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The trenchesOnce, as children, we thought winning came from the swingman in basketball that scores 35 points a game, the slugging No. 3 hitter in a line-up in baseball or the stud receiver or running back in football.
As we grow older, especially in this day and age of sports -- we know that the role players and secondary guys that go in and do their job really well every play, pitch or possession are just as important.
As a football fan, I now see how the game is won and lost on the offensive and defensive lines.
Watch just about any football game in the NFL -- especially any Cowboys' games -- and watch the lines. Who's being pushed off the ball? Who's running free? Who looks like they're in position? You don't need to be a national writer or an ESPN analyst to see and understand when someone's loafing.
If your offensive line keeps things in front of them, gets good movement, sees blitzes and looks active and rearing to go, it makes your quarterback, running back and receivers all better. Bad teams are built around a line that can't block. There's a reason the 1990s Cowboys offensive line was rewarded with boots and watches from Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith.
Consider a defense: Cornerbacks and safeties are perpetually in a position to lose. It doesn't really matter how fast or what kind of reaction time you might have, a receiver is running a route which he knows. The corner does not know this route and must go off instinct and what you see on tape to guess where the receiver is going. Cornerbacks play on split-second instinct and guessing.
Throughout the NFL -- and its history -- ordinary cornerbacks have turned into good to great cornerbacks because the four or seven guys up front are doing their job.
What messes up the receivers' precise routes, speed, big hands, big vertical, agility and the knowledge of where the ball is going to go is a defensive tackle breaking through the line and forcing a quarterback to throw the ball away, fall for a sack, drop the ball off to a running back or miss the receiver high, low, too far left or too far right.
The offensive and defensive lines' abilities completely and totally determine the outcomes for the rest of the squads.
Do the Dallas Cowboys' offensive and defensive lines have the ability to control the trenches?
The offensive line is going to start three guys with one total NFL start, two of them rookies. They're back-ups include two rookies, a couple of second-year men and Montrae Holland.
I love it. The best move the Cowboys have made since drafting Larry Allen. Next year, the Cowboys offensive line might be great. This season, they might suck.
Inexperience will play a big role on this team and they will live and die by it. Tony Romo, maybe, quite literally. Is having Dez Bryant, Miles Austin and Jason Witten meaningless if Romo is running for his life? Or what if this O-line is good enough to stay together and by week 10 they're rolling.
The defensive line is what scares me more. If the O-line stumbles, there's enough talent to overcome it. If the D-line stumbles, Alan Ball and Mike Jenkins are the only thing between the opponent and a touchdown.
That should keep Jerry Jones up at night.
It's tough having six great guys in the secondary. They're too expensive and there aren't enough of them. However, good defensive linemen and a successful strategies are more common. You can take a marginal guy -- like Stephen Bowen -- and make them successful.
For whatever reason, all of last season with Wade Phillips around for half that, the Cowboys front four or five were unable to get to the quarterback or running back in the backfield.
It resulted in the secondary getting exposed and a lot of points and a lot of losses. What percentage of turnovers start with the defensive line? Interceptions, fumbles, sacks: All of them start up front. Rarely does a quarterback make a throw with his feet set and stepping into the throw and it get intercepted.
In 18 weeks, we will look at the 16 games that constituted the Dallas Cowboys' season and I would venture a guess we can ignore the stats of the receivers or running backs and focus on the trenches. Where dreams die.
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