Dallas Cowboys defense officially needs more from first-round nose tackle Mazi Smith | Opinion
They didn’t tackle well.
They were pushed around and weren’t physical.
They didn’t set the edge.
And were out-schemed and were downright bullied to the tune of 266 yards rushing on a whopping 49 attempts.
Running back James Cook ran 25 times for a career-high 179 yards. His average of 7.2 yards per attempt was the an example of how the Cowboys defense was playing two-hand touch for much of the game.
Blame falls on everyone from the coaches to the players.
And while no Cowboys defense — since Dan Quinn arrived in 2021 — has allowed that many yards on the ground, the run defense has always been the proverbial kryptonite of a unit that rushed the quarterback and turns the ball over more as well as any team in the league.
It’s the reason the Cowboys team’s decision to take mammoth Michigan nose tackle Mazi Smith in the first round of 2023 NFL Draft was heralded inside and outside organization as a sound move.
It was not about being sexy; it was about doing what was right to take the defense from good to great.
Smith said on draft night, “[The Cowboys] told me that the first and foremost my job is coming in and be that elite run defender they need for the defense,” Smith said. “And my second job is to show everybody that I can affect the quarterback. That is something I need to work on, I got to hone in on. But I can’t lose sight of the first goal first goal to make sure I stop that run and make sure that I’m stout in the middle.”
Coach Mike McCarthy backed up the decision to take 6-foot-3, 328-pound Smith, who was the first defensive tackle taken in the first round by the franchise since Russell Maryland in 1991.
“Clearly, the focus when you look at when you go through evaluation postseason, and it’s clearly that we wanted to improve our run defense. And I think it’s clear, he does that. We love everything about Mazi. He is great fit for us. But the strength of defense is we take the ball away and we pass rush. We just want to get better on early downs.”
The Cowboys ranked 22nd in the NFL against the run in 2022, giving up an average of 129.3 yards per game. They gave 2.7 yards before contact per rush, ranking 21st. And Cowboys defensive tackles ranked 28th in interior Run Stop Win Rate last year (28.5%).
Ironically, the Cowboys hadn’t needed or asked much of Smith heading into the Bills game.
They ranked third overall and a respectable 13th against the run.
Veteran Johnathan Hankins handled the buck of the load as nose tackle, allowing Smith to slowly acclimate to the NFL game.
His power and brute strength by poor technique and not getting off the ball as fast needed.
Smith had long only logged 11 and 13 snaps in the previous two games against Seattle Seahawks and Philadelphia Eagles.
Last week, McCarthy said Smith was doing a helluva job and pointed to the veterans on the defensive for his minimal impact.
“We understand he’s a first-round pick and all that,” McCarthy said. “Ye’s come in here to do a job that’s dirty. This is not a statistic filled role that he has that’s going to bring a bunch of notoriety. With that, I think the first time he sat down in my office, we talked about life in the A gap. That’s why he was drafted here. He has the ability to do more and he’ll be given a chance to do more.”
Again, the Cowboys run woes against the Bills was not solely the responsibility of Smith. The ends didn’t set the edge. The undersized linebackers were bullied. And the Cowboys missed 12 tackles, though it appeared to be more, as a team.
McCarthy said no one on the defensive front deserved a game ball.
But it was also another example of what was promised and predicted when Smith was drafted to what the Cowboys have gotten during the season.
Smith has 12 tackles on the season and two came against the Bills.
There was no stopping the run and being stout in the middle, either.
Smith, who has lost weight during the season and weighs no close to the 328 pounds the Cowboys have listed on the roster, got a good learning experience experience against the Bills.
“I think there’s definitely plays he can learn from as far as pad level,” McCarthy said. “But I thought he did a good job fighting, staying in his gap, fitting his gap. I think it’s like anything, it starts with attacking the line of scrimmage, staying square, getting in your gap and then obviously the tackling was probably our biggest issue on run defense.”
With Hankins likely out until the playoffs, the time is now for Smith to give the Cowboys a return on their investment and show some promise against the run.
The NFL is a copy cat league and the final three opponents — the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, the Detroit Lions on Dec. 30 and the Washington Commanders in the season final — are going to try to duplicate the success of the Bills.
The Dolphins and Lions are particularly strong running games and these are must-win match ups for the Cowboys in their quest to win the NFC East and improve their playoff seeding.
The Cowboys need more from Smith.
This story was originally published December 20, 2023 at 2:28 PM.
