An interesting statisical observation about the defense...

[silverbear]

You all probably know by now that the Cowboys rank 7th in total defense in the NFL, a vast improvement over last year...

What you may not know is that ranking comes despite playing an amazing array of the league's best offenses:

Seattle ranks 1st in total offense... we held them to over 100 yards fewer than their season's average...

Washington ranks 2nd... we held them to over 40 yards fewer than their season's average...

Philly ranks 7th... we held them to nearly 230 yards fewer than their season's average...

Oakland ranks 10th... we "only" held them to 15 yards fewer than their season's average...

San Diego ranks 14th... we held them to over 40 yards fewer than their season's average...

The Giants rank 15th... we held them to over 60 yards fewer than their season's average...

Six of our 7 games to date came against teams ranked in the top 15 in total offense... the Cards are currently ranked 11th, so at the midway point, that will mean that 7 of our 8 games will have been against teams with offenses that rank in the top half of the league... and we have held those teams to an average of almost 75 yards less per game than they have averaged to this point... we held ALL of them below their season averages...

It doesn't get a whole lot easier the rest of the way, by my count 5 of the last 8 games will be against offenses that rank in the top half...

Regardless, I think this demonstrates pretty clearly that the Cowboys' defense has gotten REALLY good... I actually anticipate them ranking in the top 5 by season's end (barring injury)...

 

[Bob Sacamano]

and just think, switching to the 3-4 doesn't usually work that well the 1st year, example ATL of a couple years ago, which means it should only get better as the season goes along, good stuff

 

[followthestar]

if it wasn't for that wussy Zimmer, we would be the #1 defense... Seriously, people talk about Payton as a HC candidate - doesn't anyone else think that maybe Zimmer is worthy of mention at least? The guy has done an outstanding job!!!

 

[hendog]

I would like to see the rankings thru the 1st 55 minutes of the game. I bet we would be close to having the #1 overall.

 

[FLcowboy]

You all probably know by now that the Cowboys rank 7th in total defense in the NFL, a vast improvement over last year...

What you may not know is that ranking comes despite playing an amazing array of the league's best offenses:

Seattle ranks 1st in total offense... we held them to over 100 yards fewer than their season's average...

Washington ranks 2nd... we held them to over 40 yards fewer than their season's average...

Philly ranks 7th... we held them to nearly 230 yards fewer than their season's average...

Oakland ranks 10th... we "only" held them to 15 yards fewer than their season's average...

San Diego ranks 14th... we held them to over 40 yards fewer than their season's average...

The Giants rank 15th... we held them to over 60 yards fewer than their season's average...

Six of our 7 games to date came against teams ranked in the top 15 in total offense... the Cards are currently ranked 11th, so at the midway point, that will mean that 7 of our 8 games will have been against teams with offenses that rank in the top half of the league... and we have held those teams to an average of almost 75 yards less per game than they have averaged to this point... we held ALL of them below their season averages...

It doesn't get a whole lot easier the rest of the way, by my count 5 of the last 8 games will be against offenses that rank in the top half...

Regardless, I think this demonstrates pretty clearly that the Cowboys' defense has gotten REALLY good... I actually anticipate them ranking in the top 5 by season's end (barring injury)...

I'd be interested in the rank of Dallas's defense when you exclude the last two minutes of each game.

 

[VACowboy]

I love defensive football teams. Zimmer deserves major kudos.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

I wonder what our rank would be in the last four games...

Granted, it's not fair to do that because every team would like to exclude its bad games, but I think it's obvious that early in the year we had some big plays given up due to new players making mental mistakes (ahem, Keith Davis) and those mental breakdowns seem to have been rectified as the year has gone on.

Whatever the stats are, we're playing some of the best defense in football right now, no question about it.