How many low scoring, defensive battles has Dallas won?

[sunalsorises]

The first Giants game was 2016 not 2026. Just a minor typo. I'm showing the Philly game in 2017 as a 6-0 win. Our defense pitched a shutout and the offense chipped in with 2 big field goals for the convincing win. Super Impressive.

You missed 11/29/18, a 13-10 win over New Orleans. Another slugfest defensive style win

nearly making the cut--a 16-8 loss at Carolina in the opening game of 2018.

Interesting, we keep hearing how Dak "has had to be perfect and hasn't been backed by a defense his whole career" to win games, and here are 6 examples of slugfests where our defense basically shut down the opponent. and we lost 67% of those games.

in those 6 games--the defense surrendered an average of 10.1 points per game. And we lost 4 of them. I repeat--the defense allowed 10.1 points per game, and we lost 4 of them. Because our offense averaged 8.8 points per game in those 6 contests.

OP might be having second thoughts about this thread. To me the last paragraph in the title post reads like a "let's give Dak another excuse" thread. The reality is--this isn't a very flattering story line for #4. I wish I could tell you I was surprised.....

Thanks for the corrections. I was going too fast and was too lazy to get my reading glasses from the other room.

 

[CT Dal Fan]

Going back to 2016, here are the games where both teams were under 14 points.

Dec 11, 2026 NYG 10-7 L
Dec 31, 2017 Phi 6-10 L
Sep 29, 2019 NO 10-12 L
Nov 24, 2019 NE 9-13 L

Didn't Dallas beat the Saints 13-10 in 2018?

 

[thunderpimp91]

I know we won at Philly like 6-0 in the 2017 season finale. But after a little research I found that the Cowboys have won a total of 4 games in Dak's career when they didn't score at least 20 points.

They beat Minny 17-15 in 2016
They beat the G-men 19-3 in the 2018 season opener
They beat the Saints 13-10 that same year.

That's it.. The moral of this story is the Cowboys simply have NOT had a great defense in Dak's tenure at QB no matter what people wanna say. The total number of times the Cowboys defense has held opponents to under 20 withy Dak at QB is 53 times. The record in those games is 45-8. So basically when the defense shows up AND Dak is playing this team has been money. Don't beat me up if my count is off by a game or two.. I aint countin 'em up again. You come up with a different count.. post it and we'll compare notes.

Thanks for doing the homework for us! 53 times out of 131 Dak starts is about 40% of games. I wonder how that would compare to the rest of the league? I would assume that's probably about league average defense over several seasons like that?

 

[cmoney23]

Going back to 2016, here are the games where both teams were under 14 points.

Dec 11, 2026 NYG 10-7 L
Dec 31, 2017 Phi 6-10 L
Sep 29, 2019 NO 10-12 L
Nov 24, 2019 NE 9-13 L

In researching these games, it shows we beat the Saints 13-10 the year before.

2019 Saints recap: https://www.nfl.com/games/cowboys-at-saints-2019-reg-4?tab=recap
2019 Pats recap: https://www.nfl.com/games/cowboys-at-patriots-2019-reg-12?tab=recap
2018 Saints recap: https://www.nfl.com/games/saints-at-cowboys-2018-reg-13?tab=recap

Maybe you missed the wins??

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

You know when you look at games like last night when two teams have defenses that held the score low and it was 10- 7 win for a team.

I'm not a person who's got time to research this right now, but I am curious how about we just go back to Prescott Career 2016 to present...

If you want to add in losses, that's fine, but I'm really looking to see how many games have the Cowboys been in that they could have won with just 14 points?

So ,I guess you would add in wins or losses, but the score would have to be both teams under 14 points,

I wonder how many games have the Cowboys been in where they didn't have to worry about their offense being perfect...

I mean we have a head-to-head opponent just as an example, the Kansas City Chiefs had four turnovers on offense, and won a game, I believe it was like 35 to 7, they beat the commanders...

That sure is a nice luxury to have when you don't blame your offense or your quarterback for losses, so I am curious how many games going back to 2016 have they been in where both teams were under fourteen points?

lost to SF in playoffs 19-12. lost to KC 19-9, so bunch of low scoring losses that were Dak's fault.....

but can't recall the defense winning a 13-10 game in a long while...probably the last really low scoring one was beating philly in 2017 6-0

 

[conner01]

In general those 10-7 type of games are mostly a thing of the past for the NFL. Under DQ we did have several dominant performances even if the defense overall wasnt a truly dominant unit.

