How will the improved Dallas Cowboys defense contain Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs offense?
If you’ve ever wondered about the the definition of “megawatt showdown,” look no further than the starting quarterbacks in Sunday’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and Kansas City Chiefs.
It’s a battle of two of the league’s brightest stars as the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, a former MVP and Super Bowl champ, will try to out-duel the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott, the NFL’s top-ranked passer and one of this season’s leading MVP candidates.
But the story within the game for the Cowboys lies not with the offense, but with the defense.
There’s little concern that Prescott and Cowboys (7-2), who possess the league’s No. 1-ranked offense, will be stymied by the Chiefs (6-4) defense, which is 26th overall and 22nd in scoring. Instead, the key for the Cowboys will be their ability to contain the Mahomes and that explosive Chiefs offense.
Mahomes looks to have his swagger back after a rough start to the season with nine interceptions in his first seven games. The defending AFC champions Chiefs were 3-4.
But they have since won three straight since, with Mahomes throwing seven touchdowns and just one interception in those contests. And he’s coming off a 406-yard, five-touchdown effort against the Las Vegas Raiders last Sunday. The performance earned him honors as the AFC’s Offensive Player of the Week.
But he will be running into a Cowboys defense that is not only coming off its finest performance of the season in a 43-3 victory against the Atlanta Falcons, but its best showing since Mike McCarthy took over as head coach last season.
The Cowboys held the Falcons to just 1 of 11 third-down conversions and that one didn’t come until late in the fourth quarter. They picked off three passes, had 10 pass deflections, two sacks and a forced fumble.
Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, a former MVP who was coming off a week in which he won the NFC Offensive Player of the Week award, completed just 9 of 21 passes for 117 yards and two interceptions. His passer rating of 21.4 was the worst of his 14-year career.
It was a continuation of a season-long focus and improvement under new defensive coordinator Dan Quinn after last season’s abominable unit, which set a franchise record for points allowed and gave up the second-most yards and most rushing yards of any unit in franchise history.
“Our defense is playing with great confidence,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “We are coming off a performance Sunday which was the highest-rated performance of my time using this system. We want to build off that performance.”
That defense has played just as big of a role in the Cowboys run to the top of the NFC East and it has helped to solidify their status as a legitimate Super Bowl contender for the first time in a generation.
Then and now
But how did that 2020 defense become this defense?
Through nine games last season, the Cowboys defense was like a busted sieve. They gave up 32 points per game, 381 yards per game, had recorded only seven takeaways and allowed opponents to convert 48 percent of their third-down chances.
Through nine games in 2021, the Cowboys are allowing just 22 points per game (good for 10th in the league) and they have 17 takeaways, which ranks third. And they are holding opponents to just a 32-percent conversion rate on third down.
The Cowboys know that Mahomes and the Chiefs offense, featuring receiver Tyreek Hill and tight end Travis Kelce, present a much different and greater challenge than the Falcons.
The mobile and crafty Mahomes makes a lot of plays on the run and he has a knack for pulling a rabbit out the hat with with deep shots to Hill — who might be the fastest receiver in the NFL — or a pass back over the middle to Kelce, who is not only a reliable receiver but a nifty runner after the catch.
Kansas City leads the league with 1,618 yards after the catch. And no team is better on third down than the Chiefs, who are converting 53 percent of the time.
So that’s why the Cowboys spent extra time in practice this week working on the scramble drill and have made sticking with the receivers and cutting down yards after the catch as their main focal points.
“They’ll work the whole field horizontally and vertically, so you’ve got to defend everywhere,” Quinn said. “They’re exceptional at throwing the ball down the field on the run.
“What we would say is eye discipline is super important in this one, to make sure that you’re covered. You plaster and you guard your guy all the way through the end of the play. You think the play’s over, it’s not. Until that play is over, you got it.”
The Cowboys are preparing the guys in the secondary to be ready for two plays, the initial play and second play when Mahomes starts to scramble. And then make sure to eliminate the yards after the catch.
“Catch, tackle. No run after catch. No big play. No explosives,” cornerback Anthony Brown said. “So we’re trying to keep everything in front of us, tackle it real quick and move on to the next play.
An even bigger key will be putting pressure on Mahomes and getting him on the ground. That will be primary focus of rookie linebacker Micah Parsons, who leads the teams with six sacks, seven tackles for loss and has the third-highest pressure percentage in the league, according to Pro Football Focus.
And he can’t wait to get after a guy he admires in video games.
“I mean his throw power, his ability to throw no-looks,” Parsons said when asked what impressed him about Mahomes. “This is a guy I like on Madden. My first time playing him so I’m really excited to see what he does in person. He’s just a terrific player, future Hall of Famer, guy who’s done it all so early in his career.
“We are super excited. To be the best you have to beat the best.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
