Can the faceless Dallas Cowboys defense get it done?

Tyrone Crawford has heard the same thing year after year — the Dallas Cowboys’ defense is the weak link of the team.

The Cowboys have invested in having one of the most high-powered offenses with household names. The defense? Not so much.

Heck, defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli referred to the group as the “Mighty Orphans” last year, a nickname he used after reading Twelve Mighty Orphans, the story about the Texas high school football team in the 1930s and 1940s from the Masonic Home Orphanage in Fort Worth.

This is still a no-name defense around the league.

“People always say, ‘We don’t have the best talent. No Pro Bowlers. Whatever,’ ” Crawford said. “But when they watch the tape, they can’t deny the fact that we’re getting off the ball. We’re running fast. We’re hitting. Guys around the league that I’ve talked to on offense say it feels like y’all got 12, 13 guys on the field.

“That’s a compliment to us and the way we play our defense.”

There’s no question it’s a compliment from peers. But the statistics tell a different story.

The Cowboys haven’t had a top-10 defense in seven years, and a lack of a pass rush is pointed to as a contributing factor for their early playoff exits in 2014 and 2016.

The Cowboys haven’t combined for a 40-sack season in five years and the most recent double-digit sack artist was Jason Hatcher in 2013.

But the hope is the Cowboys turn a corner on the defensive side this year. They have a young, speedy secondary, and added a first-round pass rush talent in Taco Charlton.

Time will tell whether this unit can rise past the middle-of-the-road mark it’s had the past couple of seasons.

“I love the challenges every day,” defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said. “I really do. I love the challenges of football. … Sometimes you can make up for deficiencies with great effort. Football allows you to do that with great effort. It’s still a blue-collar game where effort matters.”

That, more than anything, is why the Cowboys are confident in having an improved defense. They have players who are hungry to improve.

Linebacker Sean Lee is healthy and determined to continue playing at an All-Pro level. Cornerback Orlando Scandrick hates watching his film from a season ago and wants to put better tape out there to show last year “wasn’t him.”

Linebacker Jaylon Smith is itching to get back on the field after sitting out a full season. Smith has put in a countless number of hours in rehabbing his way back from a major knee injury.

Defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence is in a contract year and wants to prove he’s more of the eight-sack guy in 2015 than the one-sack guy a season ago. Lawrence spent the off-season getting in shape and feels he’s poised for a breakout season.

Safety Byron Jones spent the off-season working with Double A Frisco catching balls in the outfield to help improve his routes and ball skills.

Defensive tackle Maliek Collins is determined to live up to the standards of previous three-techniques before him in the Tampa 2 scheme such as Hall of Famer Warren Sapp.

As Collins said, “Warren Sapp is the reason I have a job. He showed that short, fat, chubby guys like me can play at this level. They set the standard for how you play the position. If you don’t play up to it, then you’re doing a disservice to the men before you.”

The young secondary players are just as motivated, too. Cornerbacks Jourdan Lewis (Michigan) and Chidobe Awuzie (Colorado) are coming from big-time college programs that aren’t used to having a suspect defense.

And the secondary was suspect for much of last season. The Cowboys were one of only six teams that failed to record double-digit interceptions, and had the 26th-ranked pass defense.

That has to change if the Cowboys are going to make a deeper run.

“I feel like we can be one of the best defenses,” Lewis said. “I feel like we have the talent to do so, and we have experienced guys who can teach the game and have been playing at a very high level. I’m excited to see.”

Said Awuzie, “I came from a championship defense and it feels like I’m stepping right back into one.”

The rookies must not have seen or read much written about the defense in past years. They’ve had a middle-of-the-road unit the past two years and have been viewed as the unit who failed to make a play when needed in the postseason.

After all, the green Bay Packers clinched the playoff game a year ago when Aaron Rodgers hit Jared Cook for a 36-yard gain on a third-and-20 with 12 seconds to go.

But the Cowboys do their best to block out any outside noise that might come their way.

“We don’t really care about the outside noise to be honest,” Jones said. “I honestly don’t know what people give us credit for, but we’ve got a lot of good players on this team. We’ve got some really sharp dudes on this team that have played a lot of football.

“I’ll go to war with these guys. I have no issues anywhere with our guys.”

Added Collins, “I love being an underdog. I’ve always been an underdog. We’ve just got to go dominate. This defense, this team, we live in a bubble and outside noise doesn’t bother us. The naysayers, the prognosticators don’t matter.”

Marinelli echoed a similar message, saying he doesn’t have time to get caught up in what others think about his defense.

Instead, he’s focused on building a defense that will complement the offense. And, yes, Marinelli believes a step forward with this defense is possible.

He pointed to the speed the team has added as a reason why it’ll turn around.

“Speed helps everything,” Marinelli said. “It condenses the field and speed has always been our problem before.

“So I’m going to coach them hard, and they’ve got to respond.”

This story was originally published September 4, 2017 at 11:09 AM with the headline "Can the faceless Dallas Cowboys defense get it done?."