Getty Terence Steele, Cowboys offensive tackle
It is not often that, going into a major rivalry game with playoff implications in December, the microscope of attention lands on an offensive lineman.
But that is the case in Dallas in Week 14 as Philadelphia comes to visit. Many eyes will be on Terence Steele, the Cowboys offensive tackle whose brutal performance helped fuel the disappointing, 28-23 loss to the Eagles five weeks ago, the last time the Cowboys lost a game.
Again, it is not often you can say this, but the Cowboys likely lost that game because of Terence Steele. He struggled badly. One blog wrote of his blocking numbers: “That’s staggering.”
And they were. According to Pro Football Focus, Steele allowed 12 quarterback pressures and four sacks, out of the five sacks the Cowboys allowed. He allowed quarterback Dak Prescott to be hurried seven times.
In all the PFF grade for the Cowboys’ Terence Steele in Week 9: 31.7. His pass-blocking grade was a 15.0. He would not say whether that was the worst game of his career, though if you trust the PFF grading system, it was.
“I don’t know, probably,” he said in the locker room on Wednesday. “I don’t keep track. I just try to get better each week.”
While the Cowboys seemed to have improved since then, the big question might be, has Terence Steele improved since then? Expect the Eagles to try to find out.
He did say on Wednesday that he is more confident. “Just taking it day by day,” Steele said. “Trying, each day, to get better and better and keep stacking days and that will stack confidence.”
Terence Steele Got an $82.5 Million Contract in September 2023
Part of the problem Terence Steele had in Philadelphia was that he is struggling to get healthy after tearing his ACL in Week 13 of the 2022 season. Steele had surgery and has recovered to get back on the field.
The Cowboys also took a gamble in the interim by giving him an $82.5 million contract extension in September. They might have wanted to wait to see whether he was healthy before doling out that deal, but a strong performance on Sunday could, certainly, soothe concerns about Steele going forward.
One of the problems Steele said he had in Philadelphia was dealing with the snap counts, because of the crowd noise from Eagles fans. He also repeatedly said he just had to get back to being better with his fundamentals.
“Trust my technique,” Terence Steele said. “Getting off on the snap count is huge. That will be an advantage here at home. Really trusting my technique, that’s really all it came down to.”
He added that he has not seen much that has been different from the Eagles defense, even if they have had some shifts in personnel
“They’ve got great depth especially on the D-line. They’re going to find a way. Either they’re going to bring guys in or whatever but, no, they haven’t changed much,” Steele said.
Cowboys Teammates Had Terence Steele’s Back
Another thing that Steele noted is that, even with what was one of his toughest days on the field, he found plenty of solace off the field with his teammates. To a man, the Cowboys defended Steele after the Eagles debacle.
“The guys in this locker room, the coaches, the culture they built, we’re all going to have each other’s back no matter what,” Steele said. “I felt like that since Day One since getting here in 2020. The guys around me have been awesome, they’ve definitely helped me.”
Indeed, in the days after the first Philly game, Dak Prescott was asked about Steele. He wasted no time in defending him.
“Terence would be the first to tell you that he wants to play better and I know he’s going to play better,” Prescott said last month. “He’s a guy who’s faced this adversity before. You talk about early in his career, undrafted free agent, he had to step in for guys immediately and didn’t have the success or maybe didn’t play to his standards early and then got it going, had some great years under him.
“He’s not going to allow one game to put him down in a dump and he’s not going to allow one game to dictate the way he plays the rest of the season.”
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Cowboys’ $82 Million Lineman Seeks Redemption After Eagles Disaster