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2020-2021 Regular Season: Maintain The Plan,
Change The Plan, Or Can The Man?
October 10,
2020 At 10:07 PM CST
By Eric M. Scharf-
- Everyone – from prognosticators
to nearly all of “Cowboys Nation” – is wondering when (more than if)
defensive coordinator Mike Nolan will soon be granted an
involuntary, permanent vacation.
Fans will recall how former head coach Jason Garrett handpicked
former offensive coordinator Scott Linehan. Garrett’s intense
loyalty to his former Miami Dolphins mentor slowly-but-surely
strangled the creativity from the Cowboys’ offensive capability
until Jason was forced by GM Jerry to move on from the man.-
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- Yes, by
current Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, long-time colleague
and friend Nolan was handpicked, but does that also mean you
automatically convict?
“Don’t Call Me Shirley, Err, Surely”
Before the 2006 Green Bay Packers determined McCarthy to be head
coach-worthy, he served for one year under then-San Francisco 49ers’
head coach Nolan as his offensive coordinator.
Surely Mike “Change Is Good” McCarthy selected Nolan far less for
their friendship and far more for his potential ability to transform
the Cowboys’ (projected preseason) defensive talent into
better-disguised annihilators.
Surely that friendship formed in ‘Frisco did not override the fact
that Nolan had last-piloted a (league-worst Atlanta Falcons)
defensive eight years ago.
Surely Nolan volunteered – like McCarthy – to demonstrate how the
game of football had not passed him by.
Surely Nolan had former players on tap who (willingly and warmly?)
spoke of how learning defensive concepts from him was an absolute
snap.
 -
- Surely Nolan also used those hypothetical testimonials to establish
how he was, err, is a MODERN “player’s-coach” guy (who will not be
prematurely tuned out when his old school horns start to sprout).
Good Quote Or Garbage Bloat?
“Really just some added tools for myself, man. Being able to
showcase my versatility, you know being able to run
sideline-to-sideline, being able to rush the passer. I’m just
looking forward to being able to showcase all of my talents. These
guys are putting everyone in the right position, so all I can be is
thankful.” – Cowboys' linebacker Jaylon Smith on 05-16-2020
(sounding like Dallas' new defensive scheme might be quite a
performance honey).
"Just allowing us more opportunity to [zero] in on what we're
actually going to run in our game plan . . . with a smaller
playbook, it gives us a better opportunity to do that." – that very
same Jaylon Smith on 09-24-2020 (sounding like a significant
simplification of Mike Nolan's scheme might better help him to earn
his prepaid money).
“If you think about it at this juncture, [replacing Nolan is] not
something that you would go to. Don’t need to. We’re getting the
benefit of a coach that has a lot of experience. He’s seen a lot of
football [both from the sideline and the couch]. He’s coached a lot of football
[due to MANY stops on his career path haul]. He’s lived around a lot of
football [due to his dad who was not half bad]. He has answers there
[if he can CONVINCE enough key players to care]." – GM Jerry on 10-07-2020 during an
interview on 105.3 The Fan (when asked if he was considering a
replacement for McCarthy's defensive man).
Cowboys Nation should not be horribly surprised by GM Jerry's
fascination with a(nother football family) fella' in Nolan who had
been around "America's Team" for much of his childhood (which Jones
surely views as a sentimental good). His father was a one-time
Cowboys player and collectively spent 11 years under "The Man With
The Funny Hat" and one with Jimmy Johnson. Much of Dick Nolan’s
football knowledge and coaching skill was transferred to his
equally-dedicated and dutiful son. GM Jerry may “warmly” see in
Nolan an older Jason Garrett but – until the defense performs better
– fans will be unable to bear it.-
- "We are going to stay the course
[until inevitable divorce?]. We are on top of where we are. We
don't like the way it turned out. We certainly understand the point
totals. We are focusing on the details of the things that we need to
do better. My confidence is very high in Mike Nolan [who has yet to
deliver on his historically turnover-driven plan]." – Mike
McCarthy on 10-06-2020 (sharing remarks so understandably-serious
but coming across as morbidly funny).
