Mike Zimmer's coverage philosophy just isn't working for the 2024 Cowboys

[kskboys]

He was getting the job done. We were breaking records for turnovers, getting sacks, and the defense would go crazy some games with lights out performances. It just had trouble stopping the run.

Now, the defense just sucks, can't stop anything, and doesn't produce turnovers and sacks.

Quinn is 100 times better than Zimmer.

Neither.

 

[kskboys]

That's an interesting write-up.

I wonder if all the zones result from trying to protect Carson.

More like desperately trying to protect our horrific DT's. QB's are getting a clean pocket to step up into. Your D will never be good no matter how good everyone else is.

 

[kskboys]

He was getting the job done. We were breaking records for turnovers, getting sacks, and the defense would go crazy some games with lights out performances. It just had trouble stopping the run.

Now, the defense just sucks, can't stop anything, and doesn't produce turnovers and sacks.

Quinn is 100 times better than Zimmer.

Were you asleep or passed out for the GB debacle?

 

[Proof]

Real DTs where though lol? And why would we have hired Quinn when his defense was shockingly as bad as we see now?

the draft, free agency, where every team gets them. and quins defense was also fantastic. yes the gb fiasco was disgusting, but he also had no lb's. i'd have much rather had him here still.

 

[atlantacowboy]

The best coaches figure out who they have available to play and adapt. Zimmer is new and this defensive roster isn't his. There should be no rigid coverage philosophies. He just needs to adapt to the talent he has on the field.

 

[Ranching]

Great article on the Cowboys defense under Zim. It's pretty clear from watching the games he isn't the answer we hoped. Reading this, it's worse than it seems. Considering the upcoming schedule, it could be rough watching our team.

Mike Zimmer's coverage philosophy just isn't working for the 2024 Cowboys
k.d. drummond
Wed, Oct 2, 2024

It's always tough to make a one-to-one comparison between coaching staffs in the NFL. From year to year, so much changes about team personnel that it's sometimes tough to pinpoint what changed philosophically or what changed out of necessity.

Take the Dallas Cowboys for instance. Last year's starting cornerback tandem of Stephon Gilmore and Daron Bland have played zero snaps for the team in 2024. Can a change in the way the secondary schemes be tethered to a necessary change with Trevon Diggs return and a fifth-round rookie in Caelen Carson playing opposite him? Or is it more about Mike Zimmer implementing what has always been a much different philosophy when it comes to coverages than his predecessor Dan Quinn?

So far in 2024, there's been a major difference between the way the secondaries have been deployed. And while it was expected for their to be a learning curve for the secondary players as Zimmer's coverages are notoriously complicated, it's been a dramatic shift in results.

Are the changes working?

Things have gotten decidedly worse, but the question is are these issues due to other factors, or the philosophy? Everything about the Dallas defense is worse than it was a year ago, from their run stopping ability to their pass rush. So is the coverage calling a result of trying to compensate for what's happening in the front seven or a symptom of the same core issue?

Much more: https://sports.yahoo.com/mike-zimmers-coverage-philosophy-just-210008669.html

This may not do Al Harris any favors, unless they hand the reins to him.

 

[Rockport]

Great article on the Cowboys defense under Zim. It's pretty clear from watching the games he isn't the answer we hoped. Reading this, it's worse than it seems. Considering the upcoming schedule, it could be rough watching our team.

Mike Zimmer's coverage philosophy just isn't working for the 2024 Cowboys
k.d. drummond
Wed, Oct 2, 2024

It's always tough to make a one-to-one comparison between coaching staffs in the NFL. From year to year, so much changes about team personnel that it's sometimes tough to pinpoint what changed philosophically or what changed out of necessity.

Take the Dallas Cowboys for instance. Last year's starting cornerback tandem of Stephon Gilmore and Daron Bland have played zero snaps for the team in 2024. Can a change in the way the secondary schemes be tethered to a necessary change with Trevon Diggs return and a fifth-round rookie in Caelen Carson playing opposite him? Or is it more about Mike Zimmer implementing what has always been a much different philosophy when it comes to coverages than his predecessor Dan Quinn?

So far in 2024, there's been a major difference between the way the secondaries have been deployed. And while it was expected for their to be a learning curve for the secondary players as Zimmer's coverages are notoriously complicated, it's been a dramatic shift in results.

Are the changes working?

Things have gotten decidedly worse, but the question is are these issues due to other factors, or the philosophy? Everything about the Dallas defense is worse than it was a year ago, from their run stopping ability to their pass rush. So is the coverage calling a result of trying to compensate for what's happening in the front seven or a symptom of the same core issue?

Much more: https://sports.yahoo.com/mike-zimmers-coverage-philosophy-just-210008669.html

The Cowboys are 26th in defense. Some of the worst defensive performances ever seen have occurred this year.

 

[RonnieT24]

It didn't work when he was DC here 20 years ago either. That's why it was so "brilliant" for Jerry to rehire that failed dinosaur for a rerun of horrible defense.

Also, Quinn was without Diggs for most of last year, and yet Bland went crazy picking passes off, so lacking Bland isn't a good excuse for Zimmer.

Ummm wasn't Zimmer the DC when the Cowboys had the #1 defense in the league in 2003? If that aint "working" then I don't know what is. Obviously this defense is undergoing some growing pains. So far they have been borderline stellar in two games and absolute horse bleep in two others. If I recall correctly they started out much the same way last season and came out of it. But they still got run over for teams that would commit to running the ball.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

the draft, free agency, where every team gets them. and quins defense was also fantastic. yes the gb fiasco was disgusting, but he also had no lb's. i'd have much rather had him here still.

You’re speaking from emotion. You’d rather have him because his defense was pretty and put up gawdy stats. And I like Quinn but that GB game wasn’t about linebackers. Receivers running wide open and no pass rush is bigger than that.

