If there’s anyone who knows a thing or two about rushing the quarterback, it’s former Cowboy and Pro Football Hall of Famer DeMarcus Ware.
In his diagnosis of the Dallas defense, Ware, the Cowboys’ all-time leader in sacks at 117, was quick to point to the intangibles more than the actual talent on the field. If you ask Ware, the Cowboys need to get back to technique, mentality and the “steak and potatoes” of playing defense.
Question: What do you think about this Cowboys pass rush — five games in and they’ve got five sacks. What’s missing here?
DeMarcus Ware: “You can do a lot of things in the offseason that look good, right? But it all boils down to the very, very simple techniques. You know, hand-over-foot, certain small technique things that you work on, and they’re like the steak and potatoes of what football is all about.
“And I think that is probably the missing part. We have a lot of talent and a lot of mature guys now on the defensive line that can rush the passer, usually when they say add more to your toolbox, you’re really not adding more to the toolbox that’s gonna be, the wrench, the allen wrench, all these certain things. No, no, no. I need to just sharpen the tools that I got, to make sure I’m consistent for the next season. That’s what we always predicated everything on when we played. And I just feel like everybody needs to get back into the saddle, and, yeah we got a lot of shiny toys that can get the job done. But let’s get back to the steak and potatoes of the game, getting pressure, stopping the run and hitting people.”
Q: When you have had a new defensive coordinator, or you had to adjust to a new scheme — how long, what is a fair amount of time to give it to click, or is there a timeframe you can put on it?
Ware: “When you have players that are good at what they do, it takes no time. I’m just being honest with you. I’ve had, I can probably sit here and name seven defensive coordinators when I played? And every single one that came in, even I think when [former Cowboys assistant Paul Pasqualoni] or somebody got fired during the season … We still played well. We went from a 3-4 to some sort of 4-3 type defense that we were running, and we still were good. It really didn’t matter what we were doing, it was like, ‘Do I trust the coach to call the plays?’ And that’s where it all boils down, do the players trust the coach to call the plays? They’ve got the players, but there’s a trust factor. If I call base cover 4, I’m man enough [to where] we’re gonna run cover four and we’re gonna beat whatever offense they throw at us.”