Is it Seattle's defensive system or the players

[buddieluver]

Mike McDonald is a great coach who has a certainty in player selection to fit his defensive scheme. Seattle got way more out of Dlaw than they ever could have hoped and he became a force multiplier to an already deep and talented defensive line. But what really separates them from the pack is their secondary. Witherspoon might be their best player. He does it all and they don't put guys out there who aren't willing to tackle. There are no personnel weaknesses or lack of talent on defense (no jags) and the scheme is flexible and adaptable. Against the Patriots, they showed alignments they hadn't used in months and that the Patriots were obviously not expecting.

Lawrence 53 total tackles, 6 sacks, and 3 forced fumbles over 16 games

 

[kskboys]

You have to try something. You've got the worst defense in the league and you are going to keep doing the same thing? I'd rather get eaten alive if that's the case bringing all-out pressure than just sitting back and getting picked apart.

I'm not saying Eberflus would have succeeded if he changed up what he was doing. Maybe it would have even been worse (although I don't see how). I just think better coaches would have actually schemed up pressure instead of Jerry saying Eberflus said he could do that when they traded Parsons.

I think we saw an improvement in play when we used the five-man front, so we had some evidence that the defense could play better with some changes. However, Eberflus was very limited in his use of it. This is what I mean by maximizing what you've got. I think there are ways he could have maximized the talent on hand that he refused to do.

Quinn had our D at #5. W/ Wash last season he was last in the NFL. Why did he do something here but couldn't do anything there?

BTW, we were 30th, not last. Not that it matters, we truly sucked.

No, the improvement came when we added Q, a major talent.

 

[kskboys]

Seattle has a real GM, who allows everyone below him to do their job, which gives him more time to do his job. The Cowboys have a meddling owner who has anointed himself as a football god, who thinks his football mind walks on water!

And a pile of talent!!!

 

[gimmesix]

Quinn had our D at #5. W/ Wash last season he was last in the NFL. Why did he do something here but couldn't do anything there?

BTW, we were 30th, not last. Not that it matters, we truly sucked.

No, the improvement came when we added Q, a major talent.

I'm not disagreeing with you. I think talent is the No. 1 thing, and there are plenty of coaches who agree with that. Parcells famously lamented about not being allowed to buy the groceries.

Second, it takes a coach to put that talent in the right situations to succeed. Eberflus did not do that last year. Now, he was stuck in a tough situation because of the lack of talent, but he wilted under the challenge instead of rising to it as much as possible.

 

[Cowboys5217]

Watching Seattle play defense was night and day compared to Dallas. Seattle blitzed, change coverage, and played aggressive. It was the complete opposite of how Dallas played defense. So, I'm wondering is it the players that made Seattle's defense so good or was it the system. Its probably a combination, but how much of an improvement can Dallas make on defense this year with the right coach?

If Eberturd was the Seattle's coordinator with the same players, how good would Seattle's defense be? And if McDonald was Dallas coordinator with Dallas players, how good would their defense have been?

The biggest advantage the Seahawks had was NOT having Jerry Jones as their GM. Every team, even the Cleveland Browns, has an advantage over the Cowboys for this reason alone. Even Cleveland might hire a good GM down the road who finally builds a team that can contend for them even if for just one season. That's not going to happen for the Cowboys.

 

[atlantacowboy]

Lawrence 53 total tackles, 6 sacks, and 3 forced fumbles over 16 games

I see you are stat fan bc that tells the whole story. lol

He was selected to the NFC pro bowl team along with Micah and Aiden Hutchinson. He had a great year.

 

[Wildcat711]

As a side-note..

Brady got in the chit saying he didn't have a horse in the race eh.. pissed off a lot of Pat fans.

Maybe he was saying it to keep Raiders fans happy..

As much as Troy tries to be neutral I can't imagine him saying it.

 

[LysleE]

A good defense requires two components: good players and good coaching. I don’t think you can have one at the expense of the other. For instance, I don’t think Eberflus all of a sudden lost his ability to coordinate a defense, as he was a successful DC with the Colts, but he just didn’t have the talent in Dallas. I think the less talent there is the more important coaching becomes. I would wager that the Seattle defense would lose little with a different playcaller given their talent.

 

[raggedy]

I just read through 4 pages and I'm surprised nobody mentions CULTURE. Well one poster mentioned our guys just want to get paid, so that goes to culture.

no matter who Jerry brings in, the problem is that they will eventually become soft. I certainly home I'm wrong, but 30 years of history shows us that all Cowboy players get soft; the players seem to be content to be a Dallas Cowboy media star and money/fame takes the dog out of the player. Even with Q, while we had a highly ranked defense thanks to the turnover rate, did we ever see players fly to the ball and hit/tackle the way the Seahawk players just demonstrated? No.

It's a culture problem to go with the lack of talent and bad coaching.

