Maybe The Defense Is Better Without Law and Parsons?

[nalam]

I know it's a tiny sample size, but maybe the defense is better, or at least not worse, without the star book-ends.

Maybe they play with more discipline.

Maybe these other guys playing for their NFL lives have more hunger and fight in them.

And just maybe this defense is more coachable without the stars taking up too much mental space.

I know it's a crazy thought, and I know Fields left some "meat on the bone" yesterday (he missed a few throws to open receivers)...but the defense just looked more solid yesterday, with Overshown flying around and being more of the leader with Micah and D Law out. I like it. Let's see if they can play well next week too.

Next week (rather this week)they face a QB. Who had a perfect game and high powered offense

 

[DallasInDC]

for sure the Steelers offense is not good, but that doesnt take away from the fact the Dline played sound gap football, hopefully its something they can build on.

oh, no doubt...th d still had to show up and do what needed to be done. Winning in the NFL is never easy so I take it however we can get it. The D stepped up in the absence of two of its best players. and hopefully the experience will be stepping stones to improving throughout the year. But I am not willing to say after just this one game that this defense is better without DLaw and Parsons as the OP asked.

 

[cowboys1981]

Let's see how they do vs the Lions offense. They're filled with weapons and test our defense more than Pittsburgh did last night. Just hope we bring the same energy vs the Lions. A win would be huge going into the bye

 

[CowboyFrog]

Next week (rather this week)they face a QB. Who had a perfect game and high powered offense

This week will be super tough for them with the injuries going...but Zimm will have to figure out how to take some things away, you are not gonna stop that offense totally its to good.

 

[JayFord]

One thing I do like is this team stopped the run the past two games

I expected us to win 27-24 and I expected Harris to have 100 yards and fields have 70….

I just want them to continue that….

 

[CowboyFrog]

oh, no doubt...th d still had to show up and do what needed to be done. Winning in the NFL is never easy so I take it however we can get it. The D stepped up in the absence of two of its best players. and hopefully the experience will be stepping stones to improving throughout the year. But I am not willing to say after just this one game that this defense is better without DLaw and Parsons as the OP asked.

no the defense is not better without those 2

 

[baltcowboy]

I know it's a tiny sample size, but maybe the defense is better, or at least not worse, without the star book-ends.

Maybe they play with more discipline.

Maybe these other guys playing for their NFL lives have more hunger and fight in them.

And just maybe this defense is more coachable without the stars taking up too much mental space.

I know it's a crazy thought, and I know Fields left some "meat on the bone" yesterday (he missed a few throws to open receivers)...but the defense just looked more solid yesterday, with Overshown flying around and being more of the leader with Micah and D Law out. I like it. Let's see if they can play well next week too.

Over under Detroit puts 35 on the board next Sunday. You gonna wish we had 5 Parsons and 5 Tanks after the Lions had a bye and now can look at tape of the Cowboys without them.

 

[blueblood70]

They played against New York as well who looked good against Seattle

all three of our wins were on the road and all very similar.. so the Browns and NYG with Parsons and Tank were just as good..

lets see them play the raven type Offense before we make these ridiculous overreactions..

OP small sample size LOL

 

[Sydla]

Oh god, here we go.

 

[blueblood70]

no the defense is not better without those 2

100

all three of our wins were on the road and all very similar.. so the Browns and NYG with Parsons and Tank were just as good..

let's see them play the Ravens/Bills type Offense before we make these ridiculous overreactions. we will know against the Philly and Wash as they have the mobile qb and rb type O that kills us..

OP small sample size LOL answered their own questions.

 

[gimmesix]

They need to just put Micah at weakside edge and leave him alone. The idea that they need to move him around and "hide" him is dumb, because it's not like he is hard to find. You can dictate how the offense is going to block everything with Micah on the edge.

I don't mind blitzing him up the middle or whatever on obvious passing plays, but there's no point in being cute with him.

And maybe that will be what they do when he returns. We certainly seemed to play him there more against the Giants. Our pass defense suffered in that game primarily because we learned what we should have already known, that Booth sucks, but the defensive effort was good enough (and is distorted some because of Booth's play). If we can figure out how to use these players without Micah, then the defense should be able to take it up a notch when he returns ... unless Zimmer goes back to running his defense around Micah.

I thought putting him at SLB and then "blitzing" him would actually be good for his body and make him be more effective. While I still think not having him take on tackles one-on-one every play is better for his health, I'm not as sure about moving him around since the offense knows he's going to be rushing into the backfield 98 percent of the time. That takes away any surprise element.

