Cowboys Passing D Amongst Worst in the League the Past 3 Years

[Idgit]

you can even see in 2011 that Minnesota led the league in sacks but had the worst pass defense in the NFL.

If you get the 'consistent pressure' as opposed to 'inconsistent pressure' in response to this post, I'm promise to just look the other way if you use one small vulgarity in your reply. I reserve the right to [edit] it to something more pleasant if it's not a small vulgarity, after all.

 

[Deep_Freeze]

There's just no disabusing people of the notion that 'games are won in the trenches.' As a result, it's not possible to disabuse them of the idea that, if we're losing games, we're losing them because of trench play. It doesn't really matter, though. If the Ss play better, it's be fun to talk about how much our DL has magically improved, too (thanks, Rod Marinelli!). If not, it just means another offseason of lamenting the likes of Ben Grubbs and Shariff Floyd.

Well it seems alot of times what actually happened to improve something is overlooked to meet whatever agenda someone is holding at the moment. We could get more sacks this season cause of improved safety play, but of course some will be thanking Rod like you said instead of looking deeper into the topic. Seeing someone do a sack dance is more important than tight windows that the QB has to throw through cause of improved secondary play.

The pass rush will always get too much of the credit for the success of the team, meanwhile the secondary will always get the blame if we lose....at least from a defensive standpoint. Now on offense, let's get it right, its always Tony's fault.

 

[superpunk]

FYI last year of the top 10 teams in passer rating allowed last season, 8 made the playoffs (only missers were Arizona and Pitt)

Of the top 10 in offensive passer rating, only two missed the playoffs. New Orleans and Dallas. They were ranked 28th and 29th in passer rating allowed on defense.

 

[Nation]

Did people not know that our defense sucked?

I don't think people realize the extreme of how bad they've played. We are the only team to finish in the Bottom Ten in Defensive Passer Rating in all three of the past three seasons.

 

[Sarge]

In a passing league, one's pass defense matters much. Simple. We've been awful against the pass. I do expect better this year.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Starts with the lack of a consistant pass rush. Yes, 20 sacks looks good but doesn't make for a consistant pass rush. The better the pass rush, the better the pass D.

Let's divulge the "dirty little secret" about "consistent pass rush"... There is no such thing in the NFL. It's a myth... a legend.

It's like bigfoot and UFO's.

The pass protection rules and max-protect schemes are such that a defense can't provide consistent pass rush on each and every down... It doesn't happen.

And when it doesn't happen you need to rely on your back 7 to be able to cover– And the for the most part, especially at safety and any MLB not named Lee over the past 5 seasons, the pass coverage of the back 7 has been abysmal.

 

[Doomsdayblitz]

I've been on this for months/years while everyone's been bellyaching about our oline and running game. This has been Jason Garrett's biggest failure as a HC - an inability to field any sort of pass defense.

http://cowboyszone.com/threads/question-for-the-romo-fans.250627/page-2#post-4941641

Why is it Garrett's fault that the Jones boys haven't signed more/better defensive players?

 

[Doomsdayblitz]

It's all about the trenches.

Isn't a great pass rush a defense's best friend? Hurry the passer & you get more picks, period. Trenches are & always will be where games are won/lost.

 

[Nation]

Isn't a great pass rush a defense's best friend? Hurry the passer & you get more picks, period. Trenches are & always will be where games are won/lost.

Yes and no. The 2010 Jets had a bad pass rush, but had a great defensive passer rating. The 2011 Vikings had a great pass rush, but a terrible defensive passer rating. It is a major plus but it isn't a guarantee.

 

[Doomsdayblitz]

Our defensive line is average, & our offensive line is, well, offensive. So, what do the Jones boys do? Draft mostly "skilled" position players. Now, we're really deep at WR & TE, but just can't stop anyone. All you have to do is look at the 49ers to see how to build a championship defense. They had an excellent pass rush last season, but still took pass rushers in two of their first four picks in the draft. That's how you win Super Bowls.

 

[Doomsdayblitz]

Yes and no. The 2010 Jets had a bad pass rush, but had a great defensive passer rating. The 2011 Vikings had a great pass rush, but a terrible defensive passer rating. It is a major plus but it isn't a guarantee.

They don't call the NFLs' best defense "Blitzburg" for nothing. They know how to pressure the QB, & when to do it. I live in NE Ohio, so I know that hurrying, hitting, & sacking the QB hurts an offense more than anything. It's all about having the right players, and using their particular skills to the utmost advantage. I knew LaMarr Woodley would be a Steeler before they drafted him. He just played like a Steeler at Michigan. Dallas needs to get that focused where they see a player & say, "He plays like a Cowboy".

 

[Sportsbabe]

Some scary stuff in here, especially Defensive Passer Rating and YPA Allowed which have very high correlations with winning percentage.

But Romo is a loser ... I'm sure he's somewhere in that stat

 

[InmanRoshi]

. That's how you win Super Bowls.

