Hard Knocks Life Vol. 3-Will the Defense be up to Par(sons)- ‘21 Cowboys Season Thread
- Thread starter BlueHeffner
- Start date
BigE214
Future GOAT
I know I’m late but 
some fishy shyt going on
https://www.wfaa.com/article/sports...eles/287-a081b355-85e7-40c4-94d7-794cb4d89acc
imagine us being dominate and this coming out, what would be said about Jerry
some fishy shyt going on
https://www.wfaa.com/article/sports...eles/287-a081b355-85e7-40c4-94d7-794cb4d89acc
imagine us being dominate and this coming out, what would be said about Jerry
IsThatBrothaMouzone?
Superstar
Dak sees the field just fine.
His problem is accuracy....inconsistent ball placement. When the D is in man coverage, Dak knows his guys will usually win the battle and he can make a great pass. Dak is one of the best at throwing against man coverage and against the blitz.
Zone coverage is his weakness. Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers etc., will eat up a zone and just hit you with 8 to 15 yard completions all the way down the field. Dak will hit a couple of throws and then miss a couple of throws. Then he'll throw a good pass and it gets dropped. Dude hates throwing to receivers facing zone....so you'll see him throwing to RBs and TEs a lot more. Against man coverage, it's pretty much all CeeDee, Amari, Gallup, Wilson etc.
I'm not sure if Dak can fix his accuracy issues. Ball placement is probably the most important trait for a QB outside of mentally processing information. Brady never had the strongest arm but he can put the ball exactly where he wants it. The day Dak can consistently do that is the day he's league MVP.
His problem is accuracy....inconsistent ball placement. When the D is in man coverage, Dak knows his guys will usually win the battle and he can make a great pass. Dak is one of the best at throwing against man coverage and against the blitz.
Zone coverage is his weakness. Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers etc., will eat up a zone and just hit you with 8 to 15 yard completions all the way down the field. Dak will hit a couple of throws and then miss a couple of throws. Then he'll throw a good pass and it gets dropped. Dude hates throwing to receivers facing zone....so you'll see him throwing to RBs and TEs a lot more. Against man coverage, it's pretty much all CeeDee, Amari, Gallup, Wilson etc.
I'm not sure if Dak can fix his accuracy issues. Ball placement is probably the most important trait for a QB outside of mentally processing information. Brady never had the strongest arm but he can put the ball exactly where he wants it. The day Dak can consistently do that is the day he's league MVP.
BigE214
Future GOAT
Really a slap in the face. He’s not the leader I gave him credit for being and they need to stop letting him do the pregame speech.
Last edited:
BigE214
Future GOAT
perhaps but doesn’t trust what he sees and is often late with the ball.
The most ran route or complete route to our WRs are comeback routes. You hardly ever see Dak throw that pass before a WRs breaks. He needs to see the front of your jersey then he’ll zip the ball to you. It’s been like that since he’s been here, no progression. If he was reading the field like that then those passes would come out before a WR breaks
darealvelle
Real Talk
BossMan time
Ghpstface
Kanye West fan
At this point I don’t even care if we win Saturday. All I care about is playoff wins. We could have gone 17-0 or sneaked in at the 7th seed, unless we win in the playoffs none of it means shyt to me.
I understand his frustration. What Cooper and Lamb did was a slap in the face to every fan that lives and dies with this team.
darealvelle
Real Talk
Coop dont care anyway probably since he dont get the ball.
This not as aggravating to me as Cabo but it's on annoying on a different level.
I don't expect these dudes to be holed up in their house studying film 24/7 for the next 2 weeks. I know that's not realistic. And I also realize both these nikkas already had the shyt so they probably feel invincible against it anyway. But it's just a bad look publicly when this shyt is spreading like wildfire AND your teammate was just there the other night and got tested positive. Like do you really need to be at THAT game? NBA season lasts several more months, go to a fukkin game in March.
I don't expect these dudes to be holed up in their house studying film 24/7 for the next 2 weeks. I know that's not realistic. And I also realize both these nikkas already had the shyt so they probably feel invincible against it anyway. But it's just a bad look publicly when this shyt is spreading like wildfire AND your teammate was just there the other night and got tested positive. Like do you really need to be at THAT game? NBA season lasts several more months, go to a fukkin game in March.
There are many ways to evaluate Sunday and most of the pointed questions were asked of the failed offensive performance Tuesday. Unlike their mates who handle business across the line of scrimmage, the Cowboys defense put up a fight that we can probably point toward as “potentially capable of beating Arizona in a rematch.” The bar is not the highest ever, but it should be meaningful.
Kyler Murray definitely did not have an unannounced homecoming. Tom Rinaldi made sure we knew (several times) what Murray has done in AT&T Stadium. The record sounds impressive, but his level of competition has raised a million times over from his first appearance there against Houston’s Lamar High School until Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys.
But what makes him arguably the most impossible QB to prepare for and contain is that even at this highest level of football achievement — playing on the road against a divisional champion-caliber team in the NFL with all eyes on him — he still manages to appear the most gifted athlete, even among gifted athletes. Yes, you would rather play against Murray than Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers, but you can at least sort of prepare for them. What human can do what Murray can do on the practice field? How can a player that tiny be faster than everyone? Also, unlike Lamar Jackson or even Michael Vick, how can a player that elusive still put the ball in a bucket perfectly on difficult throws while on the run?
