@baconhound said:

I understand but at some point you just have to look at your guys and say "cover someone"....cause we can't give you help all over the field that then necissitates one of big men covering a slot receiver.

@clevfan4life said:

I'd wager one of the issues is they didn't feel comfortable one on one vs Green or Sanu. At some point you have a weak spot.

@tour2ma said:

Yup... When he was DC for NYG and (I believe) Lombardi was the OC...The D was so dominant, and the O so pathetic, that to prevent starting the afternoon with boos, NYG became the first team to introduce their Defense before the game.And the DL alignment with some a step off the line was the beginning of the "Flex" Landry famously ran in Dallas.

Howell made a comment that with those 2 guys on the coaching staff, all he had to do was make sure the footballs had air.

That's more than Bill Belichik has done.

@clevfan4life said:

You know for shits and giggles cause I looked up Tom Landry to see when he died cause I was making the joke that we'd be calling for the ghost of Tom Landry to be fired after a year. What was interesting is that I saw he is the inventor of the modern 4-3 defense. They used to line up a D lineman 2 yds infront of the center, it was Landry's D that in essence created the 4-3 MLB'er. He also did interesting stuff with the lineman, lining "some" of them up a step or two back from the others in order to maximize their run pursuit angles.

Yup... When he was DC for NYG and (I believe) Lombardi was the OC...

The D was so dominant, and the O so pathetic, that to prevent starting the afternoon with boos, NYG became the first team to introduce their Defense before the game.

And the DL alignment with some a step off the line was the beginning of the "Flex" Landry famously ran in Dallas.

Soon, since the league is now a "passing" league and D's are designed to stop that, someone will start winning with some smash mouth running and be considered a genius.....

Cycles....

Something tells me if we actually brought that SOB back from the dead and told him to go coach the Browns, he'd have our front 4 a lot more active in run defense. I just bet some old school principles might actually work in certain facets of todays game.

@hx214 said:

Yes, that's the one. I think your wife would be a better DC than O'Neil.

@clevfan4life said:

I honestly said not a word, I just stared at the screen. Srsly. At first I was like that's a nice job out of Armonty pursuing the play downfield. Then on replay I was like wait, where's 95 at the LOS? Then I saw that the play had him dropped back and he was the guy responsible for the slot. I was quite literally dumbstruck. I kept waiting for an explanation from the commentators about how we had some kind of a substitution screw up that left an extra OLB'er out there and they screamed at him to drop back and just do what you can. I was hoping that was it but then I realized this is the same play I've seen multiple times now with Kruger, trailing a TE or WR across the middle. It literally is the intended matchup. I have no expllanation

The only explanation I've been able to come up with is this: last year, when Pettine was running the defense and it was decent, we never saw such idiotic play-calling. This year, Pettine left the defense in O'Neil's hands. Now O'Neil wants to make a name for himself as a DC and he can't do that by just running what Pettine already established, so decides he is going to 'innovate' by tweaking Pettine's defense. Enter tons of substitutions per game, enter confusing concepts like telling defensive linemen to react to how the o-line tries to block them (instead of giving them gap responsibility) and then telling linebackers to react based on what the d-line (who are now acting unpredictably) to do. Enter putting defensive ends (because that's really what Kruger and Bryant are if you put them into a 4-3 defense) into coverage. Enter the worst run defense in football, and one of the worst pass defenses.

If I had my way, Farmer would be fired now so we could get another GM in here quickly and give him time to get integrated, O'Neil would be fired or at least demoted to his role from last year, and Pettine would be instructed to run the defense as the head coach like he did last year.

@hx214 said:

I'd just add as I wrote in another thread as well that outside of what's being noted in the thread, that was the worst blitz call I've ever seen watching football. That's not a joke in the slightest, I've never overtly seen a blitz call that lousy. Sending a safety 12 yards deep on a delayed blitz that took 4 seconds (I counted) to get there just to be picked up. Holy Dear Jesus.

@clevfan4life said:

Yep, that's why I laughed my ass off.... she said that and went back to her Ipad. Knows nothing about the game, but figured out what O'Neil hasn't in two years.... haha

@mudfly said:

which btw is why I've been screaming for a couple years now about why we often have two hybrid type Jack's on the field at the same time. This is why we have a guy like Mingo. He should NEVER be at the LOS unless in long passing down situations where he can line up wide. His job is to situational speed rush, drop into coverage and make tackles in the run game but not be the edge setter. You always protect the will with the big 3 or 5 tech on his side. The Jack on the other side is supposed to power rush the QB, set the edge and drop back into zone when necessary. He's usually a slightly smaller but more athletic DE type. That's how I thought they were going to run this 3-4 defense. Kruger and Armonty would keep each other fresh at the strong side spot and play around at the Will spot with a rotation of Mingo, Orchard and maybe one other guy....depending on matchups.

@mudfly said:

Not by the Jack OLB"ers they aren't.

@hx214 said:

Yeah pretty sure that was the one. Your wife probably knows little to nothing about football but properly deciphered the inherent fallacy of that coverage scheme. Let's see....big guy chasing little guy in open space, weird game eh?

TE's are covered by LB's all day every day......apparently ours aren't good enough to do it.....

If we have one that can cover and one that can rush and one that plays the run well etc.....then all the other team has to do is read the D alignment, make an adjustment at the line and expose the mismatch.....

Happens again and again and again.....

@osiris said:

Was that the 3rd and 12 play where they ran some type of delayed blitz with Campbell that did nothing and Armonty was trying to keep pace with Jones on that crossing route and wasn't even close?

My wife looked up from her iPad and said, "Our guy is really slow.... why do they have him trying to tackle their fast guy." I almost cried laughing.

@osiris said:

I honestly said not a word, I just stared at the screen. Srsly. At first I was like that's a nice job out of Armonty pursuing the play downfield. Then on replay I was like wait, where's 95 at the LOS? Then I saw that the play had him dropped back and he was the guy responsible for the slot. I was quite literally dumbstruck. I kept waiting for an explanation from the commentators about how we had some kind of a substitution screw up that left an extra OLB'er out there and they screamed at him to drop back and just do what you can. I was hoping that was it but then I realized this is the same play I've seen multiple times now with Kruger, trailing a TE or WR across the middle. It literally is the intended matchup. I have no expllanation

@tour2ma said:

It's hard to believe but watching the replay it looked to me like it was. You KNOW Jones looked at that set then turned his head to give Dalton a "please tell me you see this" look. He probably talked to Armonty on his cut across the field, like not today nigga....y'all ain't coverin me with a lineman.

I cannot imagine Pettine and O'Neil being as dumb as the defense looks but the results every week are the same.

Since I joined this board I now watch football with a keener eye than before. And I am old! I was eight when I went to my first game. It was against the Bears I think. We lost but it was Jim Browns last year.

Anyway I saw improvement in the first half and now believe we need an offensive and defensive coordinator or head coach. I hate to see people fired but they can't fire the whole team.

One of you guys on this board should apply for defensive coordinator. I'm serious, take it as a compliment

Did you notice that Kruger rushed the passer a lot more today and gave us some pressure on Dalton along with Dez Bryant on the other side? Did he swap Armonty and Kruger?