The Dallas Cowboys beat the New York Giants 20-15 in an ugly Week 4 Thursday Night Football game that saw a lot of bad football and not a lot of touchdowns. Despite failing to find the end zone consistently, the Cowboys were able to move the ball effectively against the Giants' defense.
The biggest key to that was the fact that Dallas was able to neutralize the Giants star defensive tackle, Dexter Lawrence.
Lawrence is capable of single-handedly wrecking a game with his ability to get after the quarterback from the interior. He had just one pressure in the game, according to PFF, and didn't record a single pressure in 22 pass rush snaps when matched up with Cowboys rookie Cooper Beebe.
Lawrence wasn't having it, as he responded to the stat on social media and after practice on Wednesday, according to Paul Schwartz of the New York Post.
“You’re not going to sit here and hype up somebody that called for help all f***ing game,” Lawrence said, per Schwartz. “You’re not going sit here and write a bad assessment, you need to learn football, whoever writes this, learn football and that’s that. That’s all I was saying. Don’t hype it up.
“I know that whoever [put that] out there did not watch the game properly. That is what I know. And tweet that and write that and say I said it just like that. You’re not about to tell me, this dude, watching tape, this dude blocked me. That’s it.”
Why was Dexter Lawrence unable to get pressure for the Giants?
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While Cooper Beebe not allowing any pressures against Dexter Lawrence on Thursday night is an accurate stat, it removes all context from the Cowboys' plan to keep Lawrence away from Dak Prescott.
Lawrence was double teamed by the Dallas offensive line on 80% of his pass rush snaps (20 out of 25) on Thursday night, according to Next Gen Stats. That is tied for the highest double team rate in a single game in the Next Gen Stats era, which dates back to 2018.
Lawrence is still a force, even while he faces more double teams than ever this season. Through four games, the former Clemson star has accumulated three sacks and seven “stops” which are an PFF metric for tackles that result in a failure for the offense.
The Giants star is getting more attention from offensive lines because of the underwhelming starts to the season for their edge rushers, which were supposed to be a strength of the roster. Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux haven't had the impact needed to turn this unit into one of the best in the league this year.
