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By Bob Sturm 1h ago
Today we finish our journey through the Cowboys’ very rough 2018 in pass protection. We made it, and somehow, so did Dak Prescott, who was sacked 58 times and never seemed to get injured despite an absurd number of hits and contact. I would recommend against trying to pull that off again.
Things happened, though. Travis Frederick was missing the whole way. Connor Williams was a steep disappointment after the sunny optimism of training camp. Xavier Su’a-Filo seemed very good out of the gate and then quickly regressed. Tyron Smith and Zack Martin played hurt. La’el Collins put his worst season on wax. And, yes, Prescott started to show the effects of a player who no longer trusted his offensive line, his internal clock, and maybe even the scheme of the offense itself.
Allow me to go all the way back to the start of this project with a review of the rolling two paragraphs from the first piece:
The Cowboys pulled something off pretty unbelievable this season: They went to the playoffs despite one of the worst pass-protection units in all of the NFL. In fact, something about the state of Texas this year was very, very odd. The Houston Texans gave up more sacks (62) than any other team and still made the playoffs. The Cowboys gave up the second-most sacks (56) in the entire league and also made the playoffs. Not only that, they went out and won their first-round game.
Trust me, this doesn’t happen very often. Over the last six seasons, only one franchise has continuously finished way up the standings and also way up the sacks allowed standings, too. This is the Seattle Seahawks, who outperform the league in this regard every single year due to having a quarterback in Russell Wilson who will hold the ball and hold the ball and finally make a play down the field sometimes. Of course, the other times, he gets sacked, and his fans get really mad because he held the ball too long.
In this piece, we will look at the final 25% of the regular season and the two playoff games. The good news within this disastrous project is that there were some real signs of progress from all involved. The last six games offered us just 13 total sacks to view (2.1 per game) after the first 12 games featured an absurd 45 sacks (3.75 per game). I would consider this especially notable given the red names below, showing backups who started due to injury. This doesn’t even show that Connor Williams had to replace Martin at right guard and play against the Eagles for the final two quarters or that Adam Redmond had to play the final three quarters against the Colts. In other words, the Cowboys offensive line’s health was in disarray late in the year but the group still managed to come around and raise its collective game.
Frank Pollack was replaced by Paul Alexander last winter, and then there were all sorts of whispers about the downturn in the offensive line with the new tactics and fundamentals being taught by the long-time Bengals line coach. Alexander was fired during the bye week and replaced by former tackle Marc Colombo. Colombo, by all accounts, allowed the line to go back to the Pollack and Bill Callahan-taught ideas and concepts which were so successful through the years, only to immediately get hit with the injury rash of November and December.
So, anecdotally, it all says good things about Colombo and the way the Cowboys have “always done things” to get back to their roots, but that doesn’t really answer why they wanted to leave Pollack and those old ways in the first place. It also suggests that we are willing to say the stretch versus the Redskins, Saints, and Eagles was all health-related. It should be noted that Alexander enjoyed perfect attendance from the starters during his time in charge, while Colombo had no such luck. Of course, Alexander also had no games with Amari Cooper, while Colombo had no games without him. You would be surprised how much better a downfield target who is always open makes your pass protection. [HR][/HR]
Before we start reviewing these 13 sacks, here’s a reminder of some ground rules:
Last Monday: Games 1-4 (14 sacks)
Last Thursday: Games 5-8 (14 sacks)
Monday: Games 9-12 (17 sacks)
Today: Games 13-18 (13 sacks)
Let’s begin! [HR][/HR]
GAME #13 vs PHILADELPHIA
Sack #46 – 3Q – 6:56 – 1st and 10, Dallas 14-yard line
