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Two Sweet
Josh Ellis
DallasCowboys.com Staff Writer
Anthony Spencer went eight straight games without a sack before the season finale.
IRVING, Texas - If I may shoehorn in a Valentine's Day-themed analogy to start with, football, as life, is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.
There.
Going into last year, the Cowboys were pretty sure they had fine truffles in cornerback Mike Jenkins and outside linebacker Anthony Spencer, both coming off particularly sweet starting debuts in 2009. After fielding one of the worst defenses in team history, however, and in large part because of the way they were let down by those two players, the club is left wondering just how deep are the cavities it is left with.
Defensively speaking, almost no one on the Cowboys lived up to the expectations built by their strong close to 2009. But none were as disappointing as Spencer and Jenkins, the young guys who appeared so poised for greatness down the stretch of the team's NFC East title season.
A couple of weeks ago, when Jerry Jones was admitting the Cowboys had read their own press clippings and incorrectly trumped up expectations, he mentioned those two by name.
"Did we have it blown up in our minds that we could get the kind of years out of Jenkins and Spencer (again)?" Jones said. "Was that blown up, out of kilter than we had had in the past? … You can blow it up when they're coming off Pro Bowls."
It was Jenkins who had been an All-Star in his first year starting opposite Terence Newman. Spencer came on a little slower, but his dominance at the end of the '09 season earned him a place on the All-Pro team of at least one well-respected national voice.
Their rise seemed to give the Cowboys defense a hard-to-beat balance. Spencer was supposed to make teams pay for devoting extra blockers to DeMarcus Ware on the other side of the 3-4, and Jay Ratliff in the middle. Jenkins, everyone thought, was the perfect playmaker complement to fellow Pro Bowler Newman on the other side.
But as it turned out, Spencer disappeared for long stretches of 2010, going eight games without a sack as the defense played its absolute worst, and Jenkins led the league with six flags thrown against him for pass interference, to go along with two for defensive holding and another for illegal contact. When he wasn't being called out by the officials, he had trouble keeping up with opposing receivers. Teams completed 62 percent of the passes thrown against Jenkins, up from 48 percent in 2009, and his interception tally dropped from five to one.
Billed as an elite run defender by Wade Phillips, Spencer only had one tackle for loss in 2010 after having nine the year prior. He flashed promise as a pass rusher down the stretch of '09 and into the playoffs of that year, but it was the exception in his career, not the rule, as he certainly didn't keep the pace up in 2010. He had just 3.0 sacks going into the season finale against the Eagles, a game in which he happened to twice whip Philly's backup offensive line. His quarterback pressures were way down from one year to the next as well, 39 to 14.
Of course, the lack of a pass rush makes Jenkins' job more difficult, and poor coverage makes it harder for Spencer to get to quarterbacks in time. It's kind of a chicken-and-egg question, and it's not really important as to who is more at fault between the two. Both must be better for the defense to improve in 2011. If they aren't, whatever personnel moves the team makes won't likely prove to be much of a difference.
Unlike other positions that could be addressed in free agency or the draft, these two are basically locked into their jobs, because the quickest way for a turnaround would be for them to get back to the level they were before the meltdown.
One could argue that the 2009 performances of both were a mirage, but the team has no option but to hope that is not the case. The Cowboys spent first-round picks on them, and have so many holes to fill elsewhere that they can't afford to be wrong about Jenkins and Spencer.
This dual reclamation project becomes priority No. 1 for new defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, but who knows whether a change in coach and scheme will make any difference. Phillips was the fall guy for Jenkins and Spencer midway through the season, but his calls were basically the same as the year before. Blaming their problems entirely on the coaching would be pretty misguided, as Jones agrees.
"I think the way we played," Jones said of the team's 2010 struggles. "The way talented players played. I think that tells you why you don't win the ballgames. If you don't win the ballgames with talented players, then it's the way they've played. Do you think that's totally coaching? No, I do not think that's totally coaching. I think players have a lot of responsibility for it."
In an ideal world, Jenkins, Spencer and the rest of the defense will turn things around so the team can get into the playoffs in 2011. What's more, though, the success or failure of those two will play a huge role in whether the team can contend for years to come. If they can't return to 2009 form or close to it, the Cowboys will be forced to go back to the drawing board at two key positions, a huge setback for a team that only has so long before it has to start looking for a new franchise quarterback anyway. At that point, they might as well blow the entire thing up.
There's no way to sugarcoat it. Spencer and Jenkins have to be better, or else.
Josh Ellis
DallasCowboys.com Staff Writer
Anthony Spencer went eight straight games without a sack before the season finale.
IRVING, Texas - If I may shoehorn in a Valentine's Day-themed analogy to start with, football, as life, is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.
There.
Going into last year, the Cowboys were pretty sure they had fine truffles in cornerback Mike Jenkins and outside linebacker Anthony Spencer, both coming off particularly sweet starting debuts in 2009. After fielding one of the worst defenses in team history, however, and in large part because of the way they were let down by those two players, the club is left wondering just how deep are the cavities it is left with.
Defensively speaking, almost no one on the Cowboys lived up to the expectations built by their strong close to 2009. But none were as disappointing as Spencer and Jenkins, the young guys who appeared so poised for greatness down the stretch of the team's NFC East title season.
A couple of weeks ago, when Jerry Jones was admitting the Cowboys had read their own press clippings and incorrectly trumped up expectations, he mentioned those two by name.
"Did we have it blown up in our minds that we could get the kind of years out of Jenkins and Spencer (again)?" Jones said. "Was that blown up, out of kilter than we had had in the past? … You can blow it up when they're coming off Pro Bowls."
It was Jenkins who had been an All-Star in his first year starting opposite Terence Newman. Spencer came on a little slower, but his dominance at the end of the '09 season earned him a place on the All-Pro team of at least one well-respected national voice.
Their rise seemed to give the Cowboys defense a hard-to-beat balance. Spencer was supposed to make teams pay for devoting extra blockers to DeMarcus Ware on the other side of the 3-4, and Jay Ratliff in the middle. Jenkins, everyone thought, was the perfect playmaker complement to fellow Pro Bowler Newman on the other side.
But as it turned out, Spencer disappeared for long stretches of 2010, going eight games without a sack as the defense played its absolute worst, and Jenkins led the league with six flags thrown against him for pass interference, to go along with two for defensive holding and another for illegal contact. When he wasn't being called out by the officials, he had trouble keeping up with opposing receivers. Teams completed 62 percent of the passes thrown against Jenkins, up from 48 percent in 2009, and his interception tally dropped from five to one.
Billed as an elite run defender by Wade Phillips, Spencer only had one tackle for loss in 2010 after having nine the year prior. He flashed promise as a pass rusher down the stretch of '09 and into the playoffs of that year, but it was the exception in his career, not the rule, as he certainly didn't keep the pace up in 2010. He had just 3.0 sacks going into the season finale against the Eagles, a game in which he happened to twice whip Philly's backup offensive line. His quarterback pressures were way down from one year to the next as well, 39 to 14.
Of course, the lack of a pass rush makes Jenkins' job more difficult, and poor coverage makes it harder for Spencer to get to quarterbacks in time. It's kind of a chicken-and-egg question, and it's not really important as to who is more at fault between the two. Both must be better for the defense to improve in 2011. If they aren't, whatever personnel moves the team makes won't likely prove to be much of a difference.
Unlike other positions that could be addressed in free agency or the draft, these two are basically locked into their jobs, because the quickest way for a turnaround would be for them to get back to the level they were before the meltdown.
One could argue that the 2009 performances of both were a mirage, but the team has no option but to hope that is not the case. The Cowboys spent first-round picks on them, and have so many holes to fill elsewhere that they can't afford to be wrong about Jenkins and Spencer.
This dual reclamation project becomes priority No. 1 for new defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, but who knows whether a change in coach and scheme will make any difference. Phillips was the fall guy for Jenkins and Spencer midway through the season, but his calls were basically the same as the year before. Blaming their problems entirely on the coaching would be pretty misguided, as Jones agrees.
"I think the way we played," Jones said of the team's 2010 struggles. "The way talented players played. I think that tells you why you don't win the ballgames. If you don't win the ballgames with talented players, then it's the way they've played. Do you think that's totally coaching? No, I do not think that's totally coaching. I think players have a lot of responsibility for it."
In an ideal world, Jenkins, Spencer and the rest of the defense will turn things around so the team can get into the playoffs in 2011. What's more, though, the success or failure of those two will play a huge role in whether the team can contend for years to come. If they can't return to 2009 form or close to it, the Cowboys will be forced to go back to the drawing board at two key positions, a huge setback for a team that only has so long before it has to start looking for a new franchise quarterback anyway. At that point, they might as well blow the entire thing up.
There's no way to sugarcoat it. Spencer and Jenkins have to be better, or else.