Hogs Haven
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.
---...
