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DQ Report, Week 8 - Unleashing the blitzes
The Cowboys have dialed up more blitzes in the last two games than ever before in '23.
BOB STURM
NOV 1, 2023
Yesterday, we spent a lot of words asking the question, “what did the San Francisco game do to force the offense to change its ways?”
We discovered there were some significant adjustments to the philosophical sliders on the board. The Cowboys offense appears to be a different version of itself as we head into November.
Today, let’s wander down that same path with the defense.
I know that most of us are not nearly as concerned about the tough day the defense had in San Francisco and are not shocked they have bounced back with two impressive performances against both of the Los Angeles teams.
Dallas has a very good defense. We perhaps get carried away with “how good” because they certainly got their butts beat pretty soundly against the 49ers. It seems rather unlikely that generational defenses cave in for 42 points, so let’s get back to simply being the best version of yourself for 2023 and let the history books take care of themselves.
Without Trevon Diggs, and now with linebacker absences, how would Dan Quinn move the sliders up and down on his board to get the right defensive presence as the weather begins to turn?
He is bringing the heat.
The blitz, formerly a rarely used weapon in both Dallas and in the Seattle Cover 3, has emerged this season in Dallas’ defense. There is much to say here about the blitz, so let me try to unpeel this onion.
First, the NFL is seeing a massive uptick around the league in defensive excellence. Scoring is down, big plays are down, and the offensive NFL is normalizing (despite Miami hanging 70 on Denver) into a spot where defenses seem to have answers.
For a bit, it was a lot of coverage looks that were designed to slow down these things and that still needs to be considered. All of the split-safety coverages around the league – except in Dallas – is keeping everything in front of them and being willing to lose a man to stop the run to gain a man to stop the explosive pass. It makes intuitive sense in the era of Patrick Mahomes and Mike McDaniel/Tyreek Hill.
But, now, blitzing is up around the league. Way up. Some teams are turning it all the way past 50% which is crazy in the NFL. Minnesota right now blitzes 53% of the time with Brian Flores and Wink Martindale in New York is at 47%, as he is the football son of Rex Ryan, for sure.
In Dallas, Rod Marinelli hated the blitz. He was always upset at how that would weaken zone coverages. They were often in the bottom five teams in the NFL and the Cowboys would play passive “bend but don’t break” defenses.
Not anymore. I want you to take a look at this 5-year blitz rate average with the Cowboys defense vs the NFL averages.
As you can see, Dallas was always way below the lines of average and now are above the line. Again, we can’t tell if this is a move to compensate for injuries, a lesson learned in San Francisco, an agreement with league trends, or just something they thought would work well against the Los Angeles teams.
But, the statistical tracking is clear. Dallas has blitzed over 45% in both of the last two weeks and were all over Matthew Stafford in the first half on Sunday.
It was mostly Damone Clark (8), Jourdan Lewis (2), or Jayron Kearse (2), but 16 times in 34 pass plays, the Cowboys brought a fifth man. Sometimes, it was still just Micah Parsons, who would add to the front four and technically be the blitzer himself. You may recall this play from a key moment of Sunday’s proceedings:
I am pretty sure the Cowboys had this planned all week for when the Rams went empty. Empty means they only have five to protect. In the event of the blitz, everyone has to take their corresponding rusher. There is no choice in this matter. 5 vs 5.
So, what does Dallas do? They bring on four rushmen besides Parsons. They are not letting you dictate. This will not be called a blitz in the stats, but as you can see, the Cowboys have five pass rushers here. The Rams do not know Dorance Armstrong is going to drop into coverage until it is way too late. The traditional blitz – a non pass rusher adding a fifth man to the pass rush – is sort of blurred here. That isn’t a corner back. That is Micah freaking Parsons and he is matched up with our center and we have no way of helping him because our right tackle cannot get to that danger.
Kind of surprised this didn’t become a Rams time out, because if the plan of the two rushers who are on the guards go wide, this will give Micah a 2-way-go to get to Stafford. I think we know what Micah would do to 32 centers in this league:
But, we are starting to see this more and more. Dallas is turning up the heat in many different ways and we will cover that in our film study.