Just a small bit of context in this Philadelphia game: Both Zack Martin and Tyron Smith were hurt. (I include Tyron because while he didn’t allow any sacks in this particular contest, he did take three different holding penalties, which also killed drives). They were probably nowhere near 100%, but they could see how badly the offensive line was playing in the last few weeks and decided to give the team what they had. This is a courageous gesture, of course, but nobody cares in the NFL. In fact, opponents will attack you harder. Here, the great Fletcher Cox goes right at Zack Martin, and perhaps that knee was not helping Martin do anything more than hang on for dear life. This is an extremely rare poor snap from Martin. BUST: MARTIN
Sack #47 – 3Q – 2:14 – 3rd and 8 – Philadelphia 44-yard line
Martin leaves the game two snaps after this play because he can’t do things he normally does effortlessly. Here Michael Bennett takes him wide, then swoops in on Prescott. Martin couldn’t move well at all and would ultimately miss the remainder of this game, the Colts game, come back for Tampa and then take the Giants game off, too. It wasn’t a very pleasant final month for the big man. BUST: MARTIN
Sack #48 – 4Q – 0:16 – 3rd and 12 from Dallas 44-yard line
It’s the final play of regulation, and the Cowboys want to throw the ball deep — perhaps a Hail Mary-type throw. As you can see, the Cowboys are nearly at midfield, so this is going to require some time in the pocket to try to make a deep throw after the receivers can run 40 yards. Also, note the Eagles have a linebacker right over Looney to keep him from knowing if a blitz is coming and also whether he can assist his guards (Connor Williams is now the RG). That leaves Fletcher Cox with Xavier Su’a-Filo, and we can see what happens next. Collins is losing on his edge and Zeke doesn’t save the day with Cox, but we can’t expect a running back to deal with one of the best DTs in the sport. Our guy XSF is in over his head here. BUST: SU’A-FILO
GAME #14 AT INDIANAPOLIS
Sack #49 – 1Q – 4:21 – 1st and 10 from the 50
How many times this season do we see first down play-action followed by Prescott not seeing anything open downfield? Of course, when that happens, we blame the QB, but that is shorthand for “coverage sack,” which is shorthand for “nobody is open” again. This is blocked up pretty well, but we don’t have all day here and 3.9 seconds is always going to be “too much time” to expect the blocking to hold up. BUST: PRESCOTT
Sack #50 – 2Q – 2:27 – 3rd and 9 from Indianapolis 37-yard line
Zack Martin is out, which leaves a backup right guard and a third-string left guard in the form of Harvard product 61-Adam Redmond. In essence, you have three backups inside, and you can bet the Colts wanted to test that with plenty of twists to cause the Cowboys some stress inside. They certainly did so here on a third-and-long situation, and all heck breaks loose. Tyquan Lewis gets there first on Redmond for this drive killer, and left guard continues to leak oil everywhere. BUST: REDMOND
Sack #51 – 4Q – 3:52 – 2nd and 4 from Indianapolis 18-yard line
Now we are late in the game, and Denico Autry doesn’t need to try anything fancy against Redmond. They just widen out the line and put Redmond on an island with a two-way go for the DT, and this wasn’t very competitive. The Cowboys very much did not want to get shut out in this game, but this was the final effort. By now, everyone wanted to get on the airplane and out of town. BUST: REDMOND
GAME #15 VS TAMPA BAY
Sack #52 – 2Q – 0:10 – 2nd and 5 from Dallas 47-yard line
The Tampa Bay game was vital to getting the division title in the bag, and Martin returned to help secure it. Pass protection was pretty solid all day long, but the one exception was another play when the Cowboys wanted to throw it deep and the line could not support an extra-long deep throw. This goes back to our friend Su’a-Filo versus rookie Vita Vea, and he simply cannot hold up in this situation on his own. Under three seconds won’t work even in a normal situation, but if you need to make a deeper throw, you have no chance. The half ended here, and by now you can see how the left guard position has really let Dallas down in 2018. BUST: SU’A-FILO
GAME #16 AT NEW YORK GIANTS
Sack #53 – 1Q – 2:01 – 2nd and 10 from the New York 15-yard line
