After the Cowboys acquired star cornerback Joey Porter Jr. in a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday, the question became how quickly would he assimilate into the Dallas defense? Could he make a difference against the Houston Texans just four days later?
Not surprisingly, he indeed did, despite this being his first game of the season after back troubles kept him out of the Steelers' first three contests.
"That's the thing," Porter said. "I was missing playing football, so the fact that I got out there, got the dub with the guys, man, that's a blessing. … They were happy for me."
Porter played 24 of the Cowboys' 52 defensive snaps (46.2%) and did not allow a catch. In fact, Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud largely steered clear of Porter when he was on the field, targeting him just once in 19 snaps of pass coverage, according to Next Gen Stats.
Of course, the biggest problem for Porter was just quickly getting a grasp of coordinator Christian Parker's defense. Over the last few days, though, he's had plenty of help.
"Communication, that's the biggest thing. Communication," Porter said. "Hook (Malik Hoker) and (Caleb) Downs were communicating with me all game, all throughout the week. So when we got to Sunday, to the game today, it wasn't really a stress because we've been talking all week."
Still, because he's just learning the defense, Porter admitted having to oftentimes rely on pure instincts.
"That's why I wasn't really out there too much," Porter said. "But all the times I was out there, I was comfortable with the calls. The defense was helping me, Downs, Hook. They were talking to me all game, so shout out to them boys because without them I wouldn't even have been able to play out there."
While Porter looked good in his first effort with the Cowboys, overall he was part of a defense that struggled early on and gave up 397 yards of offense, including 335 passing yards to a quarterback who had thus far struggled this season. However, the unit, with its new not-so-secret weapon on board, eventually got the stops needed to secure a 34-30 victory, marking another step in the right direction.
"We've got to finish, and that's exactly what we did when the ball was on us, when it was on the defense," Porter said. "We kind of were shaky toward the end, but we came back and made a good stop for the team. So man, some stuff to work on, but we'll take the dub."
Now, with the Cowboys' arrow pointing up, Porter can work toward familiarizing himself with the play calls during a short week of preparation for Thursday's prime-time matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But there's no doubt that he's off to a good start.
"I'm a dog at the end of the day, and I want to be out there with the guys," Porter said. So I have to prove why they got me here, and I feel like I did that today."
