Where Is Our Pass Rush

[Doomsdayblitz]

The mantra among NFL teams is: "Run the ball, & stop the run, and you will be successful". Well, after playing 5 games, the Cowboys defense is #1 against the run, the offense is 4th in the league in rushing. Still, we are a very average 3-2 in the win-loss column. Many will say it's because we keep shooting ourselves in the foot, and that is very true. All you have to do is go back to the Iggles game. We were 6 yds. or so from taking the game into overtime, when a very haggered Bledsoe threw a horrendous pass, partly I believe due to the paranoia of all the battering he took.

But why wasn't McNabb beaten & bruised? Why was he so cool & calm when he threw his last bomb to seal the victory? Could it be due to the lack of hamming that Drew was taking? Sure they couldn't run on us, but it didn't matter. Once we stopped the run, they just aired it out, and it was lights out. In this day & age in the NFL, stopping the run is only half the battle. You then have to beat the snot out of the opposing QB, forcing him into all of the mistakes that Bledsoe made. You had better believe McNabb would have been throwing the ball to as many blue jerseys as green had he faced the rush he faced last year in Big "D".

I don't know what happened to our pass rush, but it had better wake up before another quality team bombs us.

 

[HighTechDave]

the Titan game screwed up the numbers. Give me the stats against good teams...

 

[AdamJT13]

Give me the stats against good teams...

What stats? Our run defense's numbers are better WITHOUT the Tennessee game.

 

[Clove]

Boys seem conttent to let teams throw without blitzing. We shall see how far we can go with this philosophy.

 

[Galian Beast]

We play a lot of 3 man rushes, and our blitzes are mostly man blitzes where our players simply have to beat the other guy. And they haven't been beating anyone.

I think we need more effective rush schemes, and we certainly need to start bringing more players against the offensive line. I want teams to go into full protection mode against US, because they're afraid of how many it looks like were sending.

I think we overrated our linebacker corps, in fact our entire front 7 going into the season. We lack players who are key in getting at the quarterback. But they're perfect for a bend but dont break philosophy. Only problem is that when our offense or special teams gives away field position we get hurt on defense. And then the big play is something that hurt us.

 

[Rampage]

if we can stop a lot of the mental errors we can be a VERY good team.

 

[CrazyCowboy]

I have been wondering the very same thing.......pass rush is bad

 

[joseephuss]

The mantra among NFL teams is: "Run the ball, & stop the run, and you will be successful". Well, after playing 5 games, the Cowboys defense is #1 against the run, the offense is 4th in the league in rushing. Still, we are a very average 3-2 in the win-loss column. Many will say it's because we keep shooting ourselves in the foot, and that is very true. All you have to do is go back to the Iggles game. We were 6 yds. or so from taking the game into overtime, when a very haggered Bledsoe threw a horrendous pass, partly I believe due to the paranoia of all the battering he took.

But why wasn't McNabb beaten & bruised? Why was he so cool & calm when he threw his last bomb to seal the victory? Could it be due to the lack of hamming that Drew was taking? Sure they couldn't run on us, but it didn't matter. Once we stopped the run, they just aired it out, and it was lights out. In this day & age in the NFL, stopping the run is only half the battle. You then have to beat the snot out of the opposing QB, forcing him into all of the mistakes that Bledsoe made. You had better believe McNabb would have been throwing the ball to as many blue jerseys as green had he faced the rush he faced last year in Big "D".

I don't know what happened to our pass rush, but it had better wake up before another quality team bombs us.

McNabbs last bomb was on a flea flicker. Did you take that into account? A well designed and well timed flea flicker will slow down any pass rush. Bledsoe has thrown a couple of TDs on those types of plays in Dallas. On the other two big play, McNabb was flushed and pressured. Unfortunately, poor safety play left McNabb with easy outs and big plays. Oh, that and the fact that McNabb is actually a good QB with the ability to create extra time with his feet.

 

[Stautner]

I think we overrated our linebacker corps, in fact our entire front 7 going into the season. We lack players who are key in getting at the quarterback. But they're perfect for a bend but dont break philosophy. Only problem is that when our offense or special teams gives away field position we get hurt on defense. And then the big play is something that hurt us.

I'm glad to see somebody reinforcing what I've been saying for some time.

The fact is that fans have ASSUMED that we have the personnel to have a dominant pass rush, but the evidence isn't there to support it.

