Cowboys Film Room: Anthony Hitchens remains

With Lee out, Hitchens has become the leading tackler on the Cowboys. On Sunday Night, Hitchens played just 42 snaps before he left the game with a groin injury. But before he left, he was able to make five total tackles including four solos. When Lee isn’t on the field, the Cowboys rely on him to be the first person to the ball; a job he does well.

Below is another great example of him recognizing the play before it happened and making the tackle on third down to get off the field.

One thing that doesn’t get talked about enough with Hitchens is his instincts. For the most part, he has a good feel as to where plays are going to develop. There are times he will over-pursue runs or ignore his gap, but he generally has a good idea of where he can make a play.

On this play, Hitchens recognizes instantly that it was going to be a draw and he filled the right gap to make the tackle after just a one-yard gain. These plays don’t make highlight reels, but it was a very sound play from the fourth-year linebacker out of Iowa.

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Sean Lee is going to miss the next few games for the Cowboys and you can bet that Dallas is going to give up a ton of points over that stretch. But if Anthony Hitchens can stay healthy and stay on the field, he should be able to mitigate that loss some. He’s not perfect and he’s playing out of his role as the team’s best linebacker, but he is going to be an incredibly important player for the Cowboys in the next month of the season.

If the team wants to go on any sort of run in the next few weeks, they will need Hitchens to play well. If he can stay on the field, that shouldn’t be a problem.