Thus far, Cowboys defensive edge Donovan Ezeiruaku has been on the field for 91 defensive snaps this year, which is the second-most (behind Quinnen Williams) of any player no the team’s defensive front. So he has had a pretty good view of what has gone wrong for the Cowboys when it comes to containing opponents’ running games. The real difficulty, it seems, has been keeping mobile quarterbacks in check, which was obvious against the likes of Jaxson Dart and Jayden Daniels in Weeks 1 and 2. But now comes the best running quarterback in the league, and one of the best of all time: the Ravens‘ Lamar Jackson.
Per the Cowboys’ website, the team has, “allowed the most rushing yards to quarterbacks in the NFL (126) on 19 carries, good for 6.6 yards per carry.
Cowboys Run Defense Facing Another Test
That will be concern No. 1 when the Cowboys line up against Jackson on Sunday in Rio. Jackson has a career average of 6.0 yards per carry, and has led the NFL in that category–among all rushers, not just quarterbacks–four times. He is currently averaging 6.7 yards per rush.
Ezeiruaku can already foresee the challenge, and he warned his teammates to “go do” vs. Jackson: “We all know what it is. You guys know. We know as players the type of guy he is. Somebody who can throw the ball, but also run the ball at a very high level. It’s easier to say than to do, but our job is to go out there and go do. That’s what we’re tasked with.”
Kenny Clark: ‘Make Sure We Get the Guy Down’
Cowboys star lineman Kenny Clark, who has had his struggles stopping the run up the middle this year, also warned his teammates to stick to some of the fundamentals. Jackson is a very deceptive rusher, a combination of speed, smarts and some of the more elusive moves in the game.
“Once you get to the level of the quarterback, instead of focusing on getting a big hit on him or lunging at him, gather your feet and just get your body on him and get him down,” Clark said. “A sack is going to be a sack regardless of if you get a big hit or not. That’s our main focus. We’re doing a good job at getting there, getting quarterbacks off the spot, now we’ve got to play with our extension, be a little bit more greedy retracing and doing all that stuff, getting off blocks and making sure we get the guy down.”
Cowboys Star Issues Warning on Lamar Jackson Before Week 3