Dallas' Super Bowl Drought Ends With These 3 Changes

[Nova]

Well…that’s partially true about the defense, not totally. Looking at those two playoff losses, the defense was not exactly great. Here are the facts from both games:

Wild card game, Jan 16, 2022: L 23-17

• Defense surrendered 169 yards rushing.
• Defense gave 5.5 yards per play and 6-13 on 3rd down conversions.
• Despite being a top 5 defense in sacks, they did not record a single sack that day.
• Niners won TOP by 5 min that game.
• The Cowboys had 14 penalties, 9 of them committed by the defense, including a whopping 4 for lining up offsides.

Divisional Playoff game, Jan 22, 2023 L 19-12

• Defense was better this game than previous year, holding niners to 19 points and 341 yards.
• Dak did throw two soul crushing INTs.
• Defense was bad on 3rd down conversions, 7-14 (50%)
• Defense could not stop niners in 4th qtr 3 times on 3rd down conversions.

I’m not “defending Dak”; just pointing out that the defense was not stellar in both playoff games vs niners. Dak deserves some criticism but we didn’t lose both those games 100% because of Dak.

The defense held up their end in 23. But we can’t pin everything on Dak either because the Cowboys had nothing in the run game after pollard went down. Prior to that, I really thought we were going to come out victorious.

 

[GMO415]

You left out the number one reason the Cowboys continue to fail in the playoffs. It’s been their defense! They’ve had some great offensive teams that have led the league in stats and scoring but their defense can’t stop anyone in the playoffs. Our DL consistently gets manhandled by good teams in postseason and our pass rush disappears.

True. DAL had a top 5 Def between 07 - 09 and did absolutely nothing with it.

 

[KJJ]

True. DAL had a top 5 Def between 07 - 09 and did absolutely nothing with it.

It was top 5 during the regular season but not in the playoffs. By the time the playoffs arrive we’re not playing our best football especially defensively.