Mick's Mail - Monday, September 14, 2009

Kevin Kelley, Somerset, N.J.: What did you think of the Cowboys run defense and the much better strong safety pass coverage?

Mickey: The run defense needs to improve, and in a hurry. They can't be leaking runs of 35 and 22 yards and expect to stop teams, especially the Giants come Sunday night. Although, if you take those two runs away, the Cowboys gave up an average of four yards a carry on the other 29 runs.

That's not great by any means, but acceptable. As for strong safety, I thought Gerald Sensabaugh was a tremendous improvement over what the Cowboys had been playing with over the past three seasons. I mean you actually saw the strong safety making plays and making tackles. Plus, he even blocked a field-goal attempt. And that illegal contact penalty on him wiping out the pick by Mike Jenkins was pretty flimsy. As you noticed, the Cowboys did a much better job handling the opposing tight end, this time Kellen Winslow, than they had in the past with Roy Williams out there.