Are the Dallas Cowboys Ignoring Their Biggest Weakness?
By Reid Hanson
The Dallas Cowboys have one glaring weakness on their team this season – the pass-rush. Why then aren’t they trying to fix it?
If the Dallas Cowboys have one weakness heading down the stretch of the 2016 season, it’s clearly the pass-rush. With 20 total sacks on the season, the Cowboys are tied with three other teams for 25th place in the NFL. To put it another way, there are only four teams in the NFL with less sacks than the Cowboys.
The Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator, Rod Marinelli, knew when he started the season that he’d be cooking with a bare pantry. But with the Cowboys’ surprising march to a (league-best) 10-1 record, the pressure on the defense to keep up.
That’s what makes coach Marinelli’s recent moves so curious. Instead of sending extra players to rush the passer, the Cowboys have decided to send less players.
The Dallas Cowboys appear to be ignoring working around the problem. Instead of pooling resources to fix the problem (like blitzing), they are diverting resources elsewhere and often times only rushing three players.
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The last two games the Cowboys defense has made a concentrated effort to push more players back into coverage and make opponents fit the ball through tighter windows. Despite gaining another couple notches in the win column, the results haven’t been pretty as the Cowboys secondary has been essentially picked apart by opposing offenses.
But the logic of Marinelli’s plan is sound even if the results are questionable.
If the Cowboys struggle to get pressure 90% of the time when rushing four or five players, it’s probably a poor allocation of resources.
Moving an extra player or two into coverage to make the windows a little tighter may be the most impactful — Especially since offenses are still keeping all five linemen in to pass-protect. Opponents are basically wasting two linemen when the Cowboys only rush three. Sure the Cowboys don’t get much of a rush, but they rarely did anyway, if we’re being honest. This way, the secondary essentially gets two extra players in coverage.
The results weren’t great, statistically, but considering they played against a couple potent passing offenses, it could have been worse.
As of today, Dallas’ defensive side of the ball ranks 21st in the NFL, allowing just over 362 yards per game. Considering the individual talent residing on the defense, 21st isn’t all that bad.
The Dallas Cowboys have been very creative this season on the defensive side of the ball trying to mask their weaknesses. They will be required to stay creative if they want to survive in the playoffs without arguably the most important defensive role on the team — pass-rusher.
But if the goal is to rush the passer and sending extra players isn’t working (and it’s not. The Cowboys have terrible blitz results this season), then it’s time to change the goal. Rushing three players week after week isn’t a sustainable strategy but it can be extremely effective if used strategically.
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Keep it in the arsenal, Rod, because we’re going to need a little deception and calculated mismatches to survive defensively this final, and most important, stretch of the season.