We have better athletes in our front 7 than in years past, but Ware is the only player acquired in the last few years that is truly an upgrade rushing the passer, and he is a LONG way from proving he is capable of consistent pressure.

The Houston game should be ignored in this discussion because the game plan was to play it safe - and that's the way it should have been. We knew going in that Houston's only chance was to get turnovers and make some big plays, and we didn't want to take any chance of exposing ourself to big plays by blitzing.

One comment about the Houston game that I believe is relevent is this: While we essentially limited our pass rush to 4 people, we still should have got more pressure. Good pass rushers can find a way to get to the QB without blitzes - good pass rushers can can sometimes beat a man one on one. If we can ONLY get pressure by bringing 5,6 or 7 rushers then there are personnel issues - we still don't have the players needed to pressure the QB.

Blitzes are supposed to supplement the pass rush, not be the ONLY source of it. A quality pass rush starts with quality pass rushers, and blitzes can only go so far in hiding a deficiency in pass rushing talent.

Nevertheless, we will have to get more pressure on the QB against tough teams, and blitzing seems to be our only chance of doing that. We have to be careful though - without great pass rushing players we may find the blitz being picked up and our defense overexposed to big plays.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Stop the run and run the ball effectively will give you a chance to win just about any game in the NFL. That's as true a statement as can be made IMO. We have won 3 games and lost 2 but we have been in every game. We have had a chance to win every game. The two losses, IMO, are of our own doing. Philly didn't beat us down. They made more plays then we did and that resulted in the win. Same can be said about the Jags. We had an opportunity to chock the life out of that team in the first half and we didn't do it. We had opportunity to beat them down the stretch but we continued to shoot ourselves in the foot. No, I'll take that formula any day of the week. It will win you more games then it will lose for you IMO.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Opposing teams utilize a lot of 3 WR formations against the defense.

This forces Parcells to either run out of the nickel or have either Ware or Ellis line up on the slot WR and bump him off his route.

Dallas has been pretty good at defending the 3 WR formation so far. It makes things less advantageous for the opposing team to run the ball and it's probably a big reason for our success in defending the run.

Problem is that it creates a bit of an advantage for opposing teams in pass protection. If Dallas goes to the 3-4 personnel with either Ware or Ellis on the slot WR, the opposing team now has 5 blockers on 4 pass rushers, with really only Ellis or Ware as the only true threat as a pass rusher. And if needed, they can still have their RB help chip.

If Dallas goes to the nickel, they now would have both Ellis and Ware rushing the passer. But it's still a 5 vs. 4 situation in favor of the offense with the running back being able to help chip.

My biggest gripe against the defense is that I would like to see them blitz the ILB's and Roy a bit more. And when they go to the nickel, they almost never use any stunts to get to the QB.


YAKUZA

 

[Doomsdayblitz]

McNabbs last bomb was on a flea flicker. Did you take that into account? A well designed and well timed flea flicker will slow down any pass rush. Bledsoe has thrown a couple of TDs on those types of plays in Dallas. On the other two big play, McNabb was flushed and pressured. Unfortunately, poor safety play left McNabb with easy outs and big plays. Oh, that and the fact that McNabb is actually a good QB with the ability to create extra time with his feet.

We had literally stopped their running game, so there was no reason for Williams to bite on a fake. They were passing the ball 70% of the time, so why would we be taken in by a flea flicker? If McNabb was flushed & pressured on the other big plays, it must have been due to good coverage downfield-forcing McNabb to hold the ball longer. When holding the ball 4 seconds or less, I don't remember any pressure on him. If Bledsoe would have held the ball as long as McNabb did at times, he would have gotten creamed. This, of course, would have brought out the critism that he holds the ball too long.

If we are EVER going to go to the SB, we are going to have to draft/sign quality front seven players like we had in the early 90s. Our backups back then would start for this year's team.

 

[Crown Royal]

We had literally stopped their running game, so there was no reason for Williams to bite on a fake. They were passing the ball 70% of the time, so why would we be taken in by a flea flicker? If McNabb was flushed & pressured on the other big plays, it must have been due to good coverage downfield-forcing McNabb to hold the ball longer. When holding the ball 4 seconds or less, I don't remember any pressure on him. If Bledsoe would have held the ball as long as McNabb did at times, he would have gotten creamed. This, of course, would have brought out the critism that he holds the ball too long.

If we are EVER going to go to the SB, we are going to have to draft/sign quality front seven players like we had in the early 90s. Our backups back then would start for this year's team.

