Tag: pass defense

‘We were all over them’: Cowboys defense sinks 66-pass effort from Tom Brady

The greatest QB to ever play threw more passes than he ever has in one game, but the Cowboys defense had new wrinkles ready to stop him. | From @ToddBrock24f7

In what could end up being a landmark game in the football life of Tom Brady, the Cowboys forced the 23-year veteran to do something not even he had ever done before.

The Bucs’ 45-year-old quarterback put up a staggering 66 pass attempts in the wild-card loss to the Cowboys on Monday night, the most in any game of Brady’s pro career, and one of the highest numbers ever seen in an NFL game, postseason or otherwise.

The Cowboys had come into the contest expecting a heavy dose of the air attack, with Tampa Bay ranking last leaguewide in rushing attempts, rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, and yards-per-carry over the course of the regular season.

So the mission of Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn’s unit was clear: suffocate the notoriously quick-trigger Brady in the pocket, and simultaneously cut off his receiving targets downfield.

At the end of the 31-14 Cowboys victory, it’s safe to say the mission was accomplished.

“Defensively, I thought we were all over them as soon as we got off the bus. I think our defense really set the tempo for the game,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy told reporters in his postgame press conference.

Brady ended the night 35-of-66 passing for 351 yards, with two touchdowns, an interception, and a 72.2 passer rating.

His 66 attempts were the second-most all-time for a playoff game and put him in very rare company for the most passes thrown in any NFL game. Only ten other men have ever attempted that many throws in a single contest. Brady’s previous high was 65 attempts in a 2012 meeting between the Patriots and 49ers.

“Take away the deep shots they got,” Cowboys linebacker/edge rusher Micah Parsons said of the defense’s strategy after the win. “We made them earn it every time. I think that’s the key. We made the adjustments, did what we had to do. [We] said they couldn’t beat us deep. We executed our gameplan for the most part.”

Indeed. The Buccaneers had just one successful play of over 20 yards on the night.

The Cowboys defense stymied Brady with two sacks, six QB hits, and 12 defended passes.

“We got our hands on a number of balls today,” McCarthy commented. “I know we didn’t get the takeaways we normally get, but most importantly, we were in position for takeaways.”

The one takeaway they did get, however, was monumental. Jayron Kearse’s end-zone interception ruined an early second-quarter Tampa Bay drive which would have (likely) given the Bucs a 7-6 lead and changed the entire complexion of the game.

“We just would not and could not ever let him get to within distance of winning that football game, because he just goes to another level when those things happen,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. “That’s his [m.o.], that’s his background. We basically managed our way and performed our way and kept him looking uphill all night long.”

And that included new players, new personnel groupings, and new wrinkles from a Cowboys defense that wanted to make sure they showed Brady something far different from the unit the Bucs thumped, 19-3, in the season opener.

“Everybody kind of knows you have to get to the quarterback someway, somehow,” offered Parsons. “My job had to go to the extra step, and going back-and-forth, blitzing on the ball, off the ball, giving him different looks. Understanding that they were sliding and chipping, trying to create short edges. We got creative today.”

Several key Dallas defenders were brand-new faces to Brady. Rookie cornerback DaRon Bland played only special teams in Week 1, but he was on the field for every defensive snap Monday night. Safety Israel Mukuamu was inactive on opening night; he logged a career-high snaps on defense in Tampa. Corner Xavier Rhodes and nose tackle Johnathan Hankins weren’t even on the Dallas roster for the two teams’ previous meeting.

But all played crucial roles for Quinn’s crew Monday, holding Brady to a completion percentage of just 53%.

“The biggest thing we were able to accomplish coming out of the last three weeks of the season was really to get our defensive personnel flowing,” McCarthy explained. “We had some new players we needed to try out in there, and you could see it clearly this week where we were really able to get into a groove and a rhythm. Dan was spitting the plays in there quickly, and I thought our defense played with great pace throughout the operation. Most importantly, they performed at an extremely high level.”

And when that happens on the defense, the Dallas offense tends to follow suit.

“Complementary football,” Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said from the podium. “I mean, that’s the way it’s been when this team is on fire. And when this team is on, they make stops, we turn them into points, and we just have to continue to build off of that. When we’re able to do that, we’re a tough team to beat.”

Even for the greatest quarterback to ever play the game, throwing more times than he ever has before.

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Razorbacks pass rush much different from last year: it’s actually good now

The Razorbacks went from the bottom to the top of the pass rush rankings. Can they keep the momentum going?