The only good DT I saw was Wilkins who got 100 million. Tm

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

This may not do Al Harris any favors, unless they hand the reins to him.

Al Harris is just here until it’s time to go to Commanders. I doubt he wants to be here. All these coaches are here on borrowed time.

 

[Proof]

You’re speaking from emotion. You’d rather have him because his defense was pretty and put up gawdy stats. And I like Quinn but that GB game wasn’t about linebackers. Receivers running wide open and no pass rush is bigger than that.

The only good DT I saw was Wilkins who got 100 million. Tm

please don't project for me. i'm not speaking from emotion. i preferred quinn. it's not about "pretty" anything. and yeah it was specifically about linebackers as quoted directly from jordan love.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

please don't project for me. i'm not speaking from emotion. i preferred quinn. it's not about "pretty" anything. and yeah it was specifically about linebackers as quoted directly from jordan love.

preferring Quinn is fine. Thinking our issue this season is because we didn’t fire Mike and make Quinn head coach? I don’t get it. To me GB showed neither was the answer and we need to follow what the rest of the league has already figure out. Get away from these archaic and antiquated coaches….Quinn didn’t have linebackers because he chose to play Bell at linebacker and has always played safeties at linebacker.

 

[KJJ]

Doesn’t appear anything Mike Zimmer is doing is working. We had a top 5 defense last season and now we’re 26th.

 

[beware_d-ware]

This is what happens when you get a lame duck coordinator. He's not able to bring in his own talent, and his motivation to tailor his bread-and-butter to his scheme is limited when he knows he'll be fired in January either way.

Same reason why we look so flat on offense with McCarthy. He's just out there running Madden Easy Mode plays like Hank and Lion with no PA and no motion, because why care? Great offense doesn't need to be complicated to be effective, but the play calling we have now is Garrett-esque.

 

[RonnieT24]

Doesn’t appear anything Mike Zimmer is doing is working. We had a top 5 defense last season and now we’re 26th.

Maybe not but if we'd played the same teams (teams that committed to the run) early last season I would wager we would have been ranked about 26th as well. I mean move the 49er game up a couple of weeks and juxtapose it to the AZ game and the numbers would have been eerily similar would they not? The biggest take away for me is that this defense has bowed up and refused to allow the opponent to cross the goal line for almost 6 quarters. Only time will tell if they have turned a corner or it's just an anomaly but the last time we saw Dan Quinn's defense it didn't look nearly as good as the last time we saw Zimmer's.

Just sayin..

 

[RonnieT24]

With all this pining for Dan Quinn I was moved to take a peek at where Washington's defense sits right about now. They are currently 21st in total yards surrendered, one behind the Cowboys who sit at #20. Here's the fun part.. they have given up TEN touchdown passes and have ZERO INTs.. Compared to the Cowboys who have given up 4 TD passes and have 4 picks. This falls firmly in "be careful what you wish for" territory because as bad as we think Zimmer's scheme looks, Washington's has been orders of magnitude worse.

 

[VaqueroTD]

Not so sure it’s scheme as much as it is size and talent. All these injuries don’t help either. Not much depth on defense. Lost our best pass rush depth — all 3 of them! —, best corner last year is out and only fooling ourselves if we don’t think it will take time for Diggs to fully recover, they still haven’t found any answer at DT which is a fatal flaw in any scheme, and our best defender is an undersized DE that would be much better playing in a 3-4. They’re just continuing to stink it up where DQ left off. Jones Boys didn’t think it was a problem and made no effort to improve it other than a few cheap aging free agents.

 

[Proof]

preferring Quinn is fine. Thinking our issue this season is because we didn’t fire Mike and make Quinn head coach? I don’t get it. To me GB showed neither was the answer and we need to follow what the rest of the league has already figure out. Get away from these archaic and antiquated coaches….Quinn didn’t have linebackers because he chose to play Bell at linebacker and has always played safeties at linebacker.

I didn't say that was the issue, just said i like quinn and hated losing him. he chose to play bell at linebacker because lve retired, overshown was out for the year, and damone clark sucked. it's no coincidence that as soon as he got to Wash he signed wagner and luvu.

 

[noshame]

McCarthy should have been fired, but Quinn wasn’t getting the job done, either. No more retreads.

Well, I can pretty much guarantee you. Quinn will get the job done when we play them this year.

 

[KJJ]

Maybe not but if we'd played the same teams (teams that committed to the run) early last season I would wager we would have been ranked about 26th as well. I mean move the 49er game up a couple of weeks and juxtapose it to the AZ game and the numbers would have been eerily similar would they not? The biggest take away for me is that this defense has bowed up and refused to allow the opponent to cross the goal line for almost 6 quarters. Only time will tell if they have turned a corner or it's just an anomaly but the last time we saw Dan Quinn's defense it didn't look nearly as good as the last time we saw Zimmer's.

Just sayin..

I would wager we wouldn’t be ranked 26th in total defense last season because we had a much better team last season. Our defense was ranked 5th last season. We also ranked 5th in total offense last season and are currently ranked 13th. We had experienced players on the OL and although we didn’t run the ball great last season we ran it better than we have this season. Pollard was better than any of the backs we currently have. We clearly got worse at RB. Last season we ranked 13th against the run and this season we’re currently 27th.

We’re worse against the run this season and our pass rush hasn’t been very good. This isn’t close to the same team we had last season. The beat down we suffered to New Orleans is looking a lot worse now. The only teams they’ve beaten are Carolina with Bryce Young and us. The Cowboys will be lucky to win 8-9 games. This is one of the worst teams we’ve had in a while and it’s going to take everything we have just to go 1-2 in our next three games with Parsons and DLaw out.