Commanders stats of the week: Watch out for the Cowboys’ defense

The Washington Commanders (4-7) are coming off perhaps their worst loss of Coach Ron Rivera’s tenure and will get few favors as they try to bounce back. The Commanders have just four days to recover and regroup before visiting the Dallas Cowboys (7-3) on Thanksgiving.

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“It is a low point, that’s for sure,” Rivera said after Sunday’s 31-19 loss to the New York Giants. “Anytime you got an opportunity to win a football game and you put the numbers up you did, you got a chance. You’ve got to come through.”

Dallas has one of the NFL’s top defenses and has won four of its past five games.

Let’s dig into the stats to get to know the Cowboys.

For the better part of four years, Washington has struggled to prevent big plays. It has revamped its secondary multiple times, has tried to tweak its scheme to include more match-zone principles and has had intermittent success trying to marry its pass rush with its coverage.

But this year has been a doozy.

The Commanders have allowed opponents a league-high 88 explosive plays (defined as at least 16 yards passing or 12 yards rushing). Their 65 explosive passing plays allowed also lead the league, and opponents have averaged 26.9 yards on those plays.

Washington is giving up yards before and after the catch; the Commanders have allowed 4.7 passes per game that travel 20 or more yards in the air (fifth most in the NFL). The Commanders also have allowed 5.5 yards after the catch per reception, which is the ninth most in the league.

Opponents convert 32.8 percent of third downs

The Cowboys rank among the league’s top teams in many defensive categories — second in yards allowed per game (266.3), passing yards allowed per game (157.1) and sacks per pass attempt (11.7 percent) and first in interception rate (3.9 percent). They’re also second in opponent third-down conversion rate, allowing only 32.8 percent of attempts to turn into first downs.

The past two weeks, the Cowboys have been especially dominant on third down: They forced the Giants to go 0 for 12 in Week 10, then limited the Carolina Panthers to five conversions on 15 attempts Sunday.

Washington’s offense has many areas to improve after its showing against the Giants, including third down. The Commanders converted 5 of 13 attempts Sunday for a rate of 38.5 percent — a sharp drop after converting 53.3 percent in the previous three games combined.

Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons notched his 11th career game with at least two sacks by recording 2.5 against the Panthers. Only four players have recorded more games with two-plus sacks in their first three seasons: Reggie White (16), Richard Dent (12), Shawne Merriman (12) and Aldon Smith (12).

Parsons has hit double-digit sacks every season since entering the league in 2021. His 10 this season are the seventh most in the NFL and put him on pace for 17 by season’s end.