Will not having a legit pass rusher hurt us down the stretch?

[Crown Royal]

Yes, I don't get it with Hayden's snap count. They are winning so maybe I'm missing something, but IMO he's the weakest link on the defense. He gets blown up in run defense often or only gets single-blocked when you want the 1-tech to always draw double-teams. Most DTs are either good pass rushers or good run defenders, but Hayden's not really good at either, at least not consistently good. I think T. McClain's snap count will start to exceed Hayden's at some point soon.

At some point Crawford is going to consistently draw double teams and Hayden will get nothing but single. That's if it already isn't happening.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

To answer the question about the thread - at some point this season, some team will very likely score a lot of points on us and either we won't be able to keep up OR it will force Romo to go into 2011-2013 mode and start slinging, which can either be good or bad. The defense is good enough to compete, but it will get burned. NOt sure how we will handle it when it does.

Yeah, I view like the 1991 defense that was eventually exposed vs. Detroit in the playoffs

 

[gdogg24]

Yes, I don't get it with Hayden's snap count. They are winning so maybe I'm missing something, but IMO he's the weakest link on the defense. He gets blown up in run defense often or only gets single-blocked when you want the 1-tech to always draw double-teams. Most DTs are either good pass rushers or good run defenders, but Hayden's not really good at either, at least not consistently good. I think T. McClain's snap count will start to exceed Hayden's at some point soon.

Do you think if they bring Brent or Okoye on the 53 they'll cut Hayden and go with McClain & one or both of those two guys?

 

[MichaelWinicki]

At some point Crawford is going to consistently draw double teams and Hayden will get nothing but single. That's if it already isn't happening.

Agreed, but similar happened last season with Hatcher at the #3... no question he was getting extra attention and it never did translate to better production out of the #1.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Yes, I don't get it with Hayden's snap count. They are winning so maybe I'm missing something, but IMO he's the weakest link on the defense. He gets blown up in run defense often or only gets single-blocked when you want the 1-tech to always draw double-teams. Most DTs are either good pass rushers or good run defenders, but Hayden's not really good at either, at least not consistently good. I think T. McClain's snap count will start to exceed Hayden's at some point soon.

Even if you had a player half as good as Suh, which would be a 'JAG' DT, you would get a couple sacks, half a dozen hits and 25 pressures, which would still blow Hayden's production (based on last season) out of the water.

 

[xwalker]

Do you think if they bring Brent or Okoye on the 53 they'll cut Hayden and go with McClain & one or both of those two guys?

No. Marinelli seems dedicated to Hayden for some reason. IMO, they're more likely to go with an extra DLineman active (9 vs 8) than to bench or cut Hayden. T. McClain can play the 3-tech or 1-tech position which gives them flexibility if they did add another 1-tech like Josh Brent.

If they carry 9 for the game, then if Okoye is the 9th guy TMc plays 1-tech and if Brent is the 9th guy, TMc plays 3-tech.

They have several weeks before they would be forced to activate Okoye or Brent so injuries could happen between now and then which would change the situation.

 

[Doomsday101]

I don't think the issue is up the middle the problems are on the edge. Dallas gets a good push and even decent penetration but not getting anything off the edges. My hope is Spencer continue to get himself in shape and up to speed and of course DLaw coming back.

 

[xwalker]

Even if you had a player half as good as Suh, which would be a 'JAG' DT, you would get a couple sacks, half a dozen hits and 25 pressures, which would still blow Hayden's production (based on last season) out of the water.

The current Cowboys coaching staff puts a lot of emphasis on chemistry and leadership. Hayden on defense and Free on offense seem to be guys they like for those reasons. They're winning so I don't want to complain too much. It's actually nice to know that they are winning and still have an easy path and multiple options to get better at a position like the 1-tech DT spot.

 

[CCBoy]

I'm already satisfied with the production by Mincey, Spencer, and Crawford. They are tough against a run and keep the opposing quarterback in his pocket, that is closing in on him.

Get Melton to start appearing during the game, and add a quick twitch outside in Lawrence, and this should step up a rate at the least.

 

[Jarv]

Our pass rush is very vanilla, not a lot of twists or stunts. We maintain our lanes and push the pocket. I think we did that because we were getting gashed early in the season on runs.

I think the best is yet to come, as our offense evolves (Yes I think it can still get better) and we build up bigger leads, the need for the vanilla pass rush (defend the run) will diminish and we'll see a more sophisticated pass rush. That and along with improving health and new bodies being added along the defensive line, were going to surprise people towards the end of the season.

The old adage of getting hot or peaking at the right time, may be exactly what we see out of this defense come December/January. Kinda like Rocky fighting Apollo Creed right handed until the 15th round, then switching back to lefty for the final round.

Remember in 2006, when Peyton won his championship, his defense drastically improved through the playoffs, where they carried him more than he carried them. Many will be surprised in 4-6 weeks.

