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Big question mark in Big D
'Boys feast on woeful QBs -- can they stop real ones?
Posted: Wednesday October 31, 2007 2:25PM; Updated: Wednesday October 31, 2007 2:25PM
Linebacker DeMarcus Ware leads the Cowboys with 5 1/2 sacks this season.
Ed Wolfstein/Icon SMI
Here we are almost halfway through the 2007 football season, and we still have no idea what the Cowboys' defense is all about.
The Cowboys are 6-1, seemingly on the way to their first NFC East title since 1998, although the Giants continue to win and somehow remain just one game out with one more head-to-head battle looming.
We know how effective the Cowboys are on offense. The passing game is explosive with Tony Romo (who's been hanging out more lately with Britney Spears than with Marcus Spears) chucking the ball up and down the field to Patrick Crayton, Jason Witten and Terrell Owens. And Marion Barber remains one of the NFL's most underrated tailbacks.
No issue there. No mystery. They can put up points in a hurry. But what about their defense? It's stout against the run, top-5 in yards allowed and yards per-carry. But the two times it has faced a real, live, ambulatory quarterback, it got shredded.
For the most part, the Cowboys have built their 6-1 record against a series of inept, inexperienced and injured quarterbacks. They've battered backups and routed rookies. And when they've faced a quarterback with any sort of track record, they haven't been able to slow him down.
When the Cowboys beat the Dolphins, they toppled 37-year-old Trent Green. When they beat the Bears, they saw Rex Grossman at his worst, just days before he was benched. When they beat the Rams, they got a combination of a wincing Marc Bulger, playing with two painful broken ribs, and journeyman Gus Frerotte, now stinking it up for his seventh NFL team in 10 years. When they escaped the Bills, they beat rookie Trent Edwards, making his second career start. And when they beat the Vikings, all they had to overcome was a woefully overmatched Tarvaris Jackson in his sixth NFL start and maybe his last one for a long time.
They have faced two healthy, experienced quarterbacks who weren't on the brink of getting benched: Eli Manning and Tom Brady. And those two combined for 700 passing yards, completed 68 percent of their passes, threw nine touchdowns and one interception and put up 83 points. Combined passer rating: 141.0.
OK, so Brady does this to everybody, point taken. But Manning doesn't. In fact, his 300-yard, four-touchdown performance against Dallas is the only one of his career. Since completing 68 percent of his passes with four TDs and one INT against the Cowboys on opening day, Manning has thrown nine TDs and eight interceptions and completed a pedestrian 56 percent of his passes.
He was better -- far better -- against Dallas than against anybody else. In fact, his four-TD performance against the Cowboys is the only time this year he's thrown more than two touchdowns.
Brady also was better against Dallas than he's been against any other team. His 388 yards were his most in five years and the most he's ever had in a game without an interception.
Although the Cowboys do have several more games against lifeless passing offenses -- the Commanders twice, the Panthers with 71-year-old Vinny Testaverde, the Jets with whoever -- they also have the Eagles twice with long-time nemesis Donovan McNabb; the Giants again, this time at the Meadowlands; the Packers and rejuvenated Brett Favre; and the Lions, with their wide-open passing attack.
Despite facing guys like a decrepit Green, a hapless Jackson, a woeful Grossman, a raw Edwards and an injured Bulger, the Cowboys rank only 13th in the NFL against the pass. It's tough to say their pass defense is overrated, we just don't know how good it is because it's only been tested a couple times. And those didn't go too well.
Certainly Terrance Newman and Anthony Henry (when healthy) are a very good set of corners. Roy Williams is a sledgehammer hitter when he's not giving some poor receiver the Riva Ridge treatment. And Demarcus Ware and Greg Ellis are providing steady pass pressure.
But the second half of the season will show exactly what kind of defense this truly is. A division-winning defense? Maybe. A Super Bowl defense? Could be. Or just a unit that's been able to take advantage of a hapless parade of quarterbacks and is in for a long second half and disappointing postseason once the quality of opposition goes up?
