Dallas Cowboys: 3 important takeaways from week one

Move Anthony Brown back to the slot

Anthony Brown had no shot covering Antonio Brown. Not many defensive backs have that ability, but let’s call it for what it is. He allowed eight passes on nine targets yesterday and just couldn’t use his athletic ability to mirror Tampa Bay’s loaded wide receiver corps.

However, every year we seem to do this with Anthony Brown. We play him outside because he has solid length and strength for press-heavy schemes only for him to keep losing on the outside. Then this forces someone else to play on the outside while he moves to the slot and the results are noticeably better. Four different defensive play-callers in the last four years and the cycle just never stops.

The defense would’ve likely faired better had Brown shadowed Godwin instead of Lewis. Brown is bigger, which would’ve matched Godwin’s body type better. In addition, Brown is more athletic compared to Godwin potentially providing an advantage assuming the Cowboys played things right.

Lewis on Brown would’ve been a disaster but this is the give and take you have to deal with in defensive game planning.

At some point, I do expect both Lewis and Brown to be sitting on the bench, but until that happens, the team should be using Brown in the slot with Canady or Wright on the outside. Next week the team plays the Los Angeles Chargers, which presents another unfavorable matchup for the secondary. But the team would look better if they used Brown in the slot.

DeMarcus Lawrence and Randy Gregory are still very good

Tampa Bay has an incredible offensive line, but more specifically, incredible offensive tackles. It’s hard to overrate Tristan Wirfs after an incredible rookie season and Donovan Smith has been the best version of himself in the last 10 months of his playing career. Even with such a daunting task ahead of them, DeMarcus Lawrence and Randy Gregory were consistently disruptive.

DeMarcus Lawrence had 5 pressures on 25 pass-rush snaps with a forced fumble that turned into 6 points. Randy Gregory had 3 pressures on 23 pass-rush snaps with a fumble recovery. With the defense choosing to run a majority of snaps from Nickel without blitzing on Thursday night, it was imperative the team’s defensive line reached the quarterback. It’s a lot of pressure to put on both players, but their motor was never-ending.

Even in run support, Lawrence was maintaining leverage against the incredibly strong Wirfs providing once again just how valuable and versatile he is as a defender.

The Cowboys were a lot more conservative with their blitzing compared to the preseason even when blitzing positively affected them on Thursday. It’s very possible that Quinn and company knew if they blitzed regularly Brady would adjust and exploit them, hence their reservation about blitzing. If such is the case, it highlights how effective Lawrence and Gregory were by the end of the night.

As the season progresses the team should face much worse offensive lines; this should result in both Lawrence and Gregory finishing sacks and forcing more fumbles solidifying themselves as an elite pass-rushing duo. But until that happens we can only call them very good. (Personally, that’s okay with me.)

With that, I finish writing my brief takeaways from the first game. There were some other points I had considered writing about, but I do believe game-planning against the Buccaneers is incredibly unique compared to most of the NFL so I didn’t want to rush to conclusions about the current operations of the team. The Cowboys now have ten days to get things right against the Los Angeles Chargers. Let’s hope they do!