This one can be judged a few different ways. The Cowboys scratched Martin and Smith going into this game, leaving them with a line of La’el Collins and four backups. On this play, I am blaming Fleming at LT against Olivier Vernon. Prescott has a path to vacate when he finds nothing he likes, but Fleming doesn’t even touch Vernon from closing that down. A subtle push will do, but for some reason, when Prescott steps up, Fleming turns into a bit of a spectator as opposed to finishing the play. He needs better awareness here to help his QB. BUST: FLEMING
Sack #54 – 2Q – 4:12 – 2nd and 6 from the New York 49
This broke down in under three seconds, and it just isn’t good enough. A quarterback has to be able to get off his first read and have a chance at his second. Unfortunately, with backups all along the line, this was going to be a run-for-your-life day for Prescott (which makes you wonder about why he was playing in the first place). Regardless, I think it is fair to say that neither tackle held up here, so we can split this one. BUST: COLLINS/FLEMING
Sack #55 – 3Q – 14:21 – 2nd and 11 from the Dallas 24-yard line
A lot happens here, as Collins is beaten by Lorenzo Carter on one side where Carter dives for Prescott’s ankles and takes him down. Meanwhile, the other side is collapsing as Vernon drives Fleming back and eventually into Su’a-Filo’s legs (which causes XSF to leave injured.) The Giants defensive front was competing very hard that day and the Cowboys victory came in spite of the OL rather than because of it on this day. Obviously, Collins wasn’t the only issue here, but he did concede the sack. BUST: COLLINS
Sack #56 – 3Q – 0:54 – 1st and 10 from Dallas 44
This is just a standard first down in which everyone yells at their television for the QB to throw the ball. Prescott, however, has no prayer of creating a productive play when the guard and tackle are losing this quickly. Are you kidding me? 2.2 seconds on a standard four-man rush on first down? If you can’t block this up, you can’t compete in this league. We don’t blame backups for being backups, but we also can’t blame the Cowboys for sitting their hurt stars in Tyron and Zack Martin before the playoffs. Regardless, this is simply not good enough. BUST: WILLIAMS/FLEMING [HR][/HR]
These last two won’t count in the regular-season stats, but I do think it is fair to point out that the Cowboys’ offensive line did seem to come around late. Maybe it was due to the unit’s renewed health. Maybe new coaching. Maybe an anomaly. Whatever the situation, we will take one sack a week in the playoffs for two games against very fine defenses.
WILDCARD ROUND – VS SEATTLE
Sack #57 – 2Q – 4:44 – 2nd and 10 from the Seattle 40-yard line
I would certainly like to discuss this sack with Tyron Smith and Connor Williams, as this is normally a situation where you would try to switch men. There is no switch, leaving Tyron to chase Frank Clark on the way to Prescott. That’s a real problem, as Clark doesn’t need a free path to the QB in these situations. Was Williams to blame? It seems possible, but it also looks like Tyron was awfully flat-footed here and from the looks of it, this will go on him. It is certainly interesting that most of his trouble this year came in the two games against Clark, so I am sure he is fine with the trade that sent the pass rusher to Kansas City. BUST: SMITH
DIVISIONAL ROUND AT LOS ANGELES
Sack #58 – 2Q – 0:52 – 3rd and 7 from Los Angeles 36-yard line
This is third and long, but right on the edge of field-goal range, too. So, buy time here, but you can’t take a sack or you will lose points. In fact, maybe even take a very short gain to get a few more yards for your kicker. Dak knows he is down 13 points, and therefore he isn’t interested in a field goal. He wants a touchdown before the half. I get it, but taking too much time causes him to go past the threshold of holding the ball. Was he really sacked here? Either way, this will be added to the QB’s ledger. BUST: PRESCOTT [HR][/HR]
In total, here are the details for the last six games. You will note there were zero sacks from the blitz during this stretch.
Sack # Game Time Sack Bust Notes Blitz
Please keep in mind that 56 were counted in the regular season, and that is the official stat. The two playoff sacks were not part of the actual study, but I judged them nevertheless.
