Defense Tonight Deserves Some Props

[Sepia]

They played GREAT.

 

[SSoup]

Had Dak played I’m sure we would’ve scored 40 points and they would have way more yards and points but some of you think things like that don’t make a difference and go strictly off stats.

I definitely feel like Minnesota would've been pressing much more urgently for more yards, more points, more production for all 60 minutes if they knew they were gonna have to outscore Dak.

Not that they called off their dogs and straight-up didn't bother to try just because they took Cooper Rush too lightly. But I think it took awhile for it to dawn on them that they weren't just out for a stroll, leisurely cruising to an uneventful & inevitable win. That they were actually in a fight.

I suspect part of their problem is that they made up their mind going into this game that they were gonna show the NFL how it's done by being the first ones to actually be very careful with the ball and deny our defense the turnovers that have bailed us out again and again this season. Our defense has genuine juicy weak spots you should be licking your chops to aggressively attack. Approaching us instead with a mindset of being super cautious and careful with the ball? Yeah, it makes you more likely to avoid the turnovers no one else has avoided against us this year... but it also makes it harder for you to aggressively gash us and hang the kind of points on the scoreboard that you ought to.

Cousins threw for 5.3 yards per attempt against us. That's insane. Nobody has timidly nibbled around the edges of our passing defense like that all year.

Brady had 7.6 per attempt against us. Herbert: 8.2. Hurts: 8.4. Darnold: 7.7. Mike freaking Glennon had 7.8 per attempt against us. Mac Jones had 10.9 per attempt. Cousins nibbled his way to 5.3. That number is a weird outlier on this list.

 

[Ranched]

Only allowed one touchdown. Quinn has this D a jumping, um, a pumping lol.

 

[Romo_To_Dez]

Dan Quinn deserves a lot of credit for turning this defense around.

 

[8FOR!3]

Check this out. Impressive.



I was worried at first, but they stepped up hard.

Did it without the usual forced turnover party too.

I don't see how you don't sign Gregory now. He's in the Defensive MVP talks with Parsons and Diggs.

This was one of the first games I feel like Parsons looked like Wagner or what they intended when they moved him back to ILB. Dude was EVERYWHERE!!

Can you afford to keep Gregory though? Him/Cedrick/Gallup/Schultz are free agents, a few of the safeties, it's going to be tough to keep this defense at a high level heading into next season (well luckily Parsons/Diggs are 2 out of the 3 best and they'll be here for sure.) LVE is a free agent too, not saying he's earned a contract but if he's not out there someone else has to be.