Had this thought about our D

[sjmike]

The bend but don't break defense is fine when you have an offense that puts up 30+ points a game. You can't play like that defensively and win if you have a weak offense. Having said that, I still think this defense gets much better as the year goes on

 

[Floatyworm]

Yes, the defense is trying to make the opposing offense dink and dunk all the way down the field in hopes they eventually shoot themselves in the foot. Its kind of irritating but its effective against bad teams. End result is going to be a lot of yards but not a lot of points. In our flag happy NFL, teams invariably are going to kill their own drive with a holding call.

Here is the controversial part: Pre-2019 Dak was a dink and dunk passer. Effectively he is what the Cowboys defense want to turn opposing QB's into. It kind of validates the complaints about pre-2019 Dak. Or maybe Linehan. Either way, its kind of odd that Garrett had a defensive coordinator who's entire philosophy was based around making teams look like his offense because its a good way to keep points off the board and he didn't seem to notice.

Good teams don't dink and dunk...which makes our philosophy outdated.

 

[CouchCoach]

This is Marinelli's BDBD but was without much pressure in the first two games and the secondary is turnover challenged. The only difference in this team from last season is the offense and they'd better hope that stays healthy and holds up because they're going to need to keep scoring points.

This team can do fine with this D until it gets to the playoffs and that's when it has failed them in the past. Play it safe, limit the big plays and continue to run the offense as they have and they should be fine.

This week is a little different because NO has the best RB/WR tandem in the league and they haven't had anything like this yet and NO's backup QB is better than the 3 QB1's they've faced.

If they're to win this game, this is where the turnover drought must end.

 

[charron]

I have watched the D these last 3 weeks, and I have been frustrated by a lack of splash negative plays. At the same time, it has been maddening to watch how the short passing game, particularly to the RBs always seems to be open.

Then it hit me. And it's obvious. This is what the D is trying to do. Avoid the big play. Keep everything in front of you. Run and tackle.

They don't care about yards-- they care about points. And so this defense may not be the sexy, play making unit we want-- BUT, they are achieving their goal of limiting points. They have given up too many chunk plays and a couple of garbage scores-- but IMO-- the dominant philosophy in play comes back to gap discipline, stop the run, bend but don't break, and tackle well.

For all the preaching they do on the importance of turnovers-- this team seems allergic to them. Been that way for years. However-- this formula is not "broken" and this D does not "suck". They seem content to get nickeled and dimed down the field-- but in the end-- if they lead the league in scoring defense-- is that not the most important goal?

Don't get me wrong-- I want more splash plays-- but maybe those short passes are open because they are taking away everything else and hoping that most QBs will get impatient and make a mistake or that they will be able to force a mistake over a long drive vs giving up quick scores.

That is exactly what they want to do. Marinelli, Richards, and many teams across the league. The more plays an offense needs to march down the field the greater the chance of stopping them, making a mistake, turnover, offensive penalty etc. Coaches want a 3 and out but if they don't get that the offense hasn't gone too far downfield so we get more chances to stop them.

 

[Jack Burton]

Good teams are gonna bend us and break us over. The defense needs to get off its heels and start making more plays. Turnovers, sacks, etc. Letting someone march down the field on you, hoping they self destruct, will not get it done against playoff caliber teams.

 

[doomsday9084]

Good teams don't dink and dunk...which makes our philosophy outdated.

Agreed. However, its an uncomfortable truth that the reverse of that is Marinelli's system isn't as dumb as it looks. By forcing teams to dink and dunk, you are giving them lots of chances to make a mistake and when they do, they punt. That has happened many times so far this year.

 

[Oz-of-Cowboy-Country]

I have watched the D these last 3 weeks, and I have been frustrated by a lack of splash negative plays. At the same time, it has been maddening to watch how the short passing game, particularly to the RBs always seems to be open.

Then it hit me. And it's obvious. This is what the D is trying to do. Avoid the big play. Keep everything in front of you. Run and tackle.

They don't care about yards-- they care about points. And so this defense may not be the sexy, play making unit we want-- BUT, they are achieving their goal of limiting points. They have given up too many chunk plays and a couple of garbage scores-- but IMO-- the dominant philosophy in play comes back to gap discipline, stop the run, bend but don't break, and tackle well.

For all the preaching they do on the importance of turnovers-- this team seems allergic to them. Been that way for years. However-- this formula is not "broken" and this D does not "suck". They seem content to get nickeled and dimed down the field-- but in the end-- if they lead the league in scoring defense-- is that not the most important goal?

