Cowboys defense ranked 27th against the rush

[baltcowboy]

They had shoddy QB play, that's why they failed.

But they absolutely exposed us running the ball. It's a weakness for sure. Commanders ran for nearly 150 yards on us at 5.3 yards per carry. For comparison, the previous week, they only ran for 83 yards and 4.0 ypc against the Eagles (and that includes nearly 25 yards of scrambles by Wentz).

We have a run defense issue. Quinn is gonna have to figure out a way to scheme a run D because it's going to cost us.

The game plan against the Commanders was to shut down their receivers and rattle Wince. Mission accomplished.

 

[Verdict]

Stephen A. brought this up on first take. So I went and looked it up and he is correct so maybe we should keep our feet on the ground.

I don’t really worry so much about “rankings”. I’m not saying that they don’t matter, but stats have to be taken in context of what is going on in the game.

The eyeball test tells me we are better at almost every aspect on the defensive side of the ball, including defending the running game. On the other hand, the eyeball test also tells me that we still need to improve in the running game.

It seems like the yardage given up in the running game is largely caused by failure to contain and breakdowns in assignments. In the past it seems like no matter what happened we couldn’t stop the run.

That being said, I would like to see substantial improvement in running defense. I would say that we belong in the bottom half of the league on rushing defense so far based on the eyeball test.

 

[atlantacowboy]

I don't think this true anymore. While there are no superstar DTs on this team, the rotation of Gallimore, Odigizhuwa, Bohanna and Hill have been pretty good up the middle. This defense has gotten gashed primarily on the edges. Particularly when teams have gone after Dorance Armstrong and even when they have run at Micah Parsons. Lawrence is still a beast against the run so they typically don't try him but they run away from him when he's in there and if he's not in they just have a field day. Our ends are getting creamed in the run this year and that needs to get fixed. I have not re-watched the last game but I've seen a lot of damage being done on the edges against us.. That's gotta get shored up or this will be a short trip to the playoffs for us yet again even if we get there.

Gallimore, Bohanna, and Hill have been terrible against the run. Osa is the only guy pulling his weight against the run, and he's about league average.

 

[Nexx]

dont give a flying F if 10 points is all they give up.

 

[Verdict]

I don't think this true anymore. While there are no superstar DTs on this team, the rotation of Gallimore, Odigizhuwa, Bohanna and Hill have been pretty good up the middle. This defense has gotten gashed primarily on the edges. Particularly when teams have gone after Dorance Armstrong and even when they have run at Micah Parsons. Lawrence is still a beast against the run so they typically don't try him but they run away from him when he's in there and if he's not in they just have a field day. Our ends are getting creamed in the run this year and that needs to get fixed. I have not re-watched the last game but I've seen a lot of damage being done on the edges against us.. That's gotta get shored up or this will be a short trip to the playoffs for us yet again even if we get there.

It sure seems like our weakness on rushing defense is on the outside. We seem to be doing better controlling the runs to the inside between the tackles.

 

[john van brocklin]

Stephen A. brought this up on first take. So I went and looked it up and he is correct so maybe we should keep our feet on the ground.

It's a real problem.
I have been disappointed.
I was hoping Gallimore would take his game up another level this year but he has not been a factor.
LVE has been average at MLB.
Thought we had a strong rotation at DT but they are all JAGs.
We are going to struggle to stop Teams with strong running games.
49er's game was not an anomaly.

 

[glimmerman]

I the second half we had defenders come up and attack. And they got away with some holds for sure. They had one called back when there center clearly grabbed the guy and held him till the rb cleared. Was a big gainer called back…

 

[quickccc]

Hope McVay doesn't repeat that run game drubbing he gave the Cowboys a few years back in the playoffs.

That was ugly.

it's been replaced with Niners playoff game last year ....

 

[Oz-of-Cowboy-Country]

I thought it was getting better then Washington started running all over us. This defense was built to play with a lead. It's very obvious.

Years back, the same was said about Indy. They had Peyton Manning and Dwight Freeney in those days. They only won one Super Bowl. There are a lot of great QB's that struggle to win one Super Bowl, then struggle to get back. Brees, Favre, Wilson, Mahomes, and Rodgers all only have one. So clearly, if you want your team to reach Super multiple Bowls, you need to build a complete defense. A defense that can't stop the run, is not a complete defense. Wilson and Mahomes had some pretty good defenses once upon a time.

