Elephant in the room, J. Smith

[Cmac]

BUT...when #50 was in his prime...he was a PLAYMAKER...we are heaping praise on #54...and I still cannot figure out why other than he is a great STORY

You should note your very word...…"was".

 

[805BoysInBlue]

Honestly i think the cowboys need to figure out whos running the defense and let them install their defense. It shouldnt be Kris running the defense but with Maranellis playbook. Its kind of like when Linehan called plays but it was Garrett's playbook/offenseive scheme.

 

[NoLuv4Jerry]

almost top to bottom a lot of our great players haven’t looked so hot this year. maybe it’s more than just the players and the coaching staff is ruining the team.

I am torn on this one. Zeke has proven who he is at every level INCLUDING the NFL. Dak is showing he is greatly improved. The OL was always slightly overrated...but they are top 5 in the NFL. Witten....well....I've been on record with regards of him LONG before he quit and came back. The weapons at WR are fine.

With all of this said...this defense will not hold up for 3 or 4 games in the postseason. And more importantly....and I have said it 1000 times....we have already reached Garrett's ceiling. He will never win 3 or 4 postseason games in row. It will take EVERYTHING out of him to win 1...and then we will be toast. So if the objective is to win Super Bowls...we are just wasting time with Garrett. Yesterday is a microcosm of what Garrett would look like in the postseason. It took EVERYTHING for us to keep up...and had we won...we would have been tapped out. If yesterday had been a PLAYOFF game...that we somehow pulled out...we would not win the next week. This is Garrett's ceiling.

 

[Hadenough]

The defensive line is a bigger issue than the linebackers.

Yes Jaylon and LVE have been underwhelming.

Our defensive line gets pushed the heck around on running plays all game long.

I tend to agree with that! Part of the problem though is the defense is always reacting and not attacking. They get caught up in the wash waiting to see if its a handoff or a pass and then they try and attack an by that time they are being pushed to the ground. This defense needs to have a plan instead of sitting back. Thats also what I see with Jaylon and LVE. They are always in chase mode. That GB game was eerily similar to the Rams game in the playoffs. And GBs coach was the Rams OC then. Even though McVay was calling the plays.

 

[NoLuv4Jerry]

I tend to agree with that! Part of the problem though is the defense is always reacting and not attacking. They get caught up in the wash waiting to see if its a handoff or a pass and then they try and attack an by that time they are being pushed to the ground. This defense needs to have a plan instead of sitting back. Thats also what I see with Jaylon and LVE. They are always in chase mode. That GB game was eerily similar to the Rams game in the playoffs. And GBs coach was the Rams OC then. Even though McVay was calling the plays.

Wow...astute observations! But people get all in their feelings when I say....all I see #54 do is running around AFTER a big gain. I'm just calling what I see. Does he meet someone in the backfield? Does he lay the wood and send a message? Does he step in front of a pass and take it to the house? Not saying every lber does this every Sunday...but when we hear talk about him GIVING us a hometown discount...I'm just left wondering what does he do that a 4th rounder would not do?

 

[unionjack8]

LVE is play at a much worse level.

To the point I'd bench him for Joe thomas......

 

[CyberB0b]

Still waiting to be convinced that #54 is even an AVERAGE player. It is embarrassing to watch him run around...that is literally ALL he does. Other organizations front office, scouts and coaching staff have to be laughing at us for extending him. He is courageous, has an infectious smile....great story of perseverance....but this guy is not a NFL starter. Let alone someone you extend for big money.

Literally everyone they paid is grossly underperforming. That's either coaching or terrible talent evaluation.

 

[jsb357]

Pollard can produce Zeke numbers and save 50 million.

The check is already cleared...gotta live with it.

 

[JBond]

I think when we are talking about the defense as a whole it seems there is something wrong with the scheme . Since Richard took over the play calling it looks like players are more and more out of position consistently. I just have a hard time believing that all of a sudden our lb core can't play. It's more to do with the position that the D coach is putting them in. It's been a problem all year.

We went from a very tough team to run on that got consistent pressure on the QB to garbage with the same players. We are lining up too wide on the line and our LB's are freelancing too much and not playing their responsibilities. And what the heck is all the dancing and movement of the LB's before the snap? It looks like the potty dance of a 3 year old.

 

[GMO415]

Lmao at zooming in on Jalyon when LVE was missing 4 to 5 open field tackles

and having your DTs moved around with ease

LVE was hugging air all day

 

[buybuydandavis]

I think we miss Woods inside more than we realize.

For all the ranting against our DTs, few seem to notice that Woods, our starting and one true 1T, has been out, and Crawford has been out or not fully healthy, and Lawrence has not been fully healthy either.

Covington is our leading tackler on the dline, and by a wide margin. 10 tackles. Next is Quinn with 7, and he's only played in 3 of 5.