Last season the Razorbacks had one of the worst pass rushes in the power 5, ranked second to last in the SEC.

Fast forward to now, the Hogs’ pass rush has elevated to the top of the FBS, currently third in sacks among all schools. It is a stark contrast from a year ago when the Hogs only had two sacks after two games.

This time around, they have nine total sacks going into Saturday.

“It’s had a big impact,” Pittman said about the pass rush. We have to get to the quarterback. Our secondary is continuing to get better, but we’ve got to improve there. We’ve had a couple of injuries that hurt us last week, but we have to get pressure on the quarterback.

It was one of the main topics going into the season. Everyone questioned how good the pass rush will be while expecting the secondary to be the defensive staple. Injuries play a part in the secondary struggles, but the transfer portal helped the front seven become the foundation of the pass defense.

“(We went) out in the portal and (found) somebody to rush the passer. Drew Sanders is one of those guys that we can put up on the edge and rush him. It’s helped us. The other thing, too, we’re not playing as much a three-man front as we did. We’re not really the same defense we were a year ago with the pressures and man-coverage and things of that nature.”

Sanders leads the team in sacks with three, followed by Jordan Domineck’s two.

McCarthy: Cowboys’ high-energy defense won’t ‘try to play chess with Tom Brady’

The coach believes interior pressure could be the key to taking down Tom Brady on Sunday, but as always, Micah Parsons is an X factor. | From @ToddBrock24f7

When the Cowboys faced the Buccaneers to open the 2021 season, the Dallas defense didn’t log a single sack of quarterback Tom Brady. That’s something head coach Mike McCarthy is hoping to change this Sunday when the two teams meet once again to kick off their regular seasons.

Of course, a few things will have changed in the 367 days between that game and this coming Sunday’s. Last year, Brady the ageless wonder was coming off his seventh Super Bowl win and was the toast of Tampa. This time around, the 45-year-old is fresh off a short-lived retirement in February and a mysterious 11-day absence smack in the middle of Buccaneers training camp.

Last September, the offensive line in front of Brady boasted three players who would go on to Pro Bowl nods. Now, Ali Marpet has hung up his cleats, Ryan Jensen is on IR, and Tristan Wirfs is coming off an oblique injury.

And the Cowboys’ arrow, defensively at least, has been going up ever since that night’s 31-29 thriller. It’s still climbing.

So there may be more of an opportunity for Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, and Co. to get to Brady this opening night. But McCarthy believes that the team’s defensive tackles may be the key to actually bagging Brady.

“I think the older and the more experienced your quarterback is, the more inside pressure you’ve got to give them,” the coach told reporters Monday from The Star. “Their ability to step and slide and slip, the number of reps that 10-plus-year quarterbacks have- that’s really so much in their wheelhouse, the ability to play within in the A and B gaps. The edge stuff doesn’t bother them as much; they’ve seen it, they’ve felt it. They’ve got great experience at taking a deeper drop, setting high to buy themselves another yard and a half in their platform. All those things come with experience. Coaching- I’ve been fortunate enough to work with older quarterbacks- you’ve got to, really, you always talk about those A and B gaps. ‘No one runs through the A and B gaps. You got to keep those A gaps clean.'”

Or, if the older quarterback is on the other side, flood those A and B gaps with relentless interior pressure. Quinton Bohanna, Osa Odighizuwa, Neville Gallimore, and Trysten Hill… get ready to rock and roll.

It’s a move that Brady has no doubt seen before; McCarthy and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn won’t be trying to re-invent the wheel on Sunday night against a passer who’s literally seen it all.

“Definitely,” McCarthy admitted. “That’s part of his greatness, his instinct and awareness. Him and Aaron [Rodgers], I mean, how many guys have played that much? It’s definitely a big part of what they bring to the table. In my opinion, scheme will be important in this game because history will tell you 35% of the plays in this game are going to be unscouted or will be some type of variation of things we’ve seen before. So really, we’re focused on the basics and playing our game. We just want to get up and compete. We’re not going to sit here and try to play chess with Tom Brady.”

But as in any defensive game plan the Cowboys have drawn up over the past season, their own locker-room chess prodigy looks to be the X-factor. And though he logged a respectable seven tackles, a QB hit, and a defended pass in his NFL debut versus Tampa Bay last September, Parsons is now the league’s reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year, and he plans to be moving around the entire board with a dizzying variety of attacking gambits.