Actually Greg Ellis was in his face both times within 3.5 seconds, which is a good pass rush. People seem to forget that McNabb is very capable of MOVING in the POCKET and ESCAPING the pass rush.

We didn't lose that game because of some sort of poor pass rush - it was there, we lost because of turnovers and poor safety play.

Oh yeah - williams didn't bit on the fake. Actually, both he and Watkins were in position to make a play - for some reason...the hesitated. I think they thought that the ball was overthrown or something, when in fact it was the best deep ball I've seen in quite some time.

 

[Boyzmamacita]

I'm glad to see somebody reinforcing what I've been saying for some time.

The fact is that fans have ASSUMED that we have the personnel to have a dominant pass rush, but the evidence isn't there to support it.

We have better athletes in our front 7 than in years past, but Ware is the only player acquired in the last few years that is truly an upgrade rushing the passer, and he is a LONG way from proving he is capable of consistent pressure.

The Houston game should be ignored in this discussion because the game plan was to play it safe - and that's the way it should have been. We knew going in that Houston's only chance was to get turnovers and make some big plays, and we didn't want to take any chance of exposing ourself to big plays by blitzing.

One comment about the Houston game that I believe is relevent is this: While we essentially limited our pass rush to 4 people, we still should have got more pressure. Good pass rushers can find a way to get to the QB without blitzes - good pass rushers can can sometimes beat a man one on one. If we can ONLY get pressure by bringing 5,6 or 7 rushers then there are personnel issues - we still don't have the players needed to pressure the QB.

Blitzes are supposed to supplement the pass rush, not be the ONLY source of it. A quality pass rush starts with quality pass rushers, and blitzes can only go so far in hiding a deficiency in pass rushing talent.

Nevertheless, we will have to get more pressure on the QB against tough teams, and blitzing seems to be our only chance of doing that. We have to be careful though - without great pass rushing players we may find the blitz being picked up and our defense overexposed to big plays.

Wow. That is excellent analysis and covers just about everything I have observed about the pass rush (or lack therof) this season. What I don't understand is why some people insist that our pass rush is up to par when it clearly isn't.

 

[kartr]

The mantra among NFL teams is: "Run the ball, & stop the run, and you will be successful". Well, after playing 5 games, the Cowboys defense is #1 against the run, the offense is 4th in the league in rushing. Still, we are a very average 3-2 in the win-loss column. Many will say it's because we keep shooting ourselves in the foot, and that is very true. All you have to do is go back to the Iggles game. We were 6 yds. or so from taking the game into overtime, when a very haggered Bledsoe threw a horrendous pass, partly I believe due to the paranoia of all the battering he took.

But why wasn't McNabb beaten & bruised? Why was he so cool & calm when he threw his last bomb to seal the victory? Could it be due to the lack of hamming that Drew was taking? Sure they couldn't run on us, but it didn't matter. Once we stopped the run, they just aired it out, and it was lights out. In this day & age in the NFL, stopping the run is only half the battle. You then have to beat the snot out of the opposing QB, forcing him into all of the mistakes that Bledsoe made. You had better believe McNabb would have been throwing the ball to as many blue jerseys as green had he faced the rush he faced last year in Big "D".

I don't know what happened to our pass rush, but it had better wake up before another quality team bombs us.

Our pass rush is in San Diego and in Minnesota going by the name of Kevin Williams.

 

[kartr]

Stop the run and run the ball effectively will give you a chance to win just about any game in the NFL. That's as true a statement as can be made IMO. We have won 3 games and lost 2 but we have been in every game. We have had a chance to win every game. The two losses, IMO, are of our own doing. Philly didn't beat us down. They made more plays then we did and that resulted in the win. Same can be said about the Jags. We had an opportunity to chock the life out of that team in the first half and we didn't do it. We had opportunity to beat them down the stretch but we continued to shoot ourselves in the foot. No, I'll take that formula any day of the week. It will win you more games then it will lose for you IMO.

The Bears and Eagles didn't switch to the 3-4 to generate a pass rush, they drafted pass rushing DT's and traded for free agent pass rushing DE's, which seem to me be a logical decision. I wanted Bert Berry or Chike Okeafor a couple of years ago along with pass rushing DT's such as Kevin Williams to couple with Glover. If we had gone that route, I don't believe we'd be stumbling along with our 3-2 record and with the wins coming only against the bottom-feeders of the NFL. That's why we couldn't beat J'ville, other than the obvious Bledsoe blunder signing.

