‘Pleasant Surprise’ Driving Cowboys’ Success This Season

Getty Images DaRon Bland #26 of the Dallas Cowboys (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Leading into the Dallas Cowboys‘ showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles with a share of the NFC East lead at stake, Dallas’ success on defense this season is being driven by a “pleasant surprise” contributor.

Just 12 games into the 2023 campaign, Cowboys cornerback DaRon Bland has already set the single-season record for interceptions returned for a touchdown, already taking five to the house.

Bland, according to Pro Football Focus, is holding opposing quarterbacks to a meager 52.4 passer rating when they target him, while making a strong All-Pro case this season.

ESPN’s Todd Archer named Bland the Cowboys’ “pleasant surprise” of the season.

“Bland leads the NFL with eight interceptions, and his five pick-sixes are a single-season NFL record. All this while filling in for Pro Bowl CB Trevon Diggs, who suffered a season-ending torn ACL in his left knee in a Week 3 practice,” Archer wrote in a story published December 5. “The Cowboys thought they would be OK with Bland, who had five picks last year to lead the team, but they couldn’t have expected he would do this. In his past two games, he has given up a lot of catches and yards, so maybe he is hitting some kind of wall or just learning what life is like for a regular cornerback.”

Bland’s dominance this season is two years removed from Trevon Diggs leading the NFL in interceptions en route to being named a first-team All-Pro. The Cowboys’ 24-year-old rising star is having the kind of season that gives him a very real chance of being Dallas’ second All-Pro at the position in the past three years.

DaRon Bland Aims to Bounce Back for Cowboys

When the Eagles arrive in Arlington with dynamic wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, Bland will be aiming to bounce back from a disappointing showing 10 days earlier against Seattle Seahawks star DK Metcalf.

Metcalf went off against Bland and the Cowboys in Week 13, catching six of his eight targets — primarily against Bland, for 134 yards with three touchdowns, in a 41-35 Seahawks loss.

Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn isn’t worried about his star cornerback, though.

“The term I’d use for him is resilience. He’s tough as hell. He’s ready to battle back,” Quinn told reporters on December 4.

Quinn and the Cowboys are optimistic about Bland, especially because even in a down performance, he still pulled down his eighth interception of the season.

It won’t get much easier for Bland and the Cowboys, though, as Brown enters the December 10 game averaging 14.4 yards per reception with seven touchdowns, and Smith has accounted for more than 90 receiving yards in four of the last five weeks with four receiving touchdowns over that span.

Micah Parsons Continues to Power Dallas Cowboys’ Defense

In Week 13, despite an otherwise relatively quiet performance, Micah Parsons made the most important defensive play of the game, when he pressured Geno Smith into an incompletion on Seattle’s final offensive snap.

Despite only finishing the game with two total tackles, Parsons was the highest-graded Cowboys defender in the game, according to Pro Football Focus.

Parsons garnered a 92.1 grade from PFF, thanks in large part to his seven pressures on Smith that clearly disrupted the flow of the Seahawks’ offense, especially in the second half.

So far this season, Parsons has produced 42 total tackles with 11.5 sacks, just two sacks shy of tying his career-high.