I think you win Superbowls by not letting Joe Flacco throw for a 95 passer rating in the Superbowl.

 

[Galian Beast]

The lack of help on defense has been staggering. It would be nice if pressures were an official stat, as they tell much more of the story than sacks.

We've been compounded the last few years by an inability to get early leads. We've been inept on offense and defense and the result is that teams can freely pass on us without the pressure of having to. You get up to some early 14 or 17 point leads, and all of a sudden you're forced to become completely one dimensional.

The type of defense we're running now is more oriented towards forcing a team to become one dimensional.

If we do more no huddle offense and 12 and 13 packages, it will also force teams to become more one dimensional.

I think we've really just been quite vanilla here for a while. To where our players need to be head and shoulders better than other players, and scheme had little to do with whether or not we won. I think we had an opportunity with Ryan, who I don't think received a fair chance given the injuries and abbreviated year, but I expect good things from Kiffen, and quickly.

 

[ScipioCowboy]

While Superpunk makes a compelling argument (with which I don't disagree), it relies on sacks as the sole measure of defensive line play in the passing game. Obviously, sacks are the most visible and easily quantifiable aspect, but they're not the only one.

 

[reddyuta]

our secondary made too many mistakes at crucial moments which left receivers wide open,hopefully Kiffin's system will make it easier on them.

 

[Deep_Freeze]

Let's divulge the "dirty little secret" about "consistent pass rush"... There is no such thing in the NFL. It's a myth... a legend.

It's like bigfoot and UFO's.

The pass protection rules and max-protect schemes are such that a defense can't provide consistent pass rush on each and every down... It doesn't happen.

And when it doesn't happen you need to rely on your back 7 to be able to cover– And the for the most part, especially at safety and any MLB not named Lee over the past 5 seasons, the pass coverage of the back 7 has been abysmal.

Unfortunately most will ignore this issue, and think it was only the pass rush. If you can't cover anyone, doesn't matter if you have Ware, Randy White, Bruce Smith, and Reggie White rushing, they won't get there.

The D has to work as a unit, and the pass rush is just one aspect of that unit. If there is a weak link in any part of the chain on defense, the opposition will take advantage of it.....its not like on offense where you can scheme and try to hide your weaknesses, on D its all out there for everyone to abuse.

Our back 7 play on D has been horrible, last year was really the first improvement we have had in that area in years, too bad we had so many injuries. I look for improved play from them now, but there is a whole heck of alot riding on those inexperienced safeties.

 

[Ultimategamer5567]

Our Safeties (outside of the three games we had a healthy Church) sucked last year and the D-line was filled with injuries/had little to no depth. I don't think people quite realize how big getting a healthy Barry Church, Ware (yes, he finished the year, but he probably should have been on IR) and Sean Lissemore back this year will help the defense.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Our defensive line is average, & our offensive line is, well, offensive. So, what do the Jones boys do? Draft mostly "skilled" position players. Now, we're really deep at WR & TE, but just can't stop anyone. All you have to do is look at the 49ers to see how to build a championship defense. They had an excellent pass rush last season, but still took pass rushers in two of their first four picks in the draft. That's how you win Super Bowls.

As usual the folks that come in here and pop-off about the defensive line being the begin-all and end-all hand out a few grandiose statements that contain little substance because they never back it up with anything that supports their position.

Here's how you support a position...


First off let's look at the number of pass attempts each defense faced during the 2012 season:

Dallas 511
San Francisco 567
Baltimore 557

The Dallas defense had almost 10% fewer pass attempts made against it than did San Francisco and a little more than 8% fewer pass attempts than the Baltimore defense.

At the same time...

The Cowboys had 34 QB sacks.
The Niners had 38 QB sacks.
The Ravens had 37 QB sacks.

BTW if you think QB sacks win championships, then keep in mind that Baltimore was 15th in the NFL when it came to sacking the QB last season... SF was 11th.

Also considered are QB hits...

The Cowboys had 47.
The Niners had 72.
The Ravens had 37.

What about QB hurries?

The Cowboys had 142.
The Niners had 141.
The Ravens had 151.

Keep in mind the Cowboy defense faced almost 10% fewer pass attempts than the Niner defense.


Now let's take this in another direction...

Let's talk about interceptions, which we already know is an ugly stat for the Cowboys:

Cowboys 7.
SF 14.
Baltimore 13.

However there is one more important stat to consider and that is the number of passes defensed or broken up by each defense:

Cowboys 61.
SF 91.
Baltimore 99.

If you're trying to tell us that the Cowboy pass defense "suffered" due to the poor pass rush... Well you had better bring more than a knife to this gun fight.

I think it's pretty clear the Cowboys pass rush, which not great, isn't the horrible steaming pile that some here try to portray it.

The pass defense on the other hand... Well I hope you brought a plastic bag and pooper scooper.

 

[ScipioCowboy]

Well, I'm sold.