The Cowboys Just Lost the Best Defensive Player in the NFL

[MCMetal69]

ROFL, DAL lost Zeke where? The Airport?

Apparently everyone's GPS in Texas is broken........................

 

[Irvin88_4life]

Barry Sanders Jr.

In a way, yes. He struggles getting the dirty yards

 

[jterrell]

Mike Leslie
@MikeLeslieWFAA
It is not just Zeke Elliott coming back from Cabo. His entire representative team is coming back from Cabo to DFW as well. Shannon Sharpe is correct on that. #Cowboys

 

[Irvin88_4life]

True, but to be fair, that's what Tony Dorsett did for a decade in Dallas.

I wouldn't say that

 

[G2]

This thread lost

 

[Praxit]

We are the deepest we've been since the 1990's so it's a different year.

..we were in pretty good shape last year. We're even better this year. Should be a winning season for us. How far will go? ...who knows.

 

[Zman5]

YPG allowed with Zeke 2017: 295

YPG allowed without Zeke 2017: 356

You're trying to use a 6 game sample size to circumvent a point made over 4 years of games. Perhaps if half those game weren't against Oakland, Washington, NYG, 3 teams that finished bottom 7 in offensive efficiency that year, then there might be something to it. Or maybe your point is you need to play half your games against bottom 7 teams in order to match what Zeke gives you? Does that support your argument or mine?

Yards mean crap. Especially for a defense like ours (bend don't break). Better stat is point per drive. Our defense gave up less PPD in 2017 (1.85) without Zeke for 6 games than 2018 (1.93) with Zeke playing all the games.

 

[Aerolithe_Lion]

Yards mean crap. Especially for a defense like ours (bend don't break). Better stat is point per drive. Our defense gave up less PPD in 2017 (1.85) without Zeke for 6 games than 2018 (1.93) with Zeke playing all the games.

Which supports my argument because they gave up more points per game than 2018, implying they allowed way more drives.

 

[G2]

How is a deal imminent when all sources say talks have fallen apart?

False

 

[G2]

Yards mean crap. Especially for a defense like ours (bend don't break). Better stat is point per drive. Our defense gave up less PPD in 2017 (1.85) without Zeke for 6 games than 2018 (1.93) with Zeke playing all the games.

Time of possession and field position are everything.

 

[Zman5]

Which supports my argument because they gave up more points per game than 2018, implying they allowed way more drives.

No it doesn't. Your whole premise is that our defense is better with Zeke. We had Zeke for 6 more games in 2018 but we gave up more points per drive in 2018 than in 2017.

 

[Aerolithe_Lion]

False

You're right, can't dispute that.

 

[Zman5]

Time of possession and field position are everything.

That's why points per drive is more accurate indication of how well the defense is playing than just point per game.

 

[Aerolithe_Lion]

No it doesn't. Your whole premise is that our defense is better with Zeke. We had Zeke for 6 more games in 2018 but we gave up more points per drive in 2018 than in 2017.

I said throughout this thread your D was better in 2017. That was the whole point to it. But over the course of the game, you allowed more drives because of the lack of Zeke, mitigating that positive. Still ended up giving up more points when you shouldnt have. I emphasized this with my ypp comment which parallels yours here. you can say its not a yards board its a scoreboard, but your stat says the same thing:

D being better without Zeke isn't as good as having Zeke on the field, because he's the most important aspect to mitigating opponent's total points scored.

 

[viman96]

I think the philly boards lost a member

 

[Typhus]

Eagle fans are always obsessed with ANYTHING with potential to weaken the Cowboys!

Their supposed to be.
Trolls are obsessed with gaining enough attention on an opposing teams forum, that its starts a 6 page discussion, on a thread they started.
You want trolls to leave...
"ignore feature"

 

[Manster68]

I wouldn't say that

I saw many times Dorsett took the pitch 7 yards deep only to lose a yard or two. He waited for the blocking to set up and (especially in the 80s) the defense beat the lineman to the side and made the tackle.

