Inside Cowboys’ New-Look Run Defense Without Micah Parsons

Welcome to Week 1 NFL Grades. In this space, we’re going to try to pick out some of the best and worst of the week, while adhering to the standard rubric of your 1950s report card. This isn’t Brown University. One simply doesn’t pass or fail. There’s nuance to it all. 

Still, I’m thinking about my own report cards and want to stress that anything from an A to a C is pretty good! It’s only when we start talking about failing classes that we want to paint something as truly disappointing. 

This week, we’re talking about the Eagles’ brilliant usage of wide receiver deployments, the Cowboys’ very underrated defensive line play, the Giants’ red zone play-calling and more: 

This was the Eagles’ first game under new offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, and while the post-game chorus centered around a lower number of targets for A.J. Brown, the first half showcased what I believe to be one of the biggest strengths of this offense: a trio of wide receivers that can play off each other beautifully and offensive coaches who understand how to prod the defense. Make no mistake: This was an evolution. 

Jahan Dotson and DeVonta Smith were on the field together for five snaps before the 51-yard post that Jalen Hurts hit Dotson on to set up the Eagles’ go-ahead touchdown before halftime. Dotson’s volume of usage against the Cowboys has been almost identical over the past two years. Dotson played 30 snaps against the Cowboys in both games last year and played 29 against the Cowboys this year in the season opener. The difference was that Dotson and Smith were almost never used as same-side complements before and, in the 31 snaps that Dotson and Smith took on the field together against the Cowboys in 2024, we never saw this particular double-post concept with a drive route as a backside read run this exact way.  

You’ll notice two things that I think are significant.

One: When Jalen Hurts launches this ball, there is almost no visual certainty outside of his confidence in Dotson and Smith that the Cowboys’ safety is going to end up turning toward Smith. Just look at what Hurts sees as he’s letting go of the ball:  

Two: Smith was almost exclusively the beneficiary of Dotson as a complementary route runner last year. Based on post-game comments made by Dotson and Hurts, the focus this preseason in bringing Dotson along as a legitimate WR3, instead of a raw skill set that could be manipulated to give Smith or Brown a slight edge has opened up a new pathway for this offense. This one completion gives the Eagles 1,000 new ways in which to deploy their 11-personnel lineup now that we know Hurts will pull the trigger on this ball in particular. It also finds yet another home for Smith as a decoy, and alters the path of three different Cowboys defenders to clear out a chunk of space for Dotson. 

Expect this offense to snowball, with moments like these as critical little postmarks along the way. 

The Cowboys were far more competitive against the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles than expected. The absence of Jalen Carter was kind of a red herring that took us away—in real time at least—from evaluating what the defensive line looked like without Micah Parsons. Here’s the number that stood out to me: On called run plays—that means rushing yards that were not the result of a quarterback scramble—the Eagles gained just 2.9 yards per carry. 

This was one of the most effective rushing offenses in football last season. And, it’s worth noting that part of the reason the Eagles’ offensive line is so good is because they’ve perfected the art of holding. This is not meant to be an insult. The great Packer offensive lines of the middle 2010s had a similar reputation and, the more one obscures the act, the less likely officials are to call it (officials also don’t want to call holding anyway, which is something Philadelphia has exploited in the way the Seahawks did on the defensive side of the ball during the Legion of Boom era). 

Still, a lot of gotta-have-it rushing downs against Dallas looked like what we saw at the beginning of the fourth quarter. On second-and-2 with a little more than 14 minutes to play, Solomon Thomas, 2025 seventh-round pick Jay Toia and 2024 second-round pick Marshawn Kneeland effectively took up five blockers and bought time for the linebackers to come up and make a stop. 

Another example, for good measure at the beginning of the third quarter. This rep is without Saquon Barkley, but the story is the same. The Eagles, up by one, are trying to make the rest of the series more manageable but Thomas is dominant off the jump. Kenny Clark takes up two blockers but still has the flexibility to react to the play. 

Set against the backdrop of Jerry Jones suggesting part of the impetus behind trading Parsons was the need to improve the run defense, the fact is this unit, merely with an offseason coaching change and the addition of two vets and a rookie seventh-round pick, already looks day-and-night different from the unit that finished second to last in EPA versus the run last year. 

Imagine what the team would have looked like with better coaching … and Parsons! 

Trevor Lawrence was one of the least-pressured quarterbacks in the NFL on Sunday, though that could also be the Panthers effect—the same one that caused us to fall head over heels for the Saints’ offense around this time in 2024. The unlocking of Travis Etienne Jr. made it almost unnecessary to get either of Lawrence’s two young, elite wideouts (Brian Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter) involved in the passing game, though the Jaguars should be commended for trying to generate touches for Hunter at the line of scrimmage. 

Justin Herbert, in a tight situation, was given the opportunity to throw out of spots where his coach may have been conservative last year and was able to uncover a bit of his berserker energy from 2021.  

