Week 2 Analysis: 2-0

"How about the defense" -Wade Phillips

Defense:
How about the defense, indeed, Mr. Wade. Trent Green was intercepted 4 times and 1 fumble was recovered as the Cowboys defense displayed the defense that Wade Phillips was supposed to bring to big D. The Dolphins did score 20 against us...mostly on 2 TD passes from Trent Green. But I guess if you lob it up there enough times (as I said, 4 INTs) you eventually will score.

One thing I find interesting is that Miami didn't really attempt to run against us that much. They handed it off to Ronnie Brown 11 times and to Jessie Chatman 3 times. Other than that, Miami just had a few misc scrambles and WR reverses. In my analysis I started to say that Dallas defended the run very well, but the reality is they didn't have much of an opportunity to defend the run.

Watching the defense yesterday made me feel a lot better about the season, than last week's defense did. But again, it's Miami. It's tough to say how much of this was bad offense and how much was good defense, but I'm sure it's some combination of the two.

Offense:
As a sports fan you will come across several times when a box score doesn't tell the entire story. This is one of those cases. The box score says that Romo only threw for 186 yards (2 TDs). This stat is valid, but there is more to be said. Dallas frequently started their drives with excellent field position (5 Miami turnovers will do that). So while he may have only thrown for 186 yards, the offense as a whole could not total very many yards because they were so frequently starting their drives with excellent field position.

The Player had 97 yards on 5 catches and a TD. Everybody thought his celebration was funny, I thought it was stupid. He was mocking a terrible situation that I believe is receiving too light of a punishment (Belichick spying on the enemy). Other than the player, the rest of the receptions were pretty evenly distributed, with nobody getting more than 2.

On the rushing side, Marion Barber was the star, getting both rushing TDs as well as 89 yards on fewer attempts than JuJo received. Romo rushed himself for 36 yards, JuJo had 32.

The offense did very well against the Miami Defense, but that's not really to Miami's fault or Dallas' praise. The Miami Defense was put into some near impossible situations at time, due to turnovers.

The Dallas Defense get's the assist from the offense, for making their job that much easier.


Next week will be quite a test, as we are on the road against the Chicago Bears. The offense is going to need to bring their A game. Hopefully the defense can continue it's impressiveness as well.