Defense

[RonWashington]

It’s safe to say holding KC to 19 and not letting Hill burn you deep and keeping Kelce under control DQ pretty much had it going the way he scripted it. To that end as well the three that were brought in during the off-season Keaarse Neal & Kazee have been a vast improvement over what the Cowboys have had recently .

All the talk is about Gallup & Schultz as FA next year, Jerry needs to keep all three of those defensive starters in the off season and I hope Quinn has a strong opinion about it in the War room .

 

[lostar2009]

They need to do better.

 

[Hawkeye0202]

I know many fans don't wanna hear this but Quinn returning after the season isn't a slam dunk at all. His name is privately coming for HC gigs both College and NFL.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/11/19/gameplan-matt-rhule-panthers-culture-cam-newton
ONE BIG QUESTION
Why are things so quiet on the coaching carousel?

We haven’t had a firing yet, or even much of a hint one could land in-season, and I think there are two things at work here. One, there’s the number we gave you earlier: 22 of 32 teams are between 6–3 and 3–6, which means fewer teams are dead in the water. Two, you don’t have the stay-of-execution coaches this year like you did last year in Atlanta, Detroit and Jacksonville. So it’s certainly possible things stay relatively quiet until January.

And until then? Until then, there are two things I’ll be keeping an eye on.

One, there are already a mountain of high-profile college openings and, by all accounts, a lack of obvious candidates at that level to fill them. It makes you at least wonder if any of the big schools will look to the pros to find candidates that have experience in college football and bring NFL cachet (like, say, Brady, Bills OC Brian Daboll or Cowboys DC Dan Quinn).

The one issue there would be timing. The new early signing period in college football is in mid-December, and that’s when most recruits wind up making their commitments official. Missing that period, for any incoming college coach, would be tough, and the NFL season, in the new 17-game format, doesn’t end until mid-January. Might a college program be willing to hire a guy in December and wait until January for him to show up? Sure, and it’s happened before (Bill O’Brien at Penn State, Charlie Weis at Notre Dame). But it’s not ideal.

(As an aside, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Washington kick the tires on Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore in the coming weeks, given Moore’s ties to ex-Huskies coach Chris Petersen.)

And the second thing I’m keeping an eye on? Whether more obvious candidates emerge over the next couple of months. Last year, guys like Arthur Smith and Robert Saleh were drawing interest for just about every team that had an opening. Who’s that guy this year? Daboll and Eric Bieniemy will be in the mix again, but there really aren’t the hot names new to the scene like there usually would be.

That make you wonder if second-chancers like Quinn, Patriots OC Josh McDaniels, Cardinals DC Vance Joseph, Buccaneers DC Todd Bowles or ex-Eagles coach Doug Pederson get a lot of run come January.

So all this should be interesting to follow, as always, over the months to come.

 

[Streifenkarl]

They need to do better.

Haha yeah, should have been no more than 8 points, right?

Nah, I really like how the Defence has performed this year except vs. Denver. They're far from flawless but if the O could manage to bring up at least 30 points each week then we're all set.

 

[RonWashington]

After tasting a SB in Atlanta and going all the way back to his days in Seattle I can’t see Quinn having much interest in college football openings . The one that might interest him is Florida and the challenge of going up against Saban but I just don’t see it. Now when NFL openings happen yes Quinn would listen .

 

[RonWashington]

If you keep the three starters brought in this yr on defense 42 18 and 27 next season that lets you concentrate on addressing the O line and D line in the draft. Lose Neal Kazee or Kearse and your back to having holes at LB & Safety .

 

[atlantacowboy]

Surprisingly, the defense held the KC offense in check. KC went 5 or 6 possessions without scoring at one point. During that stretch, Dak only managed 3 points and that was thanks to a turnover that gave him field position.

Other thoughts:

Biadez got dominated. He may be a Wisconsin center but he is no Freddie.
Steele is a backup tackle not an NFL starter
Pollard is a more effective offensive player than Zeke, though Zeke is a better blocker.
We desperately need an anchor player in the middle of the DL.

 

[lostar2009]

Haha yeah, should have been no more than 8 points, right?

Nah, I really like how the Defence has performed this year except vs. Denver. They're far from flawless but if the O could manage to bring up at least 30 points each week then we're all set.

I wonder why Steele got the start at LT and not Collins?

 

[CyberB0b]

Yeah, the defense was great.

 

[Blake]

Hope Mike and crew pull no punches in the offense and QB meetings this week.