Cowboys receive advice from Nick Bosa to beat Eagles in Week 14
The Dallas Cowboys will face one of the biggest games of the season this Sunday night when they host the Philadelphia Eagles for a key Week 14 matchup. The lead of the NFC East is at stake (although ironically not the actual control of the division) and it's a great opportunity for the Cowboys to […]
The Dallas Cowboys will face one of the biggest games of the season this Sunday night when they host the Philadelphia Eagles for a key Week 14 matchup.
The lead of the NFC East is at stake (although ironically not the actual control of the division) and it's a great opportunity for the Cowboys to silence the criticisms pointing out they have yet to beat a football team with a winning record.*
*This is a conversation I find exhausting as it conveniently ignores going toe-to-toe on the road against the 10-2 Eagles and also overlooks the fact that the Seattle Seahawks were a winning-record team at the time they beat them last weekend, so on and so forth.
As the Cowboys gear up to show up for such a huge scenario, a star NFC foe had a message for them, proving that the old saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" couldn't be truer once we get to December.
Nick Bosa wants the Cowboys to 'watch the tape'
Bosa, a huge reason why the Cowboys and Dak Prescott's offense has been sent back home in back to back playoff losses, sent a message to Dallas ahead of Week 14 in hopes that the Eagles surrender the NFC's #1 seed with a loss this weekend.
"Hopefully the Cowboys watch the tape," San Francisco 49ers DE Nick Bosa told reporters via The Athletic's David Lombardi. "We made Jalen stay in the pocket and escape outside instead of those B-gaps and it paid off. Because Jalen is looking at the rush every play."
Usually, every time a top-tier NFL team loses a game, people start talking about the rest of the league having a blueprint to keep bringing them down. Most times, it's meaningless: One thing is to understand what you want to do in a ballgame in theory and a whole different thing is to have the players to execute it.
However, a quick look at the Eagles' loss to the Niners last week suggests there's indeed something to be learned. That game reveals something very clearly: Jalen Hurts was barely blitzed by San Francisco.
In fact, they blitzed him on only 9.6% of his dropbacks, per PFF. To add some context to that, that's the lowest blitz rate Hurts has faced all season. The next lowest? The New York Jets at 12%, the only other loss on the Eagles' record.
That's right, the two teams that have beaten Philly this year have taken a similar approach that goes against the grain. On average, Hurts has been blitzed at a 36% clip, which is closer to where the Cowboys were at in Week 9 (25% blitz rate).
In short, while they were trying to get to the Eagles QB, the 49ers were successful in containing him in the pocket. That forced Hurts to drop back and pass and have to go through his reads. More than once, even with time in his favor, he left too much meat in the bone. While Hurts' legs can break any NFL defense, if forced to play quarterback from the pocket, Jalen's productivity isn't nearly the same.
That's not to say he can't do it but he stops being that match-up nightmare no defense wants to square off against.
This sets up a fascinating question ahead of Sunday's matchup. Will defensive coordinator Dan Quinn be willing to steer away from his defensive identity – which is heavy on stunts and blitzes – or will he opt for doing what he knows best?
For the most part, Quinn loves what he does: Cover 1, Cover 3, and blitzing is the way the Cowboys defense operates. But every once in a while a specific matchup could convince any coach of playing to the opponent's weakness instead of to his own strengths.
We'll find out in due time but Bosa's advice has me convinced the Cowboys should force Hurts to work from the pocket.
Cowboys vs. Eagles: 3 Things that have changed since last matchup
These will matter in Week 14.
