Understand this:
Nobody has seen the Dallas Cowboys defense play. I'm talking about the real defense.
Almost all year long we saw a Cowboys defensive line composed of backups. There were even a few times when the D-line was composed entirely of rookies, Parson, Osa, Bonhamma, and Golston
Prior to the start of the season, the projected starters were T-Law, Hill, Gallimore, and Gregory.
Out of 68 possible starts for these four D-linemen, there has been a combined 22 starts. That's not even a 3rd of the total starts at those positions.
Both Osa and Watkins were supposed to be backups. The other D-lineman projected to have significant snaps was Urban who is on IR after 4 starts. Basham, a 3rd stringer behind D-Law and Armstrong and Armstrong, had 5 and 6 starts respectively.
The projected starters have played together now for three games total. That's it. They have played together now for the length of a preseason schedule.. They are just now becoming familiar with each other. Their performance should begin to peak somewhere around.......now.
So now we have the original D-line starters backed up by the guys who started most of the season. That's a dominant rotation that has yet to be unleashed until Sunday.
Consider the linebackers. We finally have some. LVE is becoming downright respectable, Neal is one of the three LB's in the top 5 in tackles this season. Gifford is healthy, and the Cowboys can now afford to put the DROY, Parsons, in as a LB, though not all the time.
Do you remember when the thinnest squad when it came to talent was the safeties? Today, the Cowboys have real depth at the position. Three of the top ten tacklers on the team are safeties, Kearse, Kazee, and Hooker. They have a combined 5 INT's. And don't forget Donavan Wilson.
And the CB's? Please! the Three starters, Diggs, Jourdan and Brown, have combined for 17 INT's. In the past 15 years the entire team had 17 or more INT's only twice. In the previous six seasons, the entire Cowboys defense never recorded more than 10 INT's!.....and these three players combined for 17.
This season, 11 teams had two players with defensive TD's including the 49ers.. Two teams had three defenders with TD's. One team had four defenders with TD's. Miami was very impressive with 6 defenders scoring TD's. However, the Cowboys had the most defenders, this season, with TD's. They had seven. defensive players with at least one TD.
