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Football

The Cowboys Number to Know: 12 (Week 5 at Los Angeles)

Or: why the defensive tackles deserve a little more love
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Osa Odighizuwa leads a defensive tackle group that played a pivotal role in Sunday's upset win. Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports.

The Cowboys have the best pass rush in the NFL.

Some could debate that statement, but it would be a minor quibble. Dallas is undeniably good across the defensive line, and the stats back it up. That was evident again on Sunday in a 22-10 victory over the defending Super Bowl champion Rams. The Cowboys sacked Matthew Stafford five times in 47 dropbacks, producing more sacks than all but two defenses in Week 5. (Denver and San Francisco each had six.) But that’s just the big picture when it comes to the Cowboys’ elite pass rush. Today, it’s time to dig a little deeper into the defensive line, and the unsung unit in the middle. The number to know from the Cowboys’ Week 5 matchup with the Rams is 12.

That’s how many pressures the Cowboys’ defensive tackles recorded on Sunday. Not the entire line, mind you—this does not include Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence. Just the interior line, which tallied up more pressures than any other defensive interior in Week 5. (The next most was nine from the New York Jets.)

The Cowboys’ defense as a whole has gotten plenty of attention thus far. For good reason, too: here are a few basic stats for the defense through Week 5, and its rank among the 32 NFL teams:

  • 5.2 yds/att (second)
  • Seven takeaways (13th)
  • Four passing TDs allowed (fourth)
  • 26.9 percent first-down rate when passing (first)
  • 72 points allowed (third)

So it’s not surprising to see plenty of ink spilled on Trevon Diggs and his impressive all-around game or the mighty pass rush as a whole. But not a lot gets devoted to the defensive tackles. There is no obvious star—no first-round pick or big-money earner. 

Yet on Sunday, that unsung group put more pressure on Stafford than they or almost any other defensive interior has applied to an opposing quarterback in a game all season.

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Note: the chart above is the total pressures from each player along the defensive line, which is higher than the number of times the opposing quarterback was pressured. (More than one player can score a pressure on a pass play.)

The leader of the pack was Osa Odighizuwa, who recorded seven pressures of those pressures on his own. The second-year tackle has been the most consistent disruptor inside in the passing game for the Cowboys, and the effect is significant. Don’t believe me? Here’s the breakdown of how opposing passing attacks fare against Dallas with and without Odighizuwa on the field:

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Dallas allows more than half a yard per attempt less when Odighizuwa is on the field. He does all this thanks to an impressive pass-rushing ability that ranks seventh among defensive tackles in ESPN’s Pass Rush Win Rate (PRWR).

But this group’s success is bigger than the UCLA product. Three recent draft picks capably play roles, too. When it’s time to stop the run, the Cowboys look to Neville Gallimore, Trysten Hill, and 360-pound Quinton Bohanna, a sixth-round draft pick in 2021. 

Hill, a 2019 second-round selection, has been fair against the run but is an above-average tackler (his 71.4 PFF tackling grade is a smidge higher than that of Lawrence and Parsons). Bohanna still has a bit to learn, but he already has shown improvement in Year 2, nearly matching his total tackles from his rookie season in only four games. (He was inactive against the Rams with a shoulder injury.) Gallimore, a third-year player, is on pace to set career-highs in tackles for loss, solo tackles, and sacks. None of them are putting up otherworldly numbers, but the Cowboys don’t really need that with Odighizuwa wreaking havoc alongside Lawrence, Parsons, and Dorance Armstrong, who was the Cowboys’ player of the game after his first-quarter strip sack and punt block accounted for two of the game’s three biggest plays in Expected Points Added (EPA), according to nflfastR.

And the great news for the Cowboys is that the defensive tackle trio is learning while playing key roles on one of the most disruptive fronts in football. Going into the game against the Rams, the Cowboys boasted the top-ranked pass-rushing unit by both ESPN’s Pass Rush Win Rate (56 percent) and by PFF’s team pass rush grade (86.0). The only units that have graded out better in the last three seasons had a Bosa, a Watt, or a Donald on the roster. 

So while the stars on the edge deserve all the praise they’re getting, don’t forget to throw some love to the guys in the middle, who quietly boast the eighth-best pass-rushing grade among defensive interior players in the NFL. They deserve it after those 12 pressures.

Author

Dan Morse

Dan Morse

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Dan covers the Cowboys for StrongSide. He is a Pacific Northwest native & self-described nerd who has been covering the…

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