Will Washington finally be able to “get right” against a spiraling Dallas team?
It’s week 12 of the NFL season and the 7-4 Washington Commanders will be facing a 3-7 Cowboys team at Northwest Stadium in Landover, MD this Sunday at 1:00 pm ET. The Cowboys started the season with a blowout win against the Browns, but have only gone on to win against the Giants and the Steelers since then, while losing to the Saints, Ravens, Lions, 49ers, Falcons, Eagles, and Texans. The Cowboys haven’t won a game since week 5 and, worse than that, have had an injury-plagued season, with numerous important players sustaining multi-game or season-ending injuries.
On offense, the Cowboys promoted Brian Schottenheimer (son of Marty Schottenheimer) from consultant to OC in the offseason, though offensive-minded HC Mike McCarthy calls the plays on offense. Dubbed a “Texas Coast” offense, the Cowboys attack is essentially a standard West Coast offense with a few more vertical routes and QB runs built into the playbook. Like most West Coast offenses though, it is built upon short, timing-based passes to spread the defense horizontally, get the ball out quickly, and primarily uses the 11 personnel package (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WRs).
However, this year the Cowboys have been crippled by lack of an effective running attack, as Dallas ranks 31st in the NFL in rushing yards per game. As a result, the Cowboys have been forced to air it out, with a 67% pass rate (highest in the NFL). The lack of a credible rushing attack has also reduced the effectiveness of the passing attack, as defenses can focus on dropping back in coverage while Dallas abandons attempting play action.
Obviously, this heavy reliance on passing means Dallas has had an especially difficult time since QB Dak Prescott’s season-ending hamstring injury in week 9 vs the Falcons, forcing backup QB Cooper Rush to take his place for the remainder of the season. The last two games, which Cooper Rush has started, have been blowout losses for the Cowboys (34-6 against the Eagles and 34-10 against the Texans).
On defense, the Cowboys are in their first year with Mike Zimmer at DC. Zimmer runs a fairly conventional 4-3 defense and frequently likes to disguise coverage, alternating between press-man with 2 deep safeties and a quarters zone coverage. Zimmer is known for his heavy use of double A-gap blitzes that stress the interior of the OL with two blitzing rushers up the middle. Overall though, the Cowboys defense has been relatively ineffective as a unit, with the 2nd most yards surrendered per pass attempt, and they are tied for the 8th most yards surrendered per rush attempt by opposing teams. Undoubtedly, this has been influenced by a significant number of injuries across the defense, including star players DeMarcus Lawrence (on IR) and Micah Parsons.
I asked David Halprin of Blogging the Boys five questions to better understand the state of the Cowboys and what to look for in this game.
1) Make the Cowboys offseason make sense. From waiting to extend Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, to letting good Cowboys players leave in free agency without signing new ones of note, to leaving Mike McCarthy as a lame duck head coach without firing him or extending him, it seems Jerry Jones made a lot of missteps that were criticized even at the time. Was there a logic to it that just didn’t pan out, or were these just bad choices by an out of touch owner/GM?
There is no sense to it. All of those things you listed above were things we were already discussing even as the offseason was rolling along. Once the season got here, the issues started to play out, then the injuries hit. It created one big mess. There are some discussions/conspiracy theories running around that the Cowboys were going to go for a hard reset in 2025 and that Jerry Jones wouldn’t say they were rebuilding because it would hurt revenues. The counter to that is why didn’t he just reset for 2024 and fire Mike McCarthy after the playoff loss. Who knows, maybe the front-office actually thought the roster would be good enough to compete and were surprised by how the season went. Anything is possible at this point.
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2) Washington signed several ex-Cowboys as free agents: Dorance Armstrong Jr, Dante Fowler Jr, Tyler Biadasz, and (reaching back 2 years) Noah Brown. What did you think of those players when they were on the Cowboys and has anything stood out to you about their time on the Commanders?
Dorance Armstrong was a good player when he was in Dallas, he was solid whenever given reps. The problem was he was stuck behind Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence, and Sam Williams is a very promising edge player who is hurt this year. So I can see why they didn’t prioritize a big contract for him. Fowler was a pass-rush specialist who provided good depth. Biadasz was a starting-caliber center, but the Cowboys replaced him with rookie Cooper Beebe who is showing a lot of promise. I can understand the logic of passing on a second contract if you replenish the spot like they did with Beebe. Still, Biadasz was solid. Noah Brown was never used as much more than a run-blocking specialist at receiver along with special teams. Losing Armstrong and Fowler hurt the most since we were devastated by injuries at defensive end to Parsons, Lawrence, Williams, and Marshawn Kneeland.
3) What do you think of Dan Quinn and Joe Whitt as coaches? Have your thoughts about them evolved since they left Dallas?
The defense they ran in Dallas was an aggressive one built on speed and stunts. The upside of that was the Cowboys were always near the top of turnovers and splash plays on defense, often either scoring themselves or setting up the offense with short fields. It was an exciting defense to watch. The downside was they couldn’t stop the run and they struggled with dual-threat quarterbacks. The smaller linebackers, even safeties playing linebacker at times, was a problem against good running teams. All those stunts up front were troublesome when it came to gap integrity, further hurting run defense and containing running quarterbacks.
Overall it was a success and was fun to watch, but there were downsides. I really don’t have an opinion on how they have evolved because I haven’t broken down the Commanders enough to make educated statements on that.
4) Who is one Cowboys player on offense and one player on defense that Washington fans probably don’t know much about, but should?
On defense, linebacker DeMarvion Overshown is showing real promise after missing his rookie year with injury. He is so quick with great closing speed and the ability to deliver a hit. He shows up a few times a game with splash plays on defense. He needs to work on his coverage skills which are lacking, but his blitz skills and ability to run down running backs are making fans excited.
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On offense, I’ll be honest, there is just nothing going on there. Maybe wide receiver KaVontae Turpin who is someone who can hit a homerun from anywhere on the field. He is also a threat as a kick and punt returner. He’s probably more dangerous on special teams but he can be a spark. Outside of CeeDee Lamb on offense, the Cowboys are devoid of real weapons.
5) How should Washington go about gameplanning this matchup on both sides of the ball?
It’s pretty easy. Run the ball because everyone does against the Cowboys defense. In coverage just make sure you have CeeDee Lamb contained, because the rest of the offense is pedestrian. You can get a decent pass rush without blitzing too much. Most of all, don’t turn the ball over and give the offense a chance, If you make the Cowboys work for it, they won’t beat you.
A companion article to this with my answers to David’s questions can be found here.
Thanks again to David Halprin for taking time out of his day to answer our questions about the Cowboys.