Don't get me wrong-- I want more splash plays-- but maybe those short passes are open because they are taking away everything else and hoping that most QBs will get impatient and make a mistake or that they will be able to force a mistake over a long drive vs giving up quick scores.

We've been running this defense for half a decade and you're just getting it? Really? Okay! How'd you miss the 20 plus threads about our BBDB defense prior to today?

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

I have watched the D these last 3 weeks, and I have been frustrated by a lack of splash negative plays. At the same time, it has been maddening to watch how the short passing game, particularly to the RBs always seems to be open.

Then it hit me. And it's obvious. This is what the D is trying to do. Avoid the big play. Keep everything in front of you. Run and tackle.

They don't care about yards-- they care about points. And so this defense may not be the sexy, play making unit we want-- BUT, they are achieving their goal of limiting points. They have given up too many chunk plays and a couple of garbage scores-- but IMO-- the dominant philosophy in play comes back to gap discipline, stop the run, bend but don't break, and tackle well.

For all the preaching they do on the importance of turnovers-- this team seems allergic to them. Been that way for years. However-- this formula is not "broken" and this D does not "suck". They seem content to get nickeled and dimed down the field-- but in the end-- if they lead the league in scoring defense-- is that not the most important goal?

Don't get me wrong-- I want more splash plays-- but maybe those short passes are open because they are taking away everything else and hoping that most QBs will get impatient and make a mistake or that they will be able to force a mistake over a long drive vs giving up quick scores.

its called a bend but don't break. they are also much tougher in the redzone….

 

[Hawkeye19]

We've been running this defense for half a decade and you're just getting it? Really? Okay! How'd you miss the 20 plus threads about our BBDB defense prior to today?

Comes down to expectations... last year, many more splash negative plays. This year, expectations were even higher, so I expected to see more negative plays.

Always understood the BBDB philosophy— but this unit seemed more aggressive and dominant under Richard (barring the Colts and Rams games)

 

[xwalker]

it's not the short RB dump offs that bother me - and thus far we are having success getting offenses off the field per 3rd down.
it's more the Awuzie deep balls big plays that's been happening in 2 of the 3 games, that is concerning me,

and that coverage and that position is made for Chidou to have to make that play - if he doesn't make it, the opposition will keep going at him because they know the success rate
and chance will be favoring them. he'll give up the big play pass.. or be called for PI. and I was stunned that Gruden and the Skins did not even try to go at him- which all the more
makes me think he's such on borrowed time last days as a HC. But Awuzie continues to have issues not getting his head turned and in position to defend the deep play.

it's " allergic' because there's too much of a lack of ball hawk players, especially at the starting CB roles. their mentality and lack of ball skills will not ever suggest that they will
seek out the ball coming at them, They are fully content to knock the throw pass down than jump at it for the INT.
when we saw Bears plummeted the Skins, we saw DBs jumping routes, tipped balls, and into the passing lanes for multiple INTs - we don't have enough players doing that.

Even Jeff Heath hasn't been the INT machine he used to be two years ago as a nickel DB. Xavier who had 3 INTs last year may provide that the more comfortable
he becomes in his 2nd year as a starter. He's already forced a fumble (vs Barkley) that we could not recover in time - and he almost had the bobbled INT vs Skins.
it's something about Xavier that makes me think he's going to be eventual be a turnover creator. I think LVE will be in that book too.

but what I think is hurting us when it comes to turnovers, as a lack of disruption and pas rush upfront as well as a lacking number of ball hawks in the back seven, imo.

Against good teams they won't have Awuzie in that exact coverage without some modifications to how they ran it. For starters if they'll likely blitz or do something to make it harder on the QB with Awuzie completely isolated on the "boundary" side of the field (side with only 1 receiver) with that being the right hand side for a right hand QB.

I think they were testing some things out against Miami that they would not do in tightly contested games without some fine tuning of the details. They did multiple things on defense that they don't normally do with regards to many of the specific details of the coverage(s).

 

[Oz-of-Cowboy-Country]

Comes down to expectations... last year, many more splash negative plays. This year, expectations were even higher, so I expected to see more negative plays.

Always understood the BBDB philosophy— but this unit seemed more aggressive and dominant under Richard (barring the Colts and Rams games)

Oh I see what you're saying. We done a lot more stunts last year aka we were more aggressive. Which lead to negative plays. This year we are not seeing the negative plays but the defense still works.