“I think Micah has cranked it up and taken it to a whole different level,” McCarthy said. “He’s had some excellent practices throughout training camp. Just some of the things he’s done in the pass rush drills; I’m just thinking through the Chargers week. But he’s taken it to another level since we’ve been back from Oxnard. He’s probably had two or three practices that he’s been super, extremely disruptive, and I think it’s him taking that next step. I know he has a very strong desire to be an elite player. I feel strongly- and I think everybody feels strongly- that he is that or will be that for us. With that comes a lot of responsibility. You can see the energy. He’s into it. ”

McCarthy says that intensity has been contagious across the entire defense, building steadily day by day as the regular season approaches.

“It’s game week. They’re all into it. Today’s vibe was totally different than what it was on Monday.”

Whether it will be enough for the Cowboys to overpower the Bucs for the team’s first-ever win against Brady remains to be seen. And then, of course, there are 16 more games to follow. It will be a marathon, not a sprint, for a Dallas defensive unit that- for the first time in a long time- could be expected to carry a thinned-out and somewhat patchworked Cowboys offense.

When asked about how this Cowboys defense stacks up against some of his past units, McCarthy was reminded of his 2010 Packers. That crew, led by Clay Matthews, Charles Woodson, Nick Collins, A.J. Hawk, and others, finished the season ranked fifth in yards allowed and second in points allowed, sacks, and interceptions. And they held opposing quarterbacks to the lowest passer rating in the NFL en route to a win in Super Bowl XLV.

In other words, a good bar to aim for.

“That’s the highest-rated defense that I’ve ever had as a head coach, and I think this one definitely has the look and has the ability to be that caliber of a defense,” McCarthy said.

“I’m excited to see this defense compete Sunday night.”

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Good, Bad, Ugly: Cowboys effort steers them to unchartered waters, the win column

The Dallas Cowboys finally had more good than bad in their first win in over a month, defeating the Minnesota Vikings 31-28

One never knows what these Dallas Cowboys are going to do on any given Sunday. They zig when you think they are going to zag, they play well when you least expect it and they win when you expect them to lose.

The Cowboys put together one heck of an effort in getting their third win on the season, 31-28 over the Minnesota Vikings. It was the third straight game where the Cowboys looked like a much improved football team and this time they came away victorious.

Here is the good, the bad and the ugly from the Cowboys in their win over the Vikings.

Marcus Spears: Struggles vs top QBs to keep Cowboys out of NFC titles

Former Cowboy Marcus Spears says the current unit plays poorly against the league’s best passers, but that really wasn’t the case in 2019.

Die-hard Cowboys fans usually see the team as being just a few missing pieces, a key injury, or maybe a couple of close games away from bringing home some hardware. But the fact is, Dallas is one of just three NFC teams who has not appeared in the conference championship game in this century.

The other two? Detroit and Washington. While that is certainly not the kind of company the Cowboys consider themselves to be in, one former player says that Dallas should get used to watching other clubs scrap for the George Halas Trophy, at least in the foreseeable future.

Speaking on ESPN’s Get Up! this week, Marcus Spears predicted that the Cowboys won’t make the NFC title contest for at least the next three years. Specifically, he cites the defense’s poor track record against the best quarterbacks as the main stumbling block.

“Defensively, this team is ranked 11th, 6th, and 13th,” the former Cowboys defensive end said. “And you would look at that and conventionally say, ‘Man, that’s not bad.’ But if you look at them against top-tier quarterbacks, they’ve struggled. Mightily. And that is my issue.”

It wasn’t made clear what rankings Spears was referring to. A quick check of 2019’s stats show Dallas did indeed finish the season 11th in both points allowed and rushing yards allowed. They also placed 10th in passing yards allowed and 9th in total yards allowed.

Just as Spears says, that’s not bad.

But then he goes on to list the elite-level passers currently in the conference, the kind he believes routinely cause problems for the Cowboys. He calls out Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Matt Ryan by name.

“It’s not necessarily that the Cowboys aren’t good enough,” Spears noted. “They just haven’t proven that they can win those type of games to get to the NFC Championship.”

Dallas is slated to face two of those quarterbacks- Ryan and Wilson- in the 2020 regular season. They’ll also square off against Lamar Jackson, last year’s leader in total QBR.

But was the issue last season that the Cowboys defense under Rod Marinelli and Kris Richard really kept running into some sort of A-list-quarterback buzzsaw?

