Film Room: A war daddy emerges for the Dallas Cowboys

After beating Greshman for a sack, the Cardinals lined up a running back to Lawrence’s side to try to prevent him from capturing the edge. While running back Andre Ellington doesn’t actually chip him here, this route is “supposed” to force Lawrence back inside towards the guard where there is extra help. In theory, Ellington did his job.

However, Lawrence isn’t concerned about capturing the edge on this play as he just uses his strength to walk the offensive tackle back into the quarterback. Lawrence doesn’t even get his hands underneath the tackle and he’s still able to move him back with ease. This is one of the more impressive sacks I’ve seen from any rusher this season.

And last, but not least,  this is one of my favorite sacks by Lawrence in his career. It’s not because he overwhelmed a tackle with speed or power, but it’s the fact that he’s starting to win with his mind rather than his body.

On this particular play, Lawrence knows that rookie safety Xavier Woods will be blitzing to the outside. His only job is to try to occupy the tackle and the guard so that Woods can get to the quarterback.  But once the tackle realizes that Woods is blitzing, Lawrence disengages from the guard and pauses for a slight moment as if he’s going to execute a “stunt” with Woods.

That slight hesitation allows the guard to take his eyes off of Lawrence and onto Woods and that’s all No. 90 needs in order to record his third sack of the game:

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The Cowboys’ offense has struggled some out of the gate and the team is still getting used to a brand-new secondary, but Lawrence’s presence alone on defense makes this a legit Super Bowl caliber team right away. It’s obviously not likely that he will continue on this sack pace all season, but he just needs to continue to be a force on the defensive line.

Their success on defense relies on Maliek Collins and Lawrence generating the majority of pressure on the defense. As long as they can continue to do so, there may not be a better overall team in the NFC. That’s how important Lawrence is to this roster. Cowboys’ fans can finally rejoice as they have found their first true war daddy since DeMarcus Ware.