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Don't Let the Bendable Cowboys Defense Break You Up
Posted by Rafael at Tuesday, August 30, 2011
This man says, ''trust me.''
The early conventional wisdom on the 2011 Cowboys has the offense carrying a defense that is learning on the job and which carries shortcomings in the secondary.
The defense has struggled a bit in the last two pre-season matches, giving up lots of passing yards to the Chargers and lots of rushing yardage to the Vikings. But that simply looks like a Rob Ryan defense to me. Ryan has maintained all summer that he's confident his unit will play better than last year's Cowboys because he has more talent than he had at his disposal with the Browns.
Ryan is, in other words, putting strong faith in his ability to scheme his way to success. And he might be entitled to that bravado. I've looked at his Browns again and found some interesting factoids:
Ryan's guys were poor against the run, ranking 27th in rushing yardage.
They were not so hot in the yardage department at all, finishing 20th in that category.
They were, however, very good at preventing points. Ryan faced the Saints, the Patriots, the Jets, the Falcons, the Chiefs, the Ravens and thE Steelers, all of whom finished in the top half in scoring offense. Only the Steelers topped 24 points on his Browns in regulation. Ben Roethlisberger and company didn't match up well for the Browns, and scored 28 and 41 points in their games. (The Jets did score 26 points, but got that winning touchdown with less than a minute left in the 5th quarter of their game.)
Cleveland ranked 8th in scoring defense entering week 17, where they were toasted by Pittsburgh and finished 13th.
That still puts them a touchdown per game better than the 2010 Cowboys. I find it very hard to see how this unit won't improve. Those looking for more weekly 30-27 shootouts overlook, I believe, just how disorganized and how fundamentally lacking last year's defense became. That Cowboys unit was poor in the red zone. It gambled excessively and gave up lots of passing touchdowns.
I'm seeing a different early pattern from Ryan's guys. They concede yards in the middle of the field, but have been much tougher defending their goal-line. They also show a lot more flexibility in stopping drives. Let's take one sequence from the 2nd quarter against the Vikings. Donovan McNabb had some early success throwing to his tight ends and backs against Dallas' inside linebackers. On the Vikings' second drive, McNabb worked Adrian Peterson runs and a penalty on Bradie James to get the ball across mid-field.
On first down, Ryan decided to change up the coverage looks McNabb had been getting. He put his guys in a 4-2-5 nickel look, with Jason Hatcher and Jay Ratliff playing the defensive tackles. At the snap, Hatcher stood up and dropped into a shallow zone to the strong side:
Hatcher is giving James needed underneath help, and he causes McNabb to hesitate on his pass when the QB looks left after looking the coverage off to his right. McNabb nonethless feels he can push the pass past Hatcher and tries to hit the TE's outside shoulder when he hooks back past the left hashmark:
Hatcher does not remain stationary. He slides to his right, mirroring McNabb's eyes, and gets a hand on the pass. What's more, Hatcher does what the defense has drilled since day one -- he swats up on the ball, creating a volleyball-like back set for safety Gerald Sensabaugh, who races up to intercept the pass:
That's defense Ryan-style. His initial approach, with measured blitzing, wasn't working. Rather than dialing up harder variations of pressure, sending six or seven men, as last year's defense did, he changed his approach. Ryan showed McNabb a three-man rush with zone coverage tailored to his stop his primary. McNabb took the challenge, and Dallas got the turnover.
The stat sheet shows a lot of Vikings yards. It also shows a turnover. The scoreboard is unmoved.
That's a successful drive for the defense. And that is what we should expect while the defense works to make the schemes second nature. Lots of measured retreats, while the commander looks for that one key weakness in the offense's attack.
It won't be pretty much of the time. It certainly won't be dominant. But if Rob Ryan calls games as well as he says he will, his defense should be effective.
Labels: Cowboys analysis, Jason Hatcher, Rob Ryan
Posted by Rafael at Tuesday, August 30, 2011
This man says, ''trust me.''
The early conventional wisdom on the 2011 Cowboys has the offense carrying a defense that is learning on the job and which carries shortcomings in the secondary.
The defense has struggled a bit in the last two pre-season matches, giving up lots of passing yards to the Chargers and lots of rushing yardage to the Vikings. But that simply looks like a Rob Ryan defense to me. Ryan has maintained all summer that he's confident his unit will play better than last year's Cowboys because he has more talent than he had at his disposal with the Browns.
Ryan is, in other words, putting strong faith in his ability to scheme his way to success. And he might be entitled to that bravado. I've looked at his Browns again and found some interesting factoids:
Ryan's guys were poor against the run, ranking 27th in rushing yardage.
They were not so hot in the yardage department at all, finishing 20th in that category.
They were, however, very good at preventing points. Ryan faced the Saints, the Patriots, the Jets, the Falcons, the Chiefs, the Ravens and thE Steelers, all of whom finished in the top half in scoring offense. Only the Steelers topped 24 points on his Browns in regulation. Ben Roethlisberger and company didn't match up well for the Browns, and scored 28 and 41 points in their games. (The Jets did score 26 points, but got that winning touchdown with less than a minute left in the 5th quarter of their game.)
Cleveland ranked 8th in scoring defense entering week 17, where they were toasted by Pittsburgh and finished 13th.
That still puts them a touchdown per game better than the 2010 Cowboys. I find it very hard to see how this unit won't improve. Those looking for more weekly 30-27 shootouts overlook, I believe, just how disorganized and how fundamentally lacking last year's defense became. That Cowboys unit was poor in the red zone. It gambled excessively and gave up lots of passing touchdowns.
I'm seeing a different early pattern from Ryan's guys. They concede yards in the middle of the field, but have been much tougher defending their goal-line. They also show a lot more flexibility in stopping drives. Let's take one sequence from the 2nd quarter against the Vikings. Donovan McNabb had some early success throwing to his tight ends and backs against Dallas' inside linebackers. On the Vikings' second drive, McNabb worked Adrian Peterson runs and a penalty on Bradie James to get the ball across mid-field.
On first down, Ryan decided to change up the coverage looks McNabb had been getting. He put his guys in a 4-2-5 nickel look, with Jason Hatcher and Jay Ratliff playing the defensive tackles. At the snap, Hatcher stood up and dropped into a shallow zone to the strong side:
Hatcher is giving James needed underneath help, and he causes McNabb to hesitate on his pass when the QB looks left after looking the coverage off to his right. McNabb nonethless feels he can push the pass past Hatcher and tries to hit the TE's outside shoulder when he hooks back past the left hashmark:
Hatcher does not remain stationary. He slides to his right, mirroring McNabb's eyes, and gets a hand on the pass. What's more, Hatcher does what the defense has drilled since day one -- he swats up on the ball, creating a volleyball-like back set for safety Gerald Sensabaugh, who races up to intercept the pass:
That's defense Ryan-style. His initial approach, with measured blitzing, wasn't working. Rather than dialing up harder variations of pressure, sending six or seven men, as last year's defense did, he changed his approach. Ryan showed McNabb a three-man rush with zone coverage tailored to his stop his primary. McNabb took the challenge, and Dallas got the turnover.
The stat sheet shows a lot of Vikings yards. It also shows a turnover. The scoreboard is unmoved.
That's a successful drive for the defense. And that is what we should expect while the defense works to make the schemes second nature. Lots of measured retreats, while the commander looks for that one key weakness in the offense's attack.
It won't be pretty much of the time. It certainly won't be dominant. But if Rob Ryan calls games as well as he says he will, his defense should be effective.
Labels: Cowboys analysis, Jason Hatcher, Rob Ryan