I will write a bit more on my personal evaluations of each individual player very soon, but I wanted to touch on a few other items here in closing. I know that I spar with PFF and their individual grades pretty often, but let me show you my final standings against their findings:
TOTAL SACKS ALLOWED 2018
Snaps Me PFF
As you can see, I made sure I labeled a bust for each sack. PFF only assigned blame on 41 sacks, which is probably to say that they think the other 15 were “coverage sacks” or some such. I elected to place the blame on someone in the protection department during coverage sacks, including the QB, but PFF’s position is defensible. I did assign four sacks to scheme flaws, but those were specific scheme issues I had. Regardless, we seem to be very close on most of them aside from Tyron Smith, where they found no fault in his sacks against Seattle (two) and Washington. You may review those if you want, but I have no idea what they were looking at. Again, as I stated above, “blame is subjective, no matter whether it is Bob Sturm or PFF or even an NFL coaching staff pointing the finger. You can offer a reasonable story in your evaluation, and it might be as good as mine.”
Here is how the sacks were assigned based on position:
Hopefully you can sort through this picture; the numbers for sacks conceded are for each position, not for each player. For instance, left guard was the biggest disaster by far, where three different players conceded multiple sacks.
Interior positions around the league roughly give up a normal range of two to four sacks per spot, per season. The tackle spots concede around six to eight per spot, per season. So, as you can see, the Cowboys were in the general range everywhere but right tackle, where they were slightly above the norm, and left guard, where they were easily three or four times the norm. I will have plenty to say on that matter soon enough, but it doesn’t take a genius to see where the sore thumb was located.
There you have it. 58 sacks that sabotaged and limited this entire offensive operation. One one hand, the fact that they still won the division, a playoff game and 11 overall games is remarkable. On the other, what could they have done if they only allowed their normal five-year average of 33? Maybe they would have been in the Super Bowl.
They must get back to that range in 2019 if they wish to take another massive step forward. And that will require improvement from several obvious spots.
By Bob Sturm 1h ago
Today we finish our journey through the Cowboys’ very rough 2018 in pass protection. We made it, and somehow, so did Dak Prescott, who was sacked 58 times and never seemed to get injured despite an absurd number of hits and contact. I would recommend against trying to pull that off again.
Things happened, though. Travis Frederick was missing the whole way. Connor Williams was a steep disappointment after the sunny optimism of training camp. Xavier Su’a-Filo seemed very good out of the gate and then quickly regressed. Tyron Smith and Zack Martin played hurt. La’el Collins put his worst season on wax. And, yes, Prescott started to show the effects of a player who no longer trusted his offensive line, his internal clock, and maybe even the scheme of the offense itself.
Allow me to go all the way back to the start of this project with a review of the rolling two paragraphs from the first piece:
The Cowboys pulled something off pretty unbelievable this season: They went to the playoffs despite one of the worst pass-protection units in all of the NFL. In fact, something about the state of Texas this year was very, very odd. The Houston Texans gave up more sacks (62) than any other team and still made the playoffs. The Cowboys gave up the second-most sacks (56) in the entire league and also made the playoffs. Not only that, they went out and won their first-round game.
Trust me, this doesn’t happen very often. Over the last six seasons, only one franchise has continuously finished way up the standings and also way up the sacks allowed standings, too. This is the Seattle Seahawks, who outperform the league in this regard every single year due to having a quarterback in Russell Wilson who will hold the ball and hold the ball and finally make a play down the field sometimes. Of course, the other times, he gets sacked, and his fans get really mad because he held the ball too long.
In this piece, we will look at the final 25% of the regular season and the two playoff games. The good news within this disastrous project is that there were some real signs of progress from all involved. The last six games offered us just 13 total sacks to view (2.1 per game) after the first 12 games featured an absurd 45 sacks (3.75 per game). I would consider this especially notable given the red names below, showing backups who started due to injury. This doesn’t even show that Connor Williams had to replace Martin at right guard and play against the Eagles for the final two quarters or that Adam Redmond had to play the final three quarters against the Colts. In other words, the Cowboys offensive line’s health was in disarray late in the year but the group still managed to come around and raise its collective game.
