Week 16 Monday Night Football Chatter | Lions vs. Cowboys | 12/26/2016

Cowboysrock55

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Alot of people have given Collins credit, it just gets lost in the fact that we have two rookies who are legitimate MVP candidates.

5 sacks from a rookie DT is stunning, he looks like a foundation piece on the DL for sure.

And to think, ravid suggested basically shutting him down for the year when he broke his foot in like June.
Yeah, I guess my thought with Collins is that he definitely deserves to be on the all rookie team for example. Maybe not the best rookie D-lineman in the NFL but he is certainly in the discussion for best rookie interior D-lineman. It's funny you mention the broken foot. Collins may actually just be hitting his stride. He has certainly been playing better and better each game lately. Three of his sacks have come in the last four games. And when he isn't getting a sack he is helping to set up guys like Irving to make plays. The guy seems to be peaking at the perfect time.
 

Simpleton

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Yeah, I guess my thought with Collins is that he definitely deserves to be on the all rookie team for example. Maybe not the best rookie D-lineman in the NFL but he is certainly in the discussion for best rookie interior D-lineman. It's funny you mention the broken foot. Collins may actually just be hitting his stride. He has certainly been playing better and better each game lately. Three of his sacks have come in the last four games. And when he isn't getting a sack he is helping to set up guys like Irving to make plays. The guy seems to be peaking at the perfect time.
Mayowa too, four sacks in the last four games after being a healthy scratch for a few weeks earlier in the year.

Let's hope it's a function of them getting comfortable in the scheme and with what Marinelli wants, and not just a flash in the pan. If T. Crawford, Thornton and Lawrence can come back and give us anything it'd be a huge boost also.
 

Texas Ace

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Last night was a very impressive display from us.

Nothing to really play for and we vastly outplayed a good team with lots to play for.

Whether we're a really good team or a scary one comes down to this -- are we closer to that defense that played the 1st half or the 2nd?

If it's the 1st half D, it wouldn't surprise us because we know they aren't great. But they had been playing very well the last few weeks and they were excellent in the 2nd half last night, so when you couple the 2nd half with the last 2 games, you start dreaming of the possibilities because that looks like a unit getting hot at the right time. The last 3 weeks have seen a significant increase in QB pressure and turnovers. If our DBS could actually catch, we'd be able to add 3 more turnovers to that total.

But again, which defense from last night is closer to the real deal? Did they need to make adjustments or was the difference a matter of intensity or lack thereof? If it's the former, then it's the same unit we've had all year and we'll need our offense to score 24-plus points every game.

If it's the latter? Then winning the whole damn thing is a serious possibility.
 

Texas Ace

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Packers and Skins will be in, can't see either the Giants or Skins winning in Green Bay or in Seattle so we'll likely be playing Green Bay.

Won't be easy against Rodgers of course but it's still a team that is mostly one-dimensional on offense and mediocre on defense. It's the playoffs, two games away from the Super Bowl, you can't expect to play shit teams at that point.
Exactly the way I see it.

Does it suck to face Rodgers as hot as he is? Of course, but like you said, at that point in the playoffs it's not realistic to expect to get some "easy" game.

If we're truly SB worthy, then we'll beat the teams in our way. It's that simple.
 

Texas Ace

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What you keep ignoring is this isn't the first game we have gone deep.
You're right in that it wasn't the first game, but I do agree with what he's saying about it being a deliberate part of the gameplan.

There was an intent last night to throw the ball down the field and it was awesome to watch.

If that's what we have to look forward to going into the playoffs, then no one is gonna stop this offense.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Mayowa too, four sacks in the last four games after being a healthy scratch for a few weeks earlier in the year.

Let's hope it's a function of them getting comfortable in the scheme and with what Marinelli wants, and not just a flash in the pan. If T. Crawford, Thornton and Lawrence can come back and give us anything it'd be a huge boost also.
Yeah these are young players. My hope is that the playing experience is sort of paying off and these guys are finally developing and prospering. I hope that we don't take playing time away from Irving for example simply because Crawford is healthy. There is still room to use Crawford but frankly he isn't better at this point then Collins or Irving.
 

UncleMilti

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Giants have nothing to play for. Depends on how they coach it.
It looks like they do depending on how the Packers, Seattle and Atlanta games go. At least playing around in the simulator looks that way.
 

