DMN: Bob Sturm: I think Cowboys need more from their safeties, and I suspect Marinelli agrees

[jobberone]

Bob Sturm: I think Cowboys need more from their safeties, and I suspect Marinelli agrees

Follow @SportsSturm bsturm@***BANNED-URL***
Special contributor

Published: 10 October 2015 11:38 AM
Updated: 10 October 2015 10:38 PM

http://www.***BANNED-URL***/incoming/20151010-1444436602-ns_cowboyseagles_al118.jpg.ece/BINARY/w620x413/1444436602-NS_CowboysEagles_AL118.JPG
Dallas Cowboys free safety J.J. Wilcox (27) runs away from Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce (62) after he caught an interception during the second half of their game on Sunday, September 20, 2015 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Ashley Landis/The Dallas Morning News)


Special contributor Bob Sturm answered questions in a chat Friday. Here are some highlights.

Question: Now that you've seen the Cowboys play two games without Romo, whats your prediction for the Cowboys record this year?

Bob Sturm: I need to see them with Hardy, McClain, and Gregory. I am still hoping 9-7 can happen, but 8-8 is going to be in play if they don't get another win quickly.

Question: Why do the Cowboys keep fooling around with having both Wilcox and Church out there at the same time ? Put Byron Jones out there so he can cover the TE and we can keep 3 LB's out there. If we get into 3rd and long, we should be putting out Patmon to play the slot, but otherwise I don't care to see church/wilcox out there together.

Bob Sturm: The safety position remains a frustrating spot. Those two have to get guys down in the open field. Overall, I don't mind Church or Wilcox, but they cannot be passengers in any game and these last few weeks they have not been very safe safeties. I get they are under tremendous stress, but they have to be better. Church was close to an interception, but Wilcox has been quiet since Philadelphia. I need more from both of them and I suspect Rod Marinelli agrees.

http://www.***BANNED-URL***/sports/...r-safeties-and-i-suspect-marinelli-agrees.ece

 

[DogFace]

Yes. These safeties need to step up or sit. Try white or jones for one of them. Probably Church.

 

[sureletsrace]

I wouldn't be opposed to seeing Wilcox at SS and White or Jones at FS.

 

[Staubacher]

Tired of the Wilcox experiment. All the good moves this mgmt has made recently and yet they go cheap on safety.

 

[CF74]

At least Wilcox has the excuse of trying to play with a broken nose but what is Church's issue? They both have been missing tackles lately, real bad play out there...

 

[Risen Star]

At the end of the day, he's the one assigning the nicknames. So the buck stops with him.

 

[fivetwos]

The safety play on this team is downright disgusting and difficult to watch at times.

I thought Wilcox may have been ready to go to a higher level this year, but apparently he has already peaked as far as what he is, and looks to be regressing.

Church, although sloppy lately. has been serviceable. Reminds me of a guy like Bradie James...he's not awful, but just good enough to lose with.

It's time to get someone back there who can make plays, be a presence, and be a leader on defense.

Easier said than done, I get it, but it's an issue.

The expert analysts want to point to RB as the big problem on this team. All the fantasy hype fuels that, but no way does this team take things to a higher level without dramatically improved safety play.

 

[unionjack8]

church has always been vastly over rated imo, terrible, and i mean terrible in coverage, a liability in fact

 

[xwalker]

Bob Sturm: I think Cowboys need more from their safeties, and I suspect Marinelli agrees

Follow @SportsSturm bsturm@***BANNED-URL***
Special contributor

Published: 10 October 2015 11:38 AM
Updated: 10 October 2015 10:38 PM

http://www.***BANNED-URL***/incoming/20151010-1444436602-ns_cowboyseagles_al118.jpg.ece/BINARY/w620x413/1444436602-NS_CowboysEagles_AL118.JPG
Dallas Cowboys free safety J.J. Wilcox (27) runs away from Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce (62) after he caught an interception during the second half of their game on Sunday, September 20, 2015 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Ashley Landis/The Dallas Morning News)


Special contributor Bob Sturm answered questions in a chat Friday. Here are some highlights.

