Here's what offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and defensive coordinator Renaldo Hill had to say ahead of the Bolts' Week 2 game vs. the Dallas Cowboys.
OC Joe Lombardi on the Cowboys defense
"They caught some bad luck with their defensive ends. Those were two guys that certainly concerned you. But, there are NFL players filling in their roles, so there are guys that we have to block. They're a fast team. One of the concerns is, that we don't have a lot of film on this new coaching staff, so there a lot of unknowns going into the game.
"They have some pressure packages that bother you. You don't have a lot of film to really vet exactly what they're doing to get your rules down. Preparing against a new staff where you don't have a season full of film on them is always a stressful thing. They're down a couple of players, but they have plenty of good players. This No. 11 [LB Micah Parsons], their rookie, is physical, fast. We all know what his skill level is. They still have a lot of problematic defenders over there."
DC Renaldo Hill on preparing for the Cowboys' run game
"We'll expect them to try to get the run game going. That's their guy [Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott]. We know once the run game is going for them, everything else opens up. Even though they had a big day passing [against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers], I think it opens up more variables for those guys. We expect them to get the run game going and use their big back, back there."
Lombardi on if there's any carryover from [Cowboys DC] Dan Quinn's scheme with the Falcons
"We looked at it. There's a little bit of carryover. With any defense, there's carryover. When you look at the limited film that we have with Dallas and you look at Atlanta, the tendencies aren't quite the same. It's too early, really, to tell. You're watching scheme. There's really none of the players that you're going to face on Sunday that are on that tape from the last couple of years in Atlanta. Where are you going to spend your time? We've certainly peeked at some stuff, but not as much as I thought we would."
Hill preparing for the Cowboys' pass game
"We want to continue to be shell-y back there, try to make it difficult. We want to make these quarterbacks have to search the defense out. Try to search the coverage out. We can do that. We think it'll make our jobs easier in the back end. That's the biggest thing for us, not trying to give up the explosiveness, explosive plays. Keeping the roof over our defense. We're constantly working on that. We know they have the weapons out there and we just have to do a good job this week early on. Continue to move the downs around."
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