- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 120,043
By Bob Sturm Jan 6, 2021
Most people were starting to feel slightly better about the Cowboys defense heading into Week 17 after they stomped Jalen Hurts and the Eagles in the home finale. The takeaways flowed like a sweet river of forgiveness for all of the blown coverages and gap fits in a mess of a season.
Were the Cowboys finally figuring things out and coming together as a group? We might not know, but perhaps certain journalists jumped the gun saying the Cowboys needed to start again with another massive, swift overhaul of the defense at “close of business 2020”?
As a final factor, Dallas ended the season facing a series of backup quarterbacks followed by the New York Giants, whose offense had looked putrid. That certainly affected how the Cowboys defense looked.
Think about the symmetry in how many Cowboys fans are upset that their old rival’s coach is now running their team, perhaps making it even worse. Then they look across the field and see that Giants fans are no doubt upset that their old rival’s coach is now running their team’s offense, perhaps making it even worse.
Mike McCarthy’s role has discussed plenty and will continue to be as we turn the page, but look at Jason Garrett’s offense. Some mitigating circumstances were obvious the day he took the job in New York, and more have hopped up and slugged him all year. But this Giants offense has not been good. They are among the NFL’s worst in every category and pose no threat to anyone. What could this matchup possibly prove to us about the Cowboys defense?
We found out the hard way.
The Giants tied their adorable season high of three offensive touchdowns by halftime on Sunday. One of the other games in which they reached that number was their first meeting with Dallas (of course).
The Giants tied their season high of 20 first-half points on Sunday, which they also did in the first meeting against Dallas’ defense.
And the normally very poor day of 336 offensive yards — we consider 360 a solid offensive day and over 400 to be excellent — was actually the Giants’ fifth-best this year.
Basically, in what should have been the biggest and most emphatic defensive day of the season, the Cowboys allowed a pitiful offense that had not done anything all year to roll up three touchdowns on them by halftime and then hold on for dear life.
I realize my year-end wrap-ups for the offense and defense will actually come next week, but in the case of the defense, I believe this cannot wait. The action that needs to happen might occur within the next seven days.
If you need to know why this is where the Cowboys need to focus all of their efforts, consider the following:
- No Dallas Cowboys team in 61 seasons has allowed even close to the 473 points this defense conceded. Not even close.
- No Dallas team has ever allowed 34 passing touchdowns until this season.
- No Dallas defense has ever allowed a passer rating of 100 for an entire year until this season.
- Only one Dallas defense — the 2013 group — allowed more yards per game than this defense.
- Only one Dallas defense — the 1960 expansion team — allowed more points per game.
- Only two Dallas defenses — 1960 and 2000 — allowed more rushing yards per game.
- And only one Dallas defense — that same 1960 expansion team that went winless — allowed more yards per carry. That was only a fractional difference of the width from a thumb to a forefinger.
You can remain cynical about the entire organization until they prove to you they are finally fixed — a process which may require years, not months. But this defense could not support even the greatest offense in NFL history.
They appear to be good at nothing. They allowed the Giants to appear competent on offense twice when almost no other game in their 16-week journey confirmed that information to the league at all.
When the Giants offense is surely wishing they could play the Cowboys defense every week, you know you have a massive issue that requires immediate attention.
Our friend, Cowboys broadcaster Babe Laufenberg, had this to say about the Dallas defense — and it is hard to strongly disagree.
That would be a fun exercise, but I agree with the larger point. The coordinator matters, but you had better get the right guys on the roster and on the field posthaste. No coordinator can work magic tricks.
Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?
WEEKLY DATA
Look at two important things here. The Cowboys lost a must-win game to a team that did not convert a single third down and only made it to the red zone once. This is nearly impossible.
Another week with multiple takeaways show us the perhaps more disappointing aspect. They did get the ball back, and it still didn’t matter. Dallas was a very normal minus-3 on the season, which is barely among the worst 20 seasons in Cowboys history. The fact is that turnovers should have saved Dallas from surrendering huge points and yardage. Instead, they still had historic highs allowed while getting multiple takeaways in numerous games. Twenty-three takeaways is a pretty solid season, to be honest. But it had almost no positive effect on the defense.
QB NEXT-GEN THROW CHART
The jury is still out on Daniel Jones, but the Cowboys made him look decent on Sunday. Honestly, without a few Evan Engram drops, maybe it is even more decisive. He knew where the ball should go and where it shouldn’t, and the Giants clearly have placed a premium on staying away from turnovers as he has not thrown into coverage much this year. I don’t know how his development is evaluated as he heads to his third season, but I don’t consider him a prospect worth getting very excited about.
