Brett's Cowboys Corner

Break out the hoodies, cups and other merch. What a time to be a fan of the Washington Football Team, Commanders Club.

No, in all seriousness…what a time to be supportive of this team, they got rid of a toxic owner and brought in a great players coach with Dan Quinn. They have their future at QB, and didn’t need to sift through QB hell for too long.

This matchup is typically a gimmie for the Cowboys each year, even on the below average years. At the beginning of the year, I had some caution giving the Cowboys two wins against Washington, just in case Jayden Daniels has a CJ Stroud type rookie season. And here we are…not sure if the Cowboys will even steal one of these.

OFFENSE

Kliff Kingsbury: An innovative offensive mind, Kingsbury has moved around the college and NFL world, coaching QBs like Patrick Mahomes and Kyler Murray. I think he has really opened up the potential of the Commander offense and has developed Daniels well throughout his rookie season. It will be interesting to see how he holds up the rest of the year. Kliff Kingsbury coached teams are 52-36-1 from August-October as either head coach or offensive coordinator in the NFL and college since 2013, and just 18-45 in November or later.

The Schematics

This offense runs similar to a college offense, which I think helps the transition of Daniels to the NFL be more smooth. You will see a lot of shotgun formation, they run it at the third highest rate in the league, 77% of the time. They like to run the ball out of the shotgun and have a lot of success doing so. And that won’t stop this week as the Cowboys allow more yards than expected in shotgun runs. Cool.

The Commanders have used empty formations on 12.3% of their total offensive plays this season, the 4th-highest rate in the NFL. They like to keep the offense spread out and allow Daniels to have many options, including taking off with the ball himself.

The Cowboys defense has allowed a league-high 21.9% explosive play rate and 10.0 yards per attempt when defending pass plays with pre-snap motion this season, the most allowed by a defense in a season since at least 2018.

Meaning we should see the use of their explosive wideout Terry McLaurin. Now against Dallas, and more specifically against Trevon Diggs. McLaurin has been locked up, but will the tight windows created be enough? Or do the Commanders have the QB to get him the ball. McLaurin has gained a league-high 185 yards across 12 tight window receptions this season. Of his 12 receptions, 4 resulted in a touchdown.

Jayden Daniels…ROTY?

Daniels has had a lot of success, he protects the ball well and doesn’t give up dumb turnovers. But still has the abilities to push the ball downfield and create plays.

He honestly has a better pocket than he had at LSU. With about 2.89 seconds to throw, and honestly other than a rib injury that held him out week 8. His line has protected him well.

The Cowboys always struggle against rushing quarterbacks and Daniels is not afraid to win a game with his legs. He scrambles on about 7% of his drop backs which is 5th highest in the NFL.

Daniels is still the front runner for the Offensive Rookie of the Year award, he has established himself as a dangerous dual threat QB, and maintains a 71.4 total QBR, which ranks fourth in the league. But the most impressive thing, he has turned a 4-13 Washington team, to 7-4.

Run The Ball

If 31 NFL teams played the Cowboys, I could craft their gameplan to win. Just hand the ball to your running backs…don’t care who they are.

Cowboys gave up a career day to Joe Mixon last week, and this week they will face a two headed monster of Brian Robinson Jr. and Austin Ekeler.

Brian Robinson has run between the tackles on 70.1% of his total carries this season, the 3rd-highest rate among 53 running backs with at least 50 carries this season. He is the more power runner.

Whereas Ekeler is more known to be the receiving back. For this passing offense he has been a critical part of their success. Austin Ekeler has generated 401 yards after the catch this season, including +127 yards after the catch over expected, the 2nd-most in the NFL and the most among running backs.

DEFENSE

Dan Quinn: Former Cowboy DC, many wanted to be the future head coach of the Cowboys. He is known to be a coach that can connect with his players, put his arm around their shoulder and be impactful. I think the front office come January, will really regret letting Dan Quinn go. Now Coach Q has led Washington to their best start to a season since, a rookie RGIII came onto the scene.

They Can Tackle

The Commanders defense has converted on 88.4% of their tackling opportunities this season, the 5th-highest rate in the NFL.

The Cowboys ran Dan Quinn out of town for problems when it came to run defense, but it seems the ability to tackle also left with Quinn. As the Cowboys are one of worst tackling teams in the NFL, but the Commanders are one of the best…imagine that.

Dan Quinn-led defenses have ranked top 10 in tackle conversion rate in each season since 2021, including 3 of 4 teams that ranked inside the top 5. After converting on a league-high 90.2% of their tackling opportunities under Dan Quinn last season, the Cowboys defense has converted on just 85.3% of their tackling opportunities this season, the 4th-lowest rate in the NFL.

Former Cowboys Everywhere

Is it scary that you are playing a team that knows everything about you? A lot of former Cowboys joined Washington’s staff this offseason.

Coach Joe Whitt Jr. is now the defensive coordinator of the Commanders, and his main emphasis of the Washington defense is their ability to finish games. And that is something that hurt them against the Eagles last week, and they need to fix going forward.

Dorance Armstrong and Dante Fowler Jr. are both defensive linemen that Dallas wishes they could have back. They have both played well, staying with Coach Quinn, Fowler has 8+ sacks currently and was in the top 5 for sack leaders.

How Good Do They Need To Be?

This is honestly the tough reality of scouting defenses, we can find the holes and areas to attack. But we don’t have the ability to attack them. The Cowboys offense has been non-existent under Cooper Rush.

There was a bit of good moments you can scrape to find against Houston. The Cowboys offense just needs to focus on themselves, and playing to Cooper’s best ability.

This game was put into the noon slot because it was expected to be a good team playing a bad one. I think the schedule makers were right, but may have had the teams flipped inside their heads.