 

[joseephuss]

We had literally stopped their running game, so there was no reason for Williams to bite on a fake. They were passing the ball 70% of the time, so why would we be taken in by a flea flicker? If McNabb was flushed & pressured on the other big plays, it must have been due to good coverage downfield-forcing McNabb to hold the ball longer. When holding the ball 4 seconds or less, I don't remember any pressure on him. If Bledsoe would have held the ball as long as McNabb did at times, he would have gotten creamed. This, of course, would have brought out the critism that he holds the ball too long.

If we are EVER going to go to the SB, we are going to have to draft/sign quality front seven players like we had in the early 90s. Our backups back then would start for this year's team.

It was one of the better designed flea flickers I have seen. Westbrook did not run straight up the gut. He ran toward the outside before turning and pitching it back. I can see why the d-line was not focusing on McNabb. Trick plays do work every now and then and the d-line has to respect that Westbrook had the ball. Williams and Watkins were not responsible for rushing the passer in that situation and I didn't say anything about them. You talked about the pass rush. If the safeties bite on a flea flicker, that is a different problem.

McNabb was sacked 3 times in the first half. He only completed 6 passes in the second half. I would say the defense was doing some good things if he only completed that few number of passes. Two of those completions were killers and good safety play would have prevented them. The pass rush was not the problem in the Eagles game. It was the safeties and most of that was on the rookie Watkins. Sometimes a good pass rush can't overcome poor safety or secondary play. Look at the Chargers. They had a great pass rush last season, yet gave up many yards and big plays in their secondary.

 

[kartr]

Wow. That is excellent analysis and covers just about everything I have observed about the pass rush (or lack therof) this season. What I don't understand is why some people insist that our pass rush is up to par when it clearly isn't.

Because they're homers. I like the talent of most of our defensive players, I just don't think converting to the 3-4 was necessary. It set our veterans back because they couldn't help the young players cause they were learning the new system themselves. Ellis and Glover were a good nucleus. Simply adding Bert Berry or Chike Okeafor and Kevin Williams plus Shawne Merriman and Luis Castillo would have cured all of our pass rush problems. Indeed, we would now have the dominant pass rush in the NFL if we had done so.

If I were running the 2007 draft, I would draft Marcus McCauley in the first round, a true lock down corner, then either draft the best pass rushing dt available or trade for one. I'd trade Spears,Bledsoe,Carpenter and Marion Barber to get a high draft pick for one in the first round.

 

[joseephuss]

Because they're homers. I like the talent of most of our defensive players, I just don't think converting to the 3-4 was necessary. It set our veterans back because they couldn't help the young players cause they were learning the new system themselves. Ellis and Glover were a good nucleus. Simply adding Bert Berry or Chike Okeafor and Kevin Williams plus Shawne Merriman and Luis Castillo would have cured all of our pass rush problems. Indeed, we would now have the dominant pass rush in the NFL if we had done so.

If I were running the 2007 draft, I would draft Marcus McCauley in the first round, a true lock down corner, then either draft the best pass rushing dt available or trade for one. I'd trade Spears,Bledsoe,Carpenter and Marion Barber to get a high draft pick for one in the first round.

You would add another corner? Why? Do you plan on trading Henry or moving him to FS? No one is going to trade for Bledsoe. That is silly.

 

[Stautner]

Because they're homers. I like the talent of most of our defensive players, I just don't think converting to the 3-4 was necessary. It set our veterans back because they couldn't help the young players cause they were learning the new system themselves. Ellis and Glover were a good nucleus. Simply adding Bert Berry or Chike Okeafor and Kevin Williams plus Shawne Merriman and Luis Castillo would have cured all of our pass rush problems. Indeed, we would now have the dominant pass rush in the NFL if we had done so.

If I were running the 2007 draft, I would draft Marcus McCauley in the first round, a true lock down corner, then either draft the best pass rushing dt available or trade for one. I'd trade Spears,Bledsoe,Carpenter and Marion Barber to get a high draft pick for one in the first round.

Like it or not, we are now using a 3-4 defense, and therefore your draft would be a waste of time. We have 2 very good CB's and a solid veteran backup already, so the CB pick would be misused, and a pass rushing specialist at DT is senseless because pass rushing is not the primary concern of a 3-4 DT (NT actually).

On top of that, you would advocate getting rid of Spears even though big, athletic DE's are necessary cogs in the 3-4. PLUS dumping a productive running back.......?

all for players that do not fit our needs.