No idea if the numbers actually support this or not, but it seems like most teams are rushing 4 this year and blitzing seems to be down. We are seeing more simulated pressures with teams crowding the LOS to confuse the OL, but ultimately just bringing four. I think the Cowboys are going to be at a disadvantage to pull this off due to their roster, despite this being what Zimmer has historically done best. You really only have one guys on the DL who is an actual threat to drop back into coverage, and hes your best rush guy in Parsons. The rest of the Cowboys ends are bigger bodies who are not the athletes to drop into coverage with any regularity. Linebackers for this team only have a combined 14 pass rush attempts, so Zimmer doesnt like brining these guys very often either....note that this does exclude Parsons for any rushes he may have from the LB spot. I think Overshown could be a weapon in rushing the passer, but we just dont have the aggressive DQ style defense from a season ago.
Offensively I think we simply lack the playmakers on that side of the football. We tend to see a conservative game called from McCarthy, which I think starts with a lack of confidence in the OL so we dont see many long developing plays. You also have an issue of teams being able to bracket Lamb, but otherwise play the Cowboys offense pretty straight up. Not saying there arent ways that this team could improve on offense, but its a lot harder to scheme guys open when you don't dictate to a defense what they can/can't do. The Cowboys desperately need a #2 receiver to emerge or to get the run game going. A lot of people will point to Ferguson as being that #2, but we continue to see that while he is an excellent receiver, hes limited to mostly underneath routes. Just 2 catches this year on passes of 10 yards or more. Last year he only had 15. 75% of his targets are all shallow throws or even behind the LOS. Great weapon, but he doesnt fit the profile.
Total guess here, but I think this likely plays into a lot of the things we don't see on offense as well, such as the pre snap motion. Motion is a weapon when done properly, but with motion also comes quick defensive changes that can create problems. 2 rookies on the OL who may need to process quickly, and we also have an offense that runs a decent amount of option routes where that motion can cause a team to go from Cover 3 to cover 2 instantly to create confusion. You go back to 2022 when Dak had that off year where his INTs were up and I haven't verified but have heard that there is a stat that over half of those came with pre snap motion.
