Rod Marinelli confident Tampa 2 will work
By Mike Dyce
The Dallas Cowboys are making a radical change on defense. They’re abandoning the 3-4 defense former head coach Bill Parcells installed and moving to a 4-3 base with Monte Kiffin’s Tampa 2 scheme.
Defensive like coach Rod Marinelli is confident the defense will work. When asked about whether he had doubts, he answered very clearly.
“None. Zero. None. Zero. None. Done it too long,” he said. “I believe in it. I guess, there are two things: One, when you believe in the system and believe in myself as a teacher, we’ve had great success with it, we know it works.”
“It really fits really talented players too – from Julius Peppers to Henry Melton. Henry Melton came out as a running back out of Texas, he made the Pro Bowl as an under tackle last year. It’s all those things. It’s having the talent, but this system forces that talent level to rise with effort, getting to the ball. I have great confidence in it. I always have.”
The NFC East has transitioned more towards the read-option style offenses. The Washington Redskins have Robert Griffin III running it and Chip Kelly is installing it in Philadelphia. Chip Kelly had a lot of success running that offense against Monte Kiffin when they coached against one another in the Pac-12 conference.
“We play spread offenses every week in the NFL,” Marinelli said. “When I played Oakland in the Super Bowl (with Tampa Bay) they were a spread offense; it just works, you just have to execute. The thing about this league, you also have to stop a tremendous passing game. They may run the read-option three or four times in a game — you change your defense just for that. I mean, these guys can throw the football. They can throw the football; your system has to adjust to them.”