Below are an amateur’s observations on the Dan Quin Defense as seen during week 2 of the 2023 season: Dallas Cowboys 30, New York Jets 10.

Micah Parsons is the reason Waldo is hiding. I am convinced of it. Particularly if Waldo is hiding underneath a QB jersey.

The Cowboys blitzed five times, though they lined up with 5 or more along the line of scrimmage almost 30 times. They accumulated three sacks and five more tackles for a loss.

Snap Counts

The snap count was a little more normal this week. Four people played 100% of the defensive snaps—three from the secondary and one linebacker. The snap count was also a little abnormal this week as there were only 47 defensive snaps—the ‘Boys had almost that many running plays (44).

The big, highly sought after, run-stopping defensive linemen (Hankins and Mazi Smith) did such a good job that they only got a total of 21 snaps, split almost evenly among them. New York abandoned the run early, and the majority of their 64 rushing yards were obtained on QB scrambles. Has the susceptibility of the Cowboys’ D to the run been overcome? Time will tell, but the early returns are very favorable, especially if they are facing a non-running quarterback.

The early part of the game had Dallas using one safety deep and anywhere from 4 to 8 players on the line of scrimmage. Towards the end of both halves, Dallas switched to having two safeties deep, with a little bit of single high sprinkled in. Both seemed reasonably effective.

Game 1 Defensive Snap Counts

The DQD continued its tradition of substituting defensive backs for linebackers and linebackers for linemen. On average there were 5.5 defensive backs on the field, and 3.2 linemen (not including Parsons) on the field at a time. This is slightly down from the previous week, and seems like an unusual adjustment to have been made considering that the Jets were expected to go run heavy. The traditional position identifications are becoming more and more blurred with time, and only the listing on the Mother Ship can be used to identify a given player’s position.

Star Plays

Star plays are those plays that can make a difference in a game: Things like a pass defensed, a sack or a tackle for loss, an interception (two stars), a fumble or fumble recovery, or in some cases, a bonus star for something that I feel is exceptional. Only 6 players received stars this week, which is a steep drop off from last week’s 14. However, there were quite a few less defensive plays on which to earn them.

The cumulative stars are given below. To no one’s surprise, Micah Parsons is leading the list in terms of the number of stars, but Osa continues to lead in Star %.

One of the interesting factoids about this game was that it showed us all what happens when a team quits trying to run and turns entirely to the pass. In this case the answer was 3 interceptions, all of which occurred in the fourth quarter. I wish I could say that pressure caused the interceptions, but in honesty, it looked more like they were created more by desperation than by pressure.

Gilmore had an interception in the first game, and Diggs had one in the second. Which one is better? I don’t know, but teams have been clearly targeting Gilmore more frequently than Diggs, but Gilmore has been responding well to the challenge. Even the 68 yard touchdown on his man was not entirely his fault; a better tackle attempt by the safety would have shut that down long before it reached the end zone. Will things change, based on Gilmore’s strong showing? Only time will tell, but I foresee a time when teams will begin trying to use their tight ends more and more to avoid throwing against the Cowboy cornerbacks. Not every team is equipped to be able to do this, but I think those that can will try it in an effort to find the weakness in the D. Of course, the safeties, who are typically charged with covering tight ends, have had just as many interceptions as the CBs. Should be interesting.