FRISCO, Texas – In the Cowboys' 44-30 loss to the Lions last Thursday, Dallas had a mixed bag of results on offense and defense throughout the course of the night.
On a positive note, Dallas' offense was able to find some if it's footing on the road, a place where they have struggled over the course of the season. That said, they also turned the ball over three times, putting themselves in a difficult situation.
Defensively, the Cowboys gave up the most points since the bye week, and the Lions' skill position players were able to make plays with their speed over the course of the night.
Let's break down some of the film in this week's Tape Talk:
Early success from Cowboys' five-down front
On three of their first four defensive plays, the Cowboys brought out their five-down defensive lineman look, and it found some early success on hurrying up Lions QB Jared Goff. The rest of the game, they'd only deploy the five-down look eight more times.
Down Jadeveon Clowney for this game, Dallas lined up four defensive tackles and just one defensive end in Donovan Ezeiruaku on this second down play. Brian Schottenheimer hinted at the idea of having one of their versatile defensive tackles line up on the outside, and in this instance it was Solomon Thomas on the left side, who has been one of their best run defenders all season.
The Lions are trying to set up a screen play for Jahmyr Gibbs here, as the guards and center block initially and then work up field trying to create space for Gibbs. Ezeiruaku sniffs the play out completely, standing right in front of Gibbs, and the downfield linemen mean Osa Odighizuwa is unblocked with a clear route to Goff. Odighizuwa gets in his face, and Goff has no choice but to throw it into the ground in front of Gibbs.
Dak and CeeDee take advantage of aggressive Lions defense
Going into Thursday night's game, there was no defense in the NFL that played more man coverage, and cover 1, than the Lions. First year defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard and his unit take a lot of pride in being aggressive and in your face in the secondary.
With that comes it's risks, especially when going up against a receiving tandem like CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. Lamb has had some of the best games of his career against the Lions and was over 100 yards receiving again before exiting with a concussion in the second half.
On this play, Lamb beats his man almost immediately off the line of scrimmage. Detroit has a single-high safety look here, and the safety is on the other side of the field. So, Lamb puts his foot in the ground around the 30-yard line and breaks towards the sideline, making it an easy pitch and catch for himself and Dak Prescott for a 37-yard gain.
The turning point for Detroit's offense
Surprisingly, the Lions only converted 3 third downs against the Cowboys in this game. They also only faced third down eight times throughout the course of the night, none of which were bigger than this one right here.
The Cowboys had cut it to a three-point game, with Detroit facing third and six on their own 45-yard line. It's man-to-man across the board for Dallas, and the Lions have Jahmyr Gibbs and Jameson Williams, two of the fastest players in the NFL, run shallow crossing routes over the middle of the field.
That's a tough ask for Markquese Bell, who ends up on Williams in the middle of the field. He does a good job of getting his hands on him initially to slow him down, but Williams' speed allows him to get the extra step. Maybe the most impressive part of the play for Detroit is Jared Goff delivering a perfect throw out in front of Williams despite pressure in his face (James Houston would be called for roughing the passer on the play) which allows him to turn the corner and pick up 29 massive yards.
Lions, Jahmyr Gibbs succeeded when in space
Since the trade deadline, the Cowboys' defense is the third best unit in the league against runs inside the tackles. Clearly, the Lions respect their interior, with 12 carries for 69 yards (35 of which came on a rushing touchdown from David Montgomery). Detroit was able to punch in three of their four rushing touchdowns between the tackles, but weren't necessarily getting their explosive plays in that area.
Where they did get their explosive plays was when they got Jahmyr Gibbs in space. In the receiving game, Gibbs led the Lions with 65 of his 77 receiving yards coming after the catch, 18 yards over his expected yards after the catch total and an average of 9.3 yards after catch on his seven receptions.
This run play, however, was just another example of Detroit finding ways to get Gibbs in a position where there's green grass in front of him. The Lions throw an extra lineman and two tight ends on the right side of the line, plus pull the left guard to serve as the lead blocker for Gibbs. Essentially from the second Gibbs gets the ball, the only Cowboys defender with a chance to make a play is Shavon Revel, who gets blocked by the pulling lineman and Gibbs walks in for the score to put a seal on Detroit's win.