Joe Gibbs even said that Dorsett's history against the Commanders have been, "You stop him, you stop him, you stop him. Then boom, he's gone for 40."

 

[CrazyCowboy]

WHY did this post title nearly give me a heart attack?

 

[Zman5]

I said throughout this thread your D was better in 2017. That was the whole point to it. But over the course of the game, you allowed more drives because of the lack of Zeke, mitigating that positive. Still ended up giving up more points when you shouldnt have. I emphasized this with my ypp comment which parallels yours here. you can say its not a yards board its a scoreboard, but your stat says the same thing:

D being better without Zeke isn't as good as having Zeke on the field, because he's the most important aspect to mitigating opponent's total points scored.

Really?

2017 Doesn't look too great here. Keeping them out of the endzone is the number 1 goal, right? How could anyone come to the conclusion the D was doing their job better than the division round years? Let's go deeper...

This is from your first post of the thread. So which is it? Was 2017" better" or "doesn't look too great"?

 

[DHCBF66]

What if I told you I could make a case for 2017 being the best defense you've had over the last 4 years? Way better than 2017. Noticeably improved from 2018. Not even 2016 holds a candle to them. You'd say that's kind of ridiculous right? Check this out:

Opponent's Points Per Game

2018: 6th
2017: 13th
2016: 5th
2015: 16th

2017 Doesn't look too great here. Keeping them out of the endzone is the number 1 goal, right? How could anyone come to the conclusion the D was doing their job better than the division round years? Let's go deeper...

Opponent's Yards Per Game

2018: 7th
2017: 8th
2016: 14th
2015: 17th

Wait... what? Everything else lines up, except suddenly 2017 got way better. So you shut teams down from running up and down the field, but allowed them to score at will when they got a chance? Hmm... need 1 more stat to make this a bit clearer...

Opponent's Yards Per Play

2018: 5.4 (13th)
2017: 5.1 (8th)
2016: 5.5 (16th)
2015: 5.6 (19th)

Hold the phone! 0.3 yards per play that 2017 has over 2018 is MORE than the 0.2 that 2018 has over your abysmal 2015. That's a huge discrepancy. For context, that 0.3 ypp 2017 has over 2018 is exactly what they are apart from the single best D in the league that year (would jump from 8 to 1).

So how is it possible a team can give up the 8th fewest yards per play, but still end up 13th in yards per game? Conversely, how is it a team in 2016 can give up the 16th most yards per game but only allowed the 5th most points? That's nuts! What is the connecting tissue here? What happened in 2017 that didn't happen in 2016 or 2018? One more stat...

Average Drive on Offense

2018: Time 2:59 (2nd) Plays 6.27 (2nd)
2017: Time 2:50 (5th) Plays 6:09 (5th)
2016: Time 2:57 (2nd) Plays 6.04 (5th)
2015: Time 2.54 (2nd) Plays 5.82 (12th)

If you haven't put it together by now, 2017 is the year Zeke missed games. Your Time of possession is better with Zeke in, your plays per drive is better, your points allowed is much better regardless of how your defense is playing. Giving up 5.1 ypp in 2017? doesn't matter, if Zeke isn't in the opponent will get enough drives to put up points. Giving up 5.5 ypp in 2016? Doesn't matter, with Zeke setting Cowboy rookie records, your scoring defense was the best you've had in decades.

Khalil Mack doesn't make the opponent's points per game jump nearly 10 rankings. Neither does Aaron Donald, both have played on D's that lost them Football games because the offense wasn't there. Zeke has only ever played on stellar D's, and that's no accident. He is the single most valuable defensive force in the national football league. Tony Pollard could run for 120 yards against NYG, but they're likely going to have an advantage in the time of possession because of Saquon. Now with those extra drives maybe Eli throws picks and you're good. But maybe he doesn't. You won't be missing Zeke on offense nearly as much as you'll be missing him on defense.

Zeke will sign, no worries!