Frank Pollack was replaced by Paul Alexander last winter, and then there were all sorts of whispers about the downturn in the offensive line with the new tactics and fundamentals being taught by the long-time Bengals line coach. Alexander was fired during the bye week and replaced by former tackle Marc Colombo. Colombo, by all accounts, allowed the line to go back to the Pollack and Bill Callahan-taught ideas and concepts which were so successful through the years, only to immediately get hit with the injury rash of November and December.
So, anecdotally, it all says good things about Colombo and the way the Cowboys have “always done things” to get back to their roots, but that doesn’t really answer why they wanted to leave Pollack and those old ways in the first place. It also suggests that we are willing to say the stretch versus the Redskins, Saints, and Eagles was all health-related. It should be noted that Alexander enjoyed perfect attendance from the starters during his time in charge, while Colombo had no such luck. Of course, Alexander also had no games with Amari Cooper, while Colombo had no games without him. You would be surprised how much better a downfield target who is always open makes your pass protection. [HR][/HR]
Before we start reviewing these 13 sacks, here’s a reminder of some ground rules:
- I have examined each play from multiple angles and looked at the wide view to see the receivers in route. But for simplicity’s sake, we will only use the end zone view to evaluate this group. There are a few times I will tell you “nobody was open,” but those are rare moments, and I wanted to keep these pieces at a readable length.
- Trust me: Blame is subjective, no matter whether it is Bob Sturm or PFF or even an NFL coaching staff pointing the finger. You can offer a reasonable story in your evaluation, and it might be as good as mine. In the past, the comment section is where you can differ with my views, but I am reasonably confident in my examinations after doing this for years. I also seek help from my coach friends in the league when I see a particularly tough snap to evaluate.
- When assigning blame, it is generally going to go to one person. Most sacks are a combination of blame, but we want to try to give it to the person “most responsible,” which takes us back to subjectivity.
- Any sack notched over 3.5 seconds after the snap is going to be on the quarterback unless something is very unique about the play. Conversely, anything 2.9 seconds or less is usually going to be on the offensive line (do your job!). Bill Parcells would blow the air horn (or someone else would) after 3.2 seconds at training camp when he coached the Cowboys. The ball must get out quickly, and if you hold the ball, you become responsible for what you are asking of the offensive line. A quarterback must get the ball out and also be mindful of the more penal grounding penalties of 2018. It isn’t an easy job, but it is your job as a QB to avoid sacks whenever possible. That said, this QB would rather be sacked than throw a hopeful jump ball, and I respect that. Sacks are bad. Turnovers are far worse.
- No, we don’t always know the exact assignments, but we also have watched enough football to know there are very few ways to slide over to pick up a blitz. This is complex, but let’s not make it more complex than it really is. If you study this stuff, you generally will get a good idea of things.
- Finally, and this is one that I have added after Part 1: Understand that I have slowed these down so that we can study them. Every single one will look like the QB has all day in super slo-mo, but trust me, these plays all happen between two and five seconds.
