Rob Ryan schooled again

[Givincer]

Yup.


Commander possessions:
1st: Turnover
2nd: Punt
3rd: Punt
4th: Punt
5th: Punt
6th: Touchdown
7th: Touchdown
8th: Field Goal
9th: Missed Field Goal
10th: Punt
11th: Turnover
12th: Touchdown
13th: Missed Field Goal

After 5 straight stops, the law of averages catches up with you. You can't just expect to have stops every drive. It'd be great if it were possible.

The two first half touchdowns were on short fields. They started their drive at our 32 and our 38, respectively, to score their two first half touchdowns.

 

[FLcowboy]

Ryan's redzone defense was bad, but let's not get carried away. If not for our horrible ST play, the Commanders never had a chance. They drove the length of the field for 10 points. I wouldnt say he got "schooled".

There is a lesson there somewhere, and he needs to recognize it.

 

[Trajan]

To be fair to Ryan, he does not have a lot to work with here. I don't think many people would call this a great or even good defense. We need improvement at more positions then we are set at. The D-line does not pressure and the backs don't defend. Lee looks good but Brookings and James are done. Safety, I mean, ouch.

 

[Gus]

My apologies if this has already been discussed but I have to ask why oh why do we continue to drop our pass rushers into coverage when all we need to do is put pressure on Johnny Unitas, um, I mean Joe Montana, no, I think it was John Elway...oops, sorry, it was Rex Grossman out there who FLOUNDERS if you put any pressure on him! I mean, c'mon! It's like a stubborness that Ryan exudes thinking he is smarter than everyone else!\

I say if we go down swinging and put pressure on a mediocre, journeyman QB and heck if he beats you while you are sending everyone after him then so be it. Just an opinion.

 

[jday]

That is two out of three division games where Ryan was taken to school by the opposition offensive coordinator. He was facing a Skins team that can't run the ball, Grossman at QB and a pretty pathetic set of receivers and he let's them go 89 yards with the game on the line with nary any resistance.

Grossman repeatedly hit receivers on deep-ins for 15-20 yards per completion. We also repeatedly gave up 10-15 yards for untested completions in the flat. There is something very wrong with his scheme or the execution of his scheme that is going on right now.

After the Philly game I thought it was a bit of an aberration due to how much fear he had of DJax going deep but there is no such excuse for defending the Skins. They were able to do many of the same things at will with the game on the line. I'm not smart enough to figure out what is wrong or how to fix it but something has been found that he has to now counter. I don't want this to become like 2006 when Parcells D became near useless in the last 5 games of the season and gave up 30+ ppg repeatedly.

On the bright side, I don't think we need to worry so much about losing him after this season.

I think he needs another pass rusher and he needs Bruce Carter out there defending the zones so things can get tightened up a bit more. I think there is hope of getting Carter ready to play some more snaps for the stretch run but I don't see a hope of finding another pass rusher on this roster this year.

I really do hope Ryan figures it out because I think we have a good shot at getting into the playoffs. If the defense can play like they were earlier in the year we can beat anyone including GB if we catch Rodgers on a bad day and Romo is in the zone.

Saying Ryan was schooled is a bit strong. His defense did enough to keep the team in the game.

For those of you expected this game to be an automatic win have clearly not been paying attention to this rivalry over the last several years. Regardless of who win's and who has the better win/loss ratio, they are very rarely blow outs.

Honestly, I can't say I have the same confident's I had coming out of the Bills game, but at the end of the day, this was a much needed win and the type of win that the Cowboys can feed off of going down the stretch.

 

[Eskimo]

My apologies if this has already been discussed but I have to ask why oh why do we continue to drop our pass rushers into coverage when all we need to do is put pressure on Johnny Unitas, um, I mean Joe Montana, no, I think it was John Elway...oops, sorry, it was Rex Grossman out there who FLOUNDERS if you put any pressure on him! I mean, c'mon! It's like a stubborness that Ryan exudes thinking he is smarter than everyone else!\

I say if we go down swinging and put pressure on a mediocre, journeyman QB and heck if he beats you while you are sending everyone after him then so be it. Just an opinion.

I agree - Ryan was way too passive today.

I hate it when we rush 3 guys. It is like an invitation to take 20 yards down the field.

We should be rushing a minimum of four guys and probably should be sending five or six guys a good 50% of the time. We just have to good at disguising it and we have to get better at sliding over coverages when we send a DB on the blitz.

 

[Gus]

It seemed like Ryan disguised it earlier in the season and not so much now...my stomach turns when I see Spencer standing around 20 yards downfield doing nothing but watching a completion...

 

[trickblue]

Getting Mike Jenkins and a fully healthy Sean Lee will help with any shortcomings we have IMO. Lee is still being taken on on many passing downs.

True dat... although Lee was good today, he was very tentative on some other plays...

When he is healthy again, we will be OK...

 

[FLcowboy]

You call that owned? If we got owned then the Commanders got absolutely demolished because we outgained and outscored them.

