Mike Zimmer’s defensive philosophy gives us a better chance

Don’t get me wrong – Dan Quinn was a huge upgrade as DC here from the days of Mike Nolan and Rod Marinelli. Quinn’s style produced great turnover and sack numbers and our defense became synonymous with that. The problem was his style worked as long as we were comfortably ahead. When Quinn’s D had to stop the run – a must when your team is behind, we couldn’t do it.

Last year the Cowboys were 10-0 when scoring first and 2-6 (including the playoffs) when the opponents scored first. Quinn was forced last year to play S Marquese Bell as a 210 LB and teams like Buffalo and GB just trucked us in the run game.

Mike Zimmer’s defensive philosophy is pretty straight-forward: Stop the run with a physical DL that can tie up the opponents OL and off of the LBs who are freer to make tackles. The secondary takes less chances. A big IF here: If our FO can provide a better interior DL, this defense could be much better in the next two years. That’s a big IF.

Here‘s what I think will be better under Zim:

• If Mazi, Osa, and the newly acquired Jordan Phillips can do what Zimmer wants, we should be better against the run. (Another IF)
• From what I’ve seen, Zim is planning to use Micah Parsons as more than just a pass rusher. I think this is good. Parsons is a special talent and I felt Parsons was being worn down the way Quinn always used him. We should see Parsons being used in multiple ways.
• Even though I expect less interceptions than we’ve had under Quinn, I also expect better overall coverage under Zimmer.

As I stated several times, there are HUGE IFS. And we must also remember that with Zimmer and the entire coaching staff on one year contracts, if this team doesn’t make the playoffs, it may mean this new defensive philosophy is not given enough time to develop. Time will tell.