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When Mike McCarthy first took over as coach of the Dallas Cowboys back in 2020, he brought with him an old friend to be his defensive coordinator. McCarthy in 2005 was the offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers, who had as their coach Mike Nolan, who had previously been the defensive coordinator in Baltimore, Washington and New York (both the Jets and Giants). In 2020, McCarthy returned the favor by making Nolan his DC in Dallas.
To put it kindly, the Nolan Era was a disaster. Nolan hadn’t coordinated a defense since 2014, and it showed. Dallas checked in 23rd in yards allowed and 28th in points allowed, 23rd in yards per play and 25th in points per drive. The Cowboys ranked 23rd in EPA per play allowed — 21st against the pass and 27th against the run.
Very simply, they did not do anything well. They were particularly awful, though, at defending the run: The 2.41 yards allowed before contact per carry they allowed ranked 32nd (i.e. last) in the NFL, according to TruMedia. They stopped only 15.1% of opponent rushing attempts at or behind the line of scrimmage, the 28th-ranked share in the league. They yielded 5-plus yards on 40.2% of carries, which ranked 31st. Even when stacking the box, they couldn’t stop the run, allowing 4.5 yards per carry with 8-man boxes, which also ranked 31st in the league.
Nolan was fired at the end of the season, and replaced by Dan Quinn. Dallas still struggled to defend the run during Quinn’s three-year tenure, but mostly that was relative to how good the team was against the pass. The Cowboys had arguably the league’s best pass rush from 2021 through 2023, and they led the league in both turnovers forced and defensive scores. There were blow-up games here and there, and they definitely were run roughshod over by opponents at times (the Bills game in 2023 stands out), but it was consistently a very, very good defense.
Fast forward to…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/what-happened-to-the-cowboys-defense-turning-back-to-the-past-with-mike-zimmer-hasnt-panned-out/
Author : Jared Dubin
Publish date : 2024-10-04 15:57:44
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