Frisco, Texas – This is not surprising. It's not like there was a shocking revelation for those of us watching the 2023 Dallas Cowboys.
Because, as I probably remembered for the 50th time, at least the Cowboys' overall run defense was noticeably lacking, especially against teams with winning records. Because, again, the Cowboys' six losses were all five in the regular season, allowing the Cowboys to win the NFC East for the second time in three years under head coach Mike McCarthy. Despite that, it was a very painful match. In a 48-32 win over the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round of the playoffs, the Cowboys' defense gave up at least 109 rushing yards.
Why, they finished 16th against the run, rather mediocre, meaning “only of mediocre or moderate quality.” It's not bad, but it's also not good.
And that lack of quality extended to their playoff loss to Green Bay, where the Packers rushed for 143 yards and three touchdowns, with lead back Aaron Jones carrying the ball 21 times, a playoff career high. He finished with a solid 121 yards and 5.6 yards per carry. average. And his touchdowns were all three (3 yards, 1 yard, 9 yards), tying the NFL's all-time record for rushing touchdowns in a road playoff game, a wild-card round game, and the Packers' single-game playoff record. is. The 143 yards were the fourth-most in the 18 games the Cowboys played in the 2023 season. Let's understand that.
Give Cowboys lionbacker/defensive end Micah Parsons credit for being nervous last week. The Edge with Micah Parsons He did a podcast on his radio station during Super Bowl XV and asked his guest Jordan Love, the Packers quarterback who engineered the dagger of their playoff loss, what the Packers did to win the game.
He completed just 16 of 21 passes for 272 yards and three touchdowns (from 20, 38, and 3 yards) for a 157.2 QB rating, just 1.1 points away from perfect. To Love's credit, he didn't immediately point out that he had finished. All of those included seven completions of at least 20 yards, with his highs of 46, 39, 38 and 26 yards. He averaged 13 yards per attempt in the playoffs for Green Bay. And remember, it's going to be more than Bart Starr, Lynn Dickey, Brett Favre, and Aaron Rodgers.
It would probably have been for a completely disrespectful guest to steal all the credit. Instead, he very politely said:
“The key for us going into the game was we needed to run the ball,” Love said. “That was a huge thing. Obviously, we played you all last year, but I feel like we ran the ball pretty well.”
No joke, Jones rushed for 138 of the Packers' 159 yards on 24 carries during the Packers' 31-28 overtime win at Lambeau Field during the 2022 season. He also scored a 12-yard rushing touchdown.
“Just playing against you guys,” Love continued. “I don't want to talk about it, but your linebackers (in playoff games), I think you played defensive back as a linebacker (Marquise Bell). (I had no choice but to switch from safety)
Add this player to the top of old and new defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer's to-do list.
- Super defense: With so much attention focused on the Kansas City Chiefs' 11-6 regular season record and playoff entry, where they finished the season 4-5, their defensive performance was overlooked. The Chiefs ranked second in both total defense and scoring defense. Take a look inside these rankings. In 13 of their 17 regular season games, the Sheffs allowed 20 or fewer points, and the only two games in which they allowed more than 21 points were a 27-19 loss to Green Bay and a 24-9 loss to Denver. They averaged 17.3 points per game in the regular season, but only 15.7 in the four playoff games, with the 22 points allowed by San Francisco requiring overtime to reach the all-time high. Conversely, the Cowboys have allowed at least 28 points in five of their six losses, the only exception being a 22-point loss against Miami (22-20).
- Be like Mike: This was a pretty prescient thing that Michael Irvin did on NFL Network's Super Bowl pregame show. When asked about an MVP candidate, he expressed disappointment, pointing to Niners wide receiver Jauan Jennings, who caught just 19 passes for 265 yards and one touchdown on the season. Michael thought the Chiefs defense would focus on stopping Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle. Well, Jennings had the best game of his career, with four catches for 42 yards, one 10-yard touchdown reception, and a trick play where he caught a backward pass from quarterback Brock Purdy and threw a screen pass. I ended up throwing it all the way back. He transferred the field to running back Christian McCaffrey for a 21-yard touchdown. If only the Niners had won. Still, Jennings became the first wide receiver to catch and throw a touchdown pass in Super Bowl 58, and the first overall since Philadelphia's Nick Foles. He also became the sixth non-quarterback to throw a touchdown pass in a Super Bowl. Remember, one of those six was the late Cowboys running back who ran for 29 yards to Golden Richards for the Cowboys' 27-10 win in Super Bowl 12 vs. Denver. , Robert Newhouse.
- What you need to do: The Cowboys' recently appointed new defensive coordinator, Mike Zimmer, has only been on the job for two days, but he and head coach Mike McCarthy have the task of repairing the Cowboys' tired defensive staff. There is. They replace secondary/defensive passing game coordinator Joe Whitt Jr., who went to Washington with Dan Quinn, and defensive line coach Aiden Durde, who goes to Seattle as defensive coordinator for new head coach Mike McDonald. , defensive assistant Sharif Floyd will also have to go to Washington. With Quinn. McCarthy said they are in the process of filling these positions and there is “no timeline” for filling staff.
- Super leftovers: Another forgotten Chiefs statistic: Four of their losses were by scores of 21-20, 21-17, 20-17, and 20-14, so the Chiefs won four of six games. We ended up losing by a total of 14 points… Did you see Andy Reid on the postgame TV show? Interviewed with his wife, he extolled her virtues as a coach's wife and said, “Yeah, she had five kids, but… , my body was ruined because of it.” …and the delay in signing Zimmer to a contract came after Jerry Jones said in a red carpet interview Thursday that he had been talking with the Cowboys' new defensive coordinator all day, but that didn't mean they were the Cowboys' new defensive coordinator. Rex Ryan on a job he didn't have second thoughts after talking with his defensive coordinator. He has two reasons for this. One was that her contract hadn't expired yet, and another, as Zimmer said at a media conference Wednesday, was that her live-in daughter had been sick for three days with her, and then Zimmer had been feeling unwell as well. It's gotten worse.
The last word, or at least the last one, goes to Dave Campo, recalling the ending of the Cowboys' 27-17 victory over Pittsburgh in Super Bowl 30. Camps is in his first year as the Cowboys' defensive coordinator, and Zimmer is in his second year with the Cowboys, but in his first year. As a defensive backs coach. Campo goes into the coach's box and Zimmer stands on the sideline.
“You know, we were on one foot in that game,” Campo begins. “It was a tough ball game and we struggled after the onside kick because (the Steelers) had a long drive for a field goal, then (recovered) the onside kick and then drove again (to score). Larry (Brown) intercepted the ball, ran it in, and Emmitt (Smith) scored.”
Dallas led 27-17 with 3:43 left. The Cowboys were finally in the process of stopping the Steelers on downs. After a two-minute warning, Pittsburgh came out of a timeout and was at the Cowboys' 40-yard line.
“So Jimmer is on the phone with me,” Campo recalled. “And I said, 'Okay, Jim, I know we won the game and I wanted to be part of the celebration, so I'm coming down. He (screams)' at me on the phone. “Stay there! This game isn't over!” He's that type of competitor, okay. He was holding on to his ring and he wasn't going to let it go knowing we had to finish the match.
“And we hardly talked in the locker room after that.”
On Wednesday, as he was leaving the media session, Zimmer told me that Camps had asked him to say hi and that he had told me a story about the end of Super Bowl XXX. Jim confirmed.
“We were really mad at each other for a while,” Jim said.
Jim was that kind of guy back then, and I'm sure he's the same guy now.
