Where was Demarcus Lawrence all night?

[BulletBob]

So they game planned getting 17 points handed to them? Riiiiiiiight.

Did you read the entire post?

Now, I will grant you that a big contributing factor to the success of their strategy was that we kept shooting ourselves in the foot all night.

I still think that the Giants offensive game plan was the right one (quick-release, dink-and-dunk), and it kept them in the game along with the turnovers that led to the points.

The entire thrust of that post was that it was nice to see an opponent game-planning against a Cowboys pass rush. The thought was somewhat diffused by other posters who said that this is the Giants overall game plan every week. But I'm not entirely sure that I agree 100%. It didn't seem to me like they were trying to go downfield against us very often - and that can't be their strategy every week.

Regardless, nostalgia brought me back to the 90s, when teams had to account for our pass rush each and every week, and we were a nightmare for opposing offensive coordinators.

I was hoping that this might be a glimpse of that same phenomenon resurfacing, as history often does.

 

[texbumthelife]

I don't understand why we heard all offseaon about how deep our dline was and how we were finally going be able to rotate in waves, yet they only had seven defensive linemen active for the game? That was a really poor decision in hindsight. The people that did play did an admirable job though, no complaints.

 

[Oh_Canada]

OK - so let me prefix this by saying that Coughlin & staff came up with a brilliant strategy for the pass game last night. The passing plays were designed for 3-5 step drops and quick releases. While we did not give up any big plays on defense, it was still a very sound strategy by the Giants and Eli executed the game plan almost flawlessly (except for the clock management aspect).

Flawlessly? They were held to under 200 yds passing. Cowboys don't turn the ball over and it's a beat down.

 

[Gameover]

I'm a little concerned about the pass rush, but the Giants seem to handle our front better than a lot of other teams.

Look back to last year, we didn't really get a lot of pressure on Eli.

As for D law:1. He's not as good as Gregory. 2. He had some good pressures and was in on the sack.

 

[Pessimist_cowboy]

One of the most overhyped players I've ever seen. He's an average football player. I doubt he'll get a 2nd contract here. We'll need that money for Gregory .

 

[KJJ]

I'm a little concerned about the pass rush, but the Giants seem to handle our front better than a lot of other teams.

Look back to last year, we didn't really get a lot of pressure on Eli.

The Cowboys seldom get pressure on Eli which is why the Giants are able to stay in games even when he's off. Last season in over 70 attempts the Cowboys only sacked Eli twice.

 

[dallasdave]

At least I saw Sean make a crucial tackle in the backfield for a loss. He is the least of my worries. Matter of fact...not worried about him at all.

Lee is back !!!

 

[RunDMC]

One of the most overhyped players I've ever seen. He's an average football player. I doubt he'll get a 2nd contract here. We'll need that money for Gregory .

This is one of the worst posts I've seen this week.

Lawrence has clearly improved his strength over the offseason and obviously playing predominately at left side that is a necessity going up against those big, strong right tackles. He still has a speed advantage and a quick first step. He doesn't allow himself to get bent inside as he showcased the other night is very good against the run and like many other players on this defensive front has great hustle. He's also long and has the ability to bat passes down.

Again the Giants knew their pass protection was suspect at best which is why they threw so many quick passes. They weren't gonna give a much improved Dallas pass rush a chance to hit Eli and even so the Cowboys still got pressure when they needed too.

 

[Pessimist_cowboy]

This is one of the worst posts I've seen this week.

Lawrence has clearly improved his strength over the offseason and obviously playing predominately at left side that is a necessity going up against those big, strong right tackles. He still has a speed advantage and a quick first step. He doesn't allow himself to get bent inside as he showcased the other night is very good against the run and like many other players on this defensive front has great hustle. He's also long and has the ability to bat passes down.

Again the Giants knew their pass protection was suspect at best which is why they threw so many quick passes. They weren't gonna give a much improved Dallas pass rush a chance to hit Eli and even so the Cowboys still got pressure when they needed too.

Zero sacks in 10 regular season games , I never see him near the QB. He is what he is an average player .

Gregory flashed more in a half of football than Lawrence has in two years.

 

[RunDMC]

Zero sacks in 10 regular season games , I never see him near the QB. He is what he is an average player .

Gregory flashed more in a half of football than Lawrence has in two years.

Are you serious? He missed half the season last year. It's completely unrealistic to expect a rookie defensive end to come in and make a profound impact immediately when he has zero NFL experience. With that said he still had two sacks in the postseason.

