Defensive Ineptitude

[Setackin]

I would keep lawrence Crawford melton and that's about it for the Dline... I would keep all the linebackers... 1-2 new CBs and keep church and wilcox.

 

[percyhoward]

If we can get the opponent off the field on 5 of its first 6 drives from here on out, I'll take it.

 

[blumayne38]

That had nothing to do with it. You're the d coord. Stop them. If not him than who is accountable?

Defenses do get tired, playing too many snaps effects play. when u get tired u get weak and unfocused

 

[Eddie]

It was a prevent D in garbage time. It made things exciting.

 

[Risen Star]

Not once did I say we'd lose. NOT ONCE.

Sure, I was uncomfortable (especially after the onside kick), and I suspect that most were slightly uneasy.

Try to stick to the topic, because again, this defense was spotted a 28 point lead and it wasn't over until the Oscan INT.

I thought the game was over by the middle of the 3rd quarter. That little comeback they had didn't change my mind.

The Cowboys weren't losing that game after coming off of the debacle on Thanksgiving.

 

[Risen Star]

For the record, what I'm saying is the defense is embarrassing and awful, the worst I've ever seen here, but that Rod Marinelli is amazing.

Official stance.

 

[Alexander]

I thought the game was over by the middle of the 3rd quarter. That little comeback they had didn't change my mind.

The Cowboys weren't losing that game after coming off of that debacle on Thanksgiving.

It was almost over when it started. The Bears were a lifeless team and only got back into it on our bad defense when it looked like they took their foot off the gas. Never quite got all of the fear that the Bears would win the game. Trestman has lost the team.

 

[Risen Star]

It was almost over when it started. The Bears were a lifeless team and only got back into it on our bad defense when it looked like they took their foot off the gas. Never quite got all of the fear that the Bears would win the game. Trestman has lost the team.

He really has. That locker room has so many bad personalities. Cutler, Marshall, Bennett. Yikes.

 

[MissouriCowboy]

Rod Marinelli needs something to work with.

 

[Sydla]

It's a combination of mediocre talent and questionable coaching. As I said in another thread last night, in Dallas games Aikman has done, he's constantly pointed out that while not great, we are a better man coverage team than zone. And yet Marinelli is hell bent on playing a lot of zone because he's married to that system. We played a lot of zone and Philly just sliced and diced us. And they will do it again next week if Marinelli again wants to play passively with 3 man rushes and deep zones, etc.

I think a lot has to change on the defensive side of the ball this offseason - talent AND coaching.

 

[Alexander]

It's a combination of mediocre talent and questionable coaching. As I said in another thread last night, in Dallas games Aikman has done, he's constantly pointed out that while not great, we are a better man coverage team than zone. And yet Marinelli is hell bent on playing a lot of zone because he's married to that system. We played a lot of zone and Philly just sliced and diced us. And they will do it again next week if Marinelli again wants to play passively with 3 man rushes and deep zones, etc.

I think a lot has to change on the defensive side of the ball this offseason - talent AND coaching.

Easy to say to just play more man, but without a pass rush, it is extremely reckless to do so. I do not like the soft coverages and never have, but I understand why.

 

[MissouriCowboy]

I think mixing up the package on defensive works best. Not so predictable.

 

[Sydla]

Easy to say to just play more man, but without a pass rush, it is extremely reckless to do so. I do not like the soft coverages and never have, but I understand why.

In theory, sure. But if you are getting sliced and diced because your team can't play zone well, why not switch it up more?

I mean what's the worst that can happen if we play more man? We struggle to stop teams? Guess what? That's already happening when we play zone.

 

[iceberg]

Offense, at one point, had a 28 point lead, and scored 41 points, and still, the game was way too close.

McClain looks injured. Carter going through the motions. Hitch not good the last few weeks.

DL invisible. S's terrible. Outside of OSCan, CB's average (Moore) to below (Carr).

Can anyone rise to the occasion this year?

If not, how many new players does this unit need next year?

this is what gets frustrating to me. we were dead last in the NFL last year. word is they had to go back to 1938 minor league new mexico team to find a D that did worse for a entire year. WE GET IT. our defense is horrible.

the only difference is we need to take out "is" and put in "was". we *have* improved despite the gnashing of keys and shouting at monitors. we have. trust me.

no we're not done yes we need a pass rush and that alone will help the secondary. just because the last thing you saw was a player getting burned don't think it's always that particular players part. unless it's carr, of course. but I digress. but lets look at how we fell apart. but lets also look at how for 3 quarters we kept them out of the endzone. is this a top flight defense? not by a long shot.

are we better than last year?

oh yell yea.

are we done?

not by a longshot.

we need to see if Lawrence will be the pass rush we hoped for, we need to hope brent is worth the emotional investment we all have put into him (for and against) and we need things to simply come together more than they have in the last 4+ games. our fantastic start has led people to believe, it would seem, we fixed everything already and that's just not the case.

mcclain does seem to not get called out as much but for a man being out of football as long as he was, he's fine. I'm not going to expect him to be able to blow it up every down of every game. you can't name a single player who does that (jj watt doesn't count, he was not born of this planet) so why are we upset when a player has a bad game or two? does that *always* have to wipe out the 8 great games he played before that?

to some, yea. last thing they saw is what they'll get next. if they make a great play, great player, sign him up long term, yada yada. if he has a bad day, he's done and we wasted out time. it's like analyzing each breath we take vs. see what we did with our collection of breathing over our lives. yes we'll have some fantastic times we can't all wait to get back to. no it won't always be easy.

but you can't change the fact that this is a growth experience and while our defense still needs some work and yes, can still be frustrating, they have done much better tha we all anticipated. instead of enjoying the progress, some keep harping on the problems.

 

[Risen Star]

Rod Marinelli needs something to work with.

Right.

But when he produces crap with crap, there really isn't any reason to praise him.

 

[Alexander]

In theory, sure. But if you are getting sliced and diced because your team can't play zone well, why not switch it up more?

I mean what's the worst that can happen if we play more man? We struggle to stop teams? Guess what? That's already happening when we play zone.

Explosive plays, that is what Marinelli is trying to avoid. Pick your poison, an 80-yard drive in five minutes or an 80 yard pass in five seconds?

 

[MissouriCowboy]

I think Stephen needs to tell his Daddy for next year-DEFENSE AND DEFENSE

 

[Sydla]

Explosive plays, that is what Marinelli is trying to avoid. Pick your poison, an 80-yard drive in five minutes or an 80 yard pass in five seconds?

Neither.

Switch it up and don't be so predictable on defense.

 

[Alexander]

I think Stephen needs to tell his Daddy for next year-DEFENSE AND DEFENSE

Of course, but I wonder how that will go. For whatever reason, it just looks like the scouts are not on the same page with the coaching staff when it comes to picking players for the defense. Changing systems has not helped but not real confident in the communication.

 

[DallasDW00ds0n]

Defenses do get tired, playing too many snaps effects play. when u get tired u get weak and unfocused

A quick fix is stopping them, sacks which we had none of, making third and longs. It's up to the defense to get off the field. If that's the case then they gotta look in the mirror