Video: Aikman: Cowboys fans should be concerned

[dcfanatic]

Aikman: Cowboys fans should be concerned

By dcfanatic, September 25, 2009 6:42 pm


Here's Troy Aikman on Mike Francesa's show in NY saying what I have saying all week...

[youtube]PvD5HUfZYaw[/youtube]

All week I have been screaming from the rooftops about this defense being a huge concern right now.

Yeah, Romo sucked. But all the Cowboys had to do was hold the Giants on that last drive as the Giants began 1st and 20 and then had a 2nd and 18 to work with.

Steve Smith, Jake Delhomme, DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart are no pushovers. They want to save their season. That offense can put up numbers and this defense had better have their act together come Monday.

 

[CATCH17]

Aikman: Cowboys fans should be concerned

By dcfanatic, September 25, 2009 6:42 pm


Here's Troy Aikman on Mike Francesa's show in NY saying what I have saying all week...

[youtube]PvD5HUfZYaw[/youtube]

All week I have been screaming from the rooftops about this defense being a huge concern right now.

Yeah, Romo sucked. But all the Cowboys had to do was hold the Giants on that last drive as the Giants began 1st and 20 and then had a 2nd and 18 to work with.

Steve Smith, Jake Delhomme, DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart are no pushovers. They want to save their season. That offense can put up numbers and this defense had better have their act together come Monday.

Eli made a heck of a play on that 2nd and 18 but I gotta mention Demarcus Ware did get held on that 2nd and 18 too.

What upset me was the next play on 3rd and 6 when we gave up the slant to the slot receiver.

I think the Cowboys defense would improve a ton if they would get more aggresive against teams receivers lined up in the slot. Just something to throw off the timing and not let them off the LOS.

 

[hardcorebob]

I completely agree. The defense is really doing poorly right now and they need to step it up if we have any chance to do well this season.

 

[RCowboyFan]

Yes of course. Pretty much right now, Dallas D is bottom of the league. Heck no way they make playoffs if they continue being that. That was the last thing I was expecting of Wade Phillips. I don't like Wade as HC, but didn't expect his D can suck this bad.

But I do expect it to change, since Phillips knows if his D doesn't perform at top 10 level, he is pretty much done.

 

[CATCH17]

Yes of course. Pretty much right now, Dallas D is bottom of the league. Heck no way they make playoffs if they continue being that. That was the last thing I was expecting of Wade Phillips. I don't like Wade as HC, but didn't expect his D can suck this bad.

But I do expect it to change, since Phillips knows if his D doesn't perform at top 10 level, he is pretty much done.

Me too. Im not really worried about the run defense.

But the pass defense scares me just because of our youth at corner and how they will react to things they haven't seen before.

I think as fans we are going to have to try and be patient with the growing pains of Scandrick and Jenkins. They'll be fine though in time.

I also hope our safeties do a better job against the Play Action in the next game.

 

[Big Dakota]

You're not gonna have a winning seawon with a poor D, we all know that and right now this D needs to turn it around. Like many here have said, Wade is pretty much useless unless his D is top 10.

 

[superpunk]

Carolina is a scary offensive team if you are not playing sound defense.

 

[CATCH17]

You're not gonna have a winning seawon with a poor D, we all know that and right now this D needs to turn it around. Like many here have said, Wade is pretty much useless unless his D is top 10.

I agree with your post but I am more upset with our D in the Bucs game than I was the Giants game.

We turned the ball over 4 times against what many think is the best team in the NFC.

When Romo threw his pick 6 on the next kickoff Felix fumbled the ball and handed over another 3 points. That was 10 Gimme points right there. 10 points that had absolutely nothing to do with our defense.

 

[Big Dakota]

I agree with your post but I am more upset with our D in the Bucs game than I was the Giants game.

We turned the ball over 4 times against what many think is the best team in the NFC.

When Romo threw his pick 6 on the next kickoff Felix fumbled the ball and handed over another 3 points. That was 10 Gimme points right there. 10 points that had absolutely nothing to do with our defense.

Even with that all we needed to do was stop them. Same as the Seattle PO game in 2006 and the Giants PO game in 07.

 

[casmith07]

Carolina is a scary offensive team if you are not playing sound defense.

Every team in the league, except maybe St. Louis, is scary if you aren't playing sound defense.

 

[The Quest for Six]

and all tony had to do is stop giving the ball to the other team...and the cowboys win

 

[reddyuta]

and all tony had to do is stop giving the ball to the other team...and the cowboys win

this is true.if we zero(or 1) turnover on offense every game then i am pretty sure we win most if not all games.Garrett and tony should realize our defense can only hold out for so long.

 

[28 Joker]

The defense has struggled, but throwing picks and giving Felix Jones 7 carries was the downfall.

Carolina will run their backs and look to get Steve Smith the ball.