"We are on top of where we are." Wait - WHAT?! Wherever that “top”
may be located, the results through four 60-minute games have not
made the cut.
Goals Or Holes?
"You gotta' have a goal. Do you have a goal?" – Vivian Ward
(the "Pretty Woman" who knew a person had a have a goal before
changing the occupant of a critical role).
The minimum-assumed goal of saying goodbye to Rod Marinelli and his
technique-first, scheme-second defense was to enhance (rather than
completely replace) that simple, meat-and-potatoes system with a
multifaceted disguise that never relents. There remains NOTHING
wrong with having a defensive coordinator who (still) understands
that crisp technique can carry and poor technique can bury a team
running an overly-complicated scheme.
“The Tortured Cowboys Fan” has maintained (since Marinelli
officially took the defensive coordinator role in 2014 and departed
after 2019) that – while he did not run an absolutely, positively
vanilla scheme – Rod DID go out of his way to target complexity as
something worthy only of quarantine. His “bend but do not break”
scheme is so incredibly reliant on a combination of rock-solid
technique, relentless EFFORT, and talent (through ALL eleven
starters and in that order of importance) that when players get even
mildly sloppy or their high-revving motors begin to slow . . . there
is little-to-no disguise to stop opposing offenses from pounding
their chests and yelling: “Time to go, Go, GO!”
When in full bloom, Marinelli’s system was like watching the lite,
tweaked version of “Tampa 2” he, Mike Tomlin, Raheem Morris and
others helped Monte Kiffin utilize (with RESOUNDING success) for the
2003 Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. At full strength (in
technique, swarming energy, and talent), Dallas’ variation of that
scheme was capable of sustaining a pretty-sturdy defensive boom.
Though – with no determined disguises (to sufficiently mask the
struggles of “best available players” to fulfill their collective
assignment) against more studious teams, the results were
occasionally like grinding gears and wheels out of alignment.
"I believe in it. I guess, there are two things. One, when you
believe in the SYSTEM and believe in myself as a TEACHER, we’ve had
great success with it; we know it works. It’s having the talent, but
this system forces that talent level to rise with effort, getting to
the ball. I have great confidence in it. I always have." – Rod
Marinelli on 07-25-2013 (in preparing to replace Monte Kiffin on the
defensive coordinator scene).
Marinelli’s tenure saw the Cowboys’ overall defense practically
improve every year (as crudely displayed below), but the
always-subjective standard – as with the 2020 Cowboys’
intermittently-EXPLOSIVE offensive output – remains completely about
the HOW and the WHEN a given unit succeeds, to be abundantly clear.
Otherwise, measurable comparisons are a no-go and effectively kaput.
2014 defensive ranking: 18th out of 32 teams.
2015 defensive ranking: 16th out of 32 teams.
2016 defensive ranking: 14th out of 32 teams.
2017 defensive ranking: 08th out of 32 teams.
2018 defensive ranking: 07th out of 32 teams.
2019 defensive ranking: 09th out of 32 teams.-
- Deceiving (in particular) was the 2019 ranking when – more often
than not during an 8-8 season (with key defensive injuries none-too-pleasin’)
– “Marinelli’s Men,” at crucial moments, were receiving a competitive
spanking. And with an offense – at THAT time – inconsistently,
unreliably performing up to its complete-game prime, “bend but do
not break” would eventually crumble and be not worth a dime. “And,
AND” the one issue that routinely vexed Marinelli’s plan – the
routine creation and capture of the almighty turnover (which
remained inconceivably hard even with an assist from Kris Richard) – is (GASP) a
stubborn holdover which Mike Nolan and his staff continue to mull
over.
