Ball was probably the first domino in the chain of problems that killed our defense. Being awful,...

Ball was probably the first domino in the chain of problems that killed our defense.

Being awful, the corners could not trust him to back them up and be in position, so they pressed harder and made many more mistakes. The front seven could not get consistent pressure on the passer from a 3-4 set, so Wade sent 5, 6, and 7 guys after the passer to try to take him down before he could get the pass off. The blitzes were poorly designed and exposed the secondary to even more danger when they failed (which is the vast majority of the time), and not only were blitzes picked up, the QB then had all day to throw to WRs that our CBs had to cover for over 7 seconds with no free safety help.

All this was even more exaggerated after Romo went down and Wade and the defense as a whole was pressing to make up for his absence (Ware being uncharacteristically way out of position too many times comes to mind). Guys started freelancing, then pointing fingers, then just giving up at times. Thus the 31st ranked pass defense, two straight blowout giveups to GB and Jacksonville, and Wade fired.

Even after JG was elevated, he couldn’t fix the defense with Paul Pasqualoni because they had no answer at FS and had to cover for that deficiency. They at least managed more turnovers, and stopped the insane number of high risk, poorly designed blitzes. They were still way too easy to pass on, though.

Moral of the story, free safety is the glue holding the defense together, with an adequate Ken Hamlin we were fine and got good pressure on the QB. With Alan Ball, we were awesomely bad.

about 1 year ago mdlusk 6 comments 0 recs |

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Truth

Tony Romo 2011's League's Most Valuable Player

by thebigham on May 1, 2011 10:37 AM CDT reply actions

As Dunk mentioned, and I'll add here the slowness of our LBs also helped killl the defense.

Keith Brooking especially could not keep up with any type of receiver over the middle.

And as he also mentioned the offense also gave bad field position too many times to the D.

There were a series of cascading failures that stressed the defensive systems so much that caused it to implode.

by mdlusk on May 1, 2011 3:23 PM CDT reply actions

Safety has been our Achilies Heel

Since we put the 3 consecutive 5-11 seasons in our rear view mirror.

You need a FS who can make the “GUESS WHO?” Coming out of nowhere type of pick 6 plays, you’re Ed Reed types. This is true for teams with lesser talent at corner.

If you’re a team with really talented corners, then you need a SS who can patrol the deep middle of the field and strike the fear of god into QBs and WRs alike, you’re Brian Dawkins.

If your’e lucky enough to have a Troy Polumalu who plays like both a FS in his playmaking ability, and SS in his hard hitting approach, then you can get by with average talent at Corner and at the other Safety.

Hopefully, AOA can devolpe into one of these guys. He’s built like Brian Dawkins, and has Ed Reed’s Ball-Hoc ability. We need to give him a chance.

"The tone is business," Garrett said. "Let's get to work. The Giants are going to be at the Meadowlands on Sunday at 4:15. They're an awfully good football team. We have to get ready for them."

by Rohpuri on May 1, 2011 3:43 PM CDT via mobile reply actions