Before news of Tony Romo's sudden surgery broke, the Dallas Cowboys' transition from a 3-4 defense to coordinator Monte Kiffin's 4-3 scheme was the biggest story in Big D. Cornerback Morris Claiborne says the change is misunderstood by many.
"It's not quite what everybody thinks it is -- a true Cover 2," Claiborne told KRLD-FM this week, via the Dallas Morning News. "We mix in a lot of different things and we play a lot of man-to-man as well, so it's not what everybody thinks it is (where) we're just going to be sitting back playing Cover 2 the whole game.
"So I think it's going to fit in with the personnel that we have with the team and the guys we have on the team."
It's an important point to make. NFL defensive trends have changed a great deal since Kiffin was running the original Tampa 2. Even a coach like Lovie Smith added a lot more man-to-man and blitz concepts to his repertoire.
The Cowboys will play more zone defense and keep plays in front of them, but every defense plays a little of everything. That's just how defenses work in 2013, with labels rarely telling the whole story.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.
