Dallas Cowboys Game Tape Review: Defense

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Slingin Sammy 33

Giving up 5 yds per run is what poor defenses do. It matters if a team is smart enough to keep doing it all the way down the field. What makes you think that if the D can't stop the run all the way down the field it will magically do so inside the 10? Plus running the ball keeps the ToP up for the O and keeps the D on the field, wearing them down.

Since the 2005 season there have been 23 teams that allowed over 4.5 yds/att. Only 5 of them finished over .500 (21.7%). Of those 5, one had Peyton Manning and led the league in Passing Yards, another the same year had Drew Brees and was 2nd in the NFL in Passing Yds.

Football 101, running inside the ten requires better execution because there are more players in a confined area, holes are smaller, ballcarriers are reached quicker, etc.

I'm not saying there's no problem with the run defense, but it's not like we were whipped by Dallas in the rushing attack. They averaged like 4.8 YPC and never had a carry over 12 yards. That's an efficient day running the football, but hardly getting gashed like it seems some people are commenting on.

We're not going to give up 4.5 YPC for the season. It's just not going to happen. We might have a below average run defense overall (we did on Sunday, at least), but like I said above, if it doesn't affect the pass defense for the negative (because of schematic alterations to plug a leaky run defense), it won't matter.