Everybody Predicted The Cowboys Defensive Line Would Be Terrible, Everybody Was Wrong

[waving monkey]

yes I'm bragging about a D/Line that has been bagged on relentlessly around
and everyone admits it lacks high round draft picks yet here they come
just like 2014 playing over their heads because they have star dust in their eyes

 

[Denim Chicken]

Yeah still waiting for us to have a close game. LOL

And how much pressure did we get in those games, joker?

 

[Denim Chicken]

They held up well when trailing by 14 to the Niners.

There was no pressure. The secondary held up well.

 

[Sydla]

yes I'm bragging about a D/Line that has been bagged on relentlessly around
and everyone admits it lacks high round draft picks yet here they come
just like 2014 playing over their heads because they have star dust in their eyes

Again, not many people "bagged" on the DL.

They bagged on the DEs and the pass rush.

Right now, the Cowboys are on pace for like 32 sacks (and nearly 50% of their 10 sacks came in one game)...... not exactly strong numbers. Let's see how they do in getting pressure on Rodgers before you take your victory lap.

 

[Jarv]

Just about all of the sacks happened because we were stunting up front, not worried about the run (because of our lead).If we had Ro at his prime at the Mike, we could continue, more often at least, that with less worries about the run.

On the flip side on O, we are seeing less stunts because of the run threat and Dak has benefited with a lot of time behind our line.

So, weird as it may seem, a great Mike could really allow our pass rush to flourish.

 

[CowboyRoy]

The best laid plans often go awry, but sometimes they go exactly to plan, and that was certainly the case on Sunday when the Cowboys had their most impressive overall team performance since 2014. Coming into the season everybody knew the Cowboys defense was not the most talented, especially along the defensive line. Despite suspensions to Demarcus Lawrence and Randy Gregory the team did not do much to address the defensive end position aside from signing little known free agent Benson Mayowa, a player with only two career sacks over three seasons, and drafting Charles Tapper at the top of the fourth round. The defensive tackle position was more stable with veterans Tyrone Crawford, Terrell McClain, and Cedric Thornton, although McClain was coming off a 2015 season where he only played two games while rookie Maliek Collins had missed almost the entire offseason with a foot injury. Orlando Scandrick was the team leader in career sacks coming into the season and it wouldn’t have been a stretch to say that the Cowboys had one of the five worst defensive lines in the league.

With that said, the Cowboys were confident in their defensive line for two reasons: Rod Marinelli’s ability to get the most out of his players and develop an effective rotation where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and the potentially dominant offense and running game on the other side of the ball, which would hopefully build leads and shield the defense. The faces weren’t all the same on Sunday with Tony Romo and Dez Bryant out but that plan worked to perfection, and with the return of Lawrence it certainly looked like the decisions made by the Cowboys front office and coaching staff during the offseason were at least somewhat validated.

link/http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/2016...marcus-lawrence-cedric-thornton-benson-mayowa

Ill bite on this one.

I can tell you quite frankly that the defense has played better than I predicted thus far. Happily so.

But I think you need to break the DL down into DT's and DE's. Personally, I thought our DT's were solid and they have not disappointed. I did think the rookie would NOT have an impact, but I would say he is performing well there.

But all those DE's that people predicted were going to break out have been a complete wash out. NOT ONE stepped up and broken out. The only thing that has worked remotely well is putting Crawford out at DE in some instances.

And up until a last week the sack totals were even worse then last year.

Put it this way............If you get up by 28 every game you can basically just rush the passer at will. I doubt that will happen much going forward.

 

[theogt]

They have made stops when it matters. While they haven't faced juggernaut offenses, they did enough to help the team win. That's what counts.

The defense has made stops. The defensive line not really.

 

[nobody]

The defense has made stops. The defensive line not really.

Last I checked, the defensive line was getting pressures and occasional sacks. Those pressures helped the secondary do their job. It's a team effort. I'm not saying the defense is GOOD. I'm saying that they made stops when it mattered as evidenced by having won a couple of close games.

