Review: Cowboys Defense vs Eagles

• Their top focus was run defense.
  • They went all-in to stop the run and dared the QB to beat them.
  • Often that meant the DLinemen were playing "run defense first".
  • They often didn’t really try to pass rush on many run downs.
  • The DEs would play contain on many snaps (RB and QB run contain).
  • They rarely stunted which is a stark contrast to early in the season.
  • Early this season they were leading the league in stunts by a significant margin.

• They played a high percentage of zone coverage.
  • The most zone of any game I’ve reviewed with Dan Quinn as the Cowboys DC.
  • I think run defense was a big reason for playing zone.
  • They did mix it up using man coverage from the same of similar initial looks.
  • They played both 2-deep and single-high.
  • They played more off coverage but did play a fair amount of press.
  • They even played press but then dropped into zone coverage on occasion.

• Cornerbacks
  • Against 2 WR formations, Bland played outside CB.
  • Against 3 WR sets they alternated between Alexander and Bland as the 3rd CB.
  • When Alexander played it was as the Nickel (inside) CB with Bland outside.
  • When Wright played it was at outside CB with Bland as the Nickel CB.
  • Wright played 54% of snaps and Alexander played 20%.
  • It did count but it seemed that they played man more when Alexander was on the field.
  • It would make sense because it is easier for new CB to get up to speed on man than zone.
  • It is much more difficult to evaluate CBs in zone than in man.
  • Regardless of man or zone, they played conservatively.
  • Stay over (deeper) than the WR and then come up to play the WR once the ball was in the air.
• Nahshon Wright
  • He led the defense in passes defensed, solo tackles and total tackles.
  • In addition to the PDs, he had really good coverage on a couple of plays in the Endzone.
  • It appeared the QB wanted to go to his man on those plays but he had the WR blanketed.
  • He did struggle on a whip route by DeVonta Smith (also called a pivot or retrace route).
  • Smith runs an in route for a few yards then pivots 180 degrees to run towards the sideline.
  • Wright did recover to make the tackle for no YAC.
  • Maybe that’s a limitation of Wright’s physical ability but I think DeVonta Smith can likely run that route on Diggs in that coverage where there was no help in the area.
• McKenzie Alexander
  • Only 20% of snaps. Nothing great, nothing terrible.
  • Played it safe. Give the WR some cushion then come up to contest after the ball is in the air.
• DeRon Bland
  • Played outside and inside. Had his 5th INT for the season while only having played 50% of the total defensive snaps for the season (i.e. 5 INTs projects to 10 if he played as many snaps as Diggs).
  • On the outside, since they were often in zone, he was not challenged on deep routes like Brown and Joseph were earlier in the season which limits the evaluation of his outside CBs skills.
• Travon Diggs
  • On the wide open WR TD play, if he had stayed with the WR then the TE Goedert would have been wide open.
  • There was more wrong on that play than just Diggs.
  • Nobody moved to the other side when Goedert moved across the backfield from the (offensive) right to left.
  • Hooker had moved but that was before Goedert moved.
  • Bland, Wilson and Clark all stayed on the (offensive) right despite only 1 TE and no WR on that side.
  • Bland did try to get over when he saw the open WR but that was far too late.
  • Diggs did get beat early in the game on a deep pass with a double-move by the WR.
  • In some ways it was worse than what Joseph did in the game when he got benched.
  • Worse because on the Joseph play they started in 2-deep but the Diggs play only had 1 deep Safety.

@817Gill