(Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports)
Though five games, Quinn’s 2022 defense is tied with the 49ers for the most solo sacks with 20. The Cowboys have the NFL’s most quarterback hits with 61, and they also have the NFL’s most quarterback hurries with 61. No defense has more total pressures than Dallas’ 142, and when opposing quarterbacks are pressured by this defense, they’re completing just 22 of 60 passes for 211 yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 33.4 — third-best in the league, behind only the Eagles and Falcons.
In Dallas’ case, there are multiple reasons for this. The primary reason is that Quinn has eschewed blitzes for stunts.
This season, the Cowboys have run a total of 124 stunts. 90 of those stunts have come on passing plays. They have blitzed without stunting on just 25 passing plays, and blitzed with stunts on 22 passing attempts. They have blitzed with stunts on 33 total plays, and blitzed without stunts on 54 total plays.
If you suspect that the Cowboys have run the most stunts in the NFL this season, you’re on the right track — they’re doing so by a crushing margin. Per Pro Football Focus (via Fran Duffy’s Eagle Eye in the Sky podcast), the 49ers rank second with 82 stunts, then the Texans with 81, the Bears with 78, and the Steelers with 77.
Quinn is leaving his four and five down linemen to eat with all kinds of line games, allowing him to call coverage and run fits for six or seven defenders. Dallas has blitzed on just 19% of their defensive snaps, which ranks 23rd in the league. In 2021, they blitzed on 27% of their snaps, which ranked 11th.
What does this mean? The Cowboys have solved one of the most important defensive issues of any era — how to get pressure with only your pressure defenders, leaving your coverage defenders to cover.
Eight of the Cowboys’ 20 sacks this season have come without a blitz, but with stunts. This started in Week 1 against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers. Micah Parsons got the sack because he’s an alien, and he beat left tackle Josh Wells one-on-one, but the way defensive tackles Osa Odighizuwa and Quinton Bohanna free Odighizuwa to penetrate up the middle had Odighizuwa half a step behind Dallas’ most fearsome pass-rusher.
In Week 3, Dallas was expert in messing up the Giants’ interior protections with stunts, once again presenting favorable one-on-one looks for edge defenders. Odighizuwa and Bohanna are once again the force…
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