D played great...

[windward]

Is this thread a joke?

Blind Love for our team after a Win is hilarious. Dont come back crying next week if Dallas Secondary lays another egg.

Our D has potential and for the most part They can( Key word) play solid. But as of late they have been getting punked up and down the field. Sorry I just cant give the D as a whole any credit at all. The stops they made at the end are expected of a D with this much talent. Us holding our breath after every defensive series is something that should be left for garbage nobody Teams not the Cowboys.



The offense won this game the Defense did everything to lose it.

They did play better after the first drive of the second half.

 

[BigWillie]

I was actually happy with the game plan, but not so much with the execution.

Missed tackles (mostly missed chances on Vick), combined with poor man-to-man skills of Henry and Glenn on those two deep balls really kicked us in our arse.

With Vick, you pick your poison. You can take your DE's, push upfield and go for the sack, but by doing that you are opening up alot of running lanes for Vick. So for the chance at getting a sack (something Canty and Spears aren't adept at to begin with), is it worth giving all that real estate to Vick for running room?

Zimmer did what was needed, he picked his spots to put pressure on Vick and attempted to limit the running space to keep Vick from making a big play with his legs.

With Vick making passes he normally doesn't with his arm, it actually gave our defense a different look than we were expecting. The TD throw to Lelie with Newman draped on him, the first down throw to Crumpler with Nate Jones all over him, those are throws Vick normally doesn't make. Plus with his WR's making plays on deep balls, it was just an odd performance from what had become a somewhat predictable offense in the Falcons.

The defense did adjust in the 2nd half, taking away the underneath pass having the CB's finally defend the underneath pass. In the first half, it looked like I was still living last Sunday.

One thing that does need to be corrected after two weeks of the same thing is Henry not using his size advantage to jam WR's. Two weeks in a row he allowed Devery Henderson and Roddy White to get off the line without getting a jam and he gave up the big play. If Henry wants to be known as even a starting caliber CB, he needs to use his size to his advantage, since his speed doesn't allow him to keep up with faster WR's.

Get your hands on them, knock them off their route, get physical. It'll help the defense alot, AH.

 

[CrazyCowboy]

Ware gets soooooo close to multiple sacks it is frustrating....

 

[CactusCowboy]

With our talent, D is very average at best.

 

[lspain1]

The passes to the flats were there (again) all day for good yardage and TD's. I hope we can defend them some day.

 

[Novacek84]

How anyone can say the defense was good yesterday is a mystery. Yeah they settled down after a humiliating 2nd quarter, but that they were humiliated in the first place by an average passing QB is a huge red flag for me. They cannot continue to give up huge chunks of yardage and expect to win in the playoffs. At this point I am not worried about the offense at all. They seem to be able to score when needed. But the D is supposed to be our signature unit and they aren't getting it done on the level they should. Give the Falcons credit: they were smart enough to leave Vick in the pocket at times and let him throw bombs that ate up our secondary because they know Vick does have a strong, if not accurate, arm and can get it done. The reason we survived is because Vick can't do it consistently like Brees did. I think we have the right players on this defense (except for good cover safeties) so I think the coaching needs to change. Zimmer is apparently not cut out to coach a 3-4 and it is my hope Parcells brings in a guy with 3-4 coaching experience next year to replace Zimmer because it just doesn't seem to be working. Zimmer is on a learning curve while trying to coach a 3-4 which I guess he never coached before and it shows. Time to make a change. I really think the right adjustments would help out the defense and not leave them so exposed at times.

 

[Bleu Star]

Ware gets soooooo close to multiple sacks it is frustrating....

This is so true. Yet, I have to say the guy played a beast of a game last night. That interception for a TD was incredible. Plucking one of Vick's 500mph zingers out of the air from 10 feet away can't be easy. You know Vick has no touch.

Every ball that leaves Vick's arm is a fastball.

D Ware also played very disciplined and stayed in his zone last night which worked on a few plays to keep Vick contained and dropped for no gain or a loss by either Ware or someone else providing backside pursuit.

 

[NickZepp]

I think we can all agree that we played bad D the first half. There's no doubt about it. Especially after blowing the 14-0 lead. But in the 2nd half after the first drive their offense did nothing. I don't remember Vick getting a lot of big runs, and in the 2nd half we were able to contain him in the pocket and cover pretty well. Sacks don't always tell a story on how good you play. Heck sometimes you can get 3 sacks in a game and play bad. Sacks are the most overrated stat in football.

 

[CowboyManDan]

Our passing defense is annoyingly weak. I say annoyingly because our run defense is very good...so we're kind of off balance.

I liked how Carpenter played last night, possibly his best game of the season. 1.5 sacks according to espn.com and nfl.com stats. Although they were when Vick was trying to scramble or possibly run, I did like how he quickly closed on Vick when he was kind of lined up as a spy. I thought I also saw him on a special teams tackle as well. I for one am hoping he continues to get better over these next 2 games and is ready to play well in the playoffs.