Question: Now that you've seen the Cowboys play two games without Romo, whats your prediction for the Cowboys record this year?

Bob Sturm: I need to see them with Hardy, McClain, and Gregory. I am still hoping 9-7 can happen, but 8-8 is going to be in play if they don't get another win quickly.

Question: Why do the Cowboys keep fooling around with having both Wilcox and Church out there at the same time ? Put Byron Jones out there so he can cover the TE and we can keep 3 LB's out there. If we get into 3rd and long, we should be putting out Patmon to play the slot, but otherwise I don't care to see church/wilcox out there together.
Bob Sturm: The safety position remains a frustrating spot. Those two have to get guys down in the open field. Overall, I don't mind Church or Wilcox, but they cannot be passengers in any game and these last few weeks they have not been very safe safeties. I get they are under tremendous stress, but they have to be better. Church was close to an interception, but Wilcox has been quiet since Philadelphia. I need more from both of them and I suspect Rod Marinelli agrees.

http://www.***BANNED-URL***/sports/...r-safeties-and-i-suspect-marinelli-agrees.ece

I think the issue with the Safeties might be overblown, especially in the Saints game.

On my review of all critical play fails (3rd down, 4th down, long gains), the only missed tackle by a Safety was on the final play of the game. Church was in on two other critical play fails. One was a long gain with Church covering the TE and the other was a TD where either Church or Carr failed to cover the TE.

Wilcox didn't show up in any of the critical play fails.

This does not mean that the Safeties never failed on a play, just that on what I defined as critical play fails they were not a big part of the problem.

Critical Play Fails are the ones that allow 3rd or 4th down conversions, long gains of over 12 yards and critical mistakes on scoring plays.

 

[PoundTheRock]

You used to depend on Church to tackle, but now he doesn't even do that. He needs to go like yesterday.

 

[jwitten82]

Maybe this team can start drafting safties instead of converting players to safety.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I don't understand how Sturm can be okay with Church in the past 2 games. His main value is that he's a good tackler and in the past 2 games he's been poor. He's very limited in coverage and the defense has to be set up so he doesn't get taken advantage of in coverage. I still like Wilcox, but when he's not on point with his game he starts to take bad angles and we started to see him do that against the Saints.




YR

 

[dallasdave]

I don't understand how Sturm can be okay with Church in the past 2 games. His main value is that he's a good tackler and in the past 2 games he's been poor. He's very limited in coverage and the defense has to be set up so he doesn't get taken advantage of in coverage. I still like Wilcox, but when he's not on point with his game he starts to take bad angles and we started to see him do that against the Saints.




YR

Yeah Church is slow, more of a LB in a prevent defense !!

 

[jnday]

At least Wilcox has the excuse of trying to play with a broken nose but what is Church's issue? They both have been missing tackles lately, real bad play out there...

I have always thought that Church is lacking in talent , and makes up for it with effort. He is not a second coming of Bill Bates by any means, but he has put out effort through the years. It looks like he is getting slower and the effort isn't there this year. For a player like Church, it probably means it is time to be replaced. I thought that he was just a stop-gap kind of player, but Dallas hasn't made much effort to replace him.

 

[Proximo]

I thought it was worth emphasizing this nugget from the link:

"Division is mediocre and you are 2-0 in said division. If you can get to 5-1 in the division by splitting with NYG and Phil coming up and sweeping the Commanders, then the Cowboys will be very tough to beat for the divisional crown. That is the hope. Get that and then you are home for a playoff game. This thing can still be salvaged."

This is all very true and important to keep in mind during this stretch leading up to Thanksgiving. Things could certainly get ugly around these parts (especially if today's game happens to not go well), but our season will not be made or broken this afternoon. There's a lot of football left.