I'm resigned to not seeing another SB in my lifetime because even when Jerruh kicks the bucket, nepo baby takes over and he's just as bad if not worse.

 

[kskboys]

I'm not disagreeing with you. I think talent is the No. 1 thing, and there are plenty of coaches who agree with that. Parcells famously lamented about not being allowed to buy the groceries.

Second, it takes a coach to put that talent in the right situations to succeed. Eberflus did not do that last year. Now, he was stuck in a tough situation because of the lack of talent, but he wilted under the challenge instead of rising to it as much as possible.

We agree mostly, aside from the fact that he didn't have enough talent to put it in the right place.

 

[conner01]

It's just that if you can't cover, then you are going to get burned when you blitz or when you rush four. I would have preferred that Eberflus sold out with the blitz when it became clear that rushing four was not going to work. Instead, he tried to zone away the coverage problem because he believes in the zone scheme.

To me, this was the biggest failure with him. It wasn't that we were going to suddenly turn into a great defense if he blitzed and designed/disguised them well. But it was clear that we didn't have the personnel for great man or zone coverage, so the only real choice was to try to bring pressure. What we would have likely have seen were some really big plays by offenses, but we saw those anyway.

Eberflus would have fared better than he did here with what he likes to do with the personnel he would have had in Seattle, but it's hard to say how much better. He's had top-10 defenses before when he had the personnel for them. But some coaches are much more dependent on personnel than others.

Eberflus had to go because he did not show the ability to adapt to what he had. There have to be signs that if the team gives you the talent, you can shine with it, and we saw no signs of that here.

So I guess that's the long way of me saying that I 100 percent agree that coaching puts the talent over the top. It maximizes what you've got. We didn't have much last year, but Eberflus also did not maximize it IMO.

E was just dumb. It’s all about adjusting. When something isn’t working you have to adjust. It was obvious zone was getting picked apart. So adjust. It’s not like you created risk of things being worse. It literally couldn’t have been any worse

 

[Rayman70]

IMO, it was more the system. It wasn’t working yet he NEVER ADJUSTED. Sure our guys weren’t as good as some other teams’ guys but he never tried being aggressive.

Once they got Sam Darnold everything changed. They found paydirt. They found a formula. Sam is extremely smart and a wonderful bus driver. Perfect for that system. They ask him to not Carry the team but to play loose. Be himself. Don't do too much. No hero ball. They had a great running attack, oline, defense and coaching. Most of all, they were healthy. In fact, both teams were. We saw the formula to get to and win a SB. Great defense, stay healthy, make the simple play when it's presented. Take away the ball when you get the opportunity. Limit self inflicted wounds like penalties. In other words, football is the same now, and was back in the day.

 

[kskboys]

E was just dumb. It’s all about adjusting. When something isn’t working you have to adjust. It was obvious zone was getting picked apart. So adjust. It’s not like you created risk of things being worse. It literally couldn’t have been any worse

Need players to adjust. We didn't have any.

 

[conner01]

Need players to adjust. We didn't have any.

We didn’t. But the adjustment would have been more aggressive blitzing. Your secondary is getting eaten up, you have nothing to lose. Force the QB to make quick decisions, maybe force a mistake. When something’s not working it’s time to try something else

 

[Diehardblues]

It is 100% both. W/o individual talent, you get the clusterfudge that was the DALL D. No matter the DC.

Yep, It all starts with talent. Coaching can optimize talent but without talent can only go so far.

 

[kskboys]

We didn’t. But the adjustment would have been more aggressive blitzing. Your secondary is getting eaten up, you have nothing to lose. Force the QB to make quick decisions, maybe force a mistake. When something’s not working it’s time to try something else

And as badly as we cover, it would've been worse.

There was no answer to making this horrific clusterfudge of players better. It's a fan thing to proclaim "We just need to blitz more". That's what fans say for every team's D, "JUST BLITZ MORE".

 

[Diehardblues]

Possibly, but no one has explained to me yet why Eber had a top 10 D 3 out of 4 years in INDY, then got here and suddenly forgot how to coach.

Yep

When we lost pass rush coupled with injuries in secondary and LB , it totally derailed the defense,

 

[conner01]

And as badly as we cover, it would've been worse.

There was no answer to making this horrific clusterfudge of players better. It's a fan thing to proclaim "We just need to blitz more". That's what fans say for every team's D, "JUST BLITZ MORE".

No doubt our talent was trash but it really couldn’t have been much worse

 

[kskboys]

Yep

When we lost pass rush coupled with injuries in secondary and LB , it totally derailed the defense,

There was nothing that could've been done w/o better players.

 

[kskboys]

No doubt our talent was trash but it really couldn’t have been much worse

True, and it also couldn't have been much better.

Don't forget, ol' Dan Quinn who led us to a top 5 D was suddenly the worst D in the league last season. Yes, worse than ours.

Are you claiming Quinn forgot how to coach in just a couple of years?