In the team’s first loss of 2019, suffered in Week 4 at the hands of the Saints, the Dallas defense didn’t allow a touchdown. Brees didn’t play. New Orleans backup Teddy Bridgewater threw for just 193 yards. Hard to pin that loss on the pass defense.

Week 5 saw the Cowboys lose to Green Bay. Rodgers accounted for 238 yards in the air and zero touchdowns. Is that struggling mightily against a future Hall of Famer? It was actually running back Aaron Jones who did the damage, with four rushing scores on 107 yards.

The following Sunday, Dallas turned in an embarrassing Week 6 performance against the New York Jets. The Cowboys secondary watched Sam Darnold, fresh off a bout with mononucleosis, torch them for 338 air yards and two touchdowns.

In Week 10, the Cowboys allowed Kirk Cousins 220 passing yards and a pair of scores in a two-point loss to Minnesota.

Tom Brady was unable to crack 200 yards in a rainy Week 11 game and threw just one touchdown. The defense played well enough to beat the Patriots, but the offense couldn’t hold up their end of the bargain, managing just three field goals.

Thanksgiving Day and Week 12 brought another stinker from the Cowboys. They allowed Bills quarterback Josh Allen to throw for 231 yards and a score. They gave up a 28-yard trick-play scoring pass from receiver John Brown as well. Allen also ran for a touchdown.

Chicago’s Mitchell Trubisky hurled three touchdowns and tallied 244 yards against Dallas in Week 14. He rushed for another score in the Bears win.

In Week 16, the Eagles’ Carson Wentz put up 319 yards and threw a touchdown in the eighth loss of the Cowboys’ season.

A .500 record isn’t good enough for a team with the talent Dallas had in 2019. It’s why the majority of the coaching staff was dismissed.

Is the Cowboys secondary a weak spot? Yes, and it has been for a while. Does it need an upgrade? To be sure. It’s been easy to pick on the defensive backs and the lack of interceptions as problematic.

The perceived team philosophy around pass coverage doesn’t help. When the team has a public courting with an Earl Thomas or Jamal Adams and then doesn’t land either, everyone chastises the Dallas front office for apparently being so willing to stand pat with a merely average secondary.

All justified criticism.

But can you look back at those losses from last season and truly pin any of them on some mysterious systemic failure of the Cowboys defense every time they face a top-tier quarterback?

Dallas didn’t have a pattern of “struggling mightily” against all the best quarterbacks. They went out and lost close games over and over: occasionally to good teams, but often to bad teams they should have- and could have just as easily- beaten.

The worst outings of 2019 came against Darnold, Wentz, Trubisky, and Allen. Not a one of them is in the murderer’s row rattled off by Spears. Or even in the same category.

Last season’s defense was a liability in Dallas. No one questions that. An infusion of new blood on both the roster and the coaching staff will be welcome. But to go on national TV and claim that the Cowboys have some habitual quaking-in-their-boots deficiency against the game’s top-rated passers, and to then suggest that’s why they will obviously continue their longstanding NFC title game drought just feels misguided.

“I gotta give my ‘Boys some tough love,” Spears said.

They deserve it, Marcus. They do. But aim that tough love where it belongs.

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Seahawks GM John Schneider states secondary needs improvement

Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider stated in his 2020 NFL Combine press conference that the secondary needs improvement.

Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider has expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of his defensive backfield heading into the 2020 season.

In his press conference at the 2020 NFL Combine, Schneider told reporters that he would be truthful in his assessment of the secondary and stated that the unit must improve to take the team as a whole to the next level.

“I think just like every position, you’re constantly looking to tweak it and figure out how you get better,” Schneider said. “Whether it’s a strong safety, free safety—obviously we want to get better. If I told you we were satisfied with the performance, I’d be lying. We all need to get better.”

However, he stated that rookie Ugo Amadi played well when pressed into active duty in the nickel corner slot.

“Ugo [Amadi] did a nice job when he got out there,” Schneider said. “We didn’t play a ton of nickel last year. You’ve got to look at the nickel position like a starter, right? Detroit got [Justin] Coleman, gave him a nice contract, he did a great job for them again. But we need to keep preparing along the way.”

The Seahawks’ secondary is certainly not as daunting as it was in years past and they finished No. 15 in pass defense DVOA last year. However, free agency and the draft still await and the Seahawks have plenty of opportunities to improve the secondary.

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