For the last two decades, maybe with a couple of exceptions in ‘06 and ‘09, the best part of any Cowboys team was the offense. And there’s no question that was by design. Three games into this long season, there’s no question the script has flipped. The defense is now easily the best side of the ball.
I will temper our thrills a little with the reminder that we’re just a tad over 1/6th of the way through the season. But still, the early returns on the D are impressive.
Let’s look at the proof in the stats through 3 games:
- Points allowed- Ranked 4th, allowing 17.3 pts per game. Pretty salty. You win a ton of games with that stat. Especially playoff games if you can sustain it.
- Total Yds/game- Ranked 9th allowing 312 yards per game.
- Total Sacks- Ranked #1 with 13 sacks. Parsons has 4 and budding stud Dorance Armstrong has 3)
- Passing Yds Allowed- Ranked 4th with 176 ypg. I’m sure that has a lot to do with pressure.
- Rushing Yds Allowed- Ranked 23rd with 136 yds per game. The one area that still needs major improvement. Still allowing about 5 yds per rush.
- Total TOs- Ranked #16 with just 1 int so far. Still very early.
Again, it’s early. Some of these numbers will change, but the thing that jumps out are the sacks. If this defense can sustain the pressure, we will be in a lot of games even when the offense can’t perform at a high level. Which may be quite often.
Do we have a “New Doomsday Defense”? Signs are pointing that direction.
