IRVING, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys defense goes when the defensive line goes.
In last week’s loss to the Atlanta Falcons, the defensive line simply didn’t have enough players. They lost Terrell McClain for the season after the Week 2 win against the Philadelphia Eagles. They didn’t have Jeremy Mincey because of a concussion. Randy Gregory missed his second straight game with a high ankle sprain.
As a result, DeMarcus Lawrence (57), Jack Crawford (54), Tyrone Crawford (49) and Nick Hayden (46) played a season-high in snaps with the Falcons running 74 plays.
The distribution of snaps, percentage-wise, wasn’t far off from the first two games. Lawrence played 82 percent of the snaps in the first two wins and 77% against the Falcons.
The lack of depth up front played a part in the Falcons running 45 plays in the second half compared to just 19 for the Cowboys. Atlanta had the ball for 20 minutes, 7 seconds in the second half.
“We had some younger guys playing, and at times they did some good things, other times they didn’t,” coach Jason Garrett said. “We weren’t able to rotate like we normally do, but those were the conditions that we were playing in and we just simply need to play better. There’s a lot of reasons why, a lot of explanations, a lot of excuses that people can use, but that’s not the world we live in.”
Mincey is expected to return to practice today and play Sunday against the New Orleans Saints.
“Excited,” Mincey said. “Can’t miss no more.”
The Cowboys have re-shaped their line to a degree this week. They signed defensive tackle David Irving off the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad to replace Davon Coleman, who played 29 snaps against the Falcons. They also re-signed defensive end Lavar Edwards to the practice squad.
But neither should be expected to help on game day. And Gregory is likely out through the Oct. 18 bye week. Greg Hardy can rejoin the team Monday and play Oct. 11 against the New England Patriots, but that doesn’t help for this week either.
“You had two guys [Mincey and McClain] out who are two guys that played against the Eagles, so I mean that’s 20 reps that you coulda took off the other guys,” Mincey said. “That’s tough man. That’s tough. But what don’t kill you makes you stronger. So they’ll be in a lot better shape the next go around and we’ll get right back to where we were.”