Dallas can counter with getting the football to Felix Jones and Tashard Choice and putting Terence Newman on Steve Smith with safety help over the top.

It's simple.

 

[ryanbabs]

and all tony had to do is stop giving the ball to the other team...and the cowboys win

All the Cowboys need to do AS A TEAM is play better, eliminate mistakes, and they'll have an excellent opportunity to win every game they're playing. Easier said than done...

As far as the defense goes, the offense kept them in a very bad situation the whole game, with the Giants having very short field position with all of the turnovers. The defense did not play particularly well at all, but it is not as bad as some people think. You have to look at the overall picture.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Yes of course. Pretty much right now, Dallas D is bottom of the league. Heck no way they make playoffs if they continue being that. That was the last thing I was expecting of Wade Phillips. I don't like Wade as HC, but didn't expect his D can suck this bad.

But I do expect it to change, since Phillips knows if his D doesn't perform at top 10 level, he is pretty much done.

To Wade's credit he's been pretty good at making adjustments since being in Dallas. In '07 we had to start Jacques Reeves and had Nate Jones playing the slot and turned in a pretty decent year. We also started slow sacking the QB and wound up 3rd in total sacks that year.

In '08 we had numerous problems early on. The corners, sans Newman, couldn't play more than 8 yards off the receiver and Newman was hurt. We also were horrendous against the run early on and we were not getting to the QB all that much. Changes were made and the defense had a pretty decent year and led the league in sacks.

I'm not too worried about the sacks as Wade is arguably the best coach at getting his defenses to sack the QB in the past 20 years. Even better than the late Jim Johnson and Dick Lebeau. The numbers back this up.

I am still worried about the defense because while I value sacks and they have a strong correlation to winning, we still need a defense that doesn't give up points. I wasn't in favor for the Campo re-hiring because he historically has coached a different technique than what Wade's secondary usually employs. Wade prefers his secondary to play the ball while Campo historically had his corners play the receiver. All I know is in '07 we had 46 sacks and 19 picks with Todd Bowles as the secondary coach and then in '08 with Campo we increased the sacks total to 59 sacks, but the picks went down quite a bit to 8 total picks. Now I'm seeing a couple of corners that have apparently regressed and I still see the *pressure*, but we can't get the sacks if the corner coverage is so bad.

Still, I believe Wade will turn things around, but there's a difference between turning things around and creating a very good, if not great defense.

That being said, Romo lost the Giants game. We had everything going in our favor when he threw that 3rd pick and that was despite the defense 'sucking' and Romo's first two picks and an uncharacteristic Felix Jones fumble. Romo keeps saying that he's learned his lesson, but for now I'll treat him as paying the media and fans lip service until he proves me otherwise.





YAKUZA

 

[Seven]

Campo is a players coach. Proof was in his tenure as HC. Mix that with Wade and you've got a vortex. I'm not sure what that means but it can't be good.


We NEED contact at the LOS from our DB's. Period. IMO: instituting a 'soft' zone coverage while relying on major presssure from the DL/blitz/LB core isn't working. It isn't happening fast enough. What I learned from Eli and Leftwiich was; if you're patient, keep your eyes down field, rely on the pocket and take an occasional hit.............count your completions against the Cowboys. It was beyond comprehension at times.

 

[jay cee]

Me too. Im not really worried about the run defense.

But the pass defense scares me just because of our youth at corner and how they will react to things they haven't seen before.

I think as fans we are going to have to try and be patient with the growing pains of Scandrick and Jenkins. They'll be fine though in time.

I also hope our safeties do a better job against the Play Action in the next game.

I think the best way to help the young db's is to get more pressure on the qb. I hope they can start getting that done.

 

[landryscorner]

Aikman: Cowboys fans should be concerned

By dcfanatic, September 25, 2009 6:42 pm


Here's Troy Aikman on Mike Francesa's show in NY saying what I have saying all week...

[youtube]PvD5HUfZYaw[/youtube]

All week I have been screaming from the rooftops about this defense being a huge concern right now.

Yeah, Romo sucked. But all the Cowboys had to do was hold the Giants on that last drive as the Giants began 1st and 20 and then had a 2nd and 18 to work with.

Steve Smith, Jake Delhomme, DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart are no pushovers. They want to save their season. That offense can put up numbers and this defense had better have their act together come Monday.

Man I'm with you all the way...this defense just won't stetup. Maybe Wade isn't putting them in the right positions to do their job. I haven't seen many safety blitzes or corner blitzes and when we do like Hamlin like last week he just whiff's....this defense is just ruining this season. If this defense continues to deteriorate through the years...Ware will be a wasted product and he might just be better off somewhere else. I'm just very disappointed at Jerry for not replacing Hamlin and getting another corner. Also it seems like were missing the experience of Greg on the other side.