Dallas Cowboys Game Tape Review: Defense

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Defensewins

Was it strategy or was the best we can do at the moment. We are a young defense in this new scheme and we have one real game under our belt. At this moment I am willing to chalk it up to we are still learning the new system. We did not look a good a against a very terrible Dallas offensive line. We better pick it up or we will get blown out by real NFL team. Our ability to stop the run consistently is a real serious problem at the moment.
I also did not agree on some of the substitution pattern. It is a work in progress and I will to give Hasslett a chance to right the ship. If the defense does not improve we will not make the playoffs.

Well, Dallas' longest run in the game was 12 yards. And Hall flat whiffed on a tackle on that play. Second longest running play was 11 yards, and Rogers whiffed on that tackle.

The consistency of the Dallas running game was given to them by design. Which I'm fine with. If they want to run a power draw in every third and 2 situation, I'm fine with that. You have to account for the fact that that strategy is going to cost the offense a chance to score points, giving up more first downs. But if they can't generate a meaningful running play, I'm not exactly sure why we should be concerned whether they are getting five yards or one yard on their runs.

They were much more successful in their passing game, despite the defense we were playing being pass-centric. So that's a concern.

Here for the record as who I marked in coverage on the 9 plays where Dallas attacked our pass defense in chunks. The nine plays out of 75 we need to improve on to be an elite defense:

Hall 4
Doughty 3
Fletcher 1
Blown (Orakpo) 1

And the Fletcher completion was after a whiffed sack by Landry, Austin just got behind him in space.

So Hall and Doughty were picked on and gave up some yards in chunks. But if only about 25% of Dallas' throws at Hall resulted in 10+ yards gained, we're winning that battle in the long run. That's a waste of their "best" offensive strategy.