Jimmy Johnson built his defense on being physical

[Havic]

Football in the 90s was still a team sport imo. Today’s league is all about brand.

 

[eromeopolk]

If anyone listening to Mike Fisher, he often states that the Cowboys loses to Kyle Shanahan type coaches. Coaches that line up and punch you in the mouth by run the ball down your throat and will stop you from running, making you one dimensional.

If you go back to the Jimmy Johnson halftime speech where he gets pissed off, if you were a Cowboy fan during this time frame, Jimmy built his defense on being physical..... on both sides of the ball. And to this day, I do not understand why Jerry Jones hasn't learned from this template ESPECIALLY since he has not won squat for 28 years. Only think that explains this is PRIDE.

Jerry wants war daddies to excite the crowd with sacks and turnovers. Both are necessary but more importantly, be physical which Dallas is built on finesse. On both sides of the ball. Until this franchise changes the culture, the drought will continue and season after season, Cowboys fans will be left scratching their heads in frustration while Jerry keeps selling FOOLS GOLD of hope each season.

Jimmy built his defense on speed, attack, swarm, penetrate, zone secondary, and more speed.


Buddy Ryan's Philly teams and the late 80's and early 90's NFC East made them physical.

 

[TheDuke]

Revisionist history. He built it on speed first and foremost.

 

[TNCowboy]

The implication was there.

Johnson's priority on defense was speed.

"Physical" is a nebulous term that can't be measured. Every team tries to be/build a physical roster. Johnson didn't set out to build a physical defense. He set out to build a fast defense.

No it wasn't. You imagined it. Randy White, Ray Lewis, JJ Watt, Cliff Harris, Ronnie Lott, Troy Polamalu, NFL history is full of players who were known for being physical but weren't big with respect to other NFL players at their positions.

Jimmy's defense wasn't full of speed. Other than Haley, none of his DL was particularly fast or quick for their position. They played fast because they were smart and they were physical. Casillas and Maryland weren't particularly quick. Lett was quick and fast for a giant. Kevin Smith and Larry Brown weren't blazers, neither were guys like James Washington. Jimmy talked about speed, but the reality is most of his best players weren't that fast by nfl standards. They were physical and knew how to play football. Same with the offense. No key player on the Cowboys offense was fast for his position, apart from Harper.

 

[TNCowboy]

Revisionist history. He built it on speed first and foremost.

No, this is revisionist history. Jimmy might have wanted to do that, but the facts are there were very few players on his defenses who had above average NFL speed. They were smart, tough, and well-coached.