This Defense Has Top 5 Written All over It

[juck]

Looks like we are stacked at LB. Our secondary is top notch especially if Ball can be the Hawk we need. The thing thats most impressive is the Dline. Wow. We can get pressure with anyone on that line. I think Wade has this defense stifling this year. Defense wins championships. I smell many picks and recovered fumbles this year as well.

 

[JBell]

Looks like we are stacked at LB. Our secondary is top notch especially if Ball can be the Hawk we need. The thing thats most impressive is the Dline. Wow. We can get pressure with anyone on that line. I think Wade has this defense stifling this year. Defense wins championships. I smell many picks and recovered fumbles this year as well.

I'm assuming you just mean Ratliff, Bowen and Hatcher right?

Because Igor and Spears offer very little rushing the passer.

 

[YosemiteSam]

I'm assuming you just mean Ratliff, Bowen and Hatcher right?

Because Igor and Spears offer very little rushing the passer.

I believe Bowen and Hatcher have always been able to rush the passer. I think their weakness was always in the run game which is Igor and Spears strong point.

Wade will tell you. Stop the run first.

 

[CATCH17]

Our backup defense stopped their 1st O which I thought was awesome.

 

[theebs]

I have no idea about rankings.

But for the first time in a long time it looks like our defense has a group of starters and backups that no where they are going and what they are supposed to be doing. I cant imagine that is anything but a good thing.

 

[juck]

I'm assuming you just mean Ratliff, Bowen and Hatcher right?

Because Igor and Spears offer very little rushing the passer.

U r correct but Spears and Igor fill the gaps and are very good run stoppers. This defense is gonna be something special brother.

 

[boysfanindc]

With the depth on the DL and at LB maybe we can have a rotation that gets the starters some rest for the 4th quarter.

 

[JD_KaPow]

Looks like we are stacked at LB. Our secondary is top notch especially if Ball can be the Hawk we need. The thing thats most impressive is the Dline. Wow. We can get pressure with anyone on that line. I think Wade has this defense stifling this year. Defense wins championships. I smell many picks and recovered fumbles this year as well.

That's the big question mark. I don't care if they lead the league in yards and points (well, ok, I do care about points) - 21 takeaways doesn't cut it. I want short fields for the offense this year!

 

[nalam]

That's the big question mark. I don't care if they lead the league in yards and points (well, ok, I do care about points) - 21 takeaways doesn't cut it. I want short fields for the offense this year!

Even with shorter fields our O needs to maximise the score , the redzone woe's need to be gotten rid of. Hope we just will our way and pound inside the 10 to the endzone ! The key is not get too cute.

 

[windjc]

That's the big question mark. I don't care if they lead the league in yards and points (well, ok, I do care about points) - 21 takeaways doesn't cut it. I want short fields for the offense this year!

We had 4 takeaways last night. 3 interceptions. Pretty good start.

 

[JD_KaPow]

Even with shorter fields our O needs to maximise the score , the redzone woe's need to be gotten rid of. Hope we just will our way and pound inside the 10 to the endzone ! The key is not get too cute.

Our low points relative to yards last year had much more to do with long fields than with red-zone woes. We scored a perfectly average number of points per red zone appearance last year. Obviously, we want to be better than average, but it wasn't as disastrous as some claim.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Our low points relative to yards last year had much more to do with long fields than with red-zone woes. We scored a perfectly average number of points per red zone appearance last year. Obviously, we want to be better than average, but it wasn't as disastrous as some claim.

Eh...

I guess you're right -- it's perfectly average. Maybe that's good enough.

http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/news.cfm?id=05228F51-E17D-5A31-6E4780FDA63B04ED

So please, come with me into the Cowboys' Red Zone, where their overall scoring efficiency was lacking. On 50 trips into what turned out to be their Twilight Zone too many times, the Cowboys scored points on 80-percent of their possessions (40). While that might sound decent, guess again. That ranked them just 24th out of 32 teams, hanging out in the neighborhood of Detroit (80.6), Oakland (79.3), Atlanta (80.4) and even a far cry from Buffalo's 86.8.

Now of the 50 trips into this 20-yard piece of bumpy real estate where you just have to be money in this league, the Cowboys scored 26 touchdowns, checking them in at a 52-percent rate. That ranked them 14th, or middle of the pack. Heck, Tampa Bay was 51.6 percent.

 

[juck]

As long as this defense stops the other team from scoring we have no red zone woes.

 

[cobra]

especially if Ball can be the Hawk we need.

I don't think Ball is a hawk. And that's ok. For some reason many people here have this idea that our defense has to have Ed Reed at FS to be successful. That is not the case.

Ball will be a good cover safety, and I think he can help out to make sure we don't get beat deep. And that is good enough.

I don't have any reason to think he will get INTs in a manner to label him a hawk. If he does, all the better. If he doesn't, that's ok as long as he is doing his job to stop the deep passes.

Our defense will not be great because of INTs. It will be great because of the pass rush (which may lead to some INTs). As such, Ball only needs to be solid and error free, and I hope he can do that.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Scoring in the redzone would be easier if we had a more experienced offensive coordinator. Now, I'm not saying we should change. Not at all. What I'm saying though, someone like Dan Reeves could have mentored Garrett quite a bit on this subject.

 

[adbutcher]

Our backup defense stopped their 1st O which I thought was awesome.

Indeed it was. We have the makings of a very dominate defensive unit!

 

[ThreeSportStar80]

This should be a top 5 defense for a couple of reasons....

1. Jay Ratliff (arguably the most important piece to our defense)
2. Demarcus Ware
3. Anthony Spencer
4. Terence Newman
5. Mike Jenkins

 

[HornStar]

Guys let's not forget that we played the Bungals. They looked bad from top to bottom. Let's not get too excited about this, we did what we should of done.

However, our defensive front 7 looked dominant all night long, and Doug Free was impressive. It's a shame that John Phillips is out for the year now, cause he was looking like a solid #2 TE. And how about Stephen Mcgee.

On the other hand, we still have to work on some things: Jamar Wall looked lost out there. Was I the only one who noticed that Felix Jones looked slow, why did he put on weight? And we were too cute in the redzone.

It's only the first pre-season game though, we'll see how we look against Oakland.

 

[Nova]

Guys let's not forget that we played the Bungals. They looked bad from top to bottom. Let's not get too excited about this, we did what we should of done.

However, our defensive front 7 looked dominant all night long, and Doug Free was impressive. It's a shame that John Phillips is out for the year now, cause he was looking like a solid #2 TE. And how about Stephen Mcgee.

On the other hand, we still have to work on some things: Jamar Wall looked lost out there. Was I the only one who noticed that Felix Jones looked slow, why did he put on weight? And we were too cute in the redzone.

It's only the first pre-season game though, we'll see how we look against Oakland.

He looked fine covering Ocho.

 

[newlander]

Great posts guys and pretty accurate: I DID miss Carp last night though. This defense won't be the same without Barbie the Matador whiffing on tackles on the perimeter. As bad as Barron looked.....we still got a steal IMHO.