Commanders veteran is giving his teammates inside info on the Cowboys and it's an advantage for Washington
The Washington Commanders (7-4) are in the midst of the first losing streak under Dan Quinn, but the team has a very good chance of bouncing back in Week 12 against a reeling Dallas Cowboys (3-7) team that is without star quarterback Dak Prescott for the rest of the season.Speaking of Prescott, the Cowboys offense […]
The Washington Commanders (7-4) are in the midst of the first losing streak under Dan Quinn, but the team has a very good chance of bouncing back in Week 12 against a reeling Dallas Cowboys (3-7) team that is without star quarterback Dak Prescott for the rest of the season.
Speaking of Prescott, the Cowboys offense has been struggling all year long, but it's really struggled since he went down back in Week 9. Cooper Rush, Prescott's replacement, has led the unit to 16 combined points over the last two weeks. Averaging just eight points per game obviously won't get you far in this league and the 'Boys have dropped both games.
Poor pass protection is a big reason why the offense has been so stagnant over the last few weeks. The Cowboys have given up 8.0 combined sacks to the Philadelphia Eagles and Houston Texans, with a season-worst five coming against Houston, alone.
Per Pro Football Focus, 29.4% of Rush's dropbacks were under pressure in Weeks 10 and 11, which is third-lowest out of the 17 qualifying quarterbacks with at least 20 such dropbacks during that span. The key here, however, is opposing pass rushes are finishing when they do break through – Rush's 24.0% pressure-to-sack rate is eighth-highest out of the aforementioned QBs. So, the Cowboys have done a solid job of keeping Rush clean, but defenses are getting home when they do get after the veteran.
The Cowboys' pass protection has been bad and it’s getting worse. Dallas has struggled at tackle with Terence Steele being a liability in pass protection. First-round rookie Tyler Guyton is improving but will still have a handful of bad reps here and there. Now, both Tyler Smith and Zack Martin have missed practice and if they can’t go on Sunday, it’ll be rough. Cooper Beebe at center has had ups and downs but has been mostly solid. – Mauricio Rodriguez, A to Z Dallas
In other words: The Commanders pass rush is going to play a big role in Sunday's outcome. To make things even more interesting, current Commanders defensive end and former Cowboys defensive end Dorance Armstrong has been giving his teammates tips on how to beat Dallas' offensive line in the trenches. Armstrong spent the first six seasons of his career with the Cowboys and has logged plenty of practice reps against guys like Zack Martin, Tyler Smith, and Terence Steele – three of the five current starters up front.
Dorance Armstrong doesn't hold back when talking about his knowledge of the Cowboys offensive line
“I know pretty much almost the entire line of how they play. So, I'm able to give the guys what I can give them and give them a little advantage,” Armstrong said earlier in the week.
Commanders defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. certainly sees it that way, as well. And when throwing in the fact that the Cowboys could be without both Martin and Smith, well, it's easy to see why the pass rush is licking its chops ahead of this game.
"I think it gives us some of an advantage, because he's lined up and played [against] those guys," Whitt Jr. told reporters on Thursday. "He knows he how to work them and what they like [and] what they don't like. So it gives them an advantage."
The Commanders' pass rush pressures opposing QBs at an average rate of 34.1% heading into Week 12, but the unit is getting home, evidenced by its seventh-best sack rate of 8.2%, per Next Gen Stats. The defense has 29 sacks on the year, which is ninth-most, even after Thursday night's Browns-Steelers matchup. This all comes on the heels of a 32.1% blitz rate, which is sixth-highest out of all 32 defenses.
The unit is led by Dante Fowler Jr., who is currently fifth in the NFL with 8.5 sacks on the year. Overall, the production is more the product of the unit as a whole, rather than one individual, which is a testament to what Quinn and Whitt Jr. have been able to do.
"They rush as a unit and that's what I really like," said Whitt Jr. "When you add Frankie [Luvu] to the rush, with Dante, 'DA' [Dorance Armstrong], [Daron] Payne, [and] all those guys, they rush as a unit. There's not a selfish guy that's getting out of his out of his rush lane, just because I think I can win. And the times that has happened, we haven't won – we've let the quarterback out. So we point that out, that if you're going to be selfish, the blitz is not going to work.
"Because it's put together in a way that we want to put a wave at the quarterback. We don't have independent contractors.If that's the case, we'll just rush for and now you can just cut it loose and go."
On the flip side though, Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy knows Quinn and Whitt Jr. well from their time together. He knows some of their tendencies and what they like/want to do from a schematic standpoint, so it'll be very interesting to see how this particular chess match between the former co-workers plays out.