I just wonder if they have plans to do that in Philadelphia? Our data of Cowboys-Eagles is pretty difficult to track because the two matchups in 2022 were with a backup QB for one side or the other. In Philadelphia was Cooper Rush vs Jalen Hurts and in Dallas was Dak Prescott vs Gardner Minshew. But, in Philadelphia, Quinn blitzed Hurts 16 times in 29 pass plays, and then 10 of 39 in Dallas vs Minshew.
Very curious to see how that looks on Sunday.
WEEKLY DATA VS RAMS
So much good in this game with the yardage well below 300 and the Rams poor in every regard. They could not move the ball, they could not convert on 3rd downs, and they were under 5 yards per snap.
Dallas had them in a panic mode.
And that blitz was coming at 46%, even though they didn’t blitz much in the 2nd half. The Cowboys go for early knockouts in these home games and as you know, they have been getting them a lot.
Look at the above chart to see Stafford’s passer rating with the blitz and without. Impressive!
NEXT GEN THROW CHART
Stafford is a tough customer and played in pain. Remember, he was leading the NFL in big-time throws entering the game. On Sunday, he was credited with zero by PFF and also threw a pick-6, so Dallas passed this test easily. The man coverage paired with pass rush pressures was able to disrupt wonderfully. The Cowboys played the game on their terms.
Now, we wonder if they can do it on the road in a hostile environment vs a much more balanced and talented attack.
SPLASH PLAYS - WEEK 8
Just 15 this week from the Cowboys. Parsons and Bland were the stars again and Bland has several defensive touchdowns (more below), so he has some bonus splashes about to be credited in the audit.
Only two sacks, but the pressure rate was up where it needs to be. Perhaps a resurgence is here.
FILM STUDY:
Today, in our blitz study, I just want to share with you the six Dallas blitzes that were called in the 1st Quarter. I believe you will quickly see how Dallas wants to freak out an opponent so quickly in these home games that the opposing offense is plenty thrown off their plan by the time they can settle down.
1Q - 9:06 - 2nd and 5 - DAL 30 - M.Stafford pass short left to D.Henderson pushed ob at LA 42 for 12 yards
Blitz No. 1 is on the Rams 2nd play from scrimmage. The Rams deal with it well and when DeMarcus Lawrence can’t quite get Darrell Henderson to the ground, the Rams find 12 quick yards. See the slot corner blitz from Lewis off the top of the screen. Nice job by Stafford and Henderson.
1Q - 7:27 - 2nd and 11 - DAL 39 - M.Stafford pass incomplete short right to T.Atwell.
A few snaps later, here is Blitz No. 2 with this traditional look as Parsons is playing MLB. This is something that the Cowboys need to do every week now because it is about as effective as any blitz package can be. It has four “other” DL spread out at the traditional spots with Micah right over the center. Except, the DE on the line against the LT is actually 33-Damone Clark, the Cowboys speedy linebacker. He stunts inside and gets to the QB quickly. Stafford has to get the ball out and throws incomplete to Atwell.
1Q - 6:08 - 2nd and 10 - DAL 17 - M.Stafford pass incomplete short middle to C.Kupp.
On this 3rd blitz, Micah isn’t even on the field. The MLB over the center is 14-Markquese Bell and this is his turn. This time, 54-Sam Williams beats the RT and gets close. Meanwhile, this is the play that the Rams deserved a pass inference call on Jourdan Lewis for pulling Cooper Kupp off his route, but did not get it called. More chaos ensues from all the pressure.
1Q - 6:04 - 3rd and 10 - DAL 17 - M.Stafford pass short left to C.Kupp to DAL 15 for 2 yards (D.Bland).
3rd and 10, here is pressure look No. 4, but not a blitz at all. The Cowboys have Parsons back out there between Dante Fowler and Dorance Armstrong as they have three rushers packed together over the LT/LG. Meanwhile, DeMarcus Lawrence is all by himself vs the RT. Now, the Rams have this called perfectly and let all three rushers through from the left and throw a WR screen behind it. DaRon Bland saved the day with a great tackle on Kupp. What a play. That should be a touchdown. But, the Rams bring on the field goal unit.
