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Going by sacks alone, the Cowboys have an anemic pass rush, but can the team get more pressure on the QB in the remaining seven games?
Going into the season, expectations for the Cowboys' pass rush were sky high. The Cowboys had signed the top free agent pass rusher in Greg Hardy, walked out of the draft with arguably the best pass rusher available in Randy Gregory, and were expecting big things from DeMarcus Lawrence, who had come on strong at the end of the 2014 season. Tyrone Crawford had received a hefty contract extension and even Jeremy Mincey was given a bit of a raise.
Many Cowboys fans and observers alike were expecting big things from the pass rush under the tutelage of Rod Marinelli in 2015, and a lot of the disappointment in the pass rush this season may be the result of extremely high (and maybe unrealistic) expectations. After all, the 16 sacks the Cowboys have collected so far this season rank the team just 22nd in the league.
Traditionally, the success of a team's pass rush is measured in sacks. Lots of sacks = good pass rush; not a lot of sacks = bad pass rush. But a sack is not the only way to get pressure on the quarterback, and a sack is not the only way to measure pass rushing performance.
Consider that good team gets about three to four sacks per game (the NFL average this year is 2.3 sacks per game). Yet a typical NFL game consists of about 63 defensive snaps. How can you use two to three plays in a 63-play game to make a definitive statement about the the other 60-61 plays?
Today, we'll look a little deeper at the Cowboys' pass rush beyond just the number of sacks. But since sacks are still the pass rusher's currency of choice, let's start by having a look at the Cowboys' sack totals.
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