Eat Tos: ‘He lets everyone eat’: Dan Quinn’s creative coaching places Cowboys defenders in position to thrive

FRISCO — Neville Gallimore crouched Sunday into a 3-technique seconds before the Cowboys’ first defensive snap, his inside shoulder pointed over New York Giants right guard Will Hernandez’s outside shoulder.

Nothing to see here.

A standard alignment for most defensive tackles.

Four plays later, on third-and-5, it was defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence crouched into that alignment, as inside linebacker Micah Parsons replaced Lawrence at edge rusher. In the previous six years of Lawrence’s NFL career, this was not standard.

Parsons lured the tight end and running back in protection to create a one-on-one opportunity for Lawrence if he could beat Hernandez inside. Lawrence did, walloping the quarterback to force a pass that fluttered helplessly into cornerback Jourdan Lewis’ hands.

By moving around his pass rushers, defensive coordinator Dan Quinn helps them feast.

“He tries to make sure he lets everyone eat,” Parsons said. “You know, they’re part of the lion pack now. There is no more lone lion. It’s the pride now. Everybody has got to get a piece of the gazelle. He’s done a great job at it. When you get your opportunity, you’ve got to make sure you finish, because I know those other guys will.”

Lawrence missed 10 of 14 games this season to a foot fracture. Still, he has taken nearly as many snaps at defensive tackle than he did the previous two years combined. The wrinkle is one example of how creative coaching under Quinn has placed Cowboys defenders in position to thrive.

The pride carries that versatility into Sunday’s game against Washington.

So far, Lawrence has played 24 snaps on the interior line. According to Pro Football Focus, whose statistical database includes a game-by-game breakdown of player alignment, Lawrence had 39 such snaps in his first seven seasons, including 15 snaps in 2020 and 10 in 2019.

Last year’s defense was last year’s defense.

The less said about it is probably better.

But as context to what the Cowboys have built under Quinn, the great experiment with Lawrence and fellow defensive end Everson Griffen in 2020 was the two-point stance, having them stand before the play began instead of a hand being on the ground. That change was asked of them during a pandemic-shortened offseason.

The team scrapped that failed experiment after a couple of games.

This year, in his first as Cowboys coordinator, Quinn is pushing players into new positions, techniques and specialties that clearly cater toward each individual’s strengths. Lawrence understands and embraces the occasional snap inside.

“It helps get me away from chips,” he said Wednesday. “It also makes me get a faster, better angle to the quarterback. It also lets my right tackle or the left tackle over there get different looks. They can see Micah on the outside, Randy on the outside. So it switches up the tempo of their [pass] sets and how they want to approach me.”

When in the 3-technique, Lawrence forced the interception.

He also beat Hernandez inside to drop running back Devontae Booker for a 3-yard loss in the second quarter and again in the fourth quarter to hit quarterback Mike Glennon, causing an incompletion.

Quinn said that matchups drive in what games and situations he moves Lawrence inside.

“As far as last year goes, I can’t comment on that,” Quinn said. “But I can say finding different spaces to play him in, you’d be surprised just putting different guys over a guard or over a tackle, it makes [the offensive lineman] set different and play a little bit different.

“It won’t be an all-the-time thing; his best thing is when he’s ripping outside. But we like the versatility of him going back and forth. Certain games, he may have a few more inside, and certain games, he may have hardly any, just depending on where the matchups are.”

Quinn is moving around several of his defenders, Parsons the most versatile of them all.

Lawrence is befitting from the tactic, too.

There is more than one way to hunt a gazelle.