 

[perrykemp]

This week will be a really good barometer for us to see how good this Cowboys defensive line is.

The Packers have the #1 pass blocking OL according to PFF and Eddy Lacy averages 5.5 ypc. Rodgers had forever and day to pass against the Giants and Olivier Vernon & JPP were dominated by the Packers offensive tackles.

In particular I am interesting to see how D-Law does in his 2nd game back against a very good RT in Bulaga.

 

[ConstantReboot]

I would only add that we also had a 3-4 TD lead, you bet the pass rush will look better, probably will come back to earth in close contests.

The passrush was better because of DLaws return. Dalton was scrambling the whole game and it wasn't just because we were leading.

 

[Rogerthat12]

The passrush was better because of DLaws return. Dalton was scrambling the whole game and it wasn't just because we were leading.

Cleary the overall pass rush results and correponding sack numbers were a product of playing with a 3-4 TD lead.

The defense could pin their ears back and simply rush.

Lawrence certainly helped out to a limited degree but he was used in a limited capacity and was not playing full time as expected coming off injury.

They certainly played well but having a 3-4 TD lead makes all the difference in approach defensively.

 

[ConstantReboot]

Cleary the overall pass rush results and correponding sack numbers were a product of playing with a 3-4 TD lead.

The defense could pin their ears back and simply rush.

Lawrence certainly helped out to a limited degree but he was used in a limited capacity and was not playing full time as expected coming off injury.

They certainly played well but having a 3-4 TD lead makes all the difference in approach defensively.

Sorry to disagree. Watch the game from start to finish. The passrush was just as effective in the 1st half than in the 2nd half. Dalton was hurried quite a bit the whole game - not just after we had a 3-4 TD lead.

 

[Rogerthat12]

Sorry to disagree. Watch the game from start to finish. The passrush was just as effective in the 1st half than in the 2nd half. Dalton was hurried quite a bit the whole game - not just after we had a 3-4 TD lead.

We had the lead the entire game, I watched the entire game twice with all 22, Lawrence played a limited role but certainly helped the cause but was not the entire reason for the rushing success.

They were better than before I agree but the lead allowed them to pin their ears back and match their sack totals pretty much from the first 4 games.

We can simply disagree, teams with large leads always do this so this is not new.

 

[ConstantReboot]

We had the lead the entire game, I watched the entire game twice with all 22, Lawrence played a limited role but certainly helped the cause but was not the entire reason for the rushing success.

They were better than before I agree but the lead allowed them to pin their ears back and match their sack totals pretty much from the first 4 games.

We can simply disagree, teams with large leads always do this so this is not new.

Yes we can simply agree to disagree. You are right that they did just pin their ears back after we got that lead. But the passrush was effective the entire game and flustered the Dalton all game - even though it didn't rack up any sacks earlier on.

 

[Rogerthat12]

Yes we can simply agree to disagree. You are right that they did just pin their ears back after we got that lead. But the passrush was effective the entire game and flustered the Dalton all game - even though it didn't rack up any sacks earlier on.

The reason they did not is because it was early but as the lead was built they used 2 high and attacked the pocket.

Lawrence only played 17 snaps all game, registered zero on the stat sheet.

He was able to affect the QB while he was playing and definitely got some pressure but his 17 snaps were not the main reason why the defense had such a dominant day.

It certainly helped the cause but having such an explosive day on offense made the task easier but to their credit, they were balling better than any other game.

 

[Ren]

They have been terrible in all but 1 game

 

[jrumann59]

This D-Line hadn't really played a good game until Cincinnati. Maybe Lawrence coming back is going to mean getting pressure now. We can hope it continues. Up to this point the secondary has been bailing them out in a big way, and the line needs to be more stout against the run.

yes it helps when you now have guy that requires double teams frequently along with T Crawford or the 1T so the other guys need to beat their man 1 on 1.

 

[haleyrules]

This defense will bring the club down in the end. It's had one good game so far. Not good enough to win when it counts.