The Dallas Cowboys raked the Atlanta Falcons over the coals Sunday afternoon in a game that was likely boring to watch for everyone except Cowboys fans. Everything clicked for Dallas this week, which was quite the welcome turnaround from the abysmal performance against the Broncos in Week 9.
You might even say the Cowboys just did to the Falcons’ offense what the Broncos did to the Cowboys’ last weekend: dominated them in a way that forced the opposing quarterback into one of the worst games of his career.
We can begin to dissect that through this week’s number to know: 117
That’s how many total passing yards Matt Ryan had on Sunday, his lowest yardage total in a single game of his 14-year NFL career. Well, technically his third-lowest. Ryan threw three passes for 15 yards before getting injured in a 2009 game against Tampa Bay, and he threw nine passes for 106 yards in 2011 before resting the second half of a blowout win (also against Tampa). Still, 117 is the fewest passing yards for Ryan in any game in which he played in both halves.
It didn’t begin so badly. Ryan’s first pass of the game was a 17-yard completion to Kyle Pitts. Two plays later, he found Pitts again for 18 yards. Then the wheels come off: Atlanta didn’t have a play longer than that the rest of the game, save for one screen pass that picked up 21 yards when the score was already 36-3.
No matter which area of the field the Falcons tried to attack, Dallas had it covered.
That’s one interception thrown to the left half of the field and one to the right half, plus a third (not pictured) by Ryan’s backup, Josh Rosen, over the middle of the field just to cover all the bases.
All told, Atlanta threw more incomplete passes than complete passes, and it wasn’t particularly close. In fact, Ryan’s 42.9 percent completion percentage was his lowest single-game rate since his rookie season (he once completed just 13 of 36 pass attempts against, go figure, the Tampa Bay Bucs). These weren’t all errant throws by Ryan, either. The Cowboys were credited with nine passes defended on the day, which is just the ninth time all season a team defended at least nine passes in one outing. (The player totals add to 10, but both Jourdan Lewis and Anthony Brown got credit for one each on Lewis’ interception.) Dallas hasn’t had more than that since they defended 11 in a 2009 matchup with the Seattle Seahawks.
Here are two consecutive plays that shut down the Falcons’ second drive of the game, when things had yet to get completely out of hand.
— Dan (@danmorse_) November 15, 2021
Those led to the failed 4th-and-7 conversion attempt and a touchdown drive on the ensuing Cowboys possession. We so often get caught up in interceptions, of which there were plenty yesterday, but a defense becomes consistent by simply limiting completions. Per NFL’s Next Gen stats, the Falcons’ two most-targeted receivers on the day, Pitts and Olamide Zaccheaus, averaged just 1.85 yards of separation from the nearest defender at the time the ball got to them. That’s the lowest mark of the week and 11th-lowest for any receiving corps so far this year in a single game. Absolutely smothered, all day.
If you remember last week’s piece—sorry to dredge up that game again—I brought up two advanced stats to back up why it was one of Dak Prescott’s worst ever games: Expected Points Added (EPA) and Completion Percentage Over Expectation (CPOE). There was a graph and everything!
Well, this week I did the same thing with Matt Ryan—and oh, boy, Dallas’ defense was even meaner to him than Denver’s was to Prescott.
To elaborate a bit: EPA is based on a mathematical model derived from historical NFL data to put a point value on any given play based on down, distance, field position, and time remaining. By this measure, Ryan played the worst game of his career on Sunday, which made that Dallas performance one of the best games of the year defending the pass. Only the Bills rolling Davis Mills and the Texans in Week 4 looked better by EPA/pass.
Let’s go back to that scatter plot of every Matt Ryan game ever. Not only did Dallas hold Ryan to a career-worst EPA/play, they also held him to a career-worst CPOE. We’ve already mentioned that he completed only 42.9 percent of his passes. Well, based on pass location and target depth, he was expected to complete closer to 66 percent. Sprinkle in six pass attempts from Rosen, and altogether, the Cowboys held the Falcons to a completion percentage nearly 28 percentage points below expectation. That’s the second-best mark for a defense all year (Bears quarterback Justin Fields’ first start against Cleveland was the worst).
While the secondary deserves much of the credit, I’d be remiss not to mention that a Dallas pass rush sans DeMarcus Lawrence and Randy Gregory still put some pressure on Ryan at a few key moments.
That begins with Dorance Armstrong.
— Dan (@danmorse_) November 15, 2021
Armstrong executed a stunt beautifully and ended up getting a hit on Matt Ryan, forcing him to throw under pressure and leading to—upon further review—an incomplete pass on third down. That held the Falcons to a field goal, their only points on the day. Then, with the game still within reach for Atlanta in the second quarter, Armstrong got to Ryan again—this time when the quarterback still held the ball.
Dorance Armstrong Jr. sells his rush to one side, gives the blocker a short stutter, then executes a well-timed counter club/swim to the inside as the blocker punches. Great job by @Dorance_ALegend! #passrush #cowboys pic.twitter.com/CFh6P9GUwN
— DLineVids (@dlinevids1) November 14, 2021
That move was so good, Falcons guard Jalen Mayfield ended up making more contact with his own center than he did Armstrong. The Kansas alum ended the day with three QB hits and a sack on defense. He should also get credit for hammering the final nail in the coffin with a big special teams play in the waning seconds of the first half.
Punt block touchdown for the @dallascowboys! 🤠
📺: #ATLvsDAL on FOX
📱: NFL app pic.twitter.com/2FfR7utaoj— NFL (@NFL) November 14, 2021
Any lingering doubt about whether the Cowboys might blow this lead ended right then and there.
After a week of absolutely nothing going right for Dallas, it was only fair that the Cowboys enjoyed a week when everything went right. The defense played a complete 60-minute game, limiting the Falcons to one of their worst performances in recent memory and Ryan to one of his worst ever. We’ll see if they can come anywhere close to doing the same against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs on Sunday in Kansas City.
