Analysis: Cowboys DTs vs Giants

doomsday9084 · Sep 13, 2019

From what I understand, the entire purpose of going 1 gap instead of 2 gap is that it allows DT's (and DE's) to attack a gap and shoot it. A certain number of times you should see your DT's in the backfield with a 1 gap defense.

In a 2 gap defense, the DT's are supposed to hold up the line and free up the LB's to make plays. Effectively, a 1 gap gives the DT's an opportunity to make negative plays at the expense of exposing LB's.

Am I wrong?

If not, did the DT's make any plays? At all? From what I saw, they just held their gap and that's about it. They rarely even tied up 2 blockers. You have to get more out of the DT position than that.

pitt33 · Sep 13, 2019

Teague31 said:
Thought wolf hunter was fine but I thought it was one of Jaylon’s worst games

Jaylon looked like he could hardly run again. Much like when he first took the field in a Cowboys uniform.

Did anyone else notice that? He did not look or play well.

FuzzyLumpkins · Sep 13, 2019

xwalker said:
The Cowboys don't rack up a lot of sacks against Eli most of the time.

They had a big sack game against him in the 1st match-up last season but only 1 in the 2nd match-up.

Eli got sacked often last year because their OL was really really bad but in prior years he does not get sacked at high rate because he does not hold the ball long.

D-Coordinators have 3 basic choices on the focus of their game plan:
1. Focus on pressure (blitz and let DL play the run as an after thought).
2. Focus on coverage (minimal blitzing & some 3 man pass rushes).
3. Focus on run defense (DL delay pass rushing until it's clear not a run, etc..).

The Cowboys game plan against the Giants was to stop the run. They made the 1 big error on the 59 yard run by Barkley but otherwise only 61 yards on all of his other runs.

Anything that happened in the 4th quarter is basically meaningless. They were playing prevent defense and were happy if the Giant ran the ball or threw short passes because that just burns time off the clock.

Even in the 3rd quarter the defense played more conservative than their already conservative game plan coming into the game.

Bottom Line:
Before the Cowboys started playing prevent, the Giants had an 11 yard and a 7 yard run on the inside and those were both in the LB gaps.

Considering that Barkley is a top 3 RB and regarded by many as the best RB in the NFL, the run defense was quite successful.

With regards to Hill being inactive, I don't know how that relates to the actual performance by the DTs that played in the game.

Yeah I remember peak Ware, Ratliff, and co were a top 5 pass rushing line and couldn't get to him because of constant 3 step drops and getting the ball out.

Pessimist_cowboy · Sep 13, 2019

Look at that stat line. The DT’s were invincible.

Alexander · Sep 13, 2019

Good post.

I don't think the DTs played great, by any stretch. But I have yet to go back into the game and revisit that.

The big Barkley run did feature LVE making a very bad read.

My biggest deal was Collins being shutout with a goose egg. Zeitler is good but this was supposed to be Collins showing out.

Instead he was exactly what I thought he was.

xwalker · Sep 13, 2019

8FOR!3 said:
I made a YouTube video covering the defense but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to share it. Basically the defensive line doesn’t get enough organic pressure for Marinelli’s defense to work as effectively as it needs to imo

You can post a link unless the audio has bad language.

xwalker · Sep 13, 2019

doomsday9084 said:
From what I understand, the entire purpose of going 1 gap instead of 2 gap is that it allows DT's (and DE's) to attack a gap and shoot it. A certain number of times you should see your DT's in the backfield with a 1 gap defense.

In a 2 gap defense, the DT's are supposed to hold up the line and free up the LB's to make plays. Effectively, a 1 gap gives the DT's an opportunity to make negative plays at the expense of exposing LB's.

Am I wrong?

If not, did the DT's make any plays? At all? From what I saw, they just held their gap and that's about it. They rarely even tied up 2 blockers. You have to get more out of the DT position than that.

A true 2 gap is usually a 3-4 like the old Parcells defenses. The 3 big DL in place of 2 DTs.

xwalker · Sep 13, 2019

doomsday9084 said:
From what I understand, the entire purpose of going 1 gap instead of 2 gap is that it allows DT's (and DE's) to attack a gap and shoot it. A certain number of times you should see your DT's in the backfield with a 1 gap defense.

