I love Demarcus Ware. If we don't make it to the Super Bowl, I'm going to root for him like nobody's business. With that being said, Demarcus, his lack of production, his salary, and his recent injury history simply had no place in Dallas anymore.
I still think back to when Bill Parcells was here and he said long ago that Ware didn't have the build to play effectively with his hand in the ground in a 4-3 defense. He couldn't take the down after down pounding that the elite LTs in the game were going to dish out play, after play, after play. Have any of you actually paid attention to how many snaps Ware plays in Denver? I've watched a good portion of their games (Broncos fan in the house) and he seems to be on the sidelines for as many snaps as he's in the game. Denver has sold out for Manning's last run. That's O.K.. I don't blame them but, there's no way Dallas could afford to pay a player what Demarcus Ware is making to play 50%-60% of the snaps. No freaking way. It's worked out so far for them. Ware seems fresh on the plays that he's in on and he's making an impact. In Dallas he would be an injury report stat every single week because they would play him and play him hard (as you should with a guy making that much money). He's also playing in the scheme he's meant to play in. As Stephen Jones said: Ware has as many sacks at this point of the year that he had last year. From that point forward he recorded zilch, zero, nada last year in Dallas. Now, I'm not going to claim that Ware is going to go 0fer for the rest of this season but it's worth watching to see what his production is from this point forward.
I would have loved to have had Ware back in Dallas this season. I think it's an absolute certainty that our sack numbers as a team would look a whole lot better. However, I do think that there's merit to the idea that the team is playing more as a unit due to the fact that they have no superstar in the group. I think it's created a bunker mentality that they all must go out and play as a collective unit rather than a defense with a couple of superstars. I think it forces ALL of them to take an ownership role in the defense itself and leadership role in implementing positive results. I don't think Rolando McLain would get in the face of a Demarcus ware or Jason Hatcher if they weren't handling their responsibilities. I have no doubt that he would do it to ANY player on this unit. Same for Scandrick, or Church, or Crawford. The "untouchables" factor is a non-factor and it shows. There's accountability across the board. Not to the coaches. Not to the fans. To each other. It's a world of difference. I think the "rue crew" is completely ignoring the fact that we fielded the worst defense in the entire, proud history with the likes of Demarcus Ware, Jason Hatcher, and Sean Lee (still love ya dude. can't wait to have you back) leading the charge. So far, the results are VASTLY different in their absence. That doesn't mean that the bottom isn't going to fall out. Injuries and a midseason funk could ground this group quickly but, so far, it's a better defense. There's no snarky comment in the world that's going to change that, at the time being.