If we could just figure out a way to stop the run, we just might be contenders.

 

[Sydla]

The game plan against the Commanders was to shut down their receivers and rattle Wince. Mission accomplished.

LOL. They can't stop the run very well. It had nothing to do with our game plan. The Giants ran for 170 the week before, with Barkley averaging nearly 6 yards per carry.

 

[Sydla]

dont give a flying F if 10 points is all they give up.

Then hope we face QBs as bad as Carson Wentz every week. Because if a team can run for 150 on us also has a good QB, they are going to put up more than 10 points.

 

[Nexx]

Then hope we face QBs as bad as Carson Wentz every week. Because if a team can run for 150 on us also has a good QB, they are going to put up more than 10 points.

Burrow and Mixon

 

[quickccc]

Kearse will be back Sunday so you'll probably see LVE's snaps decrease some in Nickel.

Which having more safeties than LBs contributes to lack of girth vs the run.

More and more teams are also doing this 3 safety nickel defense, and opposing teams best equipped to run the ball will take advantage of it.

 

[Sydla]

Burrow and Mixon

Well they scored 17 and had a woeful OL. But hey, if you think we can make the playoffs and then win in the playoffs getting gashed on the ground, have at it. The season will likely end very much like it did last year, when a team like the 49ers just punched us in the mouth and we couldn't do anything about it.

 

[Cboyfan4ever]

Up the gut hasn’t been an issue.Off tackle and outside runs are constantly killing us.De’s have to do a better job setting the edge and lb’s and 2ndary must do a better job shedding blocks.

 

[gimmesix]

Our LBs are pass rushers and play chasers. Plus, we have one of the worst DT rotations in the NFL.......been that way for years.

The middle actually hasn't been that bad in run defense. We've been hurt more on the edges, particularly the right edge.

 

[Zman5]

If it makes anyone feel little better about this, we are tied with that vaunted EaGirls defense when it comes to YPC at 5yards.

 

[gimmesix]

We are seeing bad LB play against the run, but one thing to keep an eye on is our Dline seems to be caught up in sacks. It's been straight attack attack attack from them. This may be by design, or this may be a group of guys getting caught up in stats, i'm not really sure.

What has been interesting to me is that the Cowboys have given up some chuck yards on the ground, but when needed this run defense has stepped up.

I'd be curious to hear the takes of some of the posters who really dedicate time to breaking down film, but the sense I get is that DQ is fine with giving up some rushes, as long as we are getting to the QB. DQ has this defense playing for the sacks, turnovers, and drawing holding penalties between the 20s then locking down the run defense in short yardage and red zone trips.

I think by design Quinn gives up some run defense for the sake of disruption. We're often out there with three or four DEs as the line in pass defense, so when a team runs on second-and-long, they have a distinct size advantage. I believe Quinn feels we can stop the run well enough with this alignment in those situations to make it worthwhile. When Washington showed that it was going to try to run more, Quinn went bigger on the line on the earlier downs to shut it down and force the Commanders to pass.

I think it's a bit of pick your poison. We've shown we can go bigger and stop the run (well, except against Tampa). But we are more focused overall on disrupting the pass and forcing mistakes, so we tend to do more NASCAR packages. The problem, of course, is when you face a balanced team like Tampa was, you can't really pick one over the other to focus on.

The main stat I'm interested in, though, is scoring defense, and what we've been doing has held all of our opponents under 20 points. So I'm not going to worry too much about the run defense until it becomes a scoring problem.

 

[DallasDW00ds0n]

That’s because once again, our DTs are playing sound against the run, they’re taking themselves out of a lot of runs. Plus LVE is not the guy to fill a gap and pop and RB

 

[Starstruck22]

Our LBs are pass rushers and play chasers. Plus, we have one of the worst DT rotations in the NFL.......been that way for years.

LVE is a disaster and we will be 3-3 in two weeks. Many on here are blind to this and have no clue anything is wrong. We will be slashed and LVE will be the reason.