Cowboysrock55

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But again, which defense from last night is closer to the real deal? Did they need to make adjustments or was the difference a matter of intensity or lack thereof? If it's the former, then it's the same unit we've had all year and we'll need our offense to score 24-plus points every game.

If it's the latter? Then winning the whole damn thing is a serious possibility.
Do you know how many times this defense has given up 24 points or more this season? Twice literally the entire year. Of course both of those teams are likely in the playoffs in Redskins and Steelers (Makes sense since the NFL playoffs are the best of the best). We may very well need more then 24 against some teams in the playoffs but if the season has taught us anything it's that we probably won't need to.
 

Texas Ace

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Do you know how many times this defense has given up 24 points or more this season? Twice literally the entire year. Of course both of those teams are likely in the playoffs in Redskins and Steelers (Makes sense since the NFL playoffs are the best of the best). We may very well need more then 24 against some teams in the playoffs but if the season has taught us anything it's that we probably won't need to.
Yea, but those 2 times were against legitimate high-powered offenses.

If we make a deep run, there's a chance we're going to face one of those in every round.

Green Bay, Atlanta, Washington, Pittsburgh, and New England.

All teams that can light up the scoreboard and all possible opponents. That's why we just dismiss it as "it's only happened twice and against X teams".

We're going to be playing against teams that can do that throughout all of the playoffs, so this defense needs to be better than it was for most of the season. Hopefully the last 3 weeks is a trend that suggests they are getting better.
 

ravidubey

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We may very well need more then 24 against some teams in the playoffs but if the season has taught us anything it's that we probably won't need to.
Between our offense burning clock and scoring and our defense playing high speed bend-don't break ball teams just don't function as well against us.

They need that middle plugger like Snacks Harrison to provide no step up room to limit our offense.
 

Jiggyfly

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You're right in that it wasn't the first game, but I do agree with what he's saying about it being a deliberate part of the gameplan.

There was an intent last night to throw the ball down the field and it was awesome to watch.

If that's what we have to look forward to going into the playoffs, then no one is gonna stop this offense.
We did it last night because they were stacking the box and daring Dak to beat them, which he did.

I think it will play out the same in the playoffs depending on what defenses try and take away.
 

Cowboysrock55

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We're going to be playing against teams that can do that throughout all of the playoffs, so this defense needs to be better than it was for most of the season. Hopefully the last 3 weeks is a trend that suggests they are getting better.
Some of them. Of course we played the Giants, Skins, Packers and Lions and held them all under 24 in at least a game as well during the regular. We could easily play any of them in the playoffs. And lets face it, the Seahawks offense hasn't been very good.

Basically, I like what our defense is doing. They did get shredded in the first half but clearly guys were just out of position. Once they settled in and stopped over pursuing stuff we stopped the run like we did all season and the rest fell into place with our improved pass rush. No one is going to shut down an elite NFL offense this year but we have some pieces on defense to get excited about for the playoffs.
 

ravidubey

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We did it last night because they were stacking the box and daring Dak to beat them, which he did.

I think it will play out the same in the playoffs depending on what defenses try and take away.
I think teams know now what they're going to get if they leave Bryant in single coverage. Pittsburgh, Washington, Minny, and Detroit found that out the hard way.

Gotta keep throwing it at him and Williams too in man-to-man, just don't lead passes back into coverage. When they drop into those zones, kill them with Witten and Elliott as a receiver out of the backfield.

If they man-up with strong CB's, I'd love to see Dak cut loose and run a few times.
 

Cowboysrock55

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We did it last night because they were stacking the box and daring Dak to beat them, which he did.

I think it will play out the same in the playoffs depending on what defenses try and take away.
Yeah the coverage dictated it. Which just shows if teams want to take that stuff away Dak can kill you with the shorter stuff and if you give him the right coverage he can kill you with deep passes. Basically makes it impossible to stop. The key is to not force it which Dak hasn't done all year.
 

ravidubey

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Yeah the coverage dictated it.
This week it was more than just this. It was partly the coverage, but more than that a desire to go for broke and take shots.

They need to bottle and age that for the playoffs. I'd like to see the team take shots when the games start to matter again.

You have to practice this. It doesn't come for free I'm telling you. Detroit was the first step in getting this passing game untracked.

This passing offense has the potential to be an elite Bordeaux an they've been settling for table wine. Don't throw out the stats. We've seen them and they've been seriously conservative given the level of talent.

Atlanta has scored over 500 points and they are not more talented than Dallas. Sure Jones is a cut above, but Dallas is superior everywhere else.
 
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