 

[xwalker]

At some point Crawford is going to consistently draw double teams and Hayden will get nothing but single. That's if it already isn't happening.

That's bad because the 3-tech in this defense needs to get one-on-one blocking. Crawford is strong for his size, but he's really light to be taking on double-teams. He said his weight was down to 273 pounds because he started out playing DE. The other problem with that is that if Crawford gets double-teamed, then Hayden is not a pass rusher and can't really benefit from single-blocking.

Josh Brent at his peak would blow up single blocking by driving that OLineman back. He sometimes could drive double-teams back. The concept of him playing again is intriguing but I just don't know how effective he can be without going through training camp to really get into football condition.

I think TMc can beat single-blocking and they've been playing T. Crawford and Melton together on some passing downs.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Eventually, I think it will but it is what it is. The team made the decision to move on. That train has left the station and now we gotta race what we got. Simple as that really.

 

[Crown Royal]

Eventually, I think it will but it is what it is. The team made the decision to move on. That train has left the station and now we gotta race what we got. Simple as that really.

I for one am happy with what they did in the offseason. We have a ton of free agents coming up this offseason, and although Ware and Hatcher are playing very well, keeping them would have required some of the younger talent to walk. No hard feelings, our defense is playing better than last year, and we have the ability to improve.

Not being mentioned is the continued great job that the pro-personnel department has been doing over the last couple of years.

 

[Red Dragon]

The lack of a good pass rusher will hurt, but aside from getting everyone to "rush harder!" it's too late, except to hope that DeMarcus Lawrence is a beast.

 

[Crown Royal]

The lack of a good pass rusher will hurt, but aside from getting everyone to "rush harder!" it's too late, except to hope that DeMarcus Lawrence is a beast.

This times 100. We can lament it all we want, but there is little left that we can do about it (outside of overpaying for hired guns). I'm hoping our GM, coach and personnel department, who have done a pretty good job at building this team over the last 3 years, have a plan to address the defense further in the offseason, but for now all we can do is play with who is on the roster.

 

[Risen Star]

Yeah, I view like the 1991 defense that was eventually exposed vs. Detroit in the playoffs

That defense was on the cusp of being very good. This one isn't. It needs many more players first.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

That defense was on the cusp of being very good. This one isn't. It needs many more players first.

You're right. I give that defense the nod when it comes to overall talent. But even then it was still lacking a few bricks.

But in defense of this defense, that was a different era. Talent now is much more dispersed (for reasons that have been batted zillions of times in NFL forums across the net) and I don't think you need to have the talent level today that equals the Cowboys defensive talent level of 1992 in in order to have a very good defense in 2014.

I look at the Seahawk defense of last season and it put up some terrific numbers but overall it wasn't anywhere nearly talented as say the '92 Cowboy defense.

Again, that was a different era.

 

[Wayne02]

The one team that I would like to avoid in the playoffs is Green Bay. They're the one team that would give the Cowboys the most trouble, because of their offensive abilities. It would be a shoot out kind of a game because I don't believe the Packers would be able to stop the Cowboys balanced offense. I don't like shoot out type of games especially in the playoffs, because no team has a clear advantage, it usually comes down to who has the ball last.

 

[Eddie]

Wow ... are we really talking about Super Bowl already? Must be funny cause the Iggles fans are talking Super Bowl also ...

 

[honyock]

Good observation. T. McClain was really energized against the Giants. I think he's just now getting close to 100% recovered from the injury.

The interesting thing that I've noticed about the DEs, especially Mincey is their style of pass rush. Many outside pass rushers run up-field on most snaps and are pushed past the QB on most snaps and then on occasion get a sack, but are often just out of the play when the OT pushes then wide of the QB. Mincey rarely if ever rushes up-field and wide. He's always going directly at the QB or rushing inside of the OT. He tends to get some amount of pressure when the wide, up-field rushers might be getting nothing, but he doesn't get a couple of sacks per game like many of those wide, up-field rushers.

I would compare Mincey to a CB that plays good but safe coverage and rarely gets INTs or a Safety that plays safe instead of going for the big hit.

Mincey's style also lends itself to better run defense.

I agree, a lot of Minceys pressure has come from a bull rush or a hard inside move. He's got a nice inside move and he gave both Wilson and Eli problems with it.

The problem has been that it looks like he's wingingg it on his own and not as a part of stunts. When he misses, it leaves the QB a nice wide lane outside of him. Wilson took advantage of this a couple of times, and Eli had his scramble for a first down on a Muncey inside Rush. Marinelli was screaming at Mincey when he came off the field after that play, and gesturing like he was steamed that Mincey lost contain.

It made me think that what you've seen with the pass rush style of the DE's isn't by chance, and that Marinelli has been coaching them to have discipline in keeping their lanes and not being pushed past the QB or getting pinned inside and losing contain. Maybe he wants them to keep their discipline instead of just pun their ears back, and have the tackles crash hard to collapse the pocket.