Doomsday 4.0? Cowboys Defense Producing Most Dominant Start in 50 Years
FRISCO - Forget Super Duper Cooper, the Dallas Cowboys have a Super Bowl defense.
While you were fixating on the impending-yet-awkward peaceful transition of power to Dak Prescott from the only quarterback in franchise history to start 4-0, Dallas' defense is waking echoes and challenging records with its most dominating performance in 50 years.
The Cowboys have held their first four opponents under 20 points. Last Dallas team to accomplish that feat: The 1973 unit, led by five future Ring-of-Honor members and three bound for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The 2022 Cowboys have also allowed only four touchdowns in four games, joining '70 and '72 as the only defenses in franchise history to author such a stingy start.
Now: Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence and Trevon Diggs.
Then: Doomsday.
And yes, even young Micah gets the history ...
Dan Quinn, miracle worker that he is, has cattle-prodded what was the worst defense in franchise history just three seasons ago into one of the best in the NFL. Dallas has surrendered point totals of 19, 17, 16 and - and in Sunday's dismantling of the Washington Commanders - 10. Last season after four games the Cowboys had given up 97 points and 13 touchdowns. In 2020, under the guidance of Mike Nolan (now, for what it's worth, out of football), by now they'd been gouged for 38+ points three times.
With the defense dusting off records, Cooper Rush has been afforded the opportunity to shine without exactly being shiny. While he's 3-0 without passing for more than 235 yards, Tony Romo must be rolling over his broadcast booth after consistently losing games during his career despite passing for 300, even 400 yards.
"They're the reason we're winning," Rush said of the defense. "I mean, it's just plain and simple ... they had really good field position all day and our defense just kept them out of the end zone, kept getting them off the field."
Even more impressive, the Cowboys smothered the Commanders without a highlight from Parsons or Lawrence. And while they intercepted Carson Wentz twice, the early impressive resume isn't being built - like 2021 - on a bushel of outlandish takeaways.
Skeptics predicted Quinn's unit couldn't sustain and/or repeat last season's smoke-'n-mirrors that included a league-leading 34 takeaways. And they were right. This year the Cowboys are dominating with the help of only four, more than only four other teams.
Parsons is a tarantula that terrorizes from seemingly every position on the field. Diggs is an elite wide receiver who just happens to play defense. But it's the rank-and-file that is turning the dirty work into Doomsday 4.0.
An hour before kickoff, cornerback Jourdan Lewis pulled a groin. Enter fifth-round draft pick DaRon Bland, who grabbed his first career interception. Holding Washington to a single touchdown - a questionable one, at that - was a product of Neville Gallimore and Dorance Armstrong stuffing runs, safety Donovan Wilson laying the lumber and Dante Fowler applying pressure on Wentz off the edge.
In a league geared toward offense and where the standard passing threshold is 300 yards, the Cowboys' defense has yet to allow a quarterback to throw for even 215: Tom Brady 212, Joe Burrow 199, Daniel Jones 196 and Wentz 170.
It's early, sure. But the Cowboys are allowing two touchdowns fewer - per game - than in 2020.
For years, Dallas searched in vain for a defensive coordinator to support an offense capable of winning a Super Bowl. Rob Ryan. Monte Kiffin. Rod Marinelli. Nolan. Enter Quinn, the man who wouldn't be here if his Atlanta Falcons had protected a 28-3 lead in Super Bowl LI five years ago.
Quinn, who helped build the famed "Legion of Boom" defenses in Seattle, arrived on the scene of a 10-car pileup in Dallas. In 2020, the Cowboys were gouged for 57 touchdowns and 473 points, both franchise records. They gave up 200+ rushing yards, twice. Worse, players visibly quit.
This defense won't be mistaken for the '85 Bears. But the effort and execution has them flirting with the 1966-73 Cowboys, known as "Doomsday I."
Those defenses were anchored by a core of lineman Bob Lilly, linebackers Chuck Howley and Lee Roy Jordan, and defensive backs Mel Renfro and Cliff Harris. All wound up in the Ring of Honor, with Lilly, Renfro and Harris immortalized in Canton. During their eight-year reign the Cowboys made the playoffs every season, winning a Super Bowl, losing a Super Bowl, falling in two NFL Championship Games and appearing in four consecutive conference championship games.
Five times in eight seasons their defenses prevented opponents from scoring 20 points in their first four games.
The '73 team didn't allow more than 17 points in its four games. The units in '66 and '72 kept teams under 20 in their first five. In '68-69 the Cowboys went six games without surrendering 20 before eventually being upended in the playoffs by a running back named Jim Brown.
Said Micah of the defense's scoreboard goals: "It went from 19 (points allowed) to 17, 16, 10. So next week, 7. That's the type of standard.”
In Cowboys' lore, the original "Doomsday" defense was that group from 1966-73. "Doomsday II" was led in the late '70s by Super Bowl XII co-MVPs Randy White and Harvey Martin. Some consider the '90s units - led by pass-rusher Charles Haley and safety Darren Woodson while fostering three Super Bowls in four years - to be "Doomsday III." The '93 defense held eight of its first nine opponents under 20, and in '94 five of the first six.
But no Cowboys defense since 1973 held its first four opponents below 20 points. Until now.
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