Boozeman: As rivals emulate Cowboys' run game, defense will need to step it up

Cotton

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As rivals emulate Cowboys' run game, defense will need to step it up
By: C.C. Boorman | 1 hour ago

For the last half decade, the Dallas Cowboys have spent vast amounts of cap space and draft capital in an effort to make the running game the heartbeat of their team. While the ground attack is the engine that revs their offense, it also provides the framework for overall team success.

The focal point of the strategy is to employ complementary concepts to protect the defense by limiting the opponent’s possessions. The approach is designed to shorten games, charging Cowboy defenders with the task to play sound situational football against offenses who will likely throw more as they sense the pressure of a ticking time clock.

It is a tactic which has served the team well enough in both 2014 and 2016 to continue the program this year. It is a centralized and committed philosophy that has been fully endorsed by the organization from top to bottom. The Cowboys are married to the ideology and they dare opponents to stop it.

Practically any defensive coordinator will advise that stopping the ground game is the first tenet to a sound defense. The question becomes are the Cowboys themselves equipped to stop teams that attempt to beat them at their own game?

The 2018 schedule is full of tests with run-focused teams like Carolina, Jacksonville and Tennessee waiting to wage the war inside the trenches. But even more interesting is a curious trend that has been brewing inside the NFC East.

The divisional rival Giants and Redskins both embraced methods to counter the “Cowboy Way”. Each club loaded up for bear to beat Dallas at their own game by collecting stronger running talent, and they’ve added defensive beef up front to frustrate what the Cowboys do best offensively.

New York went about their draft business by taking dynamic Penn State running back Saquan Barkley with the No. 2 overall pick and then in the second round added a brutal run blocker to play left guard in UTEP’s Will Hernandez.

While New York’s previous regime seemed to find the running game distasteful, new head coach Pat Shurmur will not take the same approach. His Viking offense last season had the fifth-most rushing attempts in the league. The expectation is the Giants will employ heavy use of inside and outside zone runs between the tackles with cutbacks by Barkley and also veteran Jonathan Stewart.

In a similar fashion, the Redskins set out to improve their talent to carry the rock. LSU’s Derrius Guice was their stud addition, giving them a significant upgrade over the platoon of Samaje Perine and Rob Kelley. Guice should provide the Redskins with a violent ball carrier who can threaten a defense and draw more defenders into the box. Former Dallas OL coach Bill Callahan favors the ground game as an offensive foundation and now may have the workhorse to finally implement it.

Pair these enhancements along with the World Champion Eagles, who have a very underrated rushing attack led by Jay Ajayi and it leaves the Cowboys defense with a formidable challenge.

The Dallas DL, specifically the defensive interior, must be prepared to bow up to stop the run and force opponents out of possessions in order to adhere to the philosophical script that has been defined by the organization.

Although the 2017 Cowboys finished a respectable eighth in the league in run defense, it is a bit of a misleading ranking. It could be argued that teams could run on the Cowboys last season, but simply decided not to do so, instead attacking a young and sometimes vulnerable secondary. It appears that when opponents decided to run the ball, they could.

Of the games played against top 10 rushing teams last year, Dallas surrendered over 130 yards per game in every contest with the exception of an excellent effort against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Perhaps with that in mind, the prediction game has already started from Pro Football Focus who ranked each team’s run defense heading into 2018. The Cowboys came it at an alarming No. 30 overall.

The PFF ranking takes into account the team’s approach to addressing the run defense through the talent acquisition season. Despite interest in top DT prospects like Vita Vea, Tavon Bryan and DaRon Payne, Dallas could not pull the trigger to make the moves necessary to acquire them.

Instead, the only move was a trade with the Raiders to acquire draft bust Jihad Ward. In fact, outside of the late off-season acquisition of former Titan Antwuan Woods, the Cowboys did little else to fortify their position. Even the usually bountiful undrafted free agent crop yielded only one player in DeQuinton Osborne, who was cut before camp began.

After staying pat inside, the Cowboys instead have gotten smaller, lighter and faster outside with an impressive collection of rush ends.



As the roster stands now, Dallas has a lopsided line heavy on the perimeter and paper thin on the interior. The loss of starters Maliek Collins to injury and David Irving to suspension will force a reliance on a motley crew inside that quite simply has to over-achieve. For now, it appears that the duo of Brian Price and Ward will have to take up most of the slack.

Early glimpses of the line clashes from camp showed some ominous signs from the defensive tackle group.


Travis Frederick vs. Brian Price




Zack Martin vs. Jihad Ward






Zack Martin vs. Daniel Ross, Jihad Ward and Datone Jones




Connor Williams vs. Richard Ash, Datone Jones and Jihad Ward




In fairness, more recent reports have Ward and especially Price redeeming themselves and they are at the very least holding their ground and battling it out with some of the NFL’s best interior blockers. Things have become salty and the group is not showing signs of backing down.



The die is now cast and the Cowboys have to hope they guessed right with the roster choices. For the time being, the concept of iron sharpens iron applies. The real tests will occur three times in the first two months of the season with the Jaguars, Giants and Redskins on the docket. How this group holds the point against the run in these contests could go a long way to setting the tone for the 2018 season.
 

Genghis Khan

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Great work as usual booze.

I'd go as far as to say the eagles don't win the super bowl without Ajayi. That trade was shrewd as hell. And I will never ever forgive Miami.
 

Smitty

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Great work as usual booze.

I'd go as far as to say the eagles don't win the super bowl without Ajayi. That trade was shrewd as hell. And I will never ever forgive Miami.
Miami gifted them Wentz too, with that dumbass trade that allowed the Eagles to move up from 16 to 8, which is what made it appealing to the Rams to let them move from 8 to 2.

Idiots.

We should be calling Miami trying to rip them off next.
 

Genghis Khan

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Miami gifted them Wentz too, with that dumbass trade that allowed the Eagles to move up from 16 to 8, which is what made it appealing to the Rams to let them move from 8 to 2.

Idiots.

We should be calling Miami trying to rip them off next.
True.
 

1bigfan13

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I was strolling through the Bleacher Report app and ran into this article.
 
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