The Zimmer Report - Battering the Browns
Dallas demonstrated there is life after DQ; Zimmer unleashes his unique attack
Wednesdays – since about 2012 or so – have been the day for us to evaluate the defe in this space. We call it the “Zimmer Report” because we have nothing more clever. Here we want to isolate the defense and try to look at the game purely from their perspective. What did they try to do against the threats from the opponent and how successful were they in carrying that out? We will also check in the tactical and strategic plot-lines of the game and get a feel for how well it worked out for that side of the ball. For those of you new here speak up if you don’t understand a concept and we will explain.
Here we go. Our objectives today will be:
Evaluate the defensive efforts in Cleveland against the Browns and:
The true greatness of Micah Parsons.
What is Mike Zimmer’s defense?
Checking in on DeMarvion Overshown and Mazi Smith.
Look at some All-22 film and break down the sacks and takeaways.
Evaluate the defensive efforts in Cleveland
It is hard to imagine there will be many times this season when they walk away feeling better about a defensive performance than this one. Dallas absolutely hammered an offense in such a rude way that Cleveland won’t soon recover.
The Cowboys' defense needed to show they had put 2023 behind them. In that season, they did plenty of great things on defense, but they also had an absurd inability to stop the run and to stand up to physical football. Then, they broke their fanbase’s resolve by allowing Green Bay to score six touchdowns in their first seven drives and humiliate them in egregious fashion. They were a defense that had great results that felt rather meaningless against the heavyweights in this league.
So, Dan Quinn moves to Washington to try the Head Coach path again, and the Cowboys pick up the phone to let Mike Zimmer know that he always has a home in Dallas. Zimmer has two things that Jerry and Stephen covet in a successor: familiarity with life on the Cowboys' payroll (and all that implies) and a tremendous dossier as a defensive mind in this league. His last stop in Minnesota exhibited some of the strongest groups in the NFL. From 2016-2019, the Vikings' defense taught a clinic on defense, including a group that punished QBs, stopped attacks, and dominated 3rd downs with his plots.
Here are the cumulative top 10 league rankings in 3rd down defense over those four full years from Stathead:
In other words, his teams weren’t just good at 3rd down defense—they were the best in the league, even when those Vikings teams were not. He coaches defense at an extremely high level and has actually improved with age. Could he take a talented group and quickly mold them into a squad that terrifies opponents?
Week 1 is a very good sign. Cleveland was off-base on offense all day, and it was clear that very early in the game they were on their heels. Just look at the data from the battering of Cleveland: