The Dallas Cowboys have struggled mightily against the run this season, evidenced by the fact that they had limited just three teams (Miami, the New York Jets and Washington, all among the NFL’s worst teams) to less than 100 yards rushing heading into Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Rams.

The Cowboys were certainly aided by the game script because the two-score lead they established in the second quarter forced the Rams to go pass-heavy the rest of the way. Still, given the caliber of opponent, limiting the Rams to just 22 yards rushing was by far Dallas’ best performance against the run, especially given the fact that Los Angeles ran for 273 yards on the Cowboys 11 months ago.

Speaking of the Rams game from last season’s playoffs, here’s an excerpt from my postmortem of that game:

The defensive tackles did a poor job holding their ground and getting off blocks at the point of attack, leading to giant alleys in the run game… Regardless of what happens at the second level, it’s almost impossible to play effective run defense when the defensive tackles are getting moved out of their gap and widened at the point of attack. For much of the season, the Dallas defensive tackles allowed their talented linebacker unit to thrive but against Los Angeles, it was the opposite, as the poor interior play robbed the linebackers of any opportunities to succeed against the Rams’ offense.

Despite being one of the Cowboys’ best assets against the run all season, defensive tackle Antwaun Woods played a big part in their woes that day. It deserves to be mentioned that Woods tore his labrum in the second quarter of that game, so we’ll show some leniency toward his play.

Unfortunately, even after surgically repairing that torn labrum, Woods’ middling play against the run carried into this season. He’s struggled to recreate his 2018 pre-injury form, which is a huge reason why Dallas has struggled defending the run. Here’s one example that exemplifies much of his issues defending the run this year:

Great job by DLaw to recognize the blocking scheme, defend the cut & make the tackle for little gain.



Yet, this is not good from Woods. Gets bounced inside by the double then gets ran to the ground by Ragnow. Great job by Jaylon Smith to play downhill and close the alley created pic.twitter.com/KDpEm1xsR5 — John Owning (@JohnOwning) November 19, 2019

The Cowboys did a good job of bottling this play up despite Woods getting bounced out of his gap and run into the ground.

Pay attention to the way Woods engages with the initial double-team. He makes no effort to use his hands and length to control one blocker while absorbing the other. Instead, he leans in with his head and shoulders before using his hands, making it easy for Detroit’s offensive line to control and displace him before running him into the turf.

An erosion of technique hindered Woods’ effectiveness for much of the season.

Antwaun Woods has done a really good job recognizing and blowing up wham/trap blocks recently. Does an excellent job defeating the wham from the TE and making the tackle. Impressive play. #Cowboys pic.twitter.com/rJhRsYBp3Y — John Owning (@JohnOwning) November 27, 2019

But in Week 12 against New England, Woods finally showed signs of returning to his old form and had a tangible effect on the Cowboys’ run defense, which limited the Patriots to just 101 yards on 27 carries (3.7 yards per carry).

Unfortunately for Woods, a sprained knee kept him out of the next two games against Buffalo and Chicago, and his return from injury would be against the team that took him to school in last season’s NFC divisional round.

And boy, what a return it was.

As stated earlier, Dallas’ two-score lead in the second quarter forced Los Angeles to adopt a pass-heavy approach in the second half. So, the Rams finished with 14 total rushes.

Antwaun Woods was eating with 2 spoons versus LAR. #Cowboys pic.twitter.com/z1guESS6Ux — John Owning (@JohnOwning) December 16, 2019

Because of how Dallas rotates its defensive line, Woods was on the field for six of Los Angeles’ 14 runs. He may have had just six snaps against the run, but he was utterly dominant and nearly unblockable, securing four stops, three of which were at or behind the line of scrimmage.

It was obvious Los Angeles was specifically looking to attack Woods on zone runs because he has had a tough time maintaining his gap against the horizontal stretch created by those runs. However, his active/powerful hands and ability to recognize blocks continually put him in position to stymie the Rams.

Remember that clip from earlier that showed Woods getting bounced by a double-team before he was driven into the turf? Compare that with how he handles the initial double-team in this example:

On this play, Woods again gets bounced inside by the initial double, giving him straight-up leverage against the center instead of the shaded leverage he aligned with. The difference this time is he used his hands to control, shock and extend the center, creating the space necessary to regain his A-gap leverage, get off the block and make the tackle.

Instead of letting the O-line control him, Woods was much more aggressive in using his hands to control the blockers this time around. This enabled him to not only maintain his gap discipline to help bottle up runs, but it also allowed him to take it a step further to shed the block and tackle the ball carrier, which is uncommon for most nose tackles.

Let’s see another example:

On this play, Woods is actually aligned with an outside shade over the left guard instead of his usual shade over the center. The Rams are running a wide zone concept, but considering that Dallas had no defensive linemen aligned in the A-gap, it’s no surprise that running back Todd Gurley attacked downhill, especially with Robert Quinn setting a strong edge to influence him inside.

Woods again has to absorb a double-team, but notice how he initiates contact with the left guard (No. 63) to attain superior hand positioning (inside) and proper leverage (lower pads) while turning his inside hip away from the center (No. 66). This is referred to as an “anchor turn,” and it enables Woods to control the left guard while absorbing and holding his ground against the center’s double-team.

Because Woods attained inside hand positioning with proper leverage, he was able to control and effectively discard the left guard to make the tackle once the center climbed to block Sean Lee.

You don’t see many nose tackles making tackles after absorbing a double-team because a double-team, or combination block, is designed to help create movement -- horizontal or vertical depending on the concept -- at the point of attack before one of the linemen climbs to the second level to block a linebacker. So, when a defense has a nose tackle who can not only hold his ground against double-teams but also shed the block to make the tackle (usually when one of the blockers in the double-team climbs to the second level), it becomes incredibly difficult to run between the tackles.

Here’s another example:

Here, Woods returns to his usual alignment, but notice that instead of being cocked toward the center, he’s actually slightly cocked toward the left guard. When the ball is snapped, this aids him in quickly mirroring the left guard’s initial step.

While Woods was able to quickly win inside hand positioning in the previous clips, the left guard here does a good job of initiating contact with inside hands. But even though the left guard has inside hands, Woods’ pad level and hips are lower, meaning he has the leverage advantage.

Woods does an excellent job of turning his inside hip and shoulder away from the center’s double-team, which not only prevents the center from moving Woods out of his gap, but it also makes it difficult to latch on to Woods’ frame.

From there, Woods is able to execute an efficient club-arm over move to split the double-team when Gurley tries to bend the run back inside on the designed cutback in a split zone concept.

Given Woods’ success against Los Angeles’ combination blocks in the run game, you can probably ascertain how he fared when he was single-blocked (above clip).

All in all, it’s not a coincidence that Dallas had its best day defending the run in a game where Woods was a dominant force. Given that he provides little utility as a pass rusher, his value to the team comes from his run-defending ability.

The effectiveness of Dallas’ run defense is inherently tied to the play of the defensive tackles, so if Woods can keep playing to the level he showed against the Rams, the Cowboys’ defense could finally start to pull its weight down the stretch.