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The Super Bowl is usually a night of spectacle, but this time it turned into a night of average at best for most fans. The game was uncompetitive, the commercials were nonimpactful and the halftime show wasn’t overly memorable. Unless someone was a Tampa Bay fan, or a fan of Tom Brady, there wasn’t much to excite about the culmination of the 2020-21 NFL season.
For Cowboys fans the big game typically provides nothing but grief, at least for the last 25 years. This year though, they might have actually received great news; news to take into this offseason that can bring hope for the coming campaign. Some may need convincing, so a trip back to 2014 can set the stage.
In that season, two successful defensive coordinators were hired away as head coaches. Both came off of very good years in their coordinator roles.
Coach A had led his previous team to fifth in the league in points allowed. His new club was ranked 24th, so the hire made sense. In his first season in the big chair, Coach A led his team to a jump into the top ten in points allowed (ninth) and from sixth in yards allowed to fourth.
Coach B was coming off of being the coordinator for the No. 1 defense in both points and yards allowed. He was going to a team that desperately needed the help, ranking in the bottom five in both categories, including last in yards allowed. Steep hill to climb, but in Year 1 as coach he lead the defense to respectability. The team finished 14th in points allowed and 16th in yards.
Both coaches ran into sophomore slumps in Season 2.
Coach A dropped from ninth and fourth in points and yards all the way to 28th and 11th. Coach B went back down to the bottom of the league, finishing 27th and 25th.
Unfortunately for Coach A, the trend continued downward the next two seasons. In Year 3 the defense he was brought in to fix was 22nd in points allowed and 25th in yards. Then it dropped even lower in Year 4, to 29th and 25th. Coach A was fired after that season. When a team hires a defensive coach that produces a defense ranking 25th or lower the firing shouldn’t be a surprise.
Coach B actually saw a resurgence in Year 3, having his best statistical defense as the head coach by finishing top ten in both points and yards at eighth and 10th respectively. This success leads him to stay on two more full seasons as the coach, but he couldn’t replicate the success going forward.
The team fell to 25th in points allowed and 28th in yards allowed in Year 4. In his final full season as coach, the defense finished 23rd in points and 20th in yards.
Why is this story of successful defensive coordinators, turned failed coaches is relevant to the Cowboys? Coach A was Todd Bowles, who re-emerged as the defensive coordinator of the newly crowned champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His defense ran through the gauntlet of Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, and Patrick Mahomes. Brees was held to 134 yards passing and the Bus intercepted his passes three times. Rodgers was sacked five times and threw an interception.
Mahomes of the previously unstoppable Kansas City offense only threw for 270 yards, added no touchdown passes, and threw two interceptions himself. The coach who was fired from the big chair for having a poor defense returned to his roots and is now a Super Bowl champion.
The second coach should be obvious by now. Dan Quinn was the defensive coordinator of the best defense in football in 2013 and a Super Bowl champion himself. Like Bowles, he also had poor statistical defenses as a leading man.
Now he is back as the coordinator of the Cowboys defense, looking to replicate past success as Bowles was able too. Many fans met the news of Quinn’s hire as the Cowboys defensive coordinator unenthusiastically wondering why bring in a guy who had such a bad defense in Atlanta?
Some coaches are just better as coordinators. The Cowboys faithful is hoping Quinn is one of those guys. A long line of coaches have been there, Buddy Ryan, Eric Mangini, Dom Capers, Romeo Crennel, Wade Phillips predated Bowles as were great coordinators who couldn’t find lasting success as head coach.
Quinn could be the next in that line. The Cowboys have an elite offense, so the defense doesn’t necessarily need to be top of the league. If Quinn can lead the defense back to the middle of the pack even, the Cowboys should be tough to beat any Thursday, Sunday, or Monday they play.
[listicle id=663493][lawrence-newsletter]