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Updated: January 27, 2012, 5:41 PM
No. 1 Priority
Spagnola: Pressure Must Be Applied
Mickey Spagnola
DallasCowboys.com Columnist
IRVING, Texas - The Senior Bowl is being played Saturday.
The NFL Combine isn't until Feb. 22-28.
Free agency doesn't begin until 3:01 p.m. (CT) March 13.
And my goodness, the NFL Draft isn't until April 26-28 – a long way off.
Doesn't matter. Everywhere you go, people want to know just who the Cowboys are going to draft, basically short for just who will the Cowboys select with their 14th pick in the first round.
That sure seemed to be the question over our five-day, 1,200-mile drive to and from the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., this past week, and mostly because we were quite conspicuous in our Cowboys truck, a billboard on wheels considering the logo and name plastered on the sides.
Why, the guys hanging out at the Texaco Food Mart on Government Street in Mobile definitely wanted to know, and when asked who they wanted, the one guy said a quarterback because, "I call Romo 'Happy Feet,'" in reference to the penguin movie, insisting Tony Romo starts tapping his feet the minute he's under duress in the pocket.
The other guy told me to tell Jerry Jones he needs to do better because, "I lost too much money on the Cowboys this year."
Sitting in the stands at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, a Cowboys fan sauntered over to sit in front of me, introduced himself and then wanted to know who the Cowboys were going to take, and it sure didn't pacify him when I told him, "They don't even know," motioning over to where the Cowboys contingent scouting that's day's practice was sitting. He told me who they needed to draft.
Then, unable to contain himself, he leaned over to tell Jerry Jones, too, and didn't stop there. After getting Jason Garrett's autograph after practice, he proceeded to give some advice to the Cowboys head coach.
Or take the guy who came out with our truck parked in downtown Shreveport, La., wanting to know if that was our truck, and told us, "Man, I'd trade my wife for that truck." And after taking his picture with the truck, he too wanted to know who the Cowboys were going to take.
And lastly there also was the guy at the gas station in Lindale, Texas, also wondering what the Cowboys were going to do, and when I asked him what he would do, he said, "Defense."
Yes, no matter the Cowboys went 8-8 and missed the playoffs for the third time in the past four seasons, these people, much like you guys, still care. Maybe care even more, and it sure didn't appease their curiosity when I'd say, you know, it's so early, the Cowboys can't possibly know who they will take with their first-round pick so how would I know.
But if you're asking me where I'd go if possible with that first-round pick, I'm with the guy in Lindale: Defense, and you don't have to be an Einstein to say that, considering the Cowboys only won three games this past season when scoring no more than 27 points and last year won only one game when scoring no more than 27 points, and that was the final game of the 2010 season when the Eagles were saving their starters for the playoffs.
You can't keep asking your offense to score 30 points a game to give yourself a chance to win. Sometimes you just got to win some of those games 20-17 or 23-20, right? Especially if you had been paying attention to last Sunday's conference championship games. The Cowboys have won just six games over the past three seasons when scoring no more than 20 points.
That's a lot of pressure on your quarterback to be perfect every time out. Everyone is talking Eli-this and Eli-that after the Giants beat the Niners by that 20-17 score in overtime, but heck, he only put up 10 points without the help of Kyle Williams' fumbles, the first setting up a 29-yard scoring drive and the second a layup, game-winning field goal.
That wasn't Eli, folks, that was defense.
And you know what? No one finished watching those two games saying, man, did you see how the cornerbacks played in those two games. Nope, it was more like, man, did you see the pressure those defenses were putting on opposing quarterbacks. That, man, was what stood out to me, the supreme difference between their defenses and what the Cowboys were throwing down the final month of the season.
When asked, that pressure also made an impression on Jones, too.
"Very much, sure did," Jones said from Mobile this week after watching one of the practices. "And it just shows me that when you have quarterbacks like Tom Brady, or you have it like (Eli) Manning, if you don't have pressure on them, you're toast.
"But by the same token, sometimes to get it you got to make sure everybody is on the same page just to be able to make a play when the ball comes out."
Now, the Cowboys finished with 42 sacks this season, leaving them in a three-way tie for the seventh most in the NFL, eight behind the league-leading 50 posted by Minnesota and Philadelphia. But when looking at the big picture, the Cowboys' total was but average, considering there were 10 teams finishing with between 39 and 42 sacks.
OK, 42 was an improvement over the 2010 season's 35, and matching their 2009 total. Great. But gosh, remember 2008 when they had 59 sacks following a 46-sack 2007 season in Wade Phillips' first two years as head coach?
Still, not good enough, especially when you consider one guy, DeMarcus Ware, almost had as many sacks as the rest of the entire team. Yep, Ware had 19.5 and all the other Cowboys' defenders totaled 22.5, and only two of them had as many as four, Anthony Spencer with a half-dozen and Jason Hatcher with 4.5.
That's a one-man band.
So again, while the Cowboys aren't even close to knowing what they'd love to do at No. 14, also factoring in they will be at the mercy of what the 13 teams ahead of them do, if it were me, and all things were equal, man, I'd grab me a guy who can pressure the quarterback – either an outside linebacker in a 3-4 or a 3-4 defensive end, since the 49ers proved a quality pass-rushing 3-4 defensive end can do damage rushing inside. See Justin Smith.
So maybe that is why three guys this past week at the Senior Bowl practices caught my eye: Alabama's Courtney Upshaw, South Carolina's Melvin Ingram and North Carolina's Quinton Coples. Upshaw and Ingram translate to either 4-3 defensive ends or 3-4 outside linebackers. Coples is a defensive end, either on the strong side of a 4-3 or 3-4.
Now I certainly haven't watched these guys play entire games, although I did see Upshaw in person at the BCS Championship game, the one in which he was selected as the defensive MVP. But for the most part this past week, these guys couldn't be blocked. Powerful, and even though Upshaw and Ingram were a shade under 6-2, an inch or two shorter than ideal, they did a nice job of setting the edge against the run, weighting 273 and 276 respectively.
But again, it's only Jan. 27, it's early. There still is a lot of ciphering to do: A lot more tests, a lot more interviews, a lot more evaluations to go. Not to mention what takes place in free agency potentially having a huge effect on draft decisions.
Still, me, whether I'm asked in Lindale, Texas, Shreveport, La., Lucedale, Miss., or Mobile, Ala., my answer will be: Someone who can team with Ware to put consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Someone who can help keep the likes of Eli Manning from throwing for 746 yards in two games, Mark Sanchez from throwing for 355 yards (second highest of the season), Matt Moore going for a season-high 288 yards, Rex Grossman from putting up 292 yards (third most this season) or Michael Vick compiling a season-high 129.9 quarterback rating.
Just no more four-touchdown-pass performances from three different quarterbacks in a season.
Otherwise, you definitely are toast. Burnt toast to be exact.
No. 1 Priority
Spagnola: Pressure Must Be Applied
Mickey Spagnola
DallasCowboys.com Columnist
IRVING, Texas - The Senior Bowl is being played Saturday.
The NFL Combine isn't until Feb. 22-28.
Free agency doesn't begin until 3:01 p.m. (CT) March 13.
And my goodness, the NFL Draft isn't until April 26-28 – a long way off.
Doesn't matter. Everywhere you go, people want to know just who the Cowboys are going to draft, basically short for just who will the Cowboys select with their 14th pick in the first round.
That sure seemed to be the question over our five-day, 1,200-mile drive to and from the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., this past week, and mostly because we were quite conspicuous in our Cowboys truck, a billboard on wheels considering the logo and name plastered on the sides.
Why, the guys hanging out at the Texaco Food Mart on Government Street in Mobile definitely wanted to know, and when asked who they wanted, the one guy said a quarterback because, "I call Romo 'Happy Feet,'" in reference to the penguin movie, insisting Tony Romo starts tapping his feet the minute he's under duress in the pocket.
The other guy told me to tell Jerry Jones he needs to do better because, "I lost too much money on the Cowboys this year."
Sitting in the stands at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, a Cowboys fan sauntered over to sit in front of me, introduced himself and then wanted to know who the Cowboys were going to take, and it sure didn't pacify him when I told him, "They don't even know," motioning over to where the Cowboys contingent scouting that's day's practice was sitting. He told me who they needed to draft.
Then, unable to contain himself, he leaned over to tell Jerry Jones, too, and didn't stop there. After getting Jason Garrett's autograph after practice, he proceeded to give some advice to the Cowboys head coach.
Or take the guy who came out with our truck parked in downtown Shreveport, La., wanting to know if that was our truck, and told us, "Man, I'd trade my wife for that truck." And after taking his picture with the truck, he too wanted to know who the Cowboys were going to take.
And lastly there also was the guy at the gas station in Lindale, Texas, also wondering what the Cowboys were going to do, and when I asked him what he would do, he said, "Defense."
Yes, no matter the Cowboys went 8-8 and missed the playoffs for the third time in the past four seasons, these people, much like you guys, still care. Maybe care even more, and it sure didn't appease their curiosity when I'd say, you know, it's so early, the Cowboys can't possibly know who they will take with their first-round pick so how would I know.
But if you're asking me where I'd go if possible with that first-round pick, I'm with the guy in Lindale: Defense, and you don't have to be an Einstein to say that, considering the Cowboys only won three games this past season when scoring no more than 27 points and last year won only one game when scoring no more than 27 points, and that was the final game of the 2010 season when the Eagles were saving their starters for the playoffs.
You can't keep asking your offense to score 30 points a game to give yourself a chance to win. Sometimes you just got to win some of those games 20-17 or 23-20, right? Especially if you had been paying attention to last Sunday's conference championship games. The Cowboys have won just six games over the past three seasons when scoring no more than 20 points.
That's a lot of pressure on your quarterback to be perfect every time out. Everyone is talking Eli-this and Eli-that after the Giants beat the Niners by that 20-17 score in overtime, but heck, he only put up 10 points without the help of Kyle Williams' fumbles, the first setting up a 29-yard scoring drive and the second a layup, game-winning field goal.
That wasn't Eli, folks, that was defense.
And you know what? No one finished watching those two games saying, man, did you see how the cornerbacks played in those two games. Nope, it was more like, man, did you see the pressure those defenses were putting on opposing quarterbacks. That, man, was what stood out to me, the supreme difference between their defenses and what the Cowboys were throwing down the final month of the season.
When asked, that pressure also made an impression on Jones, too.
"Very much, sure did," Jones said from Mobile this week after watching one of the practices. "And it just shows me that when you have quarterbacks like Tom Brady, or you have it like (Eli) Manning, if you don't have pressure on them, you're toast.
"But by the same token, sometimes to get it you got to make sure everybody is on the same page just to be able to make a play when the ball comes out."
Now, the Cowboys finished with 42 sacks this season, leaving them in a three-way tie for the seventh most in the NFL, eight behind the league-leading 50 posted by Minnesota and Philadelphia. But when looking at the big picture, the Cowboys' total was but average, considering there were 10 teams finishing with between 39 and 42 sacks.
OK, 42 was an improvement over the 2010 season's 35, and matching their 2009 total. Great. But gosh, remember 2008 when they had 59 sacks following a 46-sack 2007 season in Wade Phillips' first two years as head coach?
Still, not good enough, especially when you consider one guy, DeMarcus Ware, almost had as many sacks as the rest of the entire team. Yep, Ware had 19.5 and all the other Cowboys' defenders totaled 22.5, and only two of them had as many as four, Anthony Spencer with a half-dozen and Jason Hatcher with 4.5.
That's a one-man band.
So again, while the Cowboys aren't even close to knowing what they'd love to do at No. 14, also factoring in they will be at the mercy of what the 13 teams ahead of them do, if it were me, and all things were equal, man, I'd grab me a guy who can pressure the quarterback – either an outside linebacker in a 3-4 or a 3-4 defensive end, since the 49ers proved a quality pass-rushing 3-4 defensive end can do damage rushing inside. See Justin Smith.
So maybe that is why three guys this past week at the Senior Bowl practices caught my eye: Alabama's Courtney Upshaw, South Carolina's Melvin Ingram and North Carolina's Quinton Coples. Upshaw and Ingram translate to either 4-3 defensive ends or 3-4 outside linebackers. Coples is a defensive end, either on the strong side of a 4-3 or 3-4.
Now I certainly haven't watched these guys play entire games, although I did see Upshaw in person at the BCS Championship game, the one in which he was selected as the defensive MVP. But for the most part this past week, these guys couldn't be blocked. Powerful, and even though Upshaw and Ingram were a shade under 6-2, an inch or two shorter than ideal, they did a nice job of setting the edge against the run, weighting 273 and 276 respectively.
But again, it's only Jan. 27, it's early. There still is a lot of ciphering to do: A lot more tests, a lot more interviews, a lot more evaluations to go. Not to mention what takes place in free agency potentially having a huge effect on draft decisions.
Still, me, whether I'm asked in Lindale, Texas, Shreveport, La., Lucedale, Miss., or Mobile, Ala., my answer will be: Someone who can team with Ware to put consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Someone who can help keep the likes of Eli Manning from throwing for 746 yards in two games, Mark Sanchez from throwing for 355 yards (second highest of the season), Matt Moore going for a season-high 288 yards, Rex Grossman from putting up 292 yards (third most this season) or Michael Vick compiling a season-high 129.9 quarterback rating.
Just no more four-touchdown-pass performances from three different quarterbacks in a season.
Otherwise, you definitely are toast. Burnt toast to be exact.