 

[Cap12]

I have watched the D these last 3 weeks, and I have been frustrated by a lack of splash negative plays. At the same time, it has been maddening to watch how the short passing game, particularly to the RBs always seems to be open.

Then it hit me. And it's obvious. This is what the D is trying to do. Avoid the big play. Keep everything in front of you. Run and tackle.

They don't care about yards-- they care about points. And so this defense may not be the sexy, play making unit we want-- BUT, they are achieving their goal of limiting points. They have given up too many chunk plays and a couple of garbage scores-- but IMO-- the dominant philosophy in play comes back to gap discipline, stop the run, bend but don't break, and tackle well.

For all the preaching they do on the importance of turnovers-- this team seems allergic to them. Been that way for years. However-- this formula is not "broken" and this D does not "suck". They seem content to get nickeled and dimed down the field-- but in the end-- if they lead the league in scoring defense-- is that not the most important goal?

Don't get me wrong-- I want more splash plays-- but maybe those short passes are open because they are taking away everything else and hoping that most QBs will get impatient and make a mistake or that they will be able to force a mistake over a long drive vs giving up quick scores.

This team's bread and butter on D over the last few years was to rally to the football and tackle. That is nothing new. As long as backers and DBs take good angles, you can limit big plays.

 

[AlienBoy]

 

[Maxmadden]

Good teams don't dink and dunk...which makes our philosophy outdated.

The Saints dinked and dunked Seattle to death and came away with a W.
Granted Seattle didn't tackle worth a crap.

 

[Buttermaker]

Was painful to watch this defensive philosophy in the two playoff losses to Green bay.

 

[WarDaddy]

I have watched the D these last 3 weeks, and I have been frustrated by a lack of splash negative plays. At the same time, it has been maddening to watch how the short passing game, particularly to the RBs always seems to be open.

Then it hit me. And it's obvious. This is what the D is trying to do. Avoid the big play. Keep everything in front of you. Run and tackle.

They don't care about yards-- they care about points. And so this defense may not be the sexy, play making unit we want-- BUT, they are achieving their goal of limiting points. They have given up too many chunk plays and a couple of garbage scores-- but IMO-- the dominant philosophy in play comes back to gap discipline, stop the run, bend but don't break, and tackle well.

For all the preaching they do on the importance of turnovers-- this team seems allergic to them. Been that way for years. However-- this formula is not "broken" and this D does not "suck". They seem content to get nickeled and dimed down the field-- but in the end-- if they lead the league in scoring defense-- is that not the most important goal?

Don't get me wrong-- I want more splash plays-- but maybe those short passes are open because they are taking away everything else and hoping that most QBs will get impatient and make a mistake or that they will be able to force a mistake over a long drive vs giving up quick scores.

Agree with all of this.

I think the turnovers this year will come from tipped pass ints and forced fumbles.

If we had more instinctive play from our free safety, maybe he could jump some routes and make QBs try to fit passes into places they shouldn’t and the corners could get some picks as a result. I don’t see that happening until Wilson gets some PT. Whatever ball hawking skills Woods had back in college have been beaten out of him in Dallas.

Defense is solid though. Sacks hopefully will come in bunches when Lawrence is fully back and Gregory gets to come home. We will need Woods and Collins to stay healthy.

 

[DuncanIso]

Marinelli has been playing this scheme since 2014.

Bend But Dont Break defense.

Give up a lot of yards...but dont give up a lot of points.

 

[jrumann59]

They definitely played their best half of football in the 2nd half vs Miami... hopefully D Law is getting healthier and Quinn is a nice addition as a pass rusher and looked great considering it was his first game after an injury and suspension on a new team.

Anyway-- huge test on Sun night. Would love to see them smother Kamara and Thomas again. Last year-- the coverage was so sticky and our defenders were all over the field and in the hip pockets of whoever they were guarding.

I think with miami changing QBs late int he week the defense was more what can he do and they adjusted at half.

 

[Chuck 54]

The problem is teams like the Eagles who don’t want to throw it downfield anyway. They love the dink and dunk game, pass to the RB, pass to the TE, screen to the Wr.....you have to force Wentz to take shots.

 

[JBond]

Our defense has played very conservative because we had zero reason to show anything mildly creative. Why show anthing/everything against cupcakes? That would be incredibly stupid.

The stunts, twists and creative blitzes will be there when needed. We dominated bottom dwellers playing strait up. I tend to wait and not make too much of the very first game of the season, because they are always a crap shoot, especially within the division .