Last Monday: Games 1-4 (14 sacks)
Last Thursday: Games 5-8 (14 sacks)
Monday: Games 9-12 (17 sacks)
Today: Games 13-18 (13 sacks)
Let’s begin! [HR][/HR]
GAME #13 vs PHILADELPHIA
Sack #46 – 3Q – 6:56 – 1st and 10, Dallas 14-yard line
Just a small bit of context in this Philadelphia game: Both Zack Martin and Tyron Smith were hurt. (I include Tyron because while he didn’t allow any sacks in this particular contest, he did take three different holding penalties, which also killed drives). They were probably nowhere near 100%, but they could see how badly the offensive line was playing in the last few weeks and decided to give the team what they had. This is a courageous gesture, of course, but nobody cares in the NFL. In fact, opponents will attack you harder. Here, the great Fletcher Cox goes right at Zack Martin, and perhaps that knee was not helping Martin do anything more than hang on for dear life. This is an extremely rare poor snap from Martin. BUST: MARTIN
Sack #47 – 3Q – 2:14 – 3rd and 8 – Philadelphia 44-yard line
Martin leaves the game two snaps after this play because he can’t do things he normally does effortlessly. Here Michael Bennett takes him wide, then swoops in on Prescott. Martin couldn’t move well at all and would ultimately miss the remainder of this game, the Colts game, come back for Tampa and then take the Giants game off, too. It wasn’t a very pleasant final month for the big man. BUST: MARTIN
Sack #48 – 4Q – 0:16 – 3rd and 12 from Dallas 44-yard line
It’s the final play of regulation, and the Cowboys want to throw the ball deep — perhaps a Hail Mary-type throw. As you can see, the Cowboys are nearly at midfield, so this is going to require some time in the pocket to try to make a deep throw after the receivers can run 40 yards. Also, note the Eagles have a linebacker right over Looney to keep him from knowing if a blitz is coming and also whether he can assist his guards (Connor Williams is now the RG). That leaves Fletcher Cox with Xavier Su’a-Filo, and we can see what happens next. Collins is losing on his edge and Zeke doesn’t save the day with Cox, but we can’t expect a running back to deal with one of the best DTs in the sport. Our guy XSF is in over his head here. BUST: SU’A-FILO
GAME #14 AT INDIANAPOLIS
Sack #49 – 1Q – 4:21 – 1st and 10 from the 50
How many times this season do we see first down play-action followed by Prescott not seeing anything open downfield? Of course, when that happens, we blame the QB, but that is shorthand for “coverage sack,” which is shorthand for “nobody is open” again. This is blocked up pretty well, but we don’t have all day here and 3.9 seconds is always going to be “too much time” to expect the blocking to hold up. BUST: PRESCOTT
Sack #50 – 2Q – 2:27 – 3rd and 9 from Indianapolis 37-yard line
Zack Martin is out, which leaves a backup right guard and a third-string left guard in the form of Harvard product 61-Adam Redmond. In essence, you have three backups inside, and you can bet the Colts wanted to test that with plenty of twists to cause the Cowboys some stress inside. They certainly did so here on a third-and-long situation, and all heck breaks loose. Tyquan Lewis gets there first on Redmond for this drive killer, and left guard continues to leak oil everywhere. BUST: REDMOND
Sack #51 – 4Q – 3:52 – 2nd and 4 from Indianapolis 18-yard line
Now we are late in the game, and Denico Autry doesn’t need to try anything fancy against Redmond. They just widen out the line and put Redmond on an island with a two-way go for the DT, and this wasn’t very competitive. The Cowboys very much did not want to get shut out in this game, but this was the final effort. By now, everyone wanted to get on the airplane and out of town. BUST: REDMOND
GAME #15 VS TAMPA BAY
Sack #52 – 2Q – 0:10 – 2nd and 5 from Dallas 47-yard line
The Tampa Bay game was vital to getting the division title in the bag, and Martin returned to help secure it. Pass protection was pretty solid all day long, but the one exception was another play when the Cowboys wanted to throw it deep and the line could not support an extra-long deep throw. This goes back to our friend Su’a-Filo versus rookie Vita Vea, and he simply cannot hold up in this situation on his own. Under three seconds won’t work even in a normal situation, but if you need to make a deeper throw, you have no chance. The half ended here, and by now you can see how the left guard position has really let Dallas down in 2018. BUST: SU’A-FILO
