Dallas Cowboys Can Learn From Super Bowl XLV Defenses Even Before Kickoff

I love how irony comes into play so often in the NFL.

Not half a year going backward, many Dallas Cowboys fans really thought that America’s Team would become the first team to play a Super Bowl in its own stadium and blah, blah, blah. I was not one of them and for two reasons.

First of all, no team has done it before. Why would we break tradition now?

Second, the Cowboys are not built to win a championship, but rather to win numerous games, at least prior to 2010 and probably lose anything that matches them up against a physical team built well in the trenches.

Don’t get me wrong, I would not have been shocked had the Cowboys reached the big game, but probably closer to that had they actually won it.

So forget the old, old animosity toward the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers, this year's participants in the Big Show at Jerry World. The “Ice Bowl” at Lambeau Field was over 40 years ago and those two losses to the Steelers in Super Bowls X and XIII were over 30 years ago.

I personally found the 1995 NFL postseason to be quite gratifying. I’ll let you check out Dallas’ opponents that year.

So letting old wounds go might lead us toward perspective on how the Cowboys can jump right back into championship discussion much sooner than later. The biggest lesson comes on the defensive side of the ball.

For four or five seasons now I have grown more and more irritated that the Cowboys consistently fail to address the most glaring need on defense. No, it is not cornerback or safety or even middle linebacker. Obviously “premier pass rusher” is not missing either.

I’m talking about nose guard.

The Steelers have been illustrating how to use the 3-4 defensive front to championship results for several seasons now. Prior to that, the New England Patriots, along with their video cameras, did the same. Prior to that even the Baltimore Ravens offered a defense that was good enough to win a Super Bowl in convincing fashion with an offense that did not even qualify as good.

Those teams above all share some things in common but the one that really strikes me is the fact that none used a 300 pound nose guard like Dallas does, and has since going to the 3-4 in 2005.

Steelers nose tackle Casey Hampton will line up in his third Super Bowl standing 6’1” and weighing in around 325 pounds. Clogging the middle in Pittsburgh’s interior has allowed guys like James Harrison, LaMarr Woodley and the ancient James Farrior to make many more big plays than their Dallas counterparts.

You think Harrison is better than Dallas’ DeMarcus Ware? In no way can you offer that suggestion. Ware is bigger, stronger, faster—everything over Harrison. Harrison has 45 sacks the last four seasons. Ware has 60.5.

You think that Woodley is better than Dallas’ Anthony Spencer? Don’t kid yourself. Woodley is an awesome outside linebacker but once again, Spencer is bigger, stronger, faster—a first round pick to a second round pick. I am not knocking Woodley because there is nothing to knock. I am saying that one guy is getting sack opportunities and the other is not.

So why is this? Casey Hampton.

And how 'bout them Packers!

You realize that Green Bay only made the switch to the 3-4 alignment two years ago? Look it up if you’re not already aware of this. In just two seasons they have shot right past the Cowboys, as a defense, despite inferior personnel in several places—but certainly not everywhere.

You think Clay Matthews is better than DeMarcus Ware? Not even in his wildest dreams in Matthews better than Ware. But I will say this for Matthews: He gets to the quarterback despite being the only guy on the Packers front who is a threat to do so. In fact, Matthews, in his first two seasons, has exactly four more sacks than Ware did after his first two years.

So why is this? B.J. Raji.

Let’s also give an honorable mention to defensive end Ryan Pickett. He is among the heaviest ends in the NFL.

To sum it up, the Packers defensive line outweighs the Cowboys front by close to 80 pounds. You will find similar differences amongst other contending defenses around the league which run the 3-4.

It baffled me for years that Wade Phillips came to Dallas after having coached another awesome 3-4 unit in San Diego. The Chargers, at the time, had gigantic Jamal Williams playing the nose. Remember how that launched the career of Shawne Merriman, at least before his immaturity and injuries made him an early has-been, having been exiled to Buffalo?

But I do believe there is hope. New Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan knows this 3-4 business quite well. Having come from Cleveland, where he really didn’t have much in the way of talent, I do see that he had beastly Shaun Rogers plugging the A-gap for the Browns.

And don’t bother offering Cleveland’s record as any kind of argument against having size and strength in the middle of a 3-4 line. The Browns offense is exactly that: offensive.

The Cowboys need to learn from the two teams playing for the Vince Lombardi Trophy right in their own back yard.

Dallas Morning News columnist Jean-Jacques Taylor wrote on Thursday that among Ryan’s biggest challenges ahead is getting the most out of Ratliff following a season of lowered performance. I could’nt agree more and the starting point of that task is to move back to end where he belongs.

Quit wasting Ratliff by somehow believing that he will get enough sacks going through the path of greatest resistance to make it worth it. In other words, opponents will just continue running the ball for even modest gains in order to neutralize Dallas’ elite pass rushers outside—and yes, that includes Spencer.

So come kickoff on Sunday, sound the bell because school is in session.