How the past is the key to the Cowboys’ future in the secondary When you compare Mike Nolan’s vision and to Dan Quinn’s, it’s like night and day. Photo by Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Last season the Cowboys brought in a defensive coordinator, Mike Nolan, whose defensive vision was to cause confusion to fool opposing quarterbacks with heavily disguised coverages in the secondary. Sadly, it had the opposite effect and confused the Cowboys secondary, and opposing quarterbacks were able to average 6.7 yards per attempt and throw for 34 touchdowns against an often out of position Cowboys secondary. It didn’t matter if they were a seasoned veteran or a rookie coming into the league, it was abundantly clear that what Nolan was doing wasn’t working.