Tackling Marion Barber
Marion Barber has made a career out of a great first gear and the pop of a fullback. Barber excels at powering through the first tackler, resuming his run or at least falling forward. The length of a body can be enough to make a failed rush successful, a stuffed run a first down or a goal-line stop into a touchdown.
Barber discovered himself in 2006. He was the lesser used but greater half of a committee led by Julius Jones. Barber was the closer. In only 135 runs, Barber amassed the league's sixth most DYAR. He ranked first in value per rush and second in success.
Dallas attempted to turn that concentrated value into a feature back and Barber struggled in 2008. This season, Dallas is back to spreading touches and Barber is back to powering through tackles and punishing defenders. This time, Barber is the leader and his teammates Tashard Choice and Felix Jones the backs getting the money yards.
Barber averages a little over 14 rushes a game. His quickness allows him to turn the corner and before the quad injury that kept him out of week three, he had almost an even split of runs to the inside and the outside. Returning in week four, he began gunning at the middle again and his overall split represents an inside rusher: 47 rushes to the middle and 25 to the outside.
When healthy, he can be equally productive inside and outside. Inside, he exploits the short path to build momentum and attack linebackers in the hole. Outside, Barber makes defensive backs fullback for a snap, driving into and through them and using the tackle attempt to pick off tacklers and break free. He attempts to break the tackle or to break the tackle enough to fall forward. Barber is a contact rusher whose productivity hinges on yards after contact.
The key to beating him is winning the tackle enough at the point to turn his lust for contact into stuffs in the hole. Most teams lack the linebackers to do that, but Seattle doesn't. Seattle must not only stand Barber up and counter his momentum, but swarm to Barber and not allow him to spin off and gain yards after contact.
That presents a major challenge for David Hawthorne. Heater has proven he can cover the field, make tackles outside the hash marks and join in gang tackles. He hasn't proven that he can win the one-on-one matchup and power the back into the hole. Hawthorne must for Seattle's rush defense to stop or slow football's number one rated rushing attack.
If Hawthorne can withstand the initial pop, his linemen and fellow linebackers can swarm, strip or at least force Barber back. The faster he hits Barber in the hole, the better able his linemen will be to collapse around Barber and stop him where he stands. It's not about tackles in this case, it's about tackle assists, and winning first contact, and keeping Barber in the blocks, and preventing the squat power back from bruising, spinning and continuing his march towards the end zone. Hawthorne, Aaron Curry, Leroy Hill and Deon Grant will each get their turn, but Hawthorne owns the middle, and through him Dallas will win, or opposite him, Marion Barber will fall.
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Must...crush...Barber.
A match-up worth watching. I’ll be interested how our DTs match up w/ Gurode and Co. Dallas uses mostly single-back sets, don’t they? Not a lot of fullback plays from what I can tell w/out having looked at the numbers.
I’d rather them run than get matchups like say…Miles Austin on Lawyer Milloy.
Early prospect watch: RB C.J. Spiller, OT Ciron Black, DT Gerald McCoy, S Eric Berry, DT Ndamukong Suh, CB Ras-I Dowling 6'2, 200, RB Jonathan Dwyer, Sam Bradford*.
by Misfit74 on Oct 29, 2009 10:00 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Think Tru will be covering Austin or Roy Williams?
Williams has been underwhelming (to say the least) this year….
by thebyron on Oct 30, 2009 6:52 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Wilson is still the starting CB
and Truf will play nickel downs, according to Mora. On those downs, I’d imagine Truf would cover Austin, seeing as they match up better.
Lucas should cover Williams, as they’re both larger, more physical players.
The demise of the Broncos in '09 is our future. Pray hard.
by Nick Andron on Oct 30, 2009 8:41 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
That sounds right.
But Dallas doesn’t go 3-wide very often. 3TE more often. But so Wilson on Austin also sounds right, with Lucas still on Williams, on 2-wides, 1st & 2nd downs. I dunno if three corners with 2 safeties is a good secondary against 2 & 3 TEs on passing downs, though, maybe Herring and Grant are better kept in than bringing in the nickel back.
by jacobstevens on Oct 30, 2009 1:04 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
That brings up another nightmare.
Both Witten and Bennett are fantastic pass-receivers. Between those two, Austin/Williams, and the running game we have our work cut out for us.
To clarify, I didn’t mean Milloy would cover Austin, only that I wouldn’t be surprised if Garrett doesn’t find a way at least once in the game to have Austin on a Safety. They’ll look to create mismatches and I hope we can account for that properly.
They probably will blow us out. Too many offensive weapons for us to contend with. I certainly hope otherwise.
I also don’t see the current state of our offensive line and pass-pro in general able to contend with their pass-rush. Matt is going to be under siege.
Early prospect watch: RB C.J. Spiller, OT Ciron Black, DT Gerald McCoy, S Eric Berry, DT Ndamukong Suh, CB Ras-I Dowling 6'2, 200, RB Jonathan Dwyer, Sam Bradford*.
by Misfit74 on Oct 30, 2009 3:42 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
If we blitz, they keep those guys in, though.
Then it’s a race between our ends and their wideouts. Their tackles and our corners. Who can get home before the other team’s guy breaks down.
We have to blitz. Smartly. But that team was made to blitz against.
by jacobstevens on Oct 30, 2009 4:07 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
See fanpost: Decoding Garrett
They do use 2 backs at times. But probably less frequently than a lot of the league. And I believe it’s more often two RBs than to put the FBs out there.
by jacobstevens on Oct 30, 2009 1:00 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Not looking forward to this game at all
What with the Cowboys’ massive O-line mauling our D-line and DeMarcus Ware probably about to break the single-game record for sacks
by rex92 on Oct 30, 2009 9:01 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Pretty much, yeah.
"Mayhap a hidden door lurks nigh. Let us search the environs."
by Fearless Frog on Oct 30, 2009 1:07 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I am waiting with anticipation of a blowout.
BY DALLAS!!!
I ROCK out with my HAWK out, therefore I am....
by durteehawk on Oct 30, 2009 2:01 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Humiliating, probably.
Can’t be any worse than Thanksgiving, though.
"Mayhap a hidden door lurks nigh. Let us search the environs."
by Fearless Frog on Oct 30, 2009 9:04 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
How much has our team really changed, let alone gotten better than this?
http://espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=281127006
TJ, Burleson are a plus. I’m not sure what else we’ve done to be better than the team that played on Thanksgiving last year outside of coaching changes, really.
Early prospect watch: RB C.J. Spiller, OT Ciron Black, DT Gerald McCoy, S Eric Berry, DT Ndamukong Suh, CB Ras-I Dowling 6'2, 200, RB Jonathan Dwyer, Sam Bradford*.
by Misfit74 on Oct 30, 2009 11:16 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

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