 

[gtb1943]

I have NEVER thought Tank was all that unlike some here so his loss I really did not think would make a lot of difference

Parsons?

There should be no way a D does better without a player like that


AND YET if we do....,


TRADE HIM!

 

[thunderpimp91]

No chance. I would say there are probably better ways to use Parsons than Zimmer had done through four weeks, but the Cowboys are significantly better with these guys in the lineup. What we've seen the last couple weeks are some smaller scheme tweeks that seem to be leaning back into more traditional roles for the DL than how they started the season. Also not sure if Zimmer has made the reads easier for the backers or they are just doing a better job there, but the tape looks a lot cleaner and these guys seem more decisive on where they are going. Watching games back those first three weeks I really couldn't even tell you what the backers were doing in the run game.

 

[blueblood70]

I wouldn't go that far. This was a pretty bad offense we played last night. I don't think they will look *** good against the Lions next week. It reminds of the cooper Rush win streak a few years back. Then we won despite the QB play yet some believed it was because of.

how do you figure bad offense? yes, we they made mistakes with the turn overs but they DID NOT PUNT, had like 500yards of O against that D on the road, those TOS did not give the steelers short fields or easy points.. they were Time consuming long drives so the TOs were more like punts but let the D rest kept the steelers O off the field..

if you look at it from that perspective that was probably their best game, minus the TOS they curb stomped and walked that steelers D up and down the field on every drive every DRIVE, whatever your eyes thought you were ....you might want too go check it out again check the series stats see how many were 8, 9, and 2 15 play drives literally dictating and owning TOP, they so much helped that defense most of the game..

 

[gimmesix]

The run Defense is going to be better with parsons off the field, as it has been and the defense is going to be more stable since you don’t have one guy doing his own thing half the time.

The run defense held the Giants to 1.1 YPC with Micah on the field. I think too much is being blamed on him here. Other players like Mazi have stepped up some to help the run defense. The key to run defense in Zimmer's scheme is the linebackers. The DTs have to keep the offensive line off the linebackers or the scheme is going to fail. The linebackers have to read their keys and hit the right gap or the scheme is going to fail. We're learning a new scheme, so some hit and miss should have been expected early.

Zimmer essentially said that he was trying to mesh some of the things we were doing under Quinn with the things that Zimmer does. I don't think it was working the way that we hoped, which is probably why we saw Parsons line up more at end against the Giants.

 

[HungryLion]

I know it's a tiny sample size, but maybe the defense is better, or at least not worse, without the star book-ends.

Maybe they play with more discipline.

Maybe these other guys playing for their NFL lives have more hunger and fight in them.

And just maybe this defense is more coachable without the stars taking up too much mental space.

I know it's a crazy thought, and I know Fields left some "meat on the bone" yesterday (he missed a few throws to open receivers)...but the defense just looked more solid yesterday, with Overshown flying around and being more of the leader with Micah and D Law out. I like it. Let's see if they can play well next week too.

Maybe the Steelers offense and Justin Fields are garbage.

I honestly think the improvement in the defense has more to do with young players playing better around them. Mazi, Overshown, Liafau.

I also do give credit to the backups. They played hard last night. No question.

But let’s not throw away a couple of our best players based off one game without them.

 

[ChrisL97]

Really? I haven't seen any fans calling him a star.

The OP literally called him a star

 

[CowboyFrog]

No chance. I would say there are probably better ways to use Parsons than Zimmer had done through four weeks, but the Cowboys are significantly better with these guys in the lineup. What we've seen the last couple weeks are some smaller scheme tweeks that seem to be leaning back into more traditional roles for the DL than how they started the season. Also not sure if Zimmer has made the reads easier for the backers or they are just doing a better job there, but the tape looks a lot cleaner and these guys seem more decisive on where they are going. Watching games back those first three weeks I really couldn't even tell you what the backers were doing in the run game.

this 100% Micah is a weapon and Tank is a very good DE they need to scheme them better moving forward.

 

[TwoDeep3]

I know it's a tiny sample size, but maybe the defense is better, or at least not worse, without the star book-ends.

Maybe they play with more discipline.

Maybe these other guys playing for their NFL lives have more hunger and fight in them.

And just maybe this defense is more coachable without the stars taking up too much mental space.

I know it's a crazy thought, and I know Fields left some "meat on the bone" yesterday (he missed a few throws to open receivers)...but the defense just looked more solid yesterday, with Overshown flying around and being more of the leader with Micah and D Law out. I like it. Let's see if they can play well next week too.

Or, maybe they were playing against a QB that is a spare, and the Stealers couldn't mount a running game to save their butts.

 

[kskboys]

The OP literally called him a star

There's 1.