But I want to talk mostly about Daniel Jones and the Shane Steichen redemption tour. This offense provided Anthony Richardson with a lot of answers a year ago, but got swallowed up by rhetoric about the Colts being impatient and wide receivers dropping balls that could have helped their young quarterback. I think a lot of that was people wanting to see something from Richardson instead of actually absorbing the reality of his limitations. 

Here’s a play that stood out to head coach Shane Steichen on Sunday: fourth-and-2 in the second quarter, with Indianapolis up 17 points. The Dolphins walked a safety to the line and began to display the trappings of Cover Zero pressure. Jones immediately changed the play, correctly identified that the pressure was coming from the Dolphins’ nickel spot—Jason Marshall Jr.—and called a quick out to Josh Downs, whom Marshall was lined up over. 

Imagine not having that in your arsenal and now being able to count on those little downs in addition to multiple third-and-10s on that drive. Indianapolis is a different team now. 

About five minutes of game time after Lamar Jackson threw a touchdown pass to DeAndre Hopkins, then watched Hopkins get shoved in the head by a too-comfortable Bills fan, got shoved in the head by the same fan and then shoved the fan back, Derek Henry rumbled for a 46-yard touchdown run that took the air out of the stadium (at least until the Bills mounted their comeback). 

Lost in that run was the fact that a Bills fan fired what appeared to be a water bottle at Henry while he was crossing over into the end zone. On the heels of several incidents at WNBA games, it feels like we’ve reached another tipping point on fans getting too comfortable firing detritus onto the field or generally leaning over the stands and involving themselves in an inappropriate manner. The WNBA issue is different altogether because of the symbolism of the objects being hurled on the field. In the NFL arena, it’s just stupidity at best and needlessly unsafe at worst. 

I personally hope Jackson doesn’t get fined or suspended, because fans need to be exposed to the real world consequences of making physical contact with people. It’s a good lesson to learn—not to condone assault, of course, but to bring into focus the fact that an NFL stadium isn’t simply a world apart from reality. I looked at the fine print on the back of the Bills’ tickets and there is a clear clause in there that protects Jackson from any superfluous countersuit if the embarrassed fan decides to sue. Purchasers of tickets assume any risk for “attempting physical contact with an event participant” and are subject to the Bills’ fan code of conduct which, you guessed it, has any number of vaguely worded legalese sentences that can eject the fan, take away his or her season tickets or even trigger an arrest. 

The Giants lost to the Commanders 21–6 on Sunday though, to their credit, this didn’t look like a certainty early on. The Giants’ pass rush appeared disciplined at times, with Abdul Carter and Brian Burns clogging throwing lanes for Jayden Daniels and making him look frustrated before a levee break as the game wore on. Daniels is almost always going to do this, no matter how sound the defense is. 

The main culprit was how the tenor of the game changed after New York was gifted four consecutive chances to score against the Commanders from the 2-yard line or closer at the beginning of the second quarter. Here, nearly all of what ails the Giants—inconsistencies with play-calling, offensive line depth and a placeholder at starting quarterback—was on display. Let’s walk through it together, joining the action after the Giants got an illegal hands to the face call on fourth-and-goal at the 2-yard line, setting the team up with a first-and-goal at the 1-yard line. 

First-and-goal: Incomplete pass to fifth-round rookie tackle Marcus Mbow on a tackle eligible play

The Giants had goal line back Cam Skattebo in the game. Skattebo, as we pleasantly discovered Sunday, showed that his physicality translates well to the NFL. Just a few minutes before, he broke three tackles on his first NFL touch.

Instead of allowing him to do that again, the Giants called a tackle eligible throw. The entire Commanders linebacking corps was pointing at Mbow the second he declared as eligible and he was mobbed off the line, needing to make an aggressive swim move just to get himself into the route. Not only did this leave Russell Wilson dangerously out of options, but it put the Giants at risk of a sack that would have pushed them out of touchdown range. 

Second-and-goal: Handoff to Skattebo for a loss of a yard

Mbow reported as eligible again after having just run a route on the play before (and was likely exhausted). He was beaten off the line of scrimmage on what should be an advantageous down block that simply washed his defender out of the play. Instead, Dorance Armstrong penetrated so quickly that he bashed into Giants pulling guard Greg Van Roten, who was supposed to be leading Skattebo into the end zone. Mbow was spun around by Armstrong and stood up only to be headbutted by his own running back. 

Armstrong sniffed this play out from the beginning and was aggressively cheating toward beating Mbow’s downblock from the jump. 

Third-and-goal: Wilson misses open receiver

The Giants had a decent play call here, though Wilson was never able to see that Darius Slayton was totally uncovered. It looked like the Giants were trying to use the tight end to create some legal traffic with two receivers flooding to Wilson’s more comfortable right side. However, it appears he never even looked back to his left to see Slayton or explore that as a possibility. 

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