In a 2 gap defense, the DT's are supposed to hold up the line and free up the LB's to make plays. Effectively, a 1 gap gives the DT's an opportunity to make negative plays at the expense of exposing LB's.

Am I wrong?

If not, did the DT's make any plays? At all? From what I saw, they just held their gap and that's about it. They rarely even tied up 2 blockers. You have to get more out of the DT position than that.

The Cowboys gameplan was to stop the run.

Other than the 1 big run, Barkley had 61 yards on all other runs. Only 20 of the 61 in the 1st half.

It was 21-7 at half-time. The Cowboys went prevent most of the 2nd half. That means they welcome runs and short passes because those just burn time off the clock. It means conservative play 4 pass rushers and a mindset of not allowing big plays.

That is how the Cowboys (and most teams) play in that type of game. You won't see a Buddy Ryan type defensive game anymore where he would be max blitzing even up 42 to zero.

8FOR!3 · Sep 13, 2019

xwalker said:
You can post a link unless the audio has bad language.

No bad language. It's not super in depth compared to your analysis. I wish I would've touched more on the linebackers in week 1 they didn't really do a great job, especially Jaylon.

xwalker · Sep 13, 2019

8FOR!3 said:
No bad language. It's not super in depth compared to your analysis. I wish I would've touched more on the linebackers in week 1 they didn't really do a great job, especially Jaylon.

Why not real game footage?

Good effort. I would suggest scripting your thoughts ahead of time or at least an outline.

Also seek feedback and don't be put off critics.

If you repeat the process every week and incorporate changes based on feedback you'll improve every week.

xwalker · Sep 13, 2019

8FOR!3 said:
No bad language. It's not super in depth compared to your analysis. I wish I would've touched more on the linebackers in week 1 they didn't really do a great job, especially Jaylon.

With regard to the football specifics:

I don't know about Marinelli's style being more susceptible to big plays. Maybe. It would be interesting to see some stats on big plays. @percyhoward can probably tell you the best way to look that up.

kskboys · Sep 13, 2019

xwalker said:
With regard to the football specifics:

I don't know about Marinelli's style being more susceptible to big plays. Maybe. It would be interesting to see some stats on big plays. @percyhoward can probably tell you the best way to look that up.

Smallish DT's are always susceptible to big plays. The tradeoff is supposed to be QB pressure and TFL's. We're not getting those. I honestly don't see how this DL can be said to be playing even average.

8FOR!3 · Sep 13, 2019

xwalker said:
Why not real game footage?

Good effort. I would suggest scripting your thoughts ahead of time or at least an outline.

Also seek feedback and don't be put off critics.

If you repeat the process every week and incorporate changes based on feedback you'll improve every week.

Going for a sports gaming channel, although I am trying different stuff like this analysis. Thanks for the feedback, a script or an outline would have definitely helped in retrospect will use that next time.

Would enjoy being able to find those stats on big plays.

Number1 · Sep 13, 2019

it starts up front - the DTs didn't make enough plays

and the back 7 looked rusty

America's Cowboy · Sep 13, 2019

kskboys said:
Smallish DT's are always susceptible to big plays. The tradeoff is supposed to be QB pressure and TFL's. We're not getting those. I honestly don't see how this DL can be said to be playing even average.

Totally agree, K. Ugh, I dislike the Trysten Hill pick even more now. Not the kind of DT this defense needs in my opinion, and it shows.

percyhoward · Sep 14, 2019

xwalker said:
With regard to the football specifics:

I don't know about Marinelli's style being more susceptible to big plays. Maybe. It would be interesting to see some stats on big plays. @percyhoward can probably tell you the best way to look that up.

This is not adjusted for number of plays faced. Mostly because of the ball-control style of its offense, Dallas has only faced 3,055 plays since 2016, which ranks as the 8th-fewest over that period.

Dallas 20+ yd plays allowed (Cowboys' NFL rank - fewest)
2014 57 (12th)
2015 64 (15th)
2016 51 (6th)
2017 50 (6th)
2018-19 56 (6th)
total 278 (4th)

Over the last 3+ seasons, the average defense has allowed a 20+ yard play 6.0% percent of the time, while Dallas has done it only 5.1% of the time.

20+yard plays allowed
(as a percentage of total plays faced)
2016-19
NFL 6.0% (5,951 of 99,491 total plays)
Dal 5.1% (157 of 3,055 total plays)

To get a ranking, somebody would have to figure the percentages for all 32 teams. But it looks like our defense is in the Top 10, maybe top 5

xwalker · Sep 14, 2019

percyhoward said:
This is not adjusted for number of plays faced. Mostly because of the ball-control style of its offense, Dallas has only faced 3,055 plays since 2016, which ranks as the 8th-fewest over that period.

Dallas 20+ yd plays allowed (Cowboys' NFL rank - fewest)
2014 57 (12th)
2015 64 (15th)
2016 51 (6th)
2017 50 (6th)
2018-19 56 (6th)
total 278 (4th)

Over the last 3+ seasons, the average defense has allowed a 20+ yard play 6.0% percent of the time, while Dallas has done it only 5.1% of the time.

20+yard plays allowed
(as a percentage of total plays faced)
2016-19
NFL 6.0% (5,951 of 99,491 total plays)
Dal 5.1% (157 of 3,055 total plays)

To get a ranking, somebody would have to figure the percentages for all 32 teams. But it looks like our defense is in the Top 10, maybe top 5

Awesome work Percy!

@8FOR!3 here are the stats you wanted.

kskboys · Sep 14, 2019

America's Cowboy said:
Totally agree, K. Ugh, I dislike the Trysten Hill pick even more now. Not the kind of DT this defense needs in my opinion, and it shows.

I love his explosion, and at some point we can hopefully use it and he can become a pocket disruptor. However, he's a project, and another 3 tech. Not a terrible pick, but a project nonetheless.

QuincyCarterEra · Sep 14, 2019

But but but it was Rod M's fault lol

CowboyRoy · Sep 14, 2019

xwalker said:
I reviewed the Cowboys DTs on all snaps vs the Giants.

I've seen a narrative that the DTs were a problem and that the Cowboys have a problem at DT.

Where that narrative came from is unknown to me.

Last season the starters were Woods at 1-tech with Crawford at 3-tech for 7 games until Collins was near-100% healthy and he started the final 9 games. All of those players remain on the roster and Collins started the season healthy. Crawford did play significant snaps at DT in the Giants game when the Cowboys were in a pass rush alignment (Both DTs playing at 3-techs).

The DT Covington is an upgrade, especially on run defense from last year with Daniel Ross and Caraun Reid.

Analysis of the Giants Game

The DT group had a solid game.

Run Defense
The big 59 yard run by Barkley was outside of the DE. The DTs were not at fault on that.

There were 2 good inside runs (11 yards & 7 yards) before the Cowboys went to the prevent defense in the 2nd half.

Both of those runs were to an "open" gap or LB gap.

Without considering TEs, there are 6 gaps.
A gap: OC-OG
B gap: OG-OT
C cap: Outside OT

There are obviously 2 of each A, B and C.

With 4 DLinemen that leaves 2 "open" or LB gaps.

The interesting thing that the Giants did on both of those run was to have a WR run horizontally just behind the DL and take the Nickel CB with him such that the WR and Nickel CB were in the way of the LB coming up to fill that gap.

There were a couple of decent inside runs late but the Cowboys were playing pass defense at that point which is obvious when they used Crawford or Hyder at DT. They were also playing the LBs way off on those plays which is another indicator of a pass defense alignment.

Pass Rush
They did get occasional pressure with the DTs but overall the Cowboys rarely rushed more than 4 and were more concerned with the run than the pass in the 1st half.

They also ran less DL Stunts than at anytime last season. Most people probably recall that excessive stunting was one of the issues with the run defense in the Rams game.

Eli does not hold the ball long. He has been near the top of the list of QB the past several years in terms of time from the snap to releasing the ball.

Summary:
The LBs were a bigger issue against the run than the DTs. Both Jaylon and LVE made some mistakes with regards to filling the wrong gap.

Interesting how your analysis is always more favorable then every else. I think your "solid" in reality is every else, "nothing great".

Any tackles behind the line? And sacks or consistent pressure? I didn't see any of that.

The DT's were what they are. "nothing special". And against a marginal Giants Oline and offense, the showing was certainly nothing to write home about.

Analysis: Cowboys DTs vs Giants

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