Nors;1713051 said:
I thought it was all about hitting Brady and forcing him to mistakes. We did it early but as game wore on the more we went after Brady the more he burned us with quick releases. We were not getting to him.....
Key may be to flat out send 3-4 max and flood zones on him. Of course mix it up but if you can't get there blitzing sit back and make it difficult. He hot read us to death and put up a 50 spot.....
Didn't you hear ? Wade's gameplan was to stop Sammy Morris and force Brady to pass.
"Phillips acknowledged at his Monday news conference that the Cowboys' approach was to stop Sammy Morris and make Tom Brady beat them.
Let me repeat that.
The Cowboys' approach was to stop Sammy Morris and make Tom Brady beat them.
"You've got to stop the run," Phillips said. "You want to make them pass it, and then you've got to get turnovers and get pressure.
"We ran into a similar deal last year with Brady."
Yes, they did. A year ago, Phillips was defensive coordinator of the best team in football, at least by regular-season accounts. You couldn't tell it from the playoffs, because the San Diego Chargers got beat at home in the first round by the Patriots.
With better talent than the Cowboys, the Chargers intercepted Brady three times. But they let him throw for 280 yards and two touchdowns, and that was when his go-to receivers were Reche Caldwell and Jabar Gaffney.
Now he's got Randy Moss, Donté Stallworth and Wes Welker, and he's on pace to obliterate Peyton Manning's season touchdown record and all kinds of yardage records. And Phillips wanted to stop Sammy Morris?
In other words, he's walking Julio Lugo and Coco Crisp to get to Big Papi and Manny.
He's daring middleweight Kelly Pavlik to outslug him.
He's double-teaming Smush Parker and saying, "Go ahead. Try to beat me with Kobe."
I gave Phillips a chance to say he would approach it differently if the teams were to meet again, which, obviously, would have to be in Glendale, Ariz., for the Super Bowl.
He said no.
"I think you've got to [stop the run first] to win. I think you've got to force them into passing situations and go after them," he said.
Wow.
This is kind of disturbing for Cowboys fans.
I think this team can still do impressive things, such as finally win a playoff game. I think it's capable of getting to a Super Bowl, although that's a long, long way from being a sure thing.
And I think Phillips was the right hire for Jerry Jones to make. This defense is more creative than the one Bill Parcells kept under wraps last season.
But the great coaches are the ones who are willing to adapt their philosophy.
The great coaches do what Bill Belichick did as the Giants' defensive coordinator in 1990.
He felt like in order to slow down Buffalo's no-huddle spread offense (not that much different from what the Patriots do now), he needed to let Thurman Thomas run to keep Jim Kelly from killing them with the pass.
As the late David Halberstam wrote in The Education of a Coach, stopping the run was what Giants football was all about.
Now [Belichick] was saying he wanted to change that for the Super Bowl. "You guys have to believe me," he kept saying. "If Thomas runs for a hundred yards, we win this game."
