A year ago the Cowboys had the worst defense in the league, in terms of yards allowed, and predictions for this season were even gloomier.
Yet two games into the 2014 season and the Cowboys find themselves ranked 12th in the NFL in total defense, and the players think they can be even better.
"We're just so tired of hearing about the defense that we had last year," cornerback Sterling Moore said Tuesday at Valley Ranch. "Obviously, that's going to be there, it's in the record books. But we want to change that and say, yeah, we have a lot of the same guys, the same staff, but we're not the same defense. We've kind of turned ourselves around and want to continue that."
The Cowboys' defense seemed to draw a line in the sand at halftime of the opener against San Francisco. The Cowboys trailed 28-3 at the time, but much of that was the fault of turnovers by the offense.
The Dallas D held the 49ers scoreless in the second half, then held the Titans scoreless in the first half of last Sunday's 26-10 win.
"We dug our way out last week," defensive end Jeremy Mincey said. "We held off the 49ers in the second half and we kept it rolling. We want the team to do the same thing and this time hopefully not let up and allow anything one of these days."
The Cowboys are in the second year of the running the system of Rod Marinelli and Monte Kiffin, with Kiffin relinquishing the coordinator title to Marinelli this season.
Having a year's experience in the system seems to have done wonders for the defense, which is playing with a bit more swagger than last season.
"Honestly, I think there's just opportunities for guys to go out there and do what they do best," Moore said. "I think there's more freedom for us. I know in the secondary we have more freedom to play the way we want to play, the kinds of things that benefit us and go to our strengths. I think that's, all in all, allowing the defense to play a lot faster."
Hearing the criticism of the defense last season, and predictions of gloom and doom this season, has been a motivating factor.
"We know what we did last year," Moore said. "We don't want to go back to that. Obviously when you're 31st, 32nd in the league you can only go up. But we just feel like we're so much better than that."
Linebacker Bruce Carter said it's more about starting over with a clean slate in 2014.
"I don't think it's all about proving anything to anybody," Carter said. "I think we're just out there having fun and we're just showing. If we could just kind of keep that spirit and keep going with that, you never know what we could do, but I think we could be great."
The defense should be even better if Orlando Scandrick, considered the team's top cornerback, gets an anticipated early release from a PED suspension this week.
Regardless, Scandrick will be back in the fold at least by the fifth game, and by that time defensive end Anthony Spencer could be contributing. Coach Jason Garrett said Spencer would begin doing some football drills, rather than just rehab exercises, this week. Spencer has been on a long road to recovery from knee surgery.
The Cowboys will also get highly-anticipated second round pick DeMarcus Lawrence, a pass-rush specialist, at mid-season. Lawrence must miss the first eight games after being placed on the returnable injured reserve list with a broken foot.
Scandrick is more likely to make a quicker impact, and his return has his teammates excited.
"It would mean a lot," Mincey said. "You're talking about a guy who can blitz, cover, and he actually has a real good motor on the field and he has a knack for making plays. That would definitely be a great positive to have Orlando back. Right now, we're just holding it down for him, doing the best that we can do.
"When Spencer gets back, we've got a lot of guys coming in down the road. This thing is going to build up and turn into something special."
Follow Keith Whitmire on Twitter: @Keith_Whitmire
