Dallas has a number of questions in the secondary, Dalton is preparing to face his former team, and more. The latest Cowboys news and notes.
The Dallas Cowboys 2020 season continued to fly off the rails, and Dallas grew one step closer to a top-5 pick with their ugly Week 13 loss to the Ravens. The Cowboys have allowed the top two rushing games this year, and it’s hard to imagine Dallas turning it around this season. Jerry Jones opened up about the defensive woes of his club, and Jones was perhaps the most critical that he has been all season.
Andy Dalton is preparing to face his former franchise, the Bengals, Sunday. The Cowboys have a number of question marks health-wise this week, especially in the defensive backfield as Chidobe Awuzie and Donovan Wilson are both questionable for the outing. Tackle Cameron Erving was placed on the IR. Will the Cowboys see Tyler Biadasz or Zack Martin again this season?
Is #Cowboys UDFA Terrance Steele getting any better with all this experience the coaches are forcing on him? | Special Contributor @SkywalkerSteele dives into the film to see how well the embattled UDFA fared against the vaunted Baltimore pass rush.
In a lost season, fans want to at least find some positive momentum from individual players as the year comes to an end. Defensively that is becoming harder to do for the Dallas Cowboys, however offensively they may be finding some in a name many would scoff at.
2020 UDFA Terence Steele out of Texas Tech is improving at right tackle in what has been a really tough season for the rookie who was thrown into the fire.
Over his first eight games, Steele — who was thrust into the starting lineup when La’el Collins was knocked out for the year with hip issues that eventually led to surgery — gave up seven sacks and 18 quarterback hurries. This was in addition to issues in the run game. Ever since the Eagles debacle in Week 8 where he was soundly beaten for three sacks, he has fought and improved incrementally. Over the last three contests (basically two complete games) Steele hasn’t given up a single sack and has only allowed four hurries and zero quarterback hits per Pro Football Focus.
The Week 13 tape backs that up.
Early against the Ravens, Steele may have had his best sequence of snaps on the season.
Here Steele gets out his stance clean with a wide base and stuns the defender with his right hand while fighting the counter chop with his inside hand. He keeps his feet moving which allows him to stay with the edge rusher. Steele’s footwork have been one of his main issues in pass protection this season.
He does a great job here with the inside jolt and outside extension keeping the defender away from his chest and fending off the chop. Steele never loses his feet and puts together a successful rep. When he allows defenders into his chest, his play-strength weakness starts to show.
Early in the year, Steele was what is called a catcher. He invited defenders in on a bull rush and was often driven back towards the quarterback, cutting off options. One can see the instruction of OL coach Joe Philbin in his progression in that area.
Here he maintains a good base and shows patience, and when the defender goes for the bull rush Steele stabs left, hooks with his right and anchors the edge. It is vital for him at this stage of his career not to let the bull rush get to him and on this rep he was successful.
As he progresses its important to note there is still much for him to improve on. One wants to see more in the run game as he is not particularly physical in that department. In pass pro his technique wears down as the game moves along. He starts to reach, lean and his kick step becomes sloppy.
On this play in the fourth quarter, Baltimore’s Pernell McPhee catches Steele flat footed on his outside shoulder and attacks up field. With Steele not getting enough depth on his kick step, he reaches and has no base to fall back on.
McPhee subsequently gets around the edge for the pressure.
With the undrafted rookie it is not going to be a clean game throughout (as witnessed by the play that led to Montez Sweat’s late pick-six against Washington). Counters, spins and speed are still going to give him problems. What one wants to see out him the remainder of the season is to continue to find positive reps to duplicate and a limiting of negative ones to correct. While the season may be loss collectively, its never too late for some of these younger players to find their way individually going into next year.
The Cowboys bench right tackle Terrance Steele in favor of Brandon Knight.
It didn’t take long for the Cleveland Browns to get to Dak Prescott and all via the right side of the offensive line. Terrance Steele was overmatched quickly by Browns defensive end Myles Garrett which lead to Mike McCarthy’s decision to remove him from the game.
Garrett was able to collect two early sacks by beating Steele in one-on-one combat. The second resulted in a strip sack of Prescott in Cowboys territory. Cleveland recovered the loose ball and turned the score into points, breaking a 14-14 tie on Baker Mayfield’s second touchdown pass of the first half. On the next drive, Brandon Knight replaced Steele.
Knight had started the last two weeks at left tackle with Tyron Smith out and most fans were expecting Knight to get the nod at right tackle this week but McCarthy decided to give Steele another chance coming back from a stomach sickness last week.
Cowboys rookie RT Terence Steele has been benched in the second quarter after allowing a second sack to Browns DE Myles Garrett. Brandon Knight coming in.
