How could a team that lost a start­ing cor­ner, Defensive End, and Inside Linebacker be bet­ter with­out those three guys? Pretty easy actu­ally! And it has less to do with their replace­ments than you might think.

 

During the 2009 off sea­son the Cowboys have upgraded in sev­eral areas, they have accom­plished this through both free agency, and in the draft. While the out­come of all these moves has yet to be deter­mined, on paper this defen­sive unit has got­ten better.

The addi­tions of Gerald Sensabaugh, Michael Hamlin, Mike Mickens, and DeAngelo Smith have given this team some­thing that has been sorely lack­ing. Depth in the sec­ondary! Not the kind of depth that we are accus­tomed to, you know mediocre play­ers back­ing up mediocre starters. No, we actu­ally have a qual­ity starter being backed up by ener­getic, ath­letic, young, qual­ity back ups.

 

Wade Phillips on third down no longer has to send the NFL’s best pass rusher into cov­er­age. The Dallas Cowboys with a few under the radar moves have cat­a­pulted this sack happy defense into a new stratosphere!

 

The Cowboys did not add an Ed Reed type, but what they did add was a few safeties that can cover! Think about it, what has been the defenses biggest down­fall the last few years? The sec­ondary has not been able to give their rush­ers an extra split sec­ond. How many times last year did we see a rusher break free, and just before mak­ing the sack the ball would get out, only to find an uncov­ered receiver?

 

There are many opin­ions about Wade Phillips. Some are good and some are not so nice. In all of these though there is a com­mon­al­ity, and that is that he is a defen­sive genius. He is a mas­ter at mov­ing peo­ple around and blitz­ing from angles that Offensive Coördinators would never dream of.

 

This is one aspect that we have not seen a ton of in his time in Dallas. Not because he for­got how to do it, but because he could not afford to do it! This team has not had the per­son­nel to allow him the free­dom to jail break.

 

The 34 that Phillips runs is dif­fer­ent than the 34 most oth­ers play. In most 34 schemes it is pred­i­cated on a big nasty Nose Tackle, tak­ing up major space, but the 34 that Phillips runs this is not nec­es­sary. The rea­son why is because of align­ment. For instance in the Parcells 34 Jason Ferguson would line up directly over top of the cen­ter and go for a more straight ahead push, thus forc­ing one of the guards to slip over and help out. In the Phillips 34, Jay Ratliff lines up at an angle over the cen­ter, and tries to get his push between the Center, and Guard. This change of angle causes the O-​​Lineman to make a decision.

 

Now if this was the only deci­sion the Center or Guard had to make this would not be a very good scheme, but while the Tackle is forc­ing the play Wade many times will send a slightly delayed Blitzer through that same spot. This is what causes severe ques­tion marks!

 

In the sec­ond half of last sea­son we saw more of this than usual but not near as much as Wade wants. So what does all this talk about the Nose Tackle have to do with Safeties, and Corners? Everything!

 

Wade Phillips is look­ing for two things out of his Safeties. One, be able to cover a Tight End or Running Back. Two, be able to help out in the run game (be able to tackle). This is all Wade needs!

 

By hav­ing Safeties that can per­form the duties that Wade requires it allows him to get very cre­ative with his blitz schemes. Demarcus Ware, Bradie James, Anthony Spencer, and Keith Brooking will be com­ing from so many dif­fer­ent angles your head will spin.

 

Everyone that played the Cowboys knew that on third down if they moved the Tight End over to where Demarcus was that it would force him into cov­er­age, allow­ing them­selves the lux­ury of not hav­ing to deal with block­ing him. This is no longer a for­gone con­clu­sion, so now whether he rushes or drops it causes confusion!

 

I have never been big on mak­ing pre­dic­tions, but this year I feel com­pelled to do so! Barring any major injuries, I am con­fi­dent in say­ing that this unit will be in the top 3 in defense this year. There are only two other teams who I feel will have a bet­ter defense, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore.

 

How con­fi­dent are you in this year’s defense? 

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