GAME #16 AT NEW YORK GIANTS
Sack #53 – 1Q – 2:01 – 2nd and 10 from the New York 15-yard line
This one can be judged a few different ways. The Cowboys scratched Martin and Smith going into this game, leaving them with a line of La’el Collins and four backups. On this play, I am blaming Fleming at LT against Olivier Vernon. Prescott has a path to vacate when he finds nothing he likes, but Fleming doesn’t even touch Vernon from closing that down. A subtle push will do, but for some reason, when Prescott steps up, Fleming turns into a bit of a spectator as opposed to finishing the play. He needs better awareness here to help his QB. BUST: FLEMING
Sack #54 – 2Q – 4:12 – 2nd and 6 from the New York 49
This broke down in under three seconds, and it just isn’t good enough. A quarterback has to be able to get off his first read and have a chance at his second. Unfortunately, with backups all along the line, this was going to be a run-for-your-life day for Prescott (which makes you wonder about why he was playing in the first place). Regardless, I think it is fair to say that neither tackle held up here, so we can split this one. BUST: COLLINS/FLEMING
Sack #55 – 3Q – 14:21 – 2nd and 11 from the Dallas 24-yard line
A lot happens here, as Collins is beaten by Lorenzo Carter on one side where Carter dives for Prescott’s ankles and takes him down. Meanwhile, the other side is collapsing as Vernon drives Fleming back and eventually into Su’a-Filo’s legs (which causes XSF to leave injured.) The Giants defensive front was competing very hard that day and the Cowboys victory came in spite of the OL rather than because of it on this day. Obviously, Collins wasn’t the only issue here, but he did concede the sack. BUST: COLLINS
Sack #56 – 3Q – 0:54 – 1st and 10 from Dallas 44
This is just a standard first down in which everyone yells at their television for the QB to throw the ball. Prescott, however, has no prayer of creating a productive play when the guard and tackle are losing this quickly. Are you kidding me? 2.2 seconds on a standard four-man rush on first down? If you can’t block this up, you can’t compete in this league. We don’t blame backups for being backups, but we also can’t blame the Cowboys for sitting their hurt stars in Tyron and Zack Martin before the playoffs. Regardless, this is simply not good enough. BUST: WILLIAMS/FLEMING [HR][/HR]
These last two won’t count in the regular-season stats, but I do think it is fair to point out that the Cowboys’ offensive line did seem to come around late. Maybe it was due to the unit’s renewed health. Maybe new coaching. Maybe an anomaly. Whatever the situation, we will take one sack a week in the playoffs for two games against very fine defenses.
WILDCARD ROUND – VS SEATTLE
Sack #57 – 2Q – 4:44 – 2nd and 10 from the Seattle 40-yard line
I would certainly like to discuss this sack with Tyron Smith and Connor Williams, as this is normally a situation where you would try to switch men. There is no switch, leaving Tyron to chase Frank Clark on the way to Prescott. That’s a real problem, as Clark doesn’t need a free path to the QB in these situations. Was Williams to blame? It seems possible, but it also looks like Tyron was awfully flat-footed here and from the looks of it, this will go on him. It is certainly interesting that most of his trouble this year came in the two games against Clark, so I am sure he is fine with the trade that sent the pass rusher to Kansas City. BUST: SMITH
DIVISIONAL ROUND AT LOS ANGELES
Sack #58 – 2Q – 0:52 – 3rd and 7 from Los Angeles 36-yard line
This is third and long, but right on the edge of field-goal range, too. So, buy time here, but you can’t take a sack or you will lose points. In fact, maybe even take a very short gain to get a few more yards for your kicker. Dak knows he is down 13 points, and therefore he isn’t interested in a field goal. He wants a touchdown before the half. I get it, but taking too much time causes him to go past the threshold of holding the ball. Was he really sacked here? Either way, this will be added to the QB’s ledger. BUST: PRESCOTT [HR][/HR]
In total, here are the details for the last six games. You will note there were zero sacks from the blitz during this stretch.
