Being a defensive coordinator in the NFL is a stressful job. You have to put in countless hours figuring out how to shut down ridiculous athletes like Julio Jones, star quarterbacks like Tom Brady and crafty play callers like Sean Payton.
In an offence-driven league, there are many landmines to gameplan for on the defensive side of the ball and plenty of teams liable to give you grey hairs. Surprisingly, the club giving opposing coordinators nightmares right now more than any other is a group missing one of the best receivers in football and led by a fourth-round rookie at quarterback.
The Dallas Cowboys are not the highest-scoring offence in football, nor have they racked up the most yards, but there is no more unstoppable team in the league. In this case, “unstoppable” is not hyperbole. You literally cannot get a stop against the Cowboys and get them off the field.
Through six games, Dallas ranks first in time of possession and second in third-down efficiency. The average Cowboys’ drive includes 7.23 plays, way above the NFL average of 5.92 and almost half a play more than the next best team. They have gone three-and-out only seven times. Put simply, the Cowboys move the chains.
So, how does Dallas sustain drives so much better than anyone else? Well, that’s where the first part of their highly touted rookie duo comes in. Ezekiel Elliott has been everything the Cowboys could have possibly wanted when they took him fourth overall in April. Elliott currently leads the NFL in rushing, and has put up at least 130 yards on the ground in four straight weeks.
Beyond being generally productive, what Elliott has done so well is move the ball on first down. In 89 first-down carries, the Ohio State product has run for 511 yards, good for an average of 5.7 yards. That’s incredibly impressive given that defences are keying on Elliott on early downs and looking to force Dak Prescott into third-and-long situations.
While these results are a reflection of the 21-year-old back’s skills, it’s important to note that he’s had the opportunity to run through some holes you could drive a combine harvester through. Three of the Cowboys’ starting offensive lineman have made the Pro Bowl the last two years and no group moves people better than they do. Many of Elliott’s biggest runs come as a result of the gaping chasms they open.
On his longest first-down run of the season, the entire Cincinnati Bengals front seven was erased by his line:
The off-tackle space he got on this 23-yard run is the stuff of a running back’s dreams:
On this 17-yard burst, there isn’t even a San Francisco 49er in the picture with any chance of tackling him when he crosses the line of scrimmage:
All three of those plays came on first down, when the opposing defence was primed to stop the run but couldn’t because they were washed away by the tidal wave that is the Cowboys’ line. This group, which is unsurprisingly Football Outsider’s top-ranked run-blocking line, gives Elliott more than enough room to operate, and as a result, he is constantly keeping the team in manageable down-and-distance situations.
With Elliott biting off chunks of yards on early downs, Prescott has made more third-down throws with one-to-seven yards to go (28) than eight or more (24), which is significant because he’s been much more successful with the former.
Yards to Go | Completions | Attempts | Yards | Completion% | Yards/Attempt | TD | INT | Passer Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1-7 | 20 | 28 | 250 | 71.4% | 8.9 | 1 | 0 | 110.7 |
8+ | 18 | 24 | 183 | 75.0% | 7.6 | 0 | 1 | 78.9 |
The idea of running the ball down your opponent’s throat on early downs and creating easier passes for your quarterback on third down is not novel. It’s classic coach-speak, and when put into practice it is often too conservative and predictable to be effective.
For the Cowboys, however, it’s a game plan that works because their offensive line is incredibly talented, and they have a back to match. Being predictable isn’t an issue when you’re simply better than your competition, and there isn’t a defensive line in football that can play with the men blocking for Elliott.
That said, it’s not as if the formula is perfect. Prescott has struggled when blitzed, completing only 51 percent of passes with an extra rusher on the way and he’s only hit on one throw that went 20 over more yards in the air in his 182 passes. Defences will bring more pressure in the weeks to come, and if the rookie can’t find a way to burn them deep the windows for his short and intermediate passes will tighten up considerably.
At the end of the day that’s nitpicking, though. As long as this team dominates the line of scrimmage, they will put points on the board consistently with long, spirit-breaking drives. That’s what an elite offensive line will do for you.
You can take away a deep threat with a Cover 2, a running quarterback with a spy or a tight end with bracket coverage, but you can’t gameplan away 1,500-plus pounds of human battering ram.