The Dallas Cowboys defense continued its growth this week versus the Houston Texans. There’s still a ways to go. Let’s take a look at how they performed this week.
Team stats allowed
Against the Texans, the Cowboys defense allowed three touchdowns and three field goals. Two of the field goals were on drives starting at the Dallas 48 and the Dallas 45 in the first half.
Dallas struggled against C.J. Stroud and Nico Collins throughout the game. The Texans quarterback threw for 347 yards and finished with a rating of 126.7.
Coming back from an injury, Collins recorded 118 receiving yards on seven catches, scoring twice.
The Texans run game never got going in this matchup. Dallas let up just 62 yards on 19 carries, marking their best performance of the season against opposing running backs.
Individual stat leaders
Malik Hooker and Caleb Downs tied for the lead in tackles, accounting for seven apiece. Each would finish with five solo.
The Cowboys pass rush woke up late with Rashan Gary and Quinnen Williams sacking the quarterback once apiece.
Malik Hooker led the team with two pass breakups in his first game back from injury.
Advanced analytics
The EPA allowed per play split ranks the Cowboys 10th in run defense in week four, but an abysmal 29th in pass defense (SumerSports).
The poor EPA allowed in the pass game is directly tied to explosive plays. The Texans carried a 16% explosive play rate – eight explosives on 50 qualifying snaps. Nico Collins, Jaylin Noel, Xavier Hutchinson, Kayshon Boutte, Cade Stover, and Dalton Schultz all had plays of 20 yards or greater. The hope for Dallas is that newly acquired Joey Porter Jr. will help shut down the secondary’s leakage.
How’d the rookies look?
Caleb Downs finished the game tied for the team lead in tackles. He wasn’t a hugely impactful player on the day though. Depending on the called coverage, it looks like he gave up his first receiving touchdown of the year. Still, he made big time solo tackles in open space and continues to provide the defense with juice.
Jaishawn Barham didn’t pop off on the stats sheet this week. He would finish the game with just one solo tackle. To his credit, not much was getting past the defensive front in the run game. He did flash a handful of times on blitzes, forcing the running back into the waiting arms of other defenders.
Malachi Lawrence has been disappointing disappointing. Maybe hopes were set too high, but it felt like the rookie might have a chance for his first sack against the porous Texans offensive line. He finished with just one solo tackle and zero sacks on the day. He is still carrying an incredible pass rush win rate. He’s just having a tough time converting that into sacks, as is typically the case with young edge players.
LT Overton was hardly used but did flash with two quick wins into the Texans backfield. They didn’t amount to much on the play, but those reps provided a tiny glimpse into his potential.
Final grade: C
The defense wasn’t a total disappointment this week. That’s a positive, right? Sure, they let up 30 points, including what could have been a game-winning touchdown. But they also kept Dallas in the game through the first half and allowed just 14 points in the second. How many games last season would have been 27-6 at the half? This is what progress looks like!
I really wanted to give this defense a B- for their efforts against the Texans run game. It was by far their best effort of the season in that regard. Yes, the Texans have been pitiful while attempting to run the ball this season. But at the end of the day, you can only play who the schedule says to play. This unit did their job and made the Texans mostly one-dimensional throughout the day. The problem was that the Texans single dimension proved to be quite difficult for Dallas to slow down.
The lack of a pass rush continues to baffle. While the defense finished with their best pass rushing day of the season, recording two sacks and five quarterback hits, it was not enough. The Texans offensive line has been extremely bad when protecting C.J. Stroud this year. This game could have very well been a coming out party for the Cowboys defensive front. Instead, it was just okay against a favorable matchup.
The Cowboys secondary struggled on the day as well. DaRon Bland was in a close position for most of the day but had a difficult time finishing the play. Multiple big catches were made on the veteran cornerback, just out of his reach. Malik Hooker showed up at times, recording two pass breakups. Shavon Revel was on a limited snap count, as was Joey Porter Jr. What we did see of Porter Jr. should have Cowboys fans excited, however, allowing zero receptions on 19 snaps in coverage, being targeted just once.
There are plenty of reasons to be both optimistic and pessimistic about the Cowboys defense moving forward. We know the defense will continue to grow throughout the season. The question is when will it all come together, if ever? Can they actually generate a consistent pass rush at some point this year? How much will Joey Porter Jr. change the dynamics of this Cowboys secondary?
For this week though, Christian Parker’s defense grades out at a solid C. The run defense was good, but the pass rush and secondary held them back. Their biggest positive was giving the offense time to get acclimated in Houston – something we didn’t see in many games last year.
Next up, they’ve got a short week versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This is another opportunity against a struggling opponent, including the backup rookie quarterback in Jalon Daniels. We’ll see if the Cowboys defense can ignite a spark this Thursday at AT&T Stadium.