Second drive – One of the shortest drives in NFL history:
1Q - 0:43 - (:43) (Shotgun) M.Stafford pass short left intended for C.Kupp INTERCEPTED by D.Bland at LA 30. D.Bland for 30 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
If you have ever heard the cliche that “pressure busts a pipe”, here it is. This is Blitz No. 5 and it is more about the culmination of chaos that has been presented. The Rams are playing so fast by necessity. This time, look at this exotic blitz idea. Line up Micah Parsons to rush, but then have him drop in man-coverage on the Rams TE Tyler Higbee. Meanwhile, both 2nd level players – Kearse and Clark come on the blitz and Stafford has to get the ball out quickly. Cooper Kupp runs to the sideline on an option route and Stafford reads it incorrectly. He has to get the ball out because he is about to get hit hard. And because he is rushed, he gets the wrong read and one of the most accurate passers in the NFL throws it right to DaRon Bland for a easy pick-6.
It is Bland’s third pick-6 of the year which sets a Cowboys record.
Here is the first one in Week 1:
Big assist to Trevon Diggs for the hit on Saquon to make that one possible.
And here is the 2nd one from Week 4 where Mac Jones was throwing it across the body and dangerously across the field again.
He is such a ballhawk and such a 5th round pick. What a player.
Ok, last blitz of the 1st Quarter:
1Q - 0:36 - 1st and 10 - LA 25 - M.Stafford pass short right to T.Higbee to LA 22 for -3 yards
I mean, folks, this defense has never looked so scary. Can they take this pressure on the road and disrupt and offense that hasn’t clicked this year the same way, but is still plenty dangerous?
Can they get pressure both with the blitz and without so they can contain the many weapons in Philadelphia?
After putting this Rams game on tape, we should not be surprised if the Eagles come out and try to run the ball to stay out of the path of chaos. It might be their best chance to deal with what DQ is throwing out there right now.
The Cowboys have dialed up more blitzes in the last two games than ever before in '23.
BOB STURM
NOV 1, 2023
Yesterday, we spent a lot of words asking the question, “what did the San Francisco game do to force the offense to change its ways?”
We discovered there were some significant adjustments to the philosophical sliders on the board. The Cowboys offense appears to be a different version of itself as we head into November.
Today, let’s wander down that same path with the defense.
I know that most of us are not nearly as concerned about the tough day the defense had in San Francisco and are not shocked they have bounced back with two impressive performances against both of the Los Angeles teams.
Dallas has a very good defense. We perhaps get carried away with “how good” because they certainly got their butts beat pretty soundly against the 49ers. It seems rather unlikely that generational defenses cave in for 42 points, so let’s get back to simply being the best version of yourself for 2023 and let the history books take care of themselves.
Without Trevon Diggs, and now with linebacker absences, how would Dan Quinn move the sliders up and down on his board to get the right defensive presence as the weather begins to turn?
He is bringing the heat.
The blitz, formerly a rarely used weapon in both Dallas and in the Seattle Cover 3, has emerged this season in Dallas’ defense. There is much to say here about the blitz, so let me try to unpeel this onion.
First, the NFL is seeing a massive uptick around the league in defensive excellence. Scoring is down, big plays are down, and the offensive NFL is normalizing (despite Miami hanging 70 on Denver) into a spot where defenses seem to have answers.
For a bit, it was a lot of coverage looks that were designed to slow down these things and that still needs to be considered. All of the split-safety coverages around the league – except in Dallas – is keeping everything in front of them and being willing to lose a man to stop the run to gain a man to stop the explosive pass. It makes intuitive sense in the era of Patrick Mahomes and Mike McDaniel/Tyreek Hill.
But, now, blitzing is up around the league. Way up. Some teams are turning it all the way past 50% which is crazy in the NFL. Minnesota right now blitzes 53% of the time with Brian Flores and Wink Martindale in New York is at 47%, as he is the football son of Rex Ryan, for sure.
