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Dallas Cowboys looking to make life hard for Tom Brady in the opener

20200517_134556by:Justin Rudolph09/08/21
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The Dallas Cowboys defensive line coach has a simple game plan for facing Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and that is to make Brady uncomfortable. In a recently aired episode of the HBO series, Hard Knocks, Cowboys defensive line coach Aden Durde had this to say to his defense.

“The No. 1 thing on Thursday night is we make 12 (Tom Brady) uncomfortable every f***in snap. If we do our job on Thursday night, I promise you we win this game.”

The Cowboys defense

The Cowboys have the talent on defense to make it an uncomfortable game for Tampa Bay. In their secondary, they have a trio of safeties who can cover and make plays all over the field in Damontae Kazee, Donovan Wilson, and Malik Hooker. Add in the two talented starting corners, Trevon Diggs, and Anthony Brown, and you can see that Dallas indeed has the talent in the secondary to compete with the best receiving corps in the NFL.


Where Dallas has the most depth and talent is at linebacker this season. Micah Parsons, Keanu Neal, and Leighton Vander Esch are the starters for their week one matchup in Tampa Bay. Backing them up are rookie Jabril Cox who has impressed all preseason and last year’s starter, Pro Bowler Jaylen Smith. The Cowboys can dial up a lot of different packages and blitzes for this group against the Buccaneers.

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But while the Cowboys have some talent on the defensive line in defensive ends Randy Gregory and Demarcus Lawrence, their line is a question make coming into this season. Pro Football Focus ranks their line at 27 out of the 32 teams. The defensive line’s ability to win the line of scrimmage will be key to the two other levels of the defense effectiveness. Dallas interior linemen allowed 2.3 rushing yards before contact per attempt last season. Basically, allowing running backs to make it to the linebackers before ever making contact with the defense. The Cowboys are leaning on their third-round pick out of UCLA Osa Odighizuwa to seal up those holes and clog up the middle.

The Bucs protection

Pressuring Brady and the Buccaneers will not be an easy task this season. The Tampa Bay offensive line comes into this season ranked fifth, according to Pro Football Focus. Tristan Wirfs led all Bucs offensive linemen with a grade of 84.1. good for ninth-best among guards. As a whole, they allowed just 21 sacks on the season; six of those were against division rival the New Orleans Saints.


Pressuring any quarterback will make them uncomfortable and if the Dallas Cowboys defensive line can do that, they could leave Tampa Bay with one in the win column