DeMarcus Ware has earned his money, and can thank D-line for it

By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL

jenfloyd@star-telegram.com

IRVING — Admittedly, owner Jerry Jones has thrown good money after bad a lot in his Cowboy lifetime.

He paid age. He paid quasi-potential. He paid idiots.

He paid Joey Galloway, and T.O. a second time, and the other Roy Williams after almost everybody had discovered his issues in coverage.

Yes, a lot of big-time, long-term money has been handed out to questionables at Valley Ranch in recent seasons. So when he handed DeMarcus Ware, what basically amounts to a check for $80 million with $40 mil guaranteed a couple of days ago, a little skepticism emerged. Had Owner Jones goofed again?

Not just no, but hell no.

Ware is exactly the guy you write the big check for, young and a good ambassador for your franchise and crazy talented. I can say this with almost certainty because Ware’s impact smacks us in the face almost every Sunday, in defensive statistics, on SportsCenter and mostly in sacks. He has a lot of them. And sacks are sexy, certainly sexier than a guy filling a gap, beating his man and stopping a run play.

"That does not make SportsCenter," defensive end Jason Hatcher said with a smirk Wednesday, "but it is kind of important."

Just ask Ware how much of his $80 mil was earned on third-and-2 versus say third-and-13? Or how many of his sacks had D-line fingerprints on them in one capacity or another?

And the strength of this Cowboys defense, at the moment, is the guys up front, down low and unnoticed. It is the guys in the trenches stopping the run and collapsing pockets on pass plays who make this defense go. They are not sexy, just integral to being the defense Wade Phillips promised when he arrived in town.

"If you can’t stop the run, you are in for a long day," defensive end Stephen Bowen said.

As Big Bill used to love to say, the trenches are where the men play. He loved what he called "the junk butts" on both lines for this very reason. They were the architects of most of the catalytic plays — sacks, interceptions and tackles for loss. Every big play usually has one of these guys at the heart of it, beating his man, throwing the timing of a play off just enough, or just refusing to be pushed back.

"It’s the dirty work," defensive tackle Jay Ratliff said. "It’s not pretty. It’s not nice. It’s actually a lot of fun."

Ratliff is to D-linemen what Ware is to linebackers. He has been a beast, run-stopping and pressuring and sacking and just generally wreaking havoc. And he has had a lot of beast-like play beside him with Hatcher and Bowen and Spears and Igor and a whole lot of guys we do not hear a lot about unless a running back gashes the Cowboys.

Like Week 1 in Tampa Bay. It was ugly.

The Cowboys looked like a train wreck against the run. The Bucs, who have since proven to be beyond hapless, gashed them for 101 yards in the first half as the Cowboys tried to be all cutesy and scheme and blitz and outsmart. It was major fail.

By halftime, Mr. Fix It realized he had to fix it. So they went back to base defense, which is exactly what it sounds like according to Spears. "Basic." Stay in your gaps. Less blitzing. More asking your guy to beat his guy.

Looking for comments?