DQ Report, Wk 11 - Micah Parsons is Ridiculous
Cowboys swarmed Bryce Young, but allowed too many successful run plays
With another game tomorrow, I wanted to put this Panthers game to bed with our weekly look at the defense.
There were so many incredible notes from the Cowboys press department about the defensive performance that I thought I would just offer them straight to you:
Dallas finished its day with seven sacks, tying a season-high that they set in the season-opener at the N.Y. Giants (9/10). The Cowboys seven sacks tied for the most since Dan Quinn arrived as the defensive play caller in 2021 (at NYG, 9/10/23; at Min, 11/20/22).
Dallas has allowed 359 combined total net yards in its last two games (172 vs. NYG and 187 at Carolina). The last time the Cowboys allowed less yards in a two-game span was when they allowed 355 total net yards in the last two games of 2017 (at Phi, 12/31 - vs. Sea, 1/6/18).
After limiting Carolina to 77 net passing yards, the Cowboys have held their last two opponents to 138 combined pass- ing yards. The last time Dallas allowed less passing yards in a two-game span was in 1992, when they allowed 130 net passing yards to Philadelphia (106; 10/5/92) and Seattle (24; 10/11/92).
359 yards over two games? Remember when I told you the benchmark for a very good offensive day is 360? The Cowboys allowed less than that in TWO games.
This defense is very good and it is really rolling now.
So much so that there was not really any point in using red ink.
Sacks, stops, limited yards, limited first downs, poor third down success. It was very close to perfect, right?
Well…..
First, let’s look at the drive chart:
For a game in which the other team had nothing going offensively, how in the heck did Carolina put THREE 10-play possessions together in the first three quarters? Now, we know the 17-play drive in the 3rd Quarter is partly due to a silly running-into-the-punter foul and we wish Sam Williams would be more careful there. But, still, Carolina converted three different 4th down conversions on that drive.
Well, the principle reason that the Panthers were causing our comments section from Monday’s Piece to find some aspects of the game that were not enjoyable. Here is an example from one of our loyal readers:
Yes, it is fair to be pleased with some aspects of the Cowboys mauling of Carolina on Sunday but still wonder how good this team is at stopping the run. We have talked about this for a long time when looking at Dan Quinn’s defense. He loves to go with speed and pass rushing and is willing to allow some run weakness to get it. He loves to play dime coverage the majority of the time, but are you stout enough to stop the run if you get too small?