Fresh off a thrilling 27-23 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, the Dallas Cowboys return home on Sunday to host the red-hot San Francisco 49ers. If the Cowboys want to record their first winning streak since last November, they’ll need to bring their A-game against one of the league’s best teams.
Before the two teams square off on Sunday, here are two players the Cowboys should use more in the matchup.
1) EDGE James Houston
One pain point for Dallas’ defense this season has been their inability to consistently take down
the opposing quarterback. While the Cowboys defense is tied for fifth in the league in pressure rate (32.8%), they have accumulated only 17 total sacks as a team, tied for the sixth-fewest.
One change the Cowboys made in the past few weeks to help their struggling pass rush group was activating 27-year-old edge Jame Houston for their last three matchups. Houston, who played just 13 defensive snaps before Dallas’ Week 8 matchup against Arizona, made a big impact in his first outing with increased opportunities.
In that game against the Cardinals, Houston recorded two pressures and a sack on just 11 pass-rush snaps. The former sixth-round pick had a 27.3% win percentage in that contest, the highest of any Cowboys defender, to go with a PRP of 13.6.
After an impressive performance, Dallas rewarded him with more chances against the Colts. Houston played a season-high 31 defensive snaps with 18 pass-rush opportunities. While the 27-year-old couldn’t quite replicate his pass-rush success from a week prior, he recorded a 69.3 pass-rush grade on true pass sets, with a 12.5% TPS win percentage.
If the Cowboys want the best chance to improve their pass rush, they need to keep increasing Houston’s usage on defense. Dallas should give Houston some of Donovan Ezeiruaku and Von Miller’s snaps to see if he can continue his upward trajectory.
2) S Alijah Clark
The Cowboys defense got some unfortunate news after Sunday’s win. Safety P.J. Locke suffered a concussion and has already been ruled out for this week’s matchup against the 49ers.
If the Cowboys are going to continue to play Caleb Downs primarily in the slot, Downs played 35 snaps there on Sunday; they’ll need someone to replace Locke as their second primary safety. Dallas’ coaching staff has shown an affinity for giving Markquese Bell chances when they had injuries to both starting safeties early in the year, but given how poorly Bell has performed, it’s time to give Alijah Clark the nod.
Clark played 40 defensive snaps against the Eagles a few weeks back, allowing just one catch for nine yards in coverage. While Clark may not be as sure of a tackler as Bell, he is without a doubt more skilled in coverage. Dallas should give Clark the job to start alongside Malik Hooker and see if he can perform better than Bell has.
