Defensive Review: Another strong showing despite being put in difficult decisions
While the scoreboard wasn’t ideal in terms of points allowed, a closer look at the numbers shows another strong performance from the Cowboys’ defense. Turnovers put the Dallas defense in tough spots all night. The defense held up their end of the deal.
If you count the turnover on downs in the Cowboys’ own territory, the offense turned the ball over four times Sunday night. It put the defense in difficult situations all night and made things much harder for the Cowboys. 26 points is by far the most Dallas has surrendered this season, but a closer look at the performance shows this was yet another strong showing from the defense.
It wasn’t perfect. Philadelphia ran the ball well at times, and after the offense woke up and cut it to a three-point game, the defense didn’t get the stop it needed. The Eagles’ scheme gave the defense fits and the Eagles were able to scheme up some nice plays.
But here’s the reality of what the Dallas defense was able to do:
- 6/14 on 3rd down
- 268 yards
- 3.9 yards per play (the low total yards was not just due to short fields)
- 155 passing yards
- 3.5 yards per rush
If I had told you those would be the Eagles’ offensive numbers, you likely would have felt decently about the performance. The Eagles punted on four of their six drives that didn’t begin in Dallas territory, and they had to settle for a field goal on two of the three drives that started in Dallas territory.
Run Defense
This is now two straight weeks of improvement from the run defense. Cam Akers had just 13 carries for 33 yards last week. This week, the Eagles were able to run for 136 yards, but given how run-dependent their scheme is, that was over 39 attempts. As I said above, the Eagles ran the ball for just 3.5 yards per carry.
Miles Sanders carried the ball 18 times for 71 carries and a touchdown, Jalen Hurts ran nine times for 27 yards, Kenneth Gainwell ran five times for 25 yards, and Boston Scott carried it six times for 16 yards.
Per Pro Football Focus, Dallas’ five highest-graded run defenders that played substantial snaps were:
- Trevon Diggs: 72.2
- Malik Hooker: 72.1
- Jayron Kearse: 69.0
- Micah Parsons: 68.3
- Anthony Brown: 67.0
DeMarcus Lawrence was the sixth-highest graded run defender but he still deserves a mention (and I would have had him higher than sixth). He recorded four run stops and was fantastic against the run as usual.
Philadelphia was able to have some success on the ground though, and that was to be expected given the quality of its offensive line. Things shifted up front when RT Lane Johnson went down with a concussion and the Dallas defensive front started causing issues for the Eagles as well.
It was a little disappointing that the defense couldn’t get off the field on Philadelphia’s touchdown drive right after Dallas cut the lead to 20-17. It was a 13-play drive that consisted of nine running plays. Dallas couldn’t generate a negative play to put the Eagles in a third and long situation and force Hurts to beat him with his arm. Dallas forced the Eagles into three third down situations, and they were all third and short situations (the three distances were four, four, and one).
The run defense was solid overall against a really strong rushing attack, but I still think the Cowboys defense could use some more “oomph” up front (please call Carolina about Derrick Brown).
Pass Defense
The pass rush was unable to put Hurts under serious duress throughout the night (at least not on the levels we’ve gotten used to), but they still had some success and gave the Eagles OL some fits.
