Will Allen: “We're Going To Hit”

Safety Will Allen came to Dallas from Pittsburgh this offseason

Cowboys safety Will Allen knows well what it’s like to be a part of a widely-feared, hard-hitting secondary, as he spent the last three seasons playing in Pittsburgh alongside such noted wood-layers as Troy Polamalu and Ryan Clark.

This reputation is the product of a specific mindset and, after signing with the team in free agency this offseason, Allen wants to bring that mindset to Dallas.

“The first thing Ryan Clark and Troy Polamalu and Ike Taylor and those guys said to me when I walked into the defensive back room, was if you don’t stick your face in the thing, you can’t be on this defense,” Allen said, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “If you aren’t ready to hit--we don’t care about interceptions--if you aren’t ready to hit, we don’t need you.

“That’s a mentality. If you aren’t trying to hit, you can forget about it.”

With training camp about a month away, Allen hasn’t been a Cowboy for long, but he’s seen enough from his teammates on defense to have confidence that Dallas can be one of the better hitting teams in the league, from front to back.

“Those Pittsburgh guys are mean on the field ... to everybody,” Allen said. “It’s not just taboo. It’s not something you just say. You really believe it. You really mean it. It’s your mindset because everybody’s accountable to each other. And hopefully we can build that same accountability here on the back end, everybody from Brandon Carr to Mo Claiborne.

“I don’t care how you bring them down, but we’re going to hit. We’re going to let these receivers know we mean business. I think that’s the mentality we’ve got to adopt and have in every game.”

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