We all know the old joke- “Why are they called the ‘Allas Cowboys? Because there’s no ‘D’ in Dallas.” And for too long it has been sadly true. But the serious question is,
what’s the fastest way to turn this defense around into at least something decent?
The short answer may be to simply improve the defensive line’s play. Why? Let us look at their performance the last two seasons:
- In the 2020 season last year, the Cowboys finished tied for 20th in the NFL with 31 sacks.
- They were even worse last year with QB pressures, finishing 25th with just 132.
- Last year, we ranked 27th in tackles for loss with only 54. We all know how bad this D was against the run, and the 2020 D gave up the most points in franchise history. Ouch.
- Compare all that to 2019, when Dallas had 8 more sacks than 2020, 17 more pressures and 22 more TFLs. And our defense wasn’t that great in 2019.
The good news is if we can get more aggressive defensively with the front 7, our numbers can improve quickly. For example, with new D coordinator Dan Quinn, I’m hoping we get more aggressive than with Mike Nolan and Rod Marinelli, who almost never blitzed. That needs to change.
How little has this team blitzed?
- The Cowboys in 2020 blitzed only 23% of the time, the same % as 2019. Last year, we ranked 27th in number of blitzes.
- Only the Eagles, Bears, Browns, Colts and Chargers blitzed less in 2020.
I realize that merely blitzing more doesn’t guarantee success, but offenses preparing for the Cowboys defense the last few years rarely had to worry about some exotic blitz package coming at them, much less regular pressure. The result was our secondary was often expected to cover receivers far too long.
Dan Quinn has said he wants to “simplify the scheme and play faster and more aggressively”. That should help. But this team also needs to upgrade the talent plus see what we have in Neville Gallimore and Trysten Hill. I expect to see a DL or two drafted although there’s supposedly not much impactful talent in this year’s draft.
Here’s hoping the play of our DL will start the process of making this defense more aggressive on the front end, making it easier on the secondary. Easier said than done of course.
