Why the Cowboys’ pass rush couldn’t save their pass defense

ARLINGTON, TX - DECEMBER 14: Dallas Cowboys cornerback Shavon Revel Jr. (34) reacts to breaking up a pass during the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings on December 14, 2025 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

In a recent post on the Cowboys’ pass rush, we saw that the 2025 Cowboys ranked sixth in pressure rate despite ranking just 22nd in sacks .

Of course, pressuring the passer only works if your secondary is any good. And the 2025 Cowboys secondary was the exact opposite of whatever “good” is, ranking just 31st in the league with a 109.6 defensive passer rating. If you’re in the “if only they’d had more sacks” school of thought, consider that in 2024, when the Cowboys were third in total sacks and still had Micah Parsons, they also ranked at the bottom of the league (28th) in defensive passer rating.

The lesson is hard to ignore: generating pressure is only half the equation. What happens after the ball leaves the quarterback’s hand matters just as much – and for the Cowboys in 2025, it mattered a lot more. And that’s what we’re going to focus on today.

We’ll first look at the overall pass defense performance and then deep-dive into the different position groups. We’ll be using two key metrics along the way:

Burn rate : number of catches a defensive player allows versus the number of balls thrown at the receiver he is covering. For example, a burn rate of 80% would mean that opponents have completed eight of ten passes thrown at the receiver the defensive player was covering.

Defensive Passer Rating : uses the same data and formula as the better known passer rating for the quarterback ( i.e. completion percentage, yard per attempt, touchdowns and interceptions), but applies them to a defender, where they become completion percentage allowed (aka ‘burn rate’) , yards per attempt allowed , touchdowns allowed and interceptions made .

Have you ever wondered where opposing quarterbacks are throwing the ball against the Cowboys, and how successful they are? No? Well I did, so I reverse engineered the game-by-game stats at ProFootballFocus.com to come up with the nifty little graphic below which breaks down the 2025 passer rating and burn rate of the Cowboys’ 2025 opponents by pass direction and -distance.

A couple of things stand out immediately. The Cowboys generated pressure, but opposing quarterbacks rarely had to hold the football long enough for it to matter. There was almost always somebody open underneath.

You’ll notice that the burn rate in the six quadrants below the yellow line (i.e. less than 10 yards down the field) is quite high – 86% on 282 for 327 passing – which might be an indicator for why the pressure the Cowboys are generating is not leading to a better pass defense: if the QB can just dump off the ball to a receiver with a seven to 10-yard cushion, or simply target anybody covered by a linebacker, the opposing QB doesn’t even need a hot read anymore, because there’s always going to be people running free underneath.

Also, 46% of passing yards allowed by the Cowboys defense are generated by passes completed between the numbers – and that’s despite playing Jalen Hurts and his fear of the middle, not once but twice. Perhaps the middle of the field is where the communication issues hurt the Cowboys the most as blown coverages by linebackers, corners, and safeties allowed opponents to roam freely across the middle.

And finally, the Cowboys secondary allowed a defensive passer rating (DPR) of 110 or more in five of the six quadrants beyond the yellow line (i.e. ten yards or more downfield), making this defense the perfect complement for a Rex Grossman-like play style.

Stats by Position

Some analytical housekeeping: in official NFL team box scores, every official pass attempt by the opposing offense must be accounted for as a target. PFF, which we’ll be using for the individual stats later on, excludes specific types of throws from their defensive player tallies.

Unassigned Targets (Throwaways and Spikes) : When an opposing quarterback throws the ball away or spikes it, the NFL counts it as an official pass attempt. PFF does not assign a target to any individual defensive player on a throwaway or spike because no defender was actually covering a receiver.

Clear Overthrows : If a quarterback overthrows a receiver by 15 yards or throws into a completely vacant zone due to a broken route, the NFL log still charts a target to the intended receiver. PFF often omits these if no defender was in a position to realistically make a play on the ball.

The difference is notable: the traditional box score shows the Cowboys defense with 556 targets and a 109.6 defensive passer rating, while PFF shows only 504 assigned targets, which in turn drives DPR to 121.5, with all else remaining equal.

Most of us are quite used to the traditional passer rating, and may feel the PFF-based DPR (without unassigned targets and overthrows) are quite high. The following table shows how to evaluate the individual DPR numbers.

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Positional Ranking Description Linebacker DPR Corner DPR Safety DPR 100-80 Blue-Chip Players <90 <77 <80 79-60 NFL starter quality at position 91-100 78-88 81-97 59-40 Average to slightly below average player 101-108 89-96 98-109 39-20 Underperformer 109-115 97-110 110-118 19-0 Red Flag >115 >110 >118 Source: PFF, min. 20 targets Most targeted Linebackers

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Indexed and credited by AIPROPX. Originating outlet: Yahoo Sports. Open at source →