Premise: The Cowboys Defense Can't Be Any Worse

[Hardline]

There is no such thing as a brutal or soft schedule.
Any team can rise or fall in any given season.
The Cheifs went from suck to very good in one season.
The Texans went from very good to suck in one season.
You cannot look at a schedule and just say before the year who is going to be the tough teams or who will be weak teams

 

[nalam]

The most commonly heard thing this offseason has been how The Dallas Cowboys Defensive unit can't be any worse than it was last year. I wanted to take a real look at this to get an idea of how bad defensive teams have followed up terrible years. ...... Maybe some of the investments we've made in the secondary finally pay off, the DTs play at a high level, and Bruce Carter becomes Derrick Brooks. But as a betting man I'm putting my money on the D being a Bottom 12 unit, not a Top 20.

I think hatcher had an unbelievable and may be not-repeatable season last year, part of that would be due to not so effective Ware and practically nothing beside him in the DT Position , Selvie probably was helped by that.

If Melton comes back 90% and we find one better Tackle than Hayden , Devon or Bishop or the free agent we signed then we would have some presence in the middle which will solidify the edge rush. D law is expected to bring some situational pass rush and Selvie was good last year . If Tyrone and Mincey is added we have some depth , in effect if we have some young hungry players playing limited snaps , will be much better than last years rolling gate of street players.

For all it's worth if the D can avoid collapses like the Detroit and Green Bay games we should win 2 more games and will be the difference between playoff and staying home.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

Problem with your statement is, the Saints had a better offense in 2012 than 2013. They had better Offense ranking both in yards and points in 2012 yet they were dead last in defense .

saints were a mess in 2012. with all the turmoil, changes, losing DC, HC, the onus fell on the offense to carry the team. having a good offense will help the defense, no doubt. the question is how much. not if it does.

 

[IrishAnto]

There's this fallacy that the defense can't be any worse since you can't be any worse than the 32nd ranked defense. That doesn't mean we can't be worse statistically than last year. It honestly wouldn't surprise me. I want to have hope but I can't really find any anywhere. I'm extremely optimistic about the offense. I'm predicting top 3 in the league. But I can honestly see the defense being worse than last year.

I would imagine if the offense were top 3 in the league (depending on how you measure top 3 that is) then the defense won’t be 32.

If the offense is that good it should reduce the number of plays the defense has to face hence we shouldn’t be as bad as we were in 2013.

 

[IrishAnto]

only way our D makes it into the top 20 is if we face a lot of mediocre offenses.

sure we can get to the playoffs where anything can happen as long as you don't run into SF or Seattle. Who will squash us like bugs.

You are of course assuming they're playing with a full deck of cards.

Would they be the same teams with an injury list like ours was last year?

 

[jnday]

Even if they are just as historically bad, I'll continue to be impressed by the job Rod Marinelli is doing with this defense.

It's amazing to watch.

Rod Marinelli.

Your sarcasm brought a tear to my eye.

 

[JoeyBoy718]

I would imagine if the offense were top 3 in the league (depending on how you measure top 3 that is) then the defense won’t be 32.

If the offense is that good it should reduce the number of plays the defense has to face hence we shouldn’t be as bad as we were in 2013.

That's only true if the offense sustains long drives. From what I've seen from the best offense last year (Denver and Philly) it seemed like they scored quickly. That gave the other team a chance to score right away. Heck, it happened to us a lot last year. In the Denver game, our offense had probably the best day of any offense all year, and our defense still lost it for us. The whole "a great offense makes the defense better" argument is only true if you're running the ball and winding down the clock. But then again, you only have the luxury of running the ball so much when you have a good defense. That was the old winning formula for teams. Don't let the other team score, build a lead, and run out the clock. Nowadays, it's more like: score quickly and score often, hope your defense doesn't lose it for you.

 

[Idgit]

That's only true if the offense sustains long drives. From what I've seen from the best offense last year (Denver and Philly) it seemed like they scored quickly. That gave the other team a chance to score right away. Heck, it happened to us a lot last year. In the Denver game, our offense had probably the best day of any offense all year, and our defense still lost it for us. The whole "a great offense makes the defense better" argument is only true if you're running the ball and winding down the clock. But then again, you only have the luxury of running the ball so much when you have a good defense. That was the old winning formula for teams. Don't let the other team score, build a lead, and run out the clock. Nowadays, it's more like: score quickly and score often, hope your defense doesn't lose it for you.

Actually if you're up by two scores and capable of putting up more points, you help your defense a ton, regardless of whether you can run the ball or not. It's the getting up by two scores part that's tough when your defense isn't any good.

 

[jrumann59]

I put little weight in the schedule since the schedule difficulty is based on previous season and some guessing. Teh schedule looks tough based on what we saw last year anyone of those teams could lose their QBs for the season and things change. The only way this defense is worst than last year is if we lose starters like last year. I expect to lose a couple a guys for a game here and there but nothing like last year where we lost starters and back ups like it was going out of style. While it sucks lee got hurt early I think the defense will be better prepared to insert an able bodied back up instead of a body.

 

[silver]

Considering that only one player (Selvie) from last year's all time worse defense should see any significant playing time this season we should improve a bit.

 

[Zimmy Lives]

I think luck (health), the development of young, once-promising players, the rejuvenation of existing vets (Carr) and coaching will determine if this is a top 16 defense or a bottom five unit. I'm encouraged about the last three and hopeful for the first.

 

[JoeyBoy718]

Actually if you're up by two scores and capable of putting up more points, you help your defense a ton, regardless of whether you can run the ball or not. It's the getting up by two scores part that's tough when your defense isn't any good.

Yeah, I know what you mean. The key is really balance. Like you said, if your passing game is good enough (like Denver's) to put you up a few scores early on, you can rely on your running game for the rest of the game and run out the clock. That's ideal. But then again, our passing game was good enough at times last year, but our pass defense was so bad that teams were keeping up with us. In that case, there's really no way that your offense can help your defense. A great offense can help a decent defense, but no offense can help a horrible defense. Last season, our defense was so bad that epic offensive performances weren't enough to build a lead.

 

[IrishAnto]

Yeah, I know what you mean. The key is really balance. Like you said, if your passing game is good enough (like Denver's) to put you up a few scores early on, you can rely on your running game for the rest of the game and run out the clock. That's ideal. But then again, our passing game was good enough at times last year, but our pass defense was so bad that teams were keeping up with us. In that case, there's really no way that your offense can help your defense. A great offense can help a decent defense, but no offense can help a horrible defense. Last season, our defense was so bad that epic offensive performances weren't enough to build a lead.

Our passing game was plenty fine last year but our commitment to running the ball in appropriate circumstances was lacking (see Green Bay and to a lesser extent the Lions game).

Hopefully with a year’s maturation and the addition of Martin the coaching staff can successfully rely on it more.

Even with our epically bad defense from last year those two games were winnable.

 

[burmafrd]

You are of course assuming they're playing with a full deck of cards.

Would they be the same teams with an injury list like ours was last year?

They would kick our rear ends with only half a deck.

 

[Risen Star]

I would imagine if the offense were top 3 in the league (depending on how you measure top 3 that is) then the defense won’t be 32.

If the offense is that good it should reduce the number of plays the defense has to face hence we shouldn’t be as bad as we were in 2013.

You've got me excited for the season.

 

[IrishAnto]

You've got me excited for the season.

Keep your hands on the table

 

[IrishAnto]

They would kick our rear ends with only half a deck.

I beg to differ.