It was a great example of a coach shelving his ego for the good of the team. Parcells knew he didn’t have the same players in Dallas, so rather than force his preferred defense on ill-suited players, he stuck with what the Cowboys had always run. Mo Lewis, Marvin Jones, Jams Farrior and Bryan Cox beat up offenses for the Jets. Chris Slade, Willie McGinest, Ted Johnson and Teddy Bruschi were all drafted by Parcells in New England. Lawrence Taylor, Harry Carson, Carl Banks and Pepper Johnson were the wrecking crew for the New York Giants. Parcells was used to man-mountain linebackers. If this were the circus, we could fit them all into one of those Volkswagens that 10 clowns climb out of. In typical Parcells fashion, the Tuna quipped about how sideline-to-sideline speedsters Dat Nguyen and Dexter Coakley lacked bulk: It meant Parcells inherited lightweight and slender linebackers, in other words, the complete opposite of the planet-sized front-seven stalwarts he’d need to run a 3-4. He abandoned his fondness for three-man lines again when he took charge of the Cowboys in 2003.ĭallas still ran a version of the Johnson defense that had survived Barry Switzer, Chan Gailey and Dave Campo. Parcells continued to alternate between the two defenses during his next stop with the New York Jets. It wasn’t just a case of if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.Ĭolleges simply weren’t providing the raw materials for the 3-4 to a league looking for speed up front. The Pats ran the front for three seasons until Parcells relented and went with the 4-3 trend in 1996. He returned to football as head coach of the New England Patriots in 1993 and promptly installed the 3-4. There were a few other 3-4 diehards, including Parcells.
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The steadfast holdouts were the Pittsburgh Steelers, who collected versatile linebackers in bunches for their zone-blitz system. More teams shifting to a four-man line made the 3-4 a rare breed, despite the scheme’s popularity during most of the 80s.
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The rest of the league copied Johnson’s blueprint once the Cowboys forced nine turnovers to beat the Buffalo Bills 52-17 in Super Bowl XXVII. In fact, Johnson prompted something of a defensive revolution with his college-style front built around smaller, quicker athletes. Jimmy Johnson replaced Landry in 1989 and stuck with the 4-3. Landry had crafted the front when he ran the New York Giants defense in the 50s, and it remained in vogue during the reigns of the next four head coaches. Starting with Tom Landry’s “Flex” defense, the Cowboys were strictly a 4-3 team. They had never played the front in over four decades of existence in the NFL. The Dallas Cowboys viewed the 3-4 defense as something alien before Bill Parcells changed things 2005.
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Bill Parcells accelerated the Dallas Cowboys transition to a 3-4 defense when he selected the foundation of an entire front seven during the 2005 NFL draft.