In Dallas, Rod Marinelli hated the blitz. He was always upset at how that would weaken zone coverages. They were often in the bottom five teams in the NFL and the Cowboys would play passive “bend but don’t break” defenses.
Not anymore. I want you to take a look at this 5-year blitz rate average with the Cowboys defense vs the NFL averages.
As you can see, Dallas was always way below the lines of average and now are above the line. Again, we can’t tell if this is a move to compensate for injuries, a lesson learned in San Francisco, an agreement with league trends, or just something they thought would work well against the Los Angeles teams.
But, the statistical tracking is clear. Dallas has blitzed over 45% in both of the last two weeks and were all over Matthew Stafford in the first half on Sunday.
It was mostly Damone Clark (8), Jourdan Lewis (2), or Jayron Kearse (2), but 16 times in 34 pass plays, the Cowboys brought a fifth man. Sometimes, it was still just Micah Parsons, who would add to the front four and technically be the blitzer himself. You may recall this play from a key moment of Sunday’s proceedings:
I am pretty sure the Cowboys had this planned all week for when the Rams went empty. Empty means they only have five to protect. In the event of the blitz, everyone has to take their corresponding rusher. There is no choice in this matter. 5 vs 5.
So, what does Dallas do? They bring on four rushmen besides Parsons. They are not letting you dictate. This will not be called a blitz in the stats, but as you can see, the Cowboys have five pass rushers here. The Rams do not know Dorance Armstrong is going to drop into coverage until it is way too late. The traditional blitz – a non pass rusher adding a fifth man to the pass rush – is sort of blurred here. That isn’t a corner back. That is Micah freaking Parsons and he is matched up with our center and we have no way of helping him because our right tackle cannot get to that danger.
Kind of surprised this didn’t become a Rams time out, because if the plan of the two rushers who are on the guards go wide, this will give Micah a 2-way-go to get to Stafford. I think we know what Micah would do to 32 centers in this league:
But, we are starting to see this more and more. Dallas is turning up the heat in many different ways and we will cover that in our film study.
I just wonder if they have plans to do that in Philadelphia? Our data of Cowboys-Eagles is pretty difficult to track because the two matchups in 2022 were with a backup QB for one side or the other. In Philadelphia was Cooper Rush vs Jalen Hurts and in Dallas was Dak Prescott vs Gardner Minshew. But, in Philadelphia, Quinn blitzed Hurts 16 times in 29 pass plays, and then 10 of 39 in Dallas vs Minshew.
Very curious to see how that looks on Sunday.
WEEKLY DATA VS RAMS
So much good in this game with the yardage well below 300 and the Rams poor in every regard. They could not move the ball, they could not convert on 3rd downs, and they were under 5 yards per snap.
Dallas had them in a panic mode.
And that blitz was coming at 46%, even though they didn’t blitz much in the 2nd half. The Cowboys go for early knockouts in these home games and as you know, they have been getting them a lot.
Look at the above chart to see Stafford’s passer rating with the blitz and without. Impressive!
NEXT GEN THROW CHART
Stafford is a tough customer and played in pain. Remember, he was leading the NFL in big-time throws entering the game. On Sunday, he was credited with zero by PFF and also threw a pick-6, so Dallas passed this test easily. The man coverage paired with pass rush pressures was able to disrupt wonderfully. The Cowboys played the game on their terms.
Now, we wonder if they can do it on the road in a hostile environment vs a much more balanced and talented attack.
SPLASH PLAYS - WEEK 8
Just 15 this week from the Cowboys. Parsons and Bland were the stars again and Bland has several defensive touchdowns (more below), so he has some bonus splashes about to be credited in the audit.
Only two sacks, but the pressure rate was up where it needs to be. Perhaps a resurgence is here.
FILM STUDY:
Today, in our blitz study, I just want to share with you the six Dallas blitzes that were called in the 1st Quarter. I believe you will quickly see how Dallas wants to freak out an opponent so quickly in these home games that the opposing offense is plenty thrown off their plan by the time they can settle down.