2023 the Cowboys had 7 games where the defense gave up 2 scores or less.
2022 they had 6 of those games giving up 2 scores or less.

This season we give up 2 scores a qtr

 

[sunalsorises]

In researching these games, it shows we beat the Saints 13-10 the year before.

2019 Saints recap: https://www.nfl.com/games/cowboys-at-saints-2019-reg-4?tab=recap
2019 Pats recap: https://www.nfl.com/games/cowboys-at-patriots-2019-reg-12?tab=recap
2018 Saints recap: https://www.nfl.com/games/saints-at-cowboys-2018-reg-13?tab=recap

Maybe you missed the wins??

The eagles game was a win as well. I was too lazy to get my glasses and maybe too proud to admit I need them.

 

[Johannes44]

what is depressing is that we lost all of them

Not surprising though

 

[Ranching]

Look it's a bye week, I'll do my own research ,I'm betting there aren't many, I bet I find 5 in the last 10 years, if that want to put money on it?

Some people are just lazy, and they just link to other people's stories, isn't that something and then claim It's not their opinion they're just posting it..

hmm I wonder who that might be?

But some of us have original thoughts and we'll do the research I will find it myself....

Thank you for sharing your thoughts

 

[Cowboys5217]

what is depressing is that we lost all of them

That's because there was pressure to win them. Any time the moment of truth comes in games it's almost always a loss. It doesn't matter if it's a 10-7 game or 51-48, the Cowboys WILL blow it at the moment of truth.

Triple that factor when it's a birth in the playoffs or a playoff game itself on the line. The Cowboys of the last 20 years simply cannot handle any kind of real pressure to win.

 

[Chasing6]

You know when you look at games like last night when two teams have defenses that held the score low and it was 10- 7 win for a team.

I'm not a person who's got time to research this right now, but I am curious how about we just go back to Prescott Career 2016 to present...

If you want to add in losses, that's fine, but I'm really looking to see how many games have the Cowboys been in that they could have won with just 14 points?

So ,I guess you would add in wins or losses, but the score would have to be both teams under 14 points,

I wonder how many games have the Cowboys been in where they didn't have to worry about their offense being perfect...

I mean we have a head-to-head opponent just as an example, the Kansas City Chiefs had four turnovers on offense, and won a game, I believe it was like 35 to 7, they beat the commanders...

That sure is a nice luxury to have when you don't blame your offense or your quarterback for losses, so I am curious how many games going back to 2016 have they been in where both teams were under fourteen points?

It's because they have Molehill Mahomes. Some how he makes the opposing QB play bad. We all know it is a QB vs QB league.

 

[Bullflop]

It's hard to win defensive battles when your defense allows 30 and 40-point games.

 

[RonnieT24]

Thanks for doing the homework for us! 53 times out of 131 Dak starts is about 40% of games. I wonder how that would compare to the rest of the league? I would assume that's probably about league average defense over several seasons like that?

Yeah 40% was higher than I anticipated.. But that got me wondering about some other guys.. So here goes.

Mahomes - The Chiefs have held opponents under 20 points 51 times in his career as a starter. Out of 121 starts that comes to roughly 42%.
Allen - 56 out 119 starts.. Jeez! 47%
Burrow 24 of 71 33.8 % .. Feel sorry for that kid!
Goff - 47 of 142 33.1% .. those down years in L.A. really hurt!
Hurts 33 of 74. 46%. He gets almost as many day off games as Allen.
Herbert - 29 of 87 33% .. see Joe Burrow!
Lamar - 49 of 98 starts! Exactly 50% .. which makes sense given that the Ravens are usually a stellar defense.

So the moral of the story is in Dak's career he has gotten better defensive support than some and less than others. But I don't think there is any argument who is getting the short end of the stick this season.. I am too lazy to do wins and losses for that whole list.. But I will at some point. I'd like to know how these guys do when their defenses actually show up.

 

[BleedSilverandBlue]

You know when you look at games like last night when two teams have defenses that held the score low and it was 10- 7 win for a team.

I'm not a person who's got time to research this right now, but I am curious how about we just go back to Prescott Career 2016 to present...

If you want to add in losses, that's fine, but I'm really looking to see how many games have the Cowboys been in that they could have won with just 14 points?

