The Cowboys prepared their defense for the pace of the Eagles offense by playing with two scout team offenses during practice: As soon as scout team A finished a play, scout team B rushed to the line for the next play and so on. "You just simply have them go faster and make sure the ball is snapped in a certain amount of time, and that’s a big part of this game," Garrett said. "They will challenge you with tempo. They challenge everybody with tempo and they run their plays fast. We have to make sure we’re on top of it and when the ball is snapped play the defense we want to play." Source: SB Nation markaz's Take: Would like to have seen this in action at practice. The 'boys should really have their work cut out with Nick Foles throwing the ball and it sounds like they prepared unconventionally well. Just stay out of the way now, Jason.
Preparing for the tempo is a very small part of it. It's the formations and options the Eagles run that are much more difficult to defend.
If past history means anything, the Cowboys are going to have a long day tomorrow. Kelly and Kiffin have faced off three times against each other from 2010-2012 when both were in the Pac 10, now the Pac 12. Kelly has a 2-1 record. In today's Dallas Morning News, sports columnist Rainer Sabin has some stats that show Kelly's dominance over Kiffin in those three games: Avg, points: 50 Avg. total yards: 601 Avg. passing yards: 285.67 Avg rushing yards: 315.3 Turnovers: 1.67 The Cowboys have supposedly studied films of Kelly's Oregon offense and have talked to college coaches that have faced his high octane offense. I hope so.
That would be a lot more true if the Cowboys defense was playing well and the Eagles offense was struggling. That not being the case, it doesn't worry you at all?
Why doesn't it? He's tried to stop it in the past and failed miserably. How does that not matter to you "in the least"?
I'd like to know the answer to that as well. Looks to me like Rich is whistling through the cemetery at night. All I know is that Kiffin and Kelly have faced each other three times, and judging by the stats, Kiffin has yet to learn a damned thing about how to stop Kelly.