We'll know soon.
'Boys feast on woeful QBs -- can they stop real ones?
Posted: Wednesday October 31, 2007 2:25PM; Updated: Wednesday October 31, 2007 2:25PM
Linebacker DeMarcus Ware leads the Cowboys with 5 1/2 sacks this season.
Ed Wolfstein/Icon SMI
Here we are almost halfway through the 2007 football season, and we still have no idea what the Cowboys' defense is all about.
The Cowboys are 6-1, seemingly on the way to their first NFC East title since 1998, although the Giants continue to win and somehow remain just one game out with one more head-to-head battle looming.
We know how effective the Cowboys are on offense. The passing game is explosive with Tony Romo (who's been hanging out more lately with Britney Spears than with Marcus Spears) chucking the ball up and down the field to Patrick Crayton, Jason Witten and Terrell Owens. And Marion Barber remains one of the NFL's most underrated tailbacks.
No issue there. No mystery. They can put up points in a hurry. But what about their defense? It's stout against the run, top-5 in yards allowed and yards per-carry. But the two times it has faced a real, live, ambulatory quarterback, it got shredded.
For the most part, the Cowboys have built their 6-1 record against a series of inept, inexperienced and injured quarterbacks. They've battered backups and routed rookies. And when they've faced a quarterback with any sort of track record, they haven't been able to slow him down.
When the Cowboys beat the Dolphins, they toppled 37-year-old Trent Green. When they beat the Bears, they saw Rex Grossman at his worst, just days before he was benched. When they beat the Rams, they got a combination of a wincing Marc Bulger, playing with two painful broken ribs, and journeyman Gus Frerotte, now stinking it up for his seventh NFL team in 10 years. When they escaped the Bills, they beat rookie Trent Edwards, making his second career start. And when they beat the Vikings, all they had to overcome was a woefully overmatched Tarvaris Jackson in his sixth NFL start and maybe his last one for a long time.
They have faced two healthy, experienced quarterbacks who weren't on the brink of getting benched: Eli Manning and Tom Brady. And those two combined for 700 passing yards, completed 68 percent of their passes, threw nine touchdowns and one interception and put up 83 points. Combined passer rating: 141.0.
OK, so Brady does this to everybody, point taken. But Manning doesn't. In fact, his 300-yard, four-touchdown performance against Dallas is the only one of his career. Since completing 68 percent of his passes with four TDs and one INT against the Cowboys on opening day, Manning has thrown nine TDs and eight interceptions and completed a pedestrian 56 percent of his passes.
He was better -- far better -- against Dallas than against anybody else. In fact, his four-TD performance against the Cowboys is the only time this year he's thrown more than two touchdowns.
Brady also was better against Dallas than he's been against any other team. His 388 yards were his most in five years and the most he's ever had in a game without an interception.
Although the Cowboys do have several more games against lifeless passing offenses -- the Commanders twice, the Panthers with 71-year-old Vinny Testaverde, the Jets with whoever -- they also have the Eagles twice with long-time nemesis Donovan McNabb; the Giants again, this time at the Meadowlands; the Packers and rejuvenated Brett Favre; and the Lions, with their wide-open passing attack.
Despite facing guys like a decrepit Green, a hapless Jackson, a woeful Grossman, a raw Edwards and an injured Bulger, the Cowboys rank only 13th in the NFL against the pass. It's tough to say their pass defense is overrated, we just don't know how good it is because it's only been tested a couple times. And those didn't go too well.
Certainly Terrance Newman and Anthony Henry (when healthy) are a very good set of corners. Roy Williams is a sledgehammer hitter when he's not giving some poor receiver the Riva Ridge treatment. And Demarcus Ware and Greg Ellis are providing steady pass pressure.
But the second half of the season will show exactly what kind of defense this truly is. A division-winning defense? Maybe. A Super Bowl defense? Could be. Or just a unit that's been able to take advantage of a hapless parade of quarterbacks and is in for a long second half and disappointing postseason once the quality of opposition goes up?
We'll know soon.