Anthony Henry just doesn't seem like the same player as last year, minus that 4th down nice play he had. He looked like he was hurt too after a couple plays and could probably use the couple days off the team is supposidly getting.

Newman was 1 step from 2 ints. And it would be a huge help if he could get one of those in the future. Obviously he's been our best cover guy for a while.

I was happy to see Watkin back in the starting lineup and playing more. His int was in garbage time, but he seemed to play solidly and hopefully has learned some by this point.

Ware is just ridiculusly good. We can't ask him to do anymore than he's been doing. Great player.

I am one who thinks Zimmer and/or the defensive scheme are holding back Canty and Spears some. They need to make more plays, but I think the scheme is holding them back at least a little.

 

[khiladi]

Vick was 16 for like 23... He threw for 237 yards on 16 pass attempts.. Let's not forget to count the PI by Glenn which would have given Vick another 50 yards in his stats... the WR caught the ball BTW, but I think the refs didn't rule it a catch and gave the PI to the Falcons.. Vick had 4 TDs... ON 16 FREAKING PASS ATTEMPS...

Not only that, 2 or 3 TDs were by the fullback... The second week in a row...

The defense was killed by big plays... nothing changed in our defense, except we played a little bit more man in the first half... Roy was still pretty much playing away from the line, and he got burned a couple times in the zone...

If you think our defense did a great job, your out of your mind... Atlanta attacked the same weaknesses from the last few weeks... We haven't really done anything to adjust for our weaknesses.. Blame it on the coaches...

No pressure at all...

 

[BeWare94]

In the 2nd half they dominated after that early TD. They were the difference in the game.

Our D did NOT play well. They gave up four touchdown passes to a guy who can't read a defense, 28 points to a reeling Falcons team that isn't very good and once again let the opposing FB rule the flats.

If you think that's good I'd hate to see when you think we had a bad game...

 

[Arch Stanton]

....next up Brian Westbrook.

 

[BeWare94]

Didn't they have like 4 sacks? Is that not pressure?

Not if we could have had 8-9 sacks.

 

[BeWare94]

....next up Brian Westbrook.

Fat Andy and the boys have to be salivating looking at film. Hopefully they'll knock off the Giants today.

 

[CowboyManDan]

Not only that, 2 or 3 TDs were by the fullback... The second week in a row...

That has to stop! Ugh, it kills me watching that.

 

[SuspectCorner]

Anthony Henry just doesn't seem like the same player as last year, minus that 4th down nice play he had. He looked like he was hurt too after a couple plays and could probably use the couple days off the team is supposidly getting.

i noticed him limping between plays. i wonder if the groin is bothering him again.

 

[NickZepp]

Our defense played bad for most of the first half. But they stepped it up and shot Atlanta down when they had to. Did Atlanta have a big play after the last TD drive?

 

[Jimz31]

Our defense played bad for most of the first half. But they stepped it up and shot Atlanta down when they had to. Did Atlanta have a big play after the last TD drive?

After their last TD drive, they really didn't do squat.

We just have people knee-jerking about 1 to 1.5 bad quarters of defense last night....albeit that 1 - 1.5 quarters was ATROCIOUS.

 

[NickZepp]

I think there was 1 Mike Vick run for about 10 yards or so but that's really all Atlanta got. And we did hold the best rushing team down to about 120 yards or so.

 

[Doomsdayblitz]

I didn't get a chance to watch the game, but ANY defense that gives up 28 pts. in a little over a half, with 4 passing TDs by a QB with one of the most inconsistent arms in the league can't be considered 'great'.

I saw the highlights of the FB catching two TDs. Both times he was wide open. This makes me crazy! Second game in a row the FB has been wide open in the freaking flat time after time. Who is in charge of scheming for that? Who is supposed to cover the guy? Man, this isn't rocket science. 4 sacks don't mean squat when the QB throws 4 TDs on you. 1.5 sacks were by the rookie OLB.

I would love to see us sign Adalius Thomas, DE/OLB, Ravens. The guy is a monster athlete. He has played DL, LB, SS, and whatever else they have asked him to play. He is not only a great player & athlete, but he arrives in a bad mood. I have watched him play twice a year the past few years against the Browns, and I love to hate the guy. I would love to see him play w/ a star on his helmet. He already has 67 tackles w/10 sacks in 13 games. That beats by far anyone we have on our team. Put him on the strong side, & Ware would have a great compliment on the other side. We could finally put the pressure on we haven't had in over 10 years.

With the signing of Thomas, we could concentrate the draft on OL & FS players, because we would be set in the pass rushing area. With Hatcher & Carpenter having gotten their rookie season out of the way and improving, we would have a promising future next year putting more pressure on up front.
Also, by taking a quality FS in either the 1st or 2nd rds., we will be able to take more chances. We would also get more sacks on cover sacks.

This defense is definately NOT playing great in many senses of the word, and had better step it up if they are going to go very far this year.