Cowboys win Week 1’s “Don’t play man if you can’t play man” award vs. Buccaneers

Starting last season, when Mark Schofield and I started doing the Touchdown Wire weekly matchup podcast, we created the “Don’t play man if you can’t play man” award, which went to the defense that played a ton of man coverage, and were generally hapless whenever it did. Usually, the weekly award was split between the Lions and the Titans, and for good reason.

In 2020, per Sports Info Solutions, when they played Cover-0, Cover-1, or 2-Man, the Lions allowed 138 receptions on 233 attempts for 1,953 yards, 22 touchdowns, four interceptions, and an opponent QBR of 110.4. The Titans were even worse in touchdown-to-interception ratio, allowing 135 completions in man coverage on 228 attempts for 1,589 yards, 22 touchdowns, one interception, and an opponent QBR of 110.8. The Texans, Eagles, and Panthers actually allowed higher opponent QBR in man coverage, and perhaps the Texans should have made the list more often — they allowed 20 touchdowns and had no picks in man coverage. So, they ran it on 179 opponent passing attempts anyway, which puts them firmly in the “Don’t play man if you can’t play man” Hall of Fame for 2020.

It’s early yet in the 2021 season, but our “Don’t play man if you can’t play man” winner for Week 1 is the Dallas Cowboys, who allowed Tom Brady to complete four of five passes against man coverage for 96 yards, two touchdowns, and an opponent QBR of 123.1 in a 31-29 loss to the defending champs. This season, we’ll detail these man-based debacles on the site, as well.

One touchdown against man was from Brady to Rob Gronkowski, which seems ill-advised, as Gronk ripped man coverage to bits last season — 22 catches on 37 targets for 302 yards, 189 air yards, and five touchdowns. The other touchdown was from Brady to Antonio Brown. Also Not Good, as Brown caught 15 passes on 22 targets against man coverage last season for 240 yards, 164 air yards, and four touchdowns. Brady also feasted on man coverage in 2020; only Aaron Rodgers (37) had more touchdown passes against it than Brady’s 25.

So, here came the Cowboys and new defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, who apparently didn’t get the memo. The first time man coverage beat the ‘Boys for a score came with 9:48 left in the first half, and this was Brady’s two-yard touchdown pass to Gronk. Now, defensive metrics with man coverage can be a bit skewed because teams tend to play more man in red zone situations, but still… this was not a great look. Gronk doesn’t need any help bodying a defender out of the picture, guys. This is just a quick block-and-release with Brady running boot (!!!), Gronk adjusting as he does, and it’s wide open in what’s supposed to be a compressed space.

Brady’s second touchdown to Gronk was just as bad for Dallas’ man principles — the 47-yard touchdown from Brady to Antonio Brown with 2:38 left in the first half. This is 2-Man, and while the safeties do a decent job of gaining depth as they’re supposed to at first (Matt Bowen has a great primer on 2-Man, which you can read here), leaving Brown one-on-one with cornerback Anthony Brown was less than optimal. The focus was on Chris Godwin’s route to that side.

As bad as Dallas’ defense was last season, and it was pretty bad, it wasn’t a total disaster in man coverage, where the Cowboys gave up just 10 touchdowns of the 34 they allowed overall. This was not a great start in that department for the new regime.