what's wrong with the defense? - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

Murphy3 · 09-16-2003, 10:58 AM

i didn't expect the cowboys to get much pressure on the QB..but i'm amazed at how badly the secondary looked yesterday..
newman, williams, and woody were all burned repeatedly.

sure, some of it has to do with lack of pressure..but surely they aren't that bad..are they?

woody was burned 2-3 times deep..luckily, collins simply made poor throws on each

u2sarajevo · 09-16-2003, 11:02 AM

I agree that the secondary did not look well in the second half yesterday. But, and I might be making excuses for them, I feel that our Offense has alot to do with our Defensive problems.

We have to find a running game and stop relying on the big plays to keep drives alive. The Defense is being worn down quickly because they are on the field too much.

And as for Newman, he is a rookie so he is going to be picked on.

Murphy3 · 09-16-2003, 11:08 AM

didn't the cowboys have a huge edge in time of possession yesterday?

Jeremiah · 09-16-2003, 11:27 AM

yup, 42:30 to about 26:38.

Dooby · 09-16-2003, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by: Murphy3
didn't the cowboys have a huge edge in time of possession yesterday?

Yeah but not in the 4th quarter. Giants scored and the 'boys quickly gave it back on downs and the Giants scored again. I think that says a lot about the state of our running game. You can't hadn teh ball off to anyone and have any sort of expectations.

Newman's played in 2 NFL games. He will get tested and he will get burned. Roy Williams made one really bad mistake that I saw when he didn't roll over on coverage and got burned for the touchdown. He's still young, too. Woody has no such excuses but I don't remember too many problems with Woody specifically.

Drbio · 09-16-2003, 11:52 AM

I think conditioning was a factor.

Murphy3 · 09-16-2003, 11:56 AM

well, it's easy to forget when woody was burned when the giants failed to take advantage of it...

dirno2000 · 09-16-2003, 12:46 PM

I'm pretty sure Woody has lost a step over the years, so I expect him to get burned a couple of times this year. The problem is that injuries in the secondary have forced us to use Woody to cover the slot receiver. Parcells wan't to get away from that this year.

I don't thing coverage is Roy's strong poing. He's a safety who's strong point is making plays around the line of scrimmage. He's got to do better.

Newman is going to get picked on. I take heart in the fact that he has been beaten, but he hasn't been burned this year. When he gets more comfortable with what he's seeing, I expect him to jump a couple of routes and take them back. Buchannan is a small corner who had at least one touchdown last year, and one Sunday. If they're going to pick on you make them pay.

Murphy3 · 09-16-2003, 01:09 PM

i agree with your assessment of woody..
but, the book on Williams coming out of college was that he's a dominating safety that could easily play corner on the NFL level as well.
he didn't look like it last night

madape · 09-16-2003, 02:16 PM

Our defense is VASTLY overrated. We have no one other than Glover who can rush the passer ( and please don't get fooled by last night, our squad could barely hang with a line depending on three less-than blue chip rookies). Our linebackers are tiny and weak. Our corners are inexperienced. We only have two playmakers on defense and they both play safety. Unfortunatley, one of those playmakers was making extraordinarily BAD plays last night. We forget sometimes that Roy Williams is only a second year player. I love him, but he's at least two years away from earning the reputation he has right now.

MFFL · 09-16-2003, 02:51 PM

Who is the other defensive tackle that plays on the other side of Glover. I swear his name is Claude Rains.

OutletPass · 09-16-2003, 03:27 PM

Excellent post, Mad...a really good, objective analysis.

I'll just add that we've come to expect a lot of Roy...even though he's just starting his secong year...but I wasn't too surprised that he got beat deep once...that happens. What was hard to believe were 3 pass interference calls on him; two coming on consecutive plays near the goal line. Truly weird.

Having said that, I truly love the guy. He'll prove out over time...which is a lot more than I can say for a lot of the other guys...your post was very on point, Mad.

Murphy3 · 09-16-2003, 03:35 PM

i expect roy williams to go through some growing pains..but he was truly awful for the most part last night..beaten on numerous occasions plus too many penalties.

but, i do expect him to bounce back.

on a positive note, ekuban had a sack and a half and a forced fumble

dirno2000 · 09-16-2003, 01:29 PM

He sure didn't. Sometimes it's hard for fans to judge safeties, because we don't know what the coverage is. but last night in the 1st half it was clearly a cover 2 and when Edwards let Hilliard go, Roy looked lost.

Also consider that Roy has bulked up since college. Parcells mentioned it at a press conference a couple of weeks ago. Said he was "a couple of biscuts away from being a linebacker". He pursues and hits like a linebacker, but if he want's to be an elite safety, he needs to show the corner skills that we heard about also.

QCarFan · 09-16-2003, 04:15 PM

I think Willie Blade, Stewart, and not sure who the other is plays alongside Glover but I never heard Glovers name all night. I heard Blades though

QCarFan · 09-16-2003, 05:59 PM

I really can't believe how the Giants rookies took control of our defensive line in the 2nd half. Our guys aren't rookie and 2nd year players either, that should not happen and can't happen with this defense. We need to get some presssure on the QB for this defense to be sucessful IMO.

QCarFan · 09-16-2003, 09:57 PM

hit the nail right on the head murphy3, the offense should not be blamed for the defensive collapse in the 2nd half. I mean, those guys just totally collapsed and who's fault is that? Its the defene's fault, the way they were pushed around in the 2nd half. The first half, they played extremely well. I dont know what happened, but they looked like two totally different defenses last night. They had absolutely NO pass rush in the 2nd half, and thats not acceptable especially when you consider the Giants started 3 rookies.

Just211 · 09-17-2003, 08:48 AM

i don't think conditioning is the thing. IMO the lack of a effective pass rush allows ANY team to be effective when they are agressively throwing the ball. cover 2 does not work without making the QB make quicker decisions. That's why teams always score when they need to on dallas. think of every close game dallas lost, and there is usually a point in the game that when the oppositon needed a score, they got it.
atlanta game was obvious, and NY scored when they needed to, but luckily dallas pulled it out.
Hopefully the offense can continue to score points, and allow the d some leeway (SP?). but it's really up to how agressive the other teams offense is.
and hopefully getting ross back will give the secondary a little more of a chance.

IMO, the only difference between Dallas' D and the Bucs D is the Bucs have a great D-line that always pressures the ball, and Dallas has an avg D line. BUT i think that is Parcells #1 objective to improve.

MavsFanatik33 · 09-18-2003, 09:18 PM

I thought they played strong first half, but in the 4th our offense kept going 3 and out or only getting a few first downs. NY was wearing our defense down, and it showed a lot. Hopefully this will improve over the course of the year.

Fah Q · 09-18-2003, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by: MavsFanatik33
I thought they played strong first half, but in the 4th our offense kept going 3 and out or only getting a few first downs. NY was wearing our defense down, and it showed a lot. Hopefully this will improve over the course of the year.

I disagree with the D getting tired. The cowboys had the ball for over 40 minutes, it would be really sad if the D would get tired that quickly.

Murphy3 · 09-18-2003, 10:24 PM

just211, pretty good post.
..one thing i'd like to say about the d-line of the cowboys... solid against the run and piss poor rushing the passer.
can't they find a happy median?