He is definitely beatable — just ask the Detroit Lions — but, he asks questions of a defense on his day that are awfully unique.
The good news is that Dallas has answers. They have amazing athletes in their front seven and while we will concede this entire league is made up of 99th percentile humans, there are many opponents on the Cardinals schedule that cannot match the tools that guys like Micah Parsons, Randy Gregory and DeMarcus Lawrence have in terms of raw athleticism. Maybe Dallas has a roster that is equipped to deal with this unique skill set that is considerably different than dealing with a Matthew Stafford or Rodgers.
How did Dallas do?
It depends how we frame this. All told, Murray’s day would be viewed as “good enough” from my perspective. He made some plays — at times spectacular — but by his standards, I submit he has had many days better than this. There are games in his career already when a defense had no answers. For Dallas, given it could play him again on the same field in 10 days or so, I suggest the Cowboys had some answers. Good ones. But, not enough.
Arizona scored on five of its first six drives and all of them were without the benefit of gift field position. The Cardinals put together drives of 83, 87 and 75 yards to build a 22-7 lead early in the third quarter. Scoring 22 points is more than acceptable, but six scores suggest that without some good red-zone stops, it could have been 38 really quick.
The Cowboys did trouble him. They kept him pretty well contained for most of the day and forced him to perform a few across-the-body throws into traffic that were dangerous and fundamentally unsound. Yet, he asked and answered those two challenges — one from his own end zone and one into the opposing end zone with real beauty and precision.
If Dallas is going to lament anything from Sunday as it prepares for a rematch against Murray that will color the historical accounts of this entire season and perhaps era, it would be that the Cowboys entered the game as the best third down and takeaway team in the league. We feared that this might be more of a competition-based metric. If you want third-down stops and takeaways, stack your schedule with bottom-half of the NFL quarterbacks to defend. Because the elite ones — those who win MVP awards or even receive votes for it — excel in converting on third downs and not turning the ball over.
To the chagrin of those of us who were fearful of this, Dallas did not stop him on third downs as the Cardinals converted seven of them and they also did not force a single turnover (despite having one fall into their hands in the end zone in what might have been the pivotal play of the game — other than the controversial fumble possibility in the final minutes). You might be able to get away with a bad third-down day with a few turnovers. Or you might be able to survive no takeaways with a great third-down day. But, you probably won’t survive both being poor.
Could that change in a rematch? Of course.
The flip side is that in that meeting, odds are really good that James Conner, Rondale Moore, D.J. Humphries and maybe even DeAndre Hopkins (unlikely) will be along for the ride. In other words, your best chance to beat the Cardinals and avoid them in the first-round draw, was this past Sunday.
And Dallas did not get it done.
Weekly data box: vs. Arizona
Strategically, we have something that I find curious. Dallas played a lot of man coverage in 2021. Not the most in the league by any stretch, but more than it has in years. It is roughly 35 percent of the Cowboys’ defensive snaps this season which is second most in the NFL.
But this game seems to be an odd place to play as much man coverage as they did. They ran man against the Cardinals 42 times. That number is worthless unless I provide context, so here it is: No Cardinals opponent played more than 25 plays of man coverage all year and only one played more than 20.
Meanwhile, Dallas hasn’t played this much man coverage all year and the only game close was Thanksgiving against the Raiders. I won’t remind you of how many defensive pass interference penalties were called that day by trailing coverage players running through receivers. In fact, I won’t even tell you that when we saw Donovan Wilson do the same thing on Sunday, it was also Dallas giving up big penalty yards because it seemed committed to coverage ideas that may have been counterintuitive. Why would you play zone against Murray — like the entire league does? Because, when he scrambles, you want eyes on him. I am sure Dan Quinn played man so that everyone else could contain Murray with spies and so forth, but I think it is worth pointing out that he did something on Sunday that is counter to the rest of the league. Again, nothing wrong with that, but it is odd.
Also, we should point out that Trevon Diggstook a few losses and Jourdan Lewis appeared to be pulled out of the game after the long reception to Christian Kirk. If you read this space for a long time, you have heard me describe Lewis as a corner who is good at everything but vertical coverages. If you want Lewis press covering Kirk on verticals, you are going to be a massive target. He was. And he allowed the most catches against, despite being benched for Kelvin Joseph in the second half.
Moving forward, we can see that if Dallas wants to play this much man again in 2022, it will need some of these man corners to emerge from the 2021 NFL Draft.
Cowboys pass rush
Here we see the Cowboys tried all sorts of things to keep him contained. They even tried four snaps of Cover 0. They tried to make Murray really work for everything and I say they did. He still made a half-dozen plays that won the game.
But, I see the framework for an interesting rematch. Dallas is not outmanned.
Splash Plays: Week 17
What a week for Parsons again. He was spectacular several times. Also, add a Lawrence bonus splash for drawing a holding penalty (and a few more that were uncalled).
I'll post the film study section before today is up.
When did he urge that?