Below are an amateur’s observations on the Dan Quin Defense as seen during week 3 of the 2023 season: Dallas Cowboys 16, Arizona Cardinals 28.

Both the Texas coast offense and the Texas toast defense got roasted on Sunday in an embarrassing loss to the previously winless Cardinals. The run defense was practically non-existent in the first half and the absence of Diggs was felt during the entire game by the porous and mistake prone pass defense.

What went down?

Snap Counts

In the secondary, Bland and Lewis picked up snaps that Diggs normally would take, with Bland playing mostly on the outside and Lewis in the slot. The activation of Wilson meant that Thomas had no defensive snaps and Bell only had a few.

One of the big, highly sought after, run-stopping defensive linemen (Hankins) had his snap count more than triple (35 – 57%). The other big, highly sought after, run-stopping defensive linemen (Mazi Smith) had fewer snaps (10) than the week before (11). Mystifyingly, Mazi seemed active and productive during his brief time on the field. At linebacker, Clark saw his snaps double, so the number of linebacker snaps increased at the expense of snaps in the secondary, but otherwise there were no drastic changes from the week prior.

Game 1 Defensive Snap Counts

Of interest is that Sam Williams, last year’s second round pick, was on the field for 10 defensive plays, his fewest of the year so far. Is he that bad? Are the other linemen that much better? No sophomore jump? Seems troublesome.

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. Last week there were 16 stars awarded; this week: 9. Is anyone surprised?

The cumulative stars are given below. Micah Parsons continues to lead in total stars, and has now taken the lead from Osa in Star %.

It is a bit disappointing that the linebacker position (excluding Micah, who doesn’t often play in the traditional linebacker position) doesn’t have any stars yet. Clark had a tackle-for-loss on a two point conversion attempt, but apparently that doesn’t show up as a defensive stat.

Big Plays

The Cardinals gashed the Cowboys multiple times with long runs. What went wrong?

Gap control and misdirection were big issues for the run defense. The base defense for the Cowboys is a single high safety, with somewhere between 4 – 8 people on the line of scrimmage, giving a pressure look. Big runs happened with 4, 5, and 6 players on the line of scrimmage. Big runs occurred when the outside lineman either over-pursued or the runner cut back against the flow. I didn’t see any correlation between big runs and who was on the field. It was an equal opportunity run fest.

On the big pass play it is hard to say who was at fault, but it was the slot receiver and Lewis can be clearly seen bumping him and then passing him off to….nobody. Maybe some communication issues with Diggs out and people playing roles they are not as familiar with.

Other factoids: If you are uncertain what constitutes pass interference these days, you are not alone. The refs are a bit confused about it as well.

Finally, one observation about the offense. It would be nice to see the ‘Boys throw the ball more on intermediate and long routes. While 5 yard passes to the tight end are not all bad, 15+ yard throws were generally successful and more of them might open up the shorter routes for more run after catch.