Shepard was the story of the game for New York. You can see they would manipulate his matchups to find either Anthony Brown or Jourdan Lewis on him and then attack against rather soft coverages. He had a feeding frenzy and really salvaged his numbers for the year a bit with a big Week 17. The 2020 season hasn’t featured his finest work, but if the Giants can add another weapon, he can be a poor man’s Tyler Lockett.
Let’s wrap up our season-long study on the Splash Plays and hand out another season title to a familiar champion.
First, the tally from Sunday, Dallas’ lowest number since Baltimore. There were just not enough players making plays on Sunday, aside from a couple of gift takeaways where Wayne Gallman literally just dropped the ball and Evan Engram deflected a pass right to Donovan Wilson.
Splash Plays - Week 17
| Q - TIME | D/D | PLAYER | SPLASH |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-7:18 | 1/10/26 | Awuzie | Fumble Recovered |
| 1-4:57 | 1/10/20 | Armstrong | Pass Defended |
| 1-3:19 | 1/15/46 | Lawrence | Run Stuffed |
| 2-14:16 | 2/6/50 | Wilson - J Smith | Run Stuffed |
| 2-11:38 | 1/10/47 | Diggs | Pass Broken Up |
| 3-14:06 | 1/10/42 | Gallimore - X Woods | Run Stuffed |
| 3-13:27 | 2/10/42 | Wilson | Interception |
| 3-13:27 | 2/10/42 | Awuzie | Pass Defended |
| 4-14:08 | 1/10/27 | X Woods - Lawrence | Tackle For Loss |
| 4-13:30 | 2/11/26 | Diggs | Pass Broken Up |
| 4-13:24 | 3/11/26 | Lawrence | Sack |
| 4-7:52 | 2/6/32 | Wilson | Sack |
Here are the final 2020 standings. The champion of the 2020 splash race is also the leader of the 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019 tallies: DeMarcus Lawrence.
Season Totals - 2020 Splash Plays
| PLAYER | TOTAL SPLASHES | SNAPS |
|---|---|---|
 DeMarcus Lawrence | 33.5 | 668 |
 Aldon Smith | 27 | 809 |
 Trevon Diggs | 20.5 | 758 |
 Randy Gregory | 20 | 270 |
 Jaylon Smith | 17 | 1083 |
 Jourdan Lewis | 12.5 | 817 |
 Donovan Wilson | 12 | 673 |
 Neville Gallimore | 11.5 | 416 |
 Leighton Vander Esch | 10.5 | 460 |
 Everson Griffen | 8 | 282 |
 Xavier Woods | 8 | 990 |
 Joe Thomas | 7.5 | 409 |
 Dorance Armstrong | 6.5 | 368 |
 Chido Awuzie | 6.5 | 452 |
 Anthony Brown | 6 | 534 |
 Antwaun Woods | 5.5 | 457 |
 Trysten Hill | 5 | 212 |
 Justin Hamilton | 4.5 | 236 |
 Darian Thompson | 3 | 479 |
 Tyrone Crawford | 3 | 445 |
 Sean Lee | 3 | 180 |
 Rashard Robinson | 2 | 187 |
 Daryl Worley | 1 | 262 |
 Brandon Carr | 1 | 21 |
 CJ Goodwin | 1 | 18 |
 Dontari Poe | 0.5 | 267 |
 Eli Ankou | 0.5 | 186 |
| 237 |
The top five are all worthy of some recognition, with Aldon Smith, Trevon Diggs, Randy Gregory and Jaylon Smith all claiming spots. Aldon Smith’s season ran out of gas pretty significantly, but if you add him to Randy Gregory, that edge opposite Lawrence has been very solid as a whole.
Trevon Diggs finds the ball and appears to be as talented a cornerback as Dallas has started in a long time. He appears to be a more dynamic player than Byron Jones, but now we need him to become Jones in terms of allowing big plays far less often, too.
Jaylon Smith challenged us to “watch the tape” in his evaluation. We have been, and I will write a full piece on No. 54 very soon. Yes, he did make some big plays and was in on many. But his ratio of good versus bad this year was beyond disappointing, and I don’t think the challenge to examine his work was well thought out. His effort level was generally solid, but the Cowboys did not receive positive play from him often enough.
We’ll have much more on all of this soon, but the calls for significant adjustments and changes are clear and obvious.
