 

[HardHittin'Witten]

Our defensive scheme relies on the other team's offense making self-inflicted mistakes or our defense getting turnovers. Long ago, that philosophy worked, but in today's NFL, teams are less likely to make mistakes against weak defenses and our defense is not generating turnovers.

Yeah, the "bend but don't break" defense doesn't work anymore.

 

[Direwolf63]

The middle of the defense has been awful. The safeties, MLB, and DT's have all been sub par......or worse.

You can't win in the NFL when the middle of the defense is playing the way it is.

 

[John813]

https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/opponent-third-down-conversion-pct
http://www.espn.com/nfl/statistics/team/_/stat/downs/sort/thirdDownConvPct/position/defense

Found this interesting. We rank 27th in the league for stopping the opposing offense on 3rd down at 44.62%

Also rank 27th for amount of 1st downs given up at 110 given up so far.

 

[Plankton]

Our defensive scheme relies on the other team's offense making self-inflicted mistakes or our defense getting turnovers. Long ago, that philosophy worked, but in today's NFL, teams are less likely to make mistakes against weak defenses and our defense is not generating turnovers.

It can work if you have a good tackling defense that rallies to the ball. Those kind of hits can cause turnovers and deflections that lead to interceptions.

For whatever reason this season, the defense doesn't rally to the ball, and their tackling is horrendous. Couple those things, and you get what the Cowboy defense is doing.

 

[waldoputty]

The defense has been good enough to give them a chance to win all but the Broncos game. Even the Broncos game was largely determined by the Cowboys offense not being able to run the ball and keep the Broncos offense off the field and 2 INTs on the Cowboys offense doomed any chance for the defense.

Packers game
Cowboys defense gave up less points than the Packers defense (28 vs 31). Thanks TWill for giving the Packers the other 7 points.
Held Rodgers to 19 completions for 221 yards.

Rams game
Rams 7 field goals and 2 punts

Cardinals game
Cowboys win
Cardinals 6 punts and 2 field goal attempts

Broncos game
Zeke only 9 carries for 8 yards.
Time of possession 34-26 Broncos-Cowboys
Broncos QB 22/32 for 231 yards.
Broncos 3 punts, 1 field goal attempt

Giants game
Cowboys win.
Giants 6 punts, 1 field goal attempt
Giants 220 yards passing, 35 yards, rushing

bend-and-dont-break = bent-over

 

[perrykemp]

Cowboys defense is 32nd in the league in Points per Drive Allowed (2.42 per drive) -- possibly the most telling single metric that tells you about the quality of an overall defense in comparison to other defenses in the league.

Cowboys defense is 29th in the league in Yards allowed per Drive.

There are only 4 teams with less take-aways defensively.

The stats, so far, portray a very poor defense.

 

[Gameover]

Correct

But they can't continue to allow 166 yards per game on the ground

They've given up 500 rushing yards in the three losses..

That and turnovers have killed us. The last two losses anyway

 

[Melonfeud]

The defense has been good enough to give them a chance to win all but the Broncos game. Even the Broncos game was largely determined by the Cowboys offense not being able to run the ball and keep the Broncos offense off the field and 2 INTs on the Cowboys offense doomed any chance for the defense.

Packers game
Cowboys defense gave up less points than the Packers defense (28 vs 31). Thanks TWill for giving the Packers the other 7 points.
Held Rodgers to 19 completions for 221 yards.

Rams game
Rams 7 field goals and 2 punts

Cardinals game
Cowboys win
Cardinals 6 punts and 2 field goal attempts

Broncos game
Zeke only 9 carries for 8 yards.
Time of possession 34-26 Broncos-Cowboys
Broncos QB 22/32 for 231 yards.
Broncos 3 punts, 1 field goal attempt

Giants game
Cowboys win.
Giants 6 punts, 1 field goal attempt
Giants 220 yards passing, 35 yards, rushing

To bad you DIDN'T post #4's casing-liner's in that Broncos game,,, as I'm thinking Dak threw for more yards in that loss than Trevor did in winning,,, why is that?