This might be Cowboys’ key to avoiding another Terence Steele fiasco vs Eagles
In the Cowboys first matchup with the Eagles, Terence Steele had a performance for the ages, and not in a good way. Dallas’ cornerstone RT had arguably the worst game of his young career, giving up four sacks, one hit, seven hurries and 12 pressures to the Philadelphia pass rush.
He offered less resistance than the 1940 French army and routinely opened Dak Prescott to punishment inside the pocket. On a scale of 0-100, Pro Football Focus awarded his pass protecting efforts a grade of 15 for the day. His protection score out of true pass sets was an almost unfathomably low 6.3, challenging the infamous Chaz Green game of 2017.
In a game that was literally determined by inches, Steele made no excuses.
“It’s really just came down to me, my fundamentals,” Steele said after the game. “Just staying true to it. I got a little sloppy there at the end.”
The noise of no one arguing with his self-critique was deafening. It was Dallas’ biggest game of the season and one they were in prime position to win in the final minute. While a handful of plays, penalties, and bad bounces all shared fault, Steele took the lion’s share of blame from fans.
What happened
Four sacks, seven hurries and 12 pressures are a bad stat line for an entire team to give up, let alone just one player.
The rest of the Cowboys only gave up seven pressures, and Prescott’s average time to throw for the day was 2.87 seconds, which is actually 0.19 seconds more than his season average. Outside of Steele, the offensive line performed admirably.
Reviewing the footage, Steele appeared to react slowly to the snap which provided a negative trickle-down effect to his entire pass-protecting sequence. Crowd noise could have very conceivably played a role in this, which luckily isn’t a concern Sunday night at AT&T Stadium.
Overall, Steele was beaten inside and outside, with both speed and power. It was a family variety pack of pressures, offering a little bit of everything for film reviewers searching for identifiable weaknesses.
What can be done
The obvious answer to the Steele problem is to give him support in the form of double-teams and chip blocks. Though, asking RBs and TEs to help him on the right side isn’t a cure all nor does come without consequences. Prescott needs targets down the field and if extra players stay in and help block, he loses them as passing options, making things much harder for him and his WRs.
Another solution is to avoid straight dropback passing. Mike McCarthy has leaned on more quick game, screens, play-action and rollouts as a way to protect his MVP candidate. Per Sumer Sports, Prescott has one of the lowest pure dropback rates in the NFL this season. That’s by design.
Pure Dropback Production and Rate – Entering Week 14 pic.twitter.com/aEqec8tNPa
— SumerSports (@SumerSports) December 7, 2023
It just so happens, all of Steele’s sacks, hits, hurries and pressures came when the Cowboys were in true pass sets. It stands to reason, all Steele needs is more play-action, RPO and screens from McCarthy this go-around.
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Will he be better?
When the Cowboys inked Steele to a five-year, $82,500,000 deal, they were surely expecting better than what they have gotten this season from the 26-year-old tackle. But Steele hasn’t been all bad this season and has sprinkled in good games throughout the year. Based on the criticism he took over his Week 9 performance, it’s safe to say he’s motivated to put his very best foot forward in this weekend’s rematch.
It’s safe to say the Cowboys are also prepared. If Steele struggles, they will probably be quicker to provide help. As discussed earlier, McCarthy is well versed in avoiding pure dropbacks so he could easily insert more rollouts, play-action, RPO and screens into the gameplan to avoid putting his QB at risk.
There’s finally the homefield advantage. If Steele’s poor play in Week 9 stemmed from crowd noise, the issue could solve itself. It will need to be addressed in the future since regardless of this week’s outcome, the Cowboys are likely to face a postseason on the road.
Steele shouldn’t have the same issues he had in the last meeting. Lessons were learned and the circumstances at home are better. As long as the Cowboys take precautions and adapt as the game unfolds, the situation should be perfectly manageable.
