“There’s an adage that everyone remembers November and December, that’s the reality of our league, especially going to 17 games,” Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said Monday. “The best football is in front of us.”
McCarthy’s last line, “the best football is in front of us” appears to be the case for his team’s defense, specifically against the run. Their rushing defense had been their glaring weakness, allowing 143.1 rushing yards per game in Weeks 1-10, fourth-most in the NFL, prior to their wins at the Minnesota Vikings and at home against the New York Giants in Weeks 11 and 12. Dallas has allowed 81.5 rushing yards per game over its last two contests, the sixth-fewest in the league, despite facing two of the best running backs in the NFL — the Vikings’ Dalvin Cook and the Giants’ Saquon Barkley.
“We’re just understanding teams are going to do that [run the ball right at us],” Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons said on Wednesday. “You kind of hope that teams don’t play the run, screen game … teams don’t really want to drop back and pass anymore, at least against us … it’s hard to stay up, but we understand what it is. Right now, we’ve seen what we need to see, and we’re always planning for the unexpected.”
In Weeks 8 and 10, before and after their Week 9 bye, the Cowboys allowed a combined 447 rushing yards across their 49-29 win against the Chicago Bears in Week 8 (240 rushing yards allowed) and 31-28 overtime loss at the Green Bay Packers in Week 10 (207 rushing yards allowed), a two-game stretch marking only the ninth time in franchise history that Dallas had allowed 200 or more rushing yards in consecutive games. A big source of pride for the Silver and Blue this Thanksgiving was limiting Barkley to 52 scrimmage yards — 39 rushing and 13 receiving — and one rushing touchdown in Week 12 after allowing him to get loose in Week 3 when he had 126 yards from scrimmage and a rushing score.
“I thought we did pretty good, he [Barkley] might’ve had one, maybe two explosive runs, but for the most part contained him and made sure everything was short,” Parsons said after the game on Thanksgiving. “They passed way more than we were probably expecting, so I think we did a pretty good job for the way he’s [Barkley] been playing this year.”
The Cowboys tied their season-high with 12 missed tackles in their 23-16 win at the Giants in Week 3, but they had a…
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