Blogging The Boys
These first two weeks of the new season have been a mixed bag for the Cowboys, but one constant has been their offense. Dallas ranks in the top 10 in nearly every offensive metric, and they’re clicking in both the pass game and run game. They’ll face a tough test, though, in Week 3 when they go on the road to face the Bears.
Chicago hit the jackpot this offseason when they landed Ben Johnson, the highly- coveted offensive coordinator of the Lions, to be their head coach. But Johnson needed an ace defensive mind to manage that side of the ball, too, and he found a great one in Dennis Allen.
One of the best defensive minds in the game, Allen spent the past three seasons as the Saints head coach. He succeeded Sean Payton, under whom he was the defensive coordinator for seven seasons, during which time he crossed paths with Lions head coach Dan Campbell, hence the connection for Johnson.
Allen was the head coach of the Raiders before going to New Orleans, though it’s clear – with a 26-53 record between both franchises – that he’s a better fit as a coordinator. Allen called defensive plays as a head coach in New Orleans, too, and the Saints ranked eighth in EPA/play allowed and fifth in success rate allowed over his entire time running the defense there.
To put it simply, Allen’s defenses have been elite for a long time.
So far, he’s not having that kind of success in Chicago; the Bears are 29th in both EPA/play allowed and success rate allowed. Of course, that’s just two games, both against division rivals that are known for explosive offenses. The Bears also played both games without slot corner Kyler Gordon, and top outside corner Jaylon Johnson missed the first week and left early with an injury in Week 2. Linebacker T.J. Edwards also left that game with an injury. All three will miss this game.
On top of it all, Allen’s scheme is known to be fairly complex, so it’s not entirely surprising that players haven’t completely picked it up yet.
There are three traits that have been almost universal for Allen’s defense over the years. 1) He uses a ton of four-man fronts, second-most since 2016 to be exact; 2) He uses a lot of man coverage with matching principles; and 3) Allen makes heavy use of split safety looks before the snap.
That all has to do with pre-snap looks, really. A Dennis Allen defense pretty much looks the same every single week and every single play… until the ball is snapped. He’ll utilize a bunch of slides and twists and stunts on the defensive line, as well as blitzing in opportune moments, to throw extra stuff at the offensive line despite having just four men on the line of scrimmage.
His secondary also rotates their safeties a lot. Allen will show two high safeties nearly every play, but it’s hardly uncommon for one (or...
