It’s hard to find words to describe what happened to the Dallas Cowboys yesterday. 40 seconds into the fourth quarter, Dallas scored a touchdown to take a 24-10 lead. It hadn’t been pretty, but it looked like the Cowboys were going to finally slay the dragon that is the Arizona Cardinals.
Since 2000, the Cowboys were 69-0 when leading by 14 or more points in the fourth quarter. As has become a theme with this year’s Cowboys team, they continue to make history in the worst way possible. After that
Dak Prescott touchdown, Dallas got outscored 23-6, eventually losing the game 33-30 in overtime.
It’s hard to find any positives from such a demoralizing loss, but there were a few players who put together encouraging individual performances. One who stood above the rest was defensive tackle Quinnen Williams. The 28-year-old played like the dominant interior presence Dallas expects him to be, earning him this week’s game ball award.
Williams took advantage of Arizona’s interior offensive line struggles and kept constant pressure on the Cardinals’ pass and run game. Williams led all defenders in the contest with seven total pressures, five QB hurries, and two sacks. His 20% pass-rush win percentage was also the highest among defenders who played 15 or more pass-rush snaps.
Williams didn’t just rush the passer well; he was also arguably Dallas’ best defender against the run. The big defensive tackle totaled three defensive stops, the most of any Cowboys defender, to go with a 23.1% stop percentage. It took a few weeks, but Dallas’ star defensive tackle is starting to look very comfortable in this new defense.
Overall, this was far and away Williams best individual performance of the season to date. While Dallas’ defense as a whole did completely meltdown in the second half, Williams putting together this kind of dominant performance is one bright spot the Cowboys can lean on moving forward.
