Analysis: Cowboys DTs vs Giants

Eanwen said:

I wasn't particularly worried re: pass rush because I knew going in that Manning usually gets rid of the ball quickly. It does not make me feel better thinking it's a problem with our LBs. We've put a lot of resources into them, just resigned one of them, and more than likely this is Lee's last year.

Click to expand...

CT Dal Fan said:

Excellent post. But I thought the Giants' 151 yards rushing was more easily explained.

First, 59 of those came on one carry. Just taking that away puts them under 100.

Second, a lot of the Giants' other big runs came when they were hopelessly behind and the Cowboys were expecting pass. In other words, they were inconsequential.

Click to expand...

CowboyRoy said:

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.

Click to expand...

xwalker said:

Awesome work Percy!

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

Click to expand...

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.

Click to expand...