So ,I guess you would add in wins or losses, but the score would have to be both teams under 14 points,

I wonder how many games have the Cowboys been in where they didn't have to worry about their offense being perfect...

I mean we have a head-to-head opponent just as an example, the Kansas City Chiefs had four turnovers on offense, and won a game, I believe it was like 35 to 7, they beat the commanders...

That sure is a nice luxury to have when you don't blame your offense or your quarterback for losses, so I am curious how many games going back to 2016 have they been in where both teams were under fourteen points?

Dallas has pretty much never won this type of game in the last 20 years. It just doesn’t happen with how these teams have been built.

 

[plymkr]

I know we won at Philly like 6-0 in the 2017 season finale. But after a little research I found that the Cowboys have won a total of 4 games in Dak's career when they didn't score at least 20 points.

They beat Minny 17-15 in 2016
They beat the G-men 19-3 in the 2018 season opener
They beat the Saints 13-10 that same year.

That's it.. The moral of this story is the Cowboys simply have NOT had a great defense in Dak's tenure at QB no matter what people wanna say. The total number of times the Cowboys defense has held opponents to under 20 withy Dak at QB is 53 times. The record in those games is 45-8. So basically when the defense shows up AND Dak is playing this team has been money. Don't beat me up if my count is off by a game or two.. I aint countin 'em up again. You come up with a different count.. post it and we'll compare notes.

Didn't they win a close game with Cooper Rush's first start in Minnesota? I vaguely remember that being a close game and a defensive battle.

 

[Flamma]

I know we won at Philly like 6-0 in the 2017 season finale. But after a little research I found that the Cowboys have won a total of 4 games in Dak's career when they didn't score at least 20 points.

They beat Minny 17-15 in 2016
They beat the G-men 19-3 in the 2018 season opener
They beat the Saints 13-10 that same year.

That's it.. The moral of this story is the Cowboys simply have NOT had a great defense in Dak's tenure at QB no matter what people wanna say. The total number of times the Cowboys defense has held opponents to under 20 withy Dak at QB is 53 times. The record in those games is 45-8. So basically when the defense shows up AND Dak is playing this team has been money. Don't beat me up if my count is off by a game or two.. I aint countin 'em up again. You come up with a different count.. post it and we'll compare notes.

Isn't this common for almost any team or any QB? How often does any QB win when their team doesn't score 20?

What's most QBs record when their team holds their opponent under 20? I would imagine good for everyone, including Cooper Rush. BTW, one of those 8 losses was in the playoffs to the 49ers.

 

[Flamma]

People keep bringing up our 6-0 victory over the Eagles in 2017 without context. The Eagles won our first meeting in Dallas 37-9, and would have put belt to *** in this meeting as well. But they had everything locked up and didn't play starters. They gave us that win, and Dallas still almost blew it.

 

[RonWashington]

I remember a JG game I believe it was a home night game Jourdan Lewis who is missed had a late Drew Brees INT and Dallas won 13-10.

 

[StarOfGlory]

The first Giants game was 2016 not 2026. Just a minor typo. I'm showing the Philly game in 2017 as a 6-0 win. Our defense pitched a shutout and the offense chipped in with 2 big field goals for the convincing win. Super Impressive.

You missed 11/29/18, a 13-10 win over New Orleans. Another slugfest defensive style win

nearly making the cut--a 16-8 loss at Carolina in the opening game of 2018.

Interesting, we keep hearing how Dak "has had to be perfect and hasn't been backed by a defense his whole career" to win games, and here are 6 examples of slugfests where our defense basically shut down the opponent. and we lost 67% of those games.

in those 6 games--the defense surrendered an average of 10.1 points per game. And we lost 4 of them. I repeat--the defense allowed 10.1 points per game, and we lost 4 of them. Because our offense averaged 8.8 points per game in those 6 contests.

OP might be having second thoughts about this thread. To me the last paragraph in the title post reads like a "let's give Dak another excuse" thread. The reality is--this isn't a very flattering story line for #4. I wish I could tell you I was surprised.....

I almost count that 6-0 Philly game as a loss. Philly played no starter after the first series that game. Our starting unit scored six points against second and third string players. Dak was 17-30, 179 yards and finally scored a TD in the 4th.

 

[TequilaCowboy]

Now, If Dallas keeps the opponents under 30 points, it’s a low scoring game.