1Q - 9:06 - 2nd and 5 - DAL 30 - M.Stafford pass short left to D.Henderson pushed ob at LA 42 for 12 yards
Blitz No. 1 is on the Rams 2nd play from scrimmage. The Rams deal with it well and when DeMarcus Lawrence can’t quite get Darrell Henderson to the ground, the Rams find 12 quick yards. See the slot corner blitz from Lewis off the top of the screen. Nice job by Stafford and Henderson.
1Q - 7:27 - 2nd and 11 - DAL 39 - M.Stafford pass incomplete short right to T.Atwell.
A few snaps later, here is Blitz No. 2 with this traditional look as Parsons is playing MLB. This is something that the Cowboys need to do every week now because it is about as effective as any blitz package can be. It has four “other” DL spread out at the traditional spots with Micah right over the center. Except, the DE on the line against the LT is actually 33-Damone Clark, the Cowboys speedy linebacker. He stunts inside and gets to the QB quickly. Stafford has to get the ball out and throws incomplete to Atwell.
1Q - 6:08 - 2nd and 10 - DAL 17 - M.Stafford pass incomplete short middle to C.Kupp.
On this 3rd blitz, Micah isn’t even on the field. The MLB over the center is 14-Markquese Bell and this is his turn. This time, 54-Sam Williams beats the RT and gets close. Meanwhile, this is the play that the Rams deserved a pass inference call on Jourdan Lewis for pulling Cooper Kupp off his route, but did not get it called. More chaos ensues from all the pressure.
1Q - 6:04 - 3rd and 10 - DAL 17 - M.Stafford pass short left to C.Kupp to DAL 15 for 2 yards (D.Bland).
3rd and 10, here is pressure look No. 4, but not a blitz at all. The Cowboys have Parsons back out there between Dante Fowler and Dorance Armstrong as they have three rushers packed together over the LT/LG. Meanwhile, DeMarcus Lawrence is all by himself vs the RT. Now, the Rams have this called perfectly and let all three rushers through from the left and throw a WR screen behind it. DaRon Bland saved the day with a great tackle on Kupp. What a play. That should be a touchdown. But, the Rams bring on the field goal unit.
Second drive – One of the shortest drives in NFL history:
1Q - 0:43 - (:43) (Shotgun) M.Stafford pass short left intended for C.Kupp INTERCEPTED by D.Bland at LA 30. D.Bland for 30 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
If you have ever heard the cliche that “pressure busts a pipe”, here it is. This is Blitz No. 5 and it is more about the culmination of chaos that has been presented. The Rams are playing so fast by necessity. This time, look at this exotic blitz idea. Line up Micah Parsons to rush, but then have him drop in man-coverage on the Rams TE Tyler Higbee. Meanwhile, both 2nd level players – Kearse and Clark come on the blitz and Stafford has to get the ball out quickly. Cooper Kupp runs to the sideline on an option route and Stafford reads it incorrectly. He has to get the ball out because he is about to get hit hard. And because he is rushed, he gets the wrong read and one of the most accurate passers in the NFL throws it right to DaRon Bland for a easy pick-6.
It is Bland’s third pick-6 of the year which sets a Cowboys record.
Here is the first one in Week 1:
Big assist to Trevon Diggs for the hit on Saquon to make that one possible.
And here is the 2nd one from Week 4 where Mac Jones was throwing it across the body and dangerously across the field again.
He is such a ballhawk and such a 5th round pick. What a player.
Ok, last blitz of the 1st Quarter:
1Q - 0:36 - 1st and 10 - LA 25 - M.Stafford pass short right to T.Higbee to LA 22 for -3 yards
I mean, folks, this defense has never looked so scary. Can they take this pressure on the road and disrupt and offense that hasn’t clicked this year the same way, but is still plenty dangerous?
Can they get pressure both with the blitz and without so they can contain the many weapons in Philadelphia?
After putting this Rams game on tape, we should not be surprised if the Eagles come out and try to run the ball to stay out of the path of chaos. It might be their best chance to deal with what DQ is throwing out there right now.