Eye balling the snap counts and production is eye opening.
Covington only 57%, Quinn only 35%. They're smoking Lawrence 62% and Collins 71% on productivity, while Crawford has only played 18%.
Armstrong is competitive with Lawrence on only 38% of snaps.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/dal/2019.htm

 

[jsb357]

LB's looked Ram game silly.

 

[mattjames2010]

LOL this entire forum just two weeks ago said I was crazy for saying this for 2 years.

 

[Rayman70]

yup...I will chime in too and say our linebackers have been stunningly bad all year. Jaylon overrunning plays..or out of position badly all year. LVE looks lost or 2 steps out of the play all the time. Lee ...misses too many tackles. I want to see Joe Thomas starting. I think hes better than Smith and Lee. The entire defensive front and line backers been bad. Is it me or do yu guys notice what teams are doing to us on a regular basis? WE GET SCREENED TO DEATH. Running backs are running wide open in the flat..our linebackers are never in coverage and time and again, we get burned. I am sick of it. All this talent and such a poor scheme fit and poor effort. I think we need to shake things up on defense or it will only continue. WE ARE SOFT!!

 

[the_h0wey]

Still waiting to be convinced that #54 is even an AVERAGE player. It is embarrassing to watch him run around...that is literally ALL he does. Other organizations front office, scouts and coaching staff have to be laughing at us for extending him. He is courageous, has an infectious smile....great story of perseverance....but this guy is not a NFL starter. Let alone someone you extend for big money.

Not everybody understands football that's okay. Maybe you can take up knitting or something less stressful and hard to decipher

 

[CalPolyTechnique]

IMPOSSIBLE. He plays with zero control. His instincts are poor. He overruns EVERYTHING...other teams use his athleticism AGAINST him.

Agreed.

Folks have fallen in love with his inspirational story...and understandably so.

However, they’ve got to stop looking at him with that subconscious asterisk of “well, he’s doing great for a guy that was told he’d never play again!”

Treat him as you would any other player, not as a charity case.

He’s got obvious limitations, particularly in space. Despite highlight clips of kill-shots he’s not a physical player at the point of attack and gets washed frequently, which is dirty work LBs have to take on.

He’s at his best running in straight lines and chasing down plays. He’s a liability in coverage because he moves so poorly space. He’s absolutely toast if he has to square up a RB coming straight at him; we’ve seen that time and time again.

I thought he had a good year last year, though I saw the things mentioned above. I just assumed he’d improve simply putting more distance (time) between him and the injury and getting accustomed to the pro game.

What I’m seeing this year is an average linebacker that occasionally makes a good play, rather than an elite player at his position.

 

[Sydla]

Agreed.

Folks have fallen in love with his inspirational story...and understandably so.

However, they’ve got to stop looking at him with that subconscious asterisk of “well, he’s doing great for a guy that was told he’d never play again!”

Treat him as you would any other player, not as a charity case.

He’s got obvious limitations, particularly in space. Despite highlight clips of kill-shots he’s not a physical player at the point of attack and gets washed frequently, which is dirty work LBs have to take on.

He’s at his best running in straight lines and chasing down plays. He’s a liability in coverage because he moves so poorly space. He’s absolutely toast if he has to square up a RB coming straight at him; we’ve seen that time and time again.

I thought he had a good year last year, though I saw the things mentioned above. I just assumed he’d improve simply putting more distance (time) between him and the injury and getting accustomed to the pro game.

What I’m seeing this year is an average linebacker that occasionally makes a good play, rather than an elite player at his position.

In fairness, I think part of the issue here is that there is a subset of fans that have carved out this bizarre LVE versus Smith thing and which guy is better.

The reality is both LBs have looked like crap this year. Often times the criticism of Smith is from LVE fans. But LVE was brutal yesterday. So it's kind of weird that we get threads after the Packers game that Smith stunk.

I am starting to buy the reality that the Cowboys simply don't use this guys properly and that last year, things just kind of fell into place and the overall defensive performance was an anomaly.

 

[Whyjerry]

Still waiting to be convinced that #54 is even an AVERAGE player. It is embarrassing to watch him run around...that is literally ALL he does. Other organizations front office, scouts and coaching staff have to be laughing at us for extending him. He is courageous, has an infectious smile....great story of perseverance....but this guy is not a NFL starter. Let alone someone you extend for big money.

Really? Guy is on pace for about 130 tackles right now. Leads the team. 2 sacks last 2 games. That play on Watson last year at the goal line was a rare play for a LB. The guy is good.

Can you name anyone on the defense that is having a good year? Anyone?

What does that tell you?

 

[Batman1980]

I was really hoping we wouldn't re-sign him. But we did, of course.

Should've let him rot in Cabo.

 

[dckid]

I was really hoping we wouldn't re-sign him. But we did, of course.

Im sure fixing him will solve all of our problems.
The problem is so much bigger than an uber athletic LB who over runs a few plays.
It would be interesting to see how the Patriots played after being down 28-3 in the SB, and how the Cowboys played yesterday.