Four Aces? DC Dan Quinn holds dangerous rush hand that waves to Cowboys’ past glory

It was a play that lacked highlight reel flash, but it screamed with importance. Early in the Dallas Cowboys win over the New York Giants this past Sunday, New York faced a third-and-short in its own territory.

Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn put in a seven-man front to counter the Giants power formation. It was a standard 5-2 look, with three linemen in a Bear front, covering the two guards and center.

At the snap, rookie defensive lineman Osa Odighizuwa crashed into the backfield and spilled the Giants’ running back short of the first-down marker. A punt resulted.

Odighizuwa has flashed big-play ability in this early season, against the run and the especially on passing downs, and has eased the blow of losing fellow tackle Neville Gallimore to injury in the preseason. What catches the eye is the manner in which Odighizuwa made his impact.

A normal 4-3 defensive tackle, Quinn had him standing up on this down, as one of the ends in his five-man front. This is a position versatility the rookie has not shown before, one that hints at bigger things for the Cowboys’ pass rush when Demarcus Lawrence returns from his broken foot some time after the bye week.

Quinn will then have four rush options he can deploy across his fronts on passing downs – Odighizuma, fellow rookie Micah Parsons, Lawrence and Randy Gregory. The quartet will give the Cowboys the best rush depth and versatility since their championship days of the early and mid 1990s. A comparison between the two units shows that while this bunch lacks the run stopping depth of those title lines, it’s comparable as a rushing force.

The Johnson Lines - Waves of Relentless Pressure

Older hands will recall that Jimmy Johnson built a ferocious line that rolled eight deep. It had a five-man defensive tackle rotation that could line up according to down and distance, and it had a trio of talented ends.

In the middle, Jimmy built his line on the run-stopping skill of Tony Casillas, whom Dallas obtained in trade from the Atlanta Falcons. Casillas, though undersized, understood leverage and was a master at splitting double-team blocks and building piles of bodies in the middle of running lanes. Johnson spent the first-overall pick in the 1991 draft on Russell Maryland, a ball of energy who formed a tight complement with Casillas on early downs.

When Dallas faced passing situations those two rotated out in favor of Jimmie Jones, a pass-rushing terror with long limbs, and for Leon Lett, another human spider who came from tiny Emporia State in Kansas. Lett grew over time to be the best of Dallas’ interior options. After Jones left in free agency after the ’93 season, Chad Hennings, a futures pick that Gil Brandt drafted late in his tenure as Cowboys GM, stepped into the rush tackle role.

Former Dallas Cowboys players Chad Hennings, Charles Haley and Tony Tolbert are introduced along with the 1992 team as they honored prior to the NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Nov. 19, 2017, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)

Outside, Dallas used two college outside linebackers, Tony Tolbert and Charles Haley, as their every down, undersized defensive ends. Tolbert was the Steady Eddie, a solid run defender and a dependable rusher who could deliver 7-10 sacks with regularity. Haley was the ignitor. The Cowboys rush struggled before Johnson traded for him and became a perennial top-5 defense when he took his spot at right end.

Haley had played the “elephant” position at San Francisco, the 49ers name for a stand-up 3-4 outside linebacker who could flop sides and whose job was to rush. He played mainly right end in Dallas, but when 3rd down rolled around, he would frequently switch sides to make space for Jim Jeffcoat.

The 1983 draftee had some big seasons in the mid ’80s but was considered past it when Johnson and Dave Wannstedt took over. Jeffcoat found a second life as a third-down rusher in the Super Bowl years of ’92 and ’93. He had a deep repertoire of rush moves and was far more effective when he could go all out for 20-25 plays a game rather than 60.

(AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

That was Dallas’ blueprint for all of their opponents. They would rotate all eight defenders, keeping them fresh while they wore opposing offensive lines to exhaustion. They didn’t change up much. Those Cowboys played a four-man line and rushed four most of the time. Haley, Maryland, Casillas and Tolbert would play the early downs. When 3rd down came, Haley jumped to Tolbert’s spot at left end and in came Jeffcoat, Lett and Jones to grind.

This latter quartet turned in perhaps the game-turning play of the Cowboys Super Bowl XXVII win over Buffalo.

On a third-down deep in Buffalo territory, with the score tied 7-7 late in the first quarter, Wannstedt put in his rush group. Haley blew past right tackle Harold Ballard and struck Jim Kelly’s arm just as the Bills quarterback was attempting to throw. The ball ping ponged off Lett’s hands and into the arms of Jones, who hopped two steps into the end zone with his surprise pick. Just like that Dallas was up 14-7 and on its way to a 52-17 victory.

2021 - Half A Group is Still a Good Group

A man-for-man comparison of those early ’90s lines and this year’s edition finds the current group wanting inside. Dallas has no tackle on its current roster whose game stacks up to Casillas’ as a run defender. What’s more, there’s no Lett in this bunch, an every-down destroyer who in his heyday was a defensive player of the year candidate. Those guys are playing on a college campus right now.

That said, the 2021 unit has greater edge rush depth and has position flexibility that lets it match those great Cowboys units in rush potential.

Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

Let’s begin with Lawrence, whose rush acumen exceeds Tolbert’s at left end. He’s a play maker against the run and the pass, and he’s shown that he can pressure quarterbacks from the left or right edge and from a two point or a three point stance.

Opposite him, Gregory is putting together a sustained run of quality play at right end. His suspension and injury history frustrate but he seems to have found a staff that supports him and a role that suits him. Quinn played him out of a two point stance much of the time, in four-man and in five-man fronts. Gregory still takes on offensive tackles when he rushes, but he’s not thrown into the meat grinder as often on run downs lining up wider in Quinn’s schemes.

(AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)

Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

The two rookies make this setting intriguing. Odighizuwa was touted as a leverage player when he came out of UCLA, someone who could grow into a longer version of Casillas. Five games show that he was badly miscast. He’s a Jimmie Jones clone, right down to the matching number 97. He’s “high cut” in scouts parlance, with long legs and long arms to match. He uses those limbs to create leverage on interior rushes.

Sunday’s work shows that Quinn also trusts him to play stand up end. He was, in effect, playing Lawrence’s stand-in for times against the Giants. Like Lawrence, he can make himself small and crash down the line on runs and he can go over or between linemen to get inside a pass pocket.

(AP Photo/Brandon Wade)

Then there’s Parsons, who looks like a rookie Demarcus Ware. He’s raw, but already shows he’s coachable as a rusher. He’s showed a spin and a counter move. He’s line up with his hand down or standing up. He’s been deployed on both edges, and in A and B gaps. His motor runs at 12,000 rpms and he’s only going to improve.

What Quinn lacks in interior rush bulk, he can make up in surprise and in speed. All four of these rushers can line up anywhere and any way. We saw it two weeks ago, when Parsons was dancing in A gaps, and sometimes standing up directly over the center.

Lawrence’s injury was seen as a potential death blow to the Cowboys early rush game, but it has proven to be one of those happy accidents that makes a team better. Parson proved he had a do-it-all game against the Chargers in Week 2, when both Lawrence and Gregory were out.

Since then Gregory has returned and Odighizuwa has expanded his repertoire. Quinn has more than made do, and he has yet to field all four of his rush wild cards in a game this year.

That day should come soon, and it could reinforce an early lesson of this 2021 campaign: the gap between this rush group and those title groups is far smaller than anyone could have anticipated on opening day.

That means wishing for early ’90s-like results is not as crazy as many of us might think.

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