Blogging The Boys
On a high-pressure, high-attendance, Thanksgiving afternoon the Dallas Cowboys somehow found a way to get another win, this time against the Kansas City Chiefs. The game remained close which meant every player needed to hold their nerve, including the rookie class. So how did the Cowboys rookie class fair in this game? Let’s jump in and find out.
(Game stats- Snaps: 72, Pass Blocks: 46, Pressures: 1, Sacks: 0, Penalties: 0)
Against Kansas City, Booker’s night was all about dealing with interior movement. He kept the sack column empty, with only a single pressure being allowed all game. Booker had a big ask this week since he had to deal with long-developing downs against Steve Spagnuolo’s scheme that created free runners or forced the protection to slide late. Booker stayed square on the Chiefs’ interior and passed off stunts cleanly, helping Dak work the middle of the field.
In the run game, Booker was very solid. Booker used his strength to generate displacement on doubles with good efficiency to create clean lanes. The key things for Booker is he didn’t rack up drive-killing penalties, he wasn’t the guy responsible for any obvious free rushers, and he did enough in the run game to keep Dallas on schedule.
(Game stats- Snaps: 40, Total Tackles: 2, Pressures: 5, Sacks: 0, TFL: 0)
Ezeiruaku’s day against the Chiefs was as a solid role player. He finished with two tackles and five pressures with no penalties, playing a normal rotational workload on the edge. His pressures in the backfield helped contribute to Dallas’ 28 total pressures on Patrick Mahomes, even if the splash numbers didn’t pop.
In terms of key moments, he showed up a few times on tape without necessarily ending the play himself. There’s a second-quarter sequence where he and Jadeveon Clowney collapse the right side and celebrate after forcing the Chiefs into a tougher down-and-distance, a good example of him compressing the pocket and setting the edge properly. He did his job on Thanksgiving, held up on the edge, avoided any penalties or obvious busts, and contributed with pressure to a pass rush that still found ways to bother Mahomes. For a rookie in a high-leverage Thanksgiving game that Dallas won, that’s perfectly acceptable, even PFF rank him as the second-highest graded player on the Dallas defense against Kansas City.
(Game stats- Snaps: 63, Total Tackles: 6, PBU: 0, INT: 0, RTG Allowed: 75.8)
Revel’s day against the Chiefs was a big workload, with some solid coverage numbers, but real issues in run support and discipline. He was forced into a starting role with Caelen Carson out and ended up playing 63 of 69 defensive snaps, so basically a full game on the outside for a guy barely a year removed from ACL surgery.
On the stat sheet, Revel finished with six total tackles and no pass breakups, but he didn’t allow any touchdowns and only 15 receiving...