The Cowboys were supposed to outgain and outscore them.

 

[DallasInDC]

I agree .. the defense definitely played bad today but the bad special teams played a big role in the close game.

#reality

agreed. not a great game by the D but the special team really put them in a bad spot.

On the bright side, may this will make some teams question him as a HC. I would love to keep him for a couple more years and really get his D philosphy ingrained in our players

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I'm concerned about a potential matchup with New Orleans or Green Bay.

Big, big problems.

 

[jday]

I'm concerned about a potential matchup with New Orleans or Green Bay.

Big, big problems.

http://www.giantsgab.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/playoffs.jpg

 

[Eskimo]

I'm concerned about a potential matchup with New Orleans or Green Bay.

Big, big problems.

We've actually done okay against NO the last two years.

GB will be a nightmare for our defense. Rodgers would probably hang 50 on Ryan's defense. Ryan is just way too predictable and that is his downfall. It would definitely help to have better players like a healthy Mike Jenkins, Sean Lee and a fully integrated Bruce Carter. But I'll point out that the defensive collapses against the Lions and Pats in the 4th quarter and the first half against Philly occurred with a healthy Lee and Jenkins.

I think our defense has major issues that are now just coming to the forefront. I hope Ryan can start to counter those things or we aren't going to have much success the rest of the year once the games get super tough in December.

 

[Sportsbabe]

To be fair to Ryan, he does not have a lot to work with here. I don't think many people would call this a great or even good defense. We need improvement at more positions then we are set at. The D-line does not pressure and the backs don't defend. Lee looks good but Brookings and James are done. Safety, I mean, ouch.

So basically, I can forget about getting to the NFC Championship game with this bunch ... is that what you're telling me?

 

[baj1dallas]

Outside of Ware and the occasional Hatcher sighting, this defense has no pass rush. We need another pass rusher badly.

Ratliff and Spencer both got pressure. Rat more early, Spencer late.

 

[TheCoolFan]

It's a combination of Ryan and bad coaching by the position coaches, specifically Dave Campo. I advise everyone to watch those final 2 drives by the Commanders. Just horrible fundamentals by the DBs. Give the WR a 10 yard cushion and they'll still end up giving up a 1st down reception underneath. Play tight coverage and they don't really do anything but get beat at the LOS. I saw Scandrick play tight and get beat by a swim move and he had to grab jersey. On a 3rd down at the goal line, Barry Church played tight coverage on Fred Davis and he just let Davis go inside and get the 1st down catch.

Then there was a moment where there was so much confusion that Alan Ball and Sean Lee had no clue what to do and Lee ended up switching w/ Ball on the outside 1 on 1 before they had to call a timeout. An ILB 1 on 1 to the outside!!! Come on

 

[JoeCorrado]

I agree .. the defense definitely played bad today but the bad special teams played a big role in the close game.

#reality

The special teams play caused more harm that the defense. But the defense was not very impressive either. Even with the ST giving the Commanders great field position- we should have done a better job. We were just not very impressive.

I really wish that we could make more effective adjustments during the games. It is not unreasonable to expect that some weeks, the bad guys WILL guess right and have us over the barrel when it comes to defensive schemes and game plans.

Today for example, we were constantly letting the backs release out of the backfield and leaving them to play catch on the outside with Grossman. Also, the deep in by their receivers route was left pretty well uncontested all game long as well. opponents are doing, and stop it, then we will be seeing this stuff all game long.

Not a genius move to just keep taking a play until the defense makes you stop- and ours has failed to do so several times this season- that does not make the prospects of a playoff run very realistic for me.

Also- for crying out loud, Rob should STOP talking smak about upcoming opponents until AFTER we win the game. His "Ryan Mouth" is not helping us any. And the pass rush that was going to "kill the QB" if they ran deeper routes was nowhere in site today.

 

[Sportsbabe]

I agree - Ryan was way too passive today.

I hate it when we rush 3 guys. It is like an invitation to take 20 yards down the field.

We should be rushing a minimum of four guys and probably should be sending five or six guys a good 50% of the time. We just have to good at disguising it and we have to get better at sliding over coverages when we send a DB on the blitz.

I agree with both of you. I was a bit confused that there were no exotic blitzes today. I hope someone asks that question of Red J or Rob this week.

 

[tupperware]

This is a forum for discussion. Just because we won doesn't mean you can't point out areas of concern.

Wouldn't that be called a Rob Ryan hater?

 

[Jed_70]

To be fair to Ryan, he does not have a lot to work with here. I don't think many people would call this a great or even good defense. We need improvement at more positions then we are set at. The D-line does not pressure and the backs don't defend. Lee looks good but Brookings and James are done. Safety, I mean, ouch.

Exactly. And this was my concern heading into the season. Sure we had a shiny new defensive coordinator but we gave him the same group of players that were historically bad in 2010.

Ryan deserves some blame but Jerry and co. didn't do him any favors when they decided to bring back the same group of losers that routinely gave up over 30 per game last season.