I would love for the OP to be right, but given everything that's happened, I think he's wrong. It's going to take some kind of miracle for this D to improve.
There is another factor people are overlooking that will make our defense better this year and it isn't even on the defense. We are going to have a very good O Line that is capable of controlling the clock in a lot of games. That's a huge factor and it was made much worst last year when we not only couldn't control the clock but had to rotate in street FA's at DL in an overworked defense.
That's a good point. Smart ball control, keeping your D off the field, can help rest a D and allow it to be at its highest level of effectiveness. However, that's
IF this coaching staff actually does that. I was screaming at the TV last season in the Green Bay game for them to do that, but they had the brains of someone smoking crack and playing Madden. I have no doubt that our best previous coaches would have used ball control better in that game and others -- Landry, Johnson, and Parcells all understood how that works. Will Garrett (now with Linehan) do that now? I certainly hope so, but this year I'm not screaming myself hoarse if they don't. Unfortunately, from this coaching staff I've come to expect stupidity.
So they'll be 31 instead of 32?
I thought of that. I guess that's actually possible that we could have such a marginal improvement or we'll be at 31 simply by virtue of someone else sucking worse than we do.
I don't know of any.
You can basically flush any evaluation that says things are looking up.
We had the worst defense in team history and then lost all the best players from it. The people spinning it positive now will be here one year from now talking about how much better that defense is than this year's garbage. They'll be able to admit it then, but not now.
Unfortunately, you're probably right. There is a remote chance this D can end up way better than expected. A lot of unlikely things would need to happen. See my section titled: Grasping at straws.
I'd start by saying I don't think people expect McClain to be a superstar in the making. They hope and expect he'll be better than Hayden was last year, based off of OTAs and, largely, because xwalker took the time to look at some tape and thinks he looks promising and has done a nice job of saying so in many of the DL threads.
Other than that, I'd say the phrase 'better than expected' doesn't exactly set the bar too high, given expectations. Be careful not to fall into the trap where--because people characterize a player or position group so often as *not* being superstar or Super Bowl ready--you conclude that people *are* actually saying that. Otherwise, you end up in the Ben-Bass trap like we saw earlier in the week where people were trying to snarkily link to opinions that never actually existed and then had to pretend they were just to busy to find their support, after all.
This defense is going to be bad. It's been bad for years. We didn't do enough to improve it. The only real question is how bad. In the case of this thread, the OP thinks it won't be as bad as advertised. But note just how far out on the limb he was wiling to go:
"It will be a struggle without Scandrick for 4 games, but after that I think they can be a decent defense if no more big injuries occur."
In other words....'can be a decent defense with everybody back and no more big injuries' = not very far out on that limb.
I guess "not as bad as advertised" could mean better than 32nd in the league. Then 31st or 30th could make the OP actually right. Naturally, as Cowboy fans most of us are hoping that that the D can be good enough to give this team a shot at the playoffs. That's middle of the road. If this D is average -- around 18th, 17th, 16th -- then maybe we've got a playoff-bound team, not a championship caliber one, just a playoff team.
ATTENTION:
Grasping at straws follows.
Under these conditions, this D can be decent or maybe even good.
1. Our draft ends up being a bonanza like the 1975 one.
2. Jerry pulls off a genius haul from waivers, players that their camp teams either overlooked or that just had too much talent at that position.
3. Lawrence is amazing when he comes back, despite missing camp.
4. The D line / linebackers we have are way more talented than it looks in preaseason and they gel later and kick serious butt.
That's my grasping at straws list. Feel free to add to it. I feel bummed about having to grasp at straws year after year. I would be delighted if this team surprised me. What I actually suspect will happen is a top 5 draft pick, which I hope the team uses wisely.