| 46 | Wk14 PHI | 3/6:56 | Cox | Zack Martin | Wow, he was manhandled badly | |
| 47 | Wk14 PHI | 3/2:25 | Bennett | Zack Martin | Can’t stay in front of Bennett | |
| 48 | Wk14 PHI | 4/0:13 | Cox/Bennett | Xavier Su’a-Filo | Fletcher Cox was not being blocked | |
| 49 | Wk15 IND | 1/4:40 | Lewis | Dak Prescott | Play-action, holds ball | |
| 50 | Wk15 IND | 2/2:27 | Lewis | Adam Redmond | Pocket collapsing | |
| 51 | Wk15 IND | 4/3:52 | Autry | Adam Redmond | This one wasn’t very close | |
| 52 | Wk16 TB | 2/0:10 | Vea | Xavier Su’a-Filo | Can’t hold up at 3.1 | |
| 53 | Wk17 NYG | 1/2:01 | Vernon | Cam Fleming | Outside back to inside | |
| 54 | Wk17 NYG | 2/4:38 | Vernon | Cam Fleming/Lael Collins | Both edges collapsed under 3 | |
| 55 | Wk17 NYG | 3/14:47 | Carter | La’el Collins | Pushed back by Carter | |
| 56 | Wk17 NYG | 3/1:05 | Vernon/Hill | Cam Fleming/Connor Williams | Both abused badly | |
| 57 | WK18 SEA | 2/4:45 | Clark | Tyron Smith | Stunt to inside | |
| 58 | WK19 LAR | 2/0:52 | Fowler | Dak Prescott | Held the ball |
Please keep in mind that 56 were counted in the regular season, and that is the official stat. The two playoff sacks were not part of the actual study, but I judged them nevertheless.
I will write a bit more on my personal evaluations of each individual player very soon, but I wanted to touch on a few other items here in closing. I know that I spar with PFF and their individual grades pretty often, but let me show you my final standings against their findings:
TOTAL SACKS ALLOWED 2018
| Dak Prescott | 1070 | 15 | 15 |
| La’el Collins | 1075 | 9 | 8 |
| Connor Williams | 688 | 7 | 5 |
| Xavier Su’a-Filo | 494 | 7 | 6 |
| Scheme | 4 | ||
| Tyron Smith | 849 | 3 | 0 |
| Cam Fleming | 232 | 4 | 2 |
| Zack Martin | 877 | 3 | 3 |
| Adam Redmond | 96 | 2 | 1 |
| Joe Looney | 1076 | 1 | |
| Ezekiel Elliott | 890 | 1 | |
| Rod Smith | 151 | 1 | |
| 56 | 41 |
As you can see, I made sure I labeled a bust for each sack. PFF only assigned blame on 41 sacks, which is probably to say that they think the other 15 were “coverage sacks” or some such. I elected to place the blame on someone in the protection department during coverage sacks, including the QB, but PFF’s position is defensible. I did assign four sacks to scheme flaws, but those were specific scheme issues I had. Regardless, we seem to be very close on most of them aside from Tyron Smith, where they found no fault in his sacks against Seattle (two) and Washington. You may review those if you want, but I have no idea what they were looking at. Again, as I stated above, “blame is subjective, no matter whether it is Bob Sturm or PFF or even an NFL coaching staff pointing the finger. You can offer a reasonable story in your evaluation, and it might be as good as mine.”
Here is how the sacks were assigned based on position:
Hopefully you can sort through this picture; the numbers for sacks conceded are for each position, not for each player. For instance, left guard was the biggest disaster by far, where three different players conceded multiple sacks.
Interior positions around the league roughly give up a normal range of two to four sacks per spot, per season. The tackle spots concede around six to eight per spot, per season. So, as you can see, the Cowboys were in the general range everywhere but right tackle, where they were slightly above the norm, and left guard, where they were easily three or four times the norm. I will have plenty to say on that matter soon enough, but it doesn’t take a genius to see where the sore thumb was located.
There you have it. 58 sacks that sabotaged and limited this entire offensive operation. One one hand, the fact that they still won the division, a playoff game and 11 overall games is remarkable. On the other, what could they have done if they only allowed their normal five-year average of 33? Maybe they would have been in the Super Bowl.
They must get back to that range in 2019 if they wish to take another massive step forward. And that will require improvement from several obvious spots.