People put way too much emphasis on sacks. Yes they're important and vital to having a strong defensive unit, but they aren't solely how defensive linemen should be judged. Watch the tape. The kid had gotten better. His added strength in the offseason allows him to not get overpowered by right tackles, plays with good leverage, and is quick off the ball. Combine that with a good motor and you have a very solid two way DE.

 

[SportsGuru80]

Eli and Co. relied on the quick passes all night... We will be fine. I was pleased with the overall effort from our defense because the offense put them in some ****** predicaments the entire night!

 

[JIGGYFLY]

That's no excuse if he's going to be a solid player he's going to have to learn how to deal with that and still make some plays. Opponents paid a lot of attention to Ware but he still showed up and made plays.

Are you really comparing Lawrence to Ware, is that now the benchmark all pass rushers are judged?

Yes he has to do better but considering they were getting the ball out quick and he was getting chipped it's understandable he was kinda.

He also got pressure a couple of times when Eli held the ball so you could see some good things happening down the line.

 

[Sportsbabe]

Lee is back !!!

...and he's gonna light that traitor up Sunday. He thought practice was tough.

 

[KJJ]

Are you really comparing Lawrence to Ware, is that now the benchmark all pass rushers are judged?

Yes he has to do better but considering they were getting the ball out quick and he was getting chipped it's understandable he was kinda.

He also got pressure a couple of times when Eli held the ball so you could see some good things happening down the line.

Lawrence was drafted to replace Ware and give the Cowboys a pass rush. Gregory will hopefully be our new DeMarcus Ware but if Lawrence is going to be part of the teams future into a second contract he's going to have to do better than what we saw on Sunday night.

 

[JIGGYFLY]

Lawrence was drafted to replace Ware and give the Cowboys a pass rush. Gregory will hopefully be our new DeMarcus Ware but if Lawrence is going to be part of the teams future into a second contract he's going to have to do better than what we saw on Sunday night.

He played well Sunday night and if he was such a bum why did the Giants slide protection that wat and Chip him so much?

How many plays did you actually watch of him or are you just commenting because he had no splash plays?

Also what exactly are you expecting from the LDE in this defense to be making such a proclamation about 2nd contracts.

 

[Sydla]

Zero sacks in 10 regular season games , I never see him near the QB. He is what he is an average player .

Gregory flashed more in a half of football than Lawrence has in two years.

Curious why you only looked at regular season stats and ignored the postseason when he played well.

 

[xwalker]

Curious why you only looked at regular season stats and ignored the postseason when he played well.

It's called agenda.

 

[BaybeeJay]

He passed my eye test. I saw him get pressure, and look strong at the point. His offsides penalty on the Giants' last drive, on third down, was a bummer. He can't do that, in that situation.

 

[DallasInDC]

Because their game plan almost beat a much stronger team (in my opinion) on the road. The Cowboys had the largest spread going into week 1, and the Giants came to within 1 point of beating us. They're game plan was spot on, and save some knuckle-headed decision-making in the last 2 minutes of the game, that strategy would have prevailed.

That was pretty smart of the Giants to game plan three flukey turnovers....had it not been for that, this was probably a two to three score margin of victory.

If we look at the glass-half-full however, I am HEARTENED by the fact that the Giants felt compelled to abandon the big play all night in favor of the quick-release, dink-and-dunk stuff. They did this because they were afraid of our pass rush.

When was the last time a team had to design a game plan to avoid our pass rush?

Not to be a downer, I think it was more of a combination of the fear of their banged up OL against any pass rush and our coverage scheme to take away the big play. I think they were

 

[DallasInDC]

The Giants gained less than 300 yards of offense and scored 9 legitimate points.

This is the point that is most overlooked. I was listening to Moving the Chains on NFL radio and Pat Kirwin dropped the Cowboys 6 or 7 spots in his power ranking partly because he didn't think the defense was improved from last year based on Sunday's game. I am sure many see the 26 points allowed and the fact we were trailing until that last 7 secs and chalks that up on the D, But the reality is, is this D only gave up 9 points on drives not created by TOs. If your D can hold opposing teams to 3 FGs game, you will have a lot of wins in a season. I hate that Gregory is out, because you can see that he is going to be a phenomenal pass rusher and I really felt he would help hold the fort down until Hardy and RoMac comes back.