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- With the historical given that injuries happen and (GASP) human
error can leave entire units crappin’, it would have been totally
understandable if Mike Nolan’s goal was to install an adaptable,
disguise-centric layer on top of a technique-and-hustle-focused base
to fill that (glaring?) hole. Nolan – however (with his own
decades-worth of coaching experience) – has clearly gone too
far with his “3-4, 4-3, Take A Guess, Hee-Hee-Hee” makeover. Players
(more than a few) have gone from being eager to start over with
something shiny-and-new to “My GAWD! Too much! Absolutely not true!”
One might say that – from his players – Nolan has ironically
disguised a simpler solution, resulting in poor execution.
2020 defensive ranking: 27th out of 32 (after 4 games). Shame,
shame, we know your name. The 12 remaining contests cannot (?)
result in the same.
Continue Running In Place Or Change The Face?
"Well, I can't say I've heard of it often. I'm sure it's possible.
Like they've talked about, his scheme is so complicated. It's so
variable. It's so diverse. People think that means good defense, and
it doesn't. You don't have a foundation, you don't have an identity,
so you have nothing to fall back on. So when things aren't going
great, it's not like you have, 'Hey, we can put the fire out with
this. We're going to run this until we get things under control'.
It's just like a patchwork of, 'Hey, we're going to keep throwing
things at the wall and see what sticks'. When you have that as a
player, then you're like okay, so, you don't even know how we're
getting attacked. Are we getting attacked as a cover 2 defense? A
man to man defense? A quarters defense? A cover 3 defense? Like how
are they attacking us, because we're in so much nonsense. I don't
know if changing the coordinators changes the way they run that
playbook, but if you change coordinators, and they go back to
foundational fundamentals of running a certain defense, then I think
they'll have better results. But who am I?" – San Francisco 49ers
cornerback Richard Sherman in a recent Pro Football Focus podcast
with Cris Collinsworth (in response to the extraordinary struggles
of Mike Nolan's defense and how hard it would seemingly be to change
coordinators in-season in “the age of reason”).
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- When Wade Phillips was fired as the Cowboys’ head coach in 2010
after a 1-7 start, Paul Pasqualoni (a coach with DECADES of
experience in practically every phase of the football-teaching art)
was elevated from defensive line coach to interim defensive
coordinator. Though no one (within the organization) was asking
Pasqualoni to be a major change instigator, the Cowboys’ defense
underwent an evolution in their ability to create turnovers. While
Dallas would go on to finish that season so 6-10 miserable, their
defense went from creating 10 turnovers through their first 8 games
to creating 20 in their final 8 contests (with few-to-no-fans
raising any protests). Double the production with
Pasqualoni-modified (?) function and zero compunction.
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- While turnovers were only ONE of the solutions towards getting the
2010 team to display a stronger theme, change only seems
(impossibly) strange if you are unable to (mentally) rearrange. That
begins – in this case – with the lead defensive coach, and Mike
Nolan is not beyond reproach.
While Dallas does not (currently) face another opposing top-10
offense over their remaining regular season games, there is still
plenty of opportunity for the disorganized Cowboys’ defense to allow
opponents to further fracture their schematic frame. Nolan's unit
must find a simpler solution (rather than his planned
maximum
evolution) towards pulling their own weight. The Cowboys' offense
(no matter how aerially-exciting and statistically-inviting) should
not have to singularly shoulder the responsibility of controlling
the team's fate.-
- "C-Could it be the players
who are not fulfilling minimum scheme prayers?" you
timidly ask with a cringe (knowing GM Jerry thinks so highly of his
2020 win-now roster that he would rather eventually view
McCarthy's defensive coordinator as a coaching imposter
. . . and force Cowboys Nation to collectively reach for a
syringe). Anything is possible – with some uncomfortable
imagination to restore extremity sensation – but it remains Nolan's
unsavory challenge to convert the Cowboys' defense into something
more productive and palatable.
Will They Or Won’t They?
Will Mike Nolan’s alleged return to the sideline from the booth
help deliver better results or simply reinforce more of the truth?
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- Will another loss – potentially against the visiting New York Giants
(filled with the usual vim and vigor defiance) –
trigger America’s Team to no longer maintain the plan, but change
the plan, or can the man?
We shall see. We Always do.
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