Marinelli Could See Defensive Turnaround Coming

2014 was Rod Marinelli's first season as the Cowboys defensive coordinator

Prior to the 2014 season, there was very little reason to believe the Dallas Cowboys defense would be any better than in 2013, when they had one of the worst defensive seasons on record.

After all, they lost their two best pass rushers, DeMarcus Ware and Jason Hatcher, to the Denver Broncos and Washington Redskins, respectively. As if those losses weren’t enough of a blow, linebacker and defensive captain Sean Lee was lost for the season with a torn ACL suffered in camp, and top defensive pick DeMarcus Lawrence was lost for half the year with a foot injury in OTAs.

Suffice to say it didn’t look good.

But the Dallas defense overachieved their way to being a much improved unit. Defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli says now he was confident in the group of unknowns going into the season.

I could see we were going to be better, I could,” Marinelli said. “I could see the character through these guys all the way back from camp. Nobody else could see it, but I could. We as a staff really believed in them. They’re good guys. These guys really work. Every single week we got better and we worked.”

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