{"id":194087,"date":"2024-10-12T11:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-10-12T15:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=194087"},"modified":"2024-10-11T19:51:19","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T23:51:19","slug":"cowboys-defense-stop-jared-goff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/10\/12\/cowboys-defense-stop-jared-goff\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys Defense vs. Lions: Corners and Coverage Key for a Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cowboys defense must prevent another perfect completion game for Jared Goff. In the Lions game against the Seahawks, Goff threw for a perfect 18\/18, giving the Lions their third win<\/a>. <\/span>Since then, he\u2019s had a BYE week of rest and now faces the Cowboys at their place in Week 6. <\/span>There are a few strategies the Cowboys can take from the Seattle game to stop Goff in his tracks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Strategies for the Cowboys Defense to Stop Another Perfect Game from Jared Goff<\/span><\/h2>\n

Goff the Shifty QB<\/span><\/h3>\n

In the game vs. Seattle, Goff was hard to bring down. Several times, he would duck under a defensive player, pivot just slightly to avoid the sack, and throw the ball down the field. <\/span>This creates a challenge since the Cowboys have struggled with tackling<\/a> in the past few games. <\/span>Pressure didn\u2019t work super well for the Seahawks defense either. Sure, they were able to get 3 sacks on Goff, but it didn\u2019t diminish his passing percentage.<\/span><\/p>\n

So increasing the pressure might not produce anything different for the Cowboys. And with the injuries the Cowboys are currently facing<\/a> on defense, pressure wasn’t much of an option anyway. <\/span>What they need to do instead is focus on cutting off the angle for Goff and reduce his options.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cutting Off the Escape Route for Goff<\/span><\/h3>\n

Whenever Goff is under tight pressure, or when he\u2019s struggling to find a man downfield, his go-to is to turn to his flat route and get a quick pass off. <\/span>The Cowboys defense needs to cut this off. <\/span>In order to do that, they won\u2019t want to put so much pressure on Goff and should focus on having their linebackers watch for this short route.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although it doesn\u2019t seem intimidating at first, these routes tend to pick up tons of yardage downfield because they\u2019re forgotten about. <\/span>So much focus is on Goff. <\/span>Shutting this down for Goff allows the Cowboys to turn their attention downfield.<\/span><\/p>\n

Corners Have the Biggest Job on Cowboys Defense<\/span><\/h3>\n

Another huge problem is going to be consistent, downfield ball. <\/span>The Cowboys have some solid corners, and there will be some returning faces in this upcoming game. <\/span>There\u2019s a good chance that the pick-6 record holder, DaRon Bland,<\/a> could return from injury. He\u2019s been a full participant in practice Wednesday and Thursday so it\u2019s highly likely.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if he isn\u2019t, rookie Caelen Carson<\/a> is likely to be back from injury too. Carson was also a full participant in practice on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, according to the Cowboys injury report<\/a>. <\/span>This could be huge for the Cowboys production downfield. <\/span>Jourdan Lewis and Trevon Diggs have already been playing such good football. Stopping Amon-Ra St. Brown will require everyone to be anticipatory instead of reactive.<\/span><\/p>\n

But ironically, St. Brown isn\u2019t the Lions top receiver right now\u2013Jameson Williams<\/a> is. <\/span>So double coverage on St. Brown won\u2019t solve the problem. The corners will have to play their most aggressive game yet to force incompletions for the Lions offense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cowboys Defense with a Chance to Make a Close Game<\/span><\/h3>\n

Goff and the Lions haven\u2019t been blowing out other teams. <\/span>In fact, besides the Seattle game, all of the games for the Lions have been within one score. <\/span>The Cowboys are hungry for their first win at home. And beating the Lions on defense could be their way to get there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Image: Barry Reeger – USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jared Goff is coming off of a perfect completion percentage against the Seahawks. The Cowboys defense can’t allow it to happen again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5238,"featured_media":194099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,54],"tags":[7578,7422,9870,2165,451],"class_list":["post-194087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cowboys","category-editorials","tag-amon-ra-st-brown","tag-dallas-cowboys-news","tag-daron-bland","tag-defense","tag-jared-goff"],"modified_by":"Isaac Zuniga","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}