Snap Judgments: Cowboys Defensive Snapcount vs Dolphins

While watching a game like last Saturday's preseason game between the Cowboys and Dolphins, it can get hard to keep up with who is on the field and who isn't - especially because teams trot out almost their entire roster over the course of a game. Things can get so confusing, that the NFL doesn't even bother trying record the snapcounts for preseason games, even though they do it for regular season games.

But with roster cuts looming, it can be pretty interesting to understand which player played how many snaps - and when - which is why I reviewed the entire game against the Dolphins and charted which defensive player was in on which defensive play.

Overall, there were 82 defensive snaps in Saturday's game. This excludes all special teams plays like field goals, kickoffs and punts, but I did include the nine plays that were blown dead due to penalties, because this post is about understanding who was lining up where in which situations, not the results of the official plays. I have also excluded the three plays in which the Dolphins QBs kneeled to run out the clock.

Before we get into the details of each snap, here are a couple of topline thoughts:

• In the first half of the game, the Cowboys lined up in the nickel on 23 of 33 snaps. The Cowboys then started the second half by lining up in the nickel seven consecutive times. After that, the defense reeled off 49 consecutive snaps until the end of the game in their base formation, regardless of down and distance. When you hear about "vanilla schemes" or "vanilla playcalling," this is it.

• The Dolphins scored 14 of their points in the fourth quarter. This is the lineup for the majority of those snaps:  Bush, Bishop, Minter, Boatright | W. Smith, K. Smith, Sapp | Patmon, Mitchell, R. Smith, Dixon. How many of these players do you think will be on the 46-man active roster against the 49ers?

• The Cowboys brought in Kyle Wilber as a defensive end three times on third downs in the first half of the game (marked in yellow in the detailed snapcount table below). The Dolphins drives ended on each of those three snaps. Probably a coincidence, but still...

• For all the talk about versatility on the defensive line, the only player who actually played both DT and DE was Caesar Rayford.

• Defensive players who didn't take a single snap in the second half: Crawford, Hayden, Mincey, Selvie | Carter, Durant | Carr, Scandrick, Moore, Wilcox, Church. While this looks like the starting nickel defense (excluding Scandrick for the first four weeks), keep in mind that likely starters Henry Melton, Terrell McClain, and Morris Claiborne (plus DeMarcus Lawrence) did not suit up.

• Top five players in terms of overall snapcount: Patmon (65), Dixon (51), Bishop (49), Mitchell (49), R. Smith (49).

• When Brandon Carr left after 16 snaps, Tyler Patmon took his place. Not Sterling Moore (who took the nickel corner snaps), not Terrance Mitchell.

With all of that out of the way, here's a simple snapcount which details which player was in on how many plays, split by first and second half.

19 players played in the first half, 20 played in the second half. But only eight players played in both halves: Coleman (22 first half snaps, 16 second half snaps), Hitchens (17/11), Patmon (16/49), Bishop (10/39), Minter (9/30), Wlber (8/10), McClain (8/17), Dixon (2/49).

Note that Wilber, McClain and Hitchens all left the game after the first two drives in the third quarter. Lawrence stayed in for one more drive before W. Smith, Sapp and K. Smith played the three linebacker spots for the rest of the game.

If you want to get a feel for who the first Cowboys cuts will be tomorrow, look at the down-roster guys who didn't get a lot of snaps.

Here's the full overview of which Cowboys defensive players were on the field for which plays, again split into the first and second half:

With the Cowboys holding a slim 6-3 lead, they sent their backups (and the guys backing up the backups) onto the field.

Like most preseason games, Saturday's game featured lots of playing time for downroster guys, especially in the second half.

In the first half, both teams played their starters for the most part, and battled to a very unexciting 6-3 halftime score. After that, the Dolphins scrubs got the better of the Cowboys scrubs.

As fans, we are often (some would say: permanently) blinded by the Star. As such, some fans took the loss against the Dolphins to heart, because their Dallas Cowboys lost a game. But when you understand exactly which players were wearing that Star in the second half on Saturday, you'll understand that many of them will not be Dallas Cowboys on opening day, and that you probably shouldn't lose any sleep over the final result of the game - like in any presason game.