DT Odighizuwa Gives Cowboys Run Stuffer
It took all of two games for Cowboys defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa to make his presence felt in the middle of the defensive line.
Despite his play over the first two seasons of his NFL career, the Cowboys were still having a problem stopping the run. They needed Odighizuwa to continue to improve.
“Coming in, he was such a mature guy early and even as a rookie,” Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said. “I would imagine that he had one of the very fewest mistakes – missed assignment or a decision that wasn’t right, he was so connected in that way. He came in already above the curve in how he could take it. But you see his physical development has just changed so much. How his body is, how strong he is. Those are the things that he has just added on to his game.”
The Cowboys looked to get him help this offseason, drafting defensive tackle Mazi Smith to try and help shore up a porous run defense.
But really, they just needed third-year stud out of UCLA to take the next leap in the evolution of his game. And ultimately, jump into the upper tier of run-stuffing defensive tackles in the NFL.
“He’s playing lower, he’s playing faster,” Quinn said. “I think in this case, the ability to see a set and come back the other way. To set somebody up and come back, that’s what has changed.”
Odighizuwa has been everything the Cowboys hoped to start the season, leading the defense in smother the running games of the Giants and Jets. He has 6 tackles in the two games, which has him on pace for a career-high 51 tackles, and three sacks, which is already one off his best of four that he recorded last season in 17 games.
“It is still early in the season,” Odighizuwa said. “You never know how things are going to turn out and you don’t want to get to far ahead of yourself. Just trying to make sure we are staying humble, staying hungry, looking at what’s in front of us and not getting too far ahead.”
Regardless, he led the defense, playing 51 of 117 snaps – the most of any Cowboys DT, in smothering the running games of the Giants and Jets – two of the better ground attacks in the NFL.
In the season opener, he, along with Hankins, kept the Giants three running backs – Saquon Barkley (51 yards), Matt Brieda (9 yards) and Gary Brightwell (5 yards) in check with just 65 yards on 15 carries and no touchdowns. The 4.33 yards per carry average drops to 3.9 when you add in the 13 scrambles for 43 yards from quarterback Daniel Jones.
Then Odighizuwa and company backed that up with an even better performance in Week 2.
“I thought block destruction is something that we were excellent at, again yesterday, coming off week one,” McCarthy said.
The Cowboys held the Jets trio of running backs – Breece Hall (9 yards), Dalvin Cook (7 yards) and Michael Carter (8 yards), to 24 yards on 10 carries. That 2.4 yards per carry average is exactly what the Cowboys want from their run defense.
“We understand this is how teams are going to attack us,” McCarthy said. “We have a lot of respect for both those backs, and we knew we had to tackle them. We definitely hit the mark.”
It is exactly what they haven’t been able to do in some time.
Let’s see if Osa and friends can keep it up with Christian McCaffrey and Austin Eckler on the schedule in the coming weeks.
“It is fun to be a part of a great defense we got going,” Odighizuwa said. “It is just fun when we get to put our style on display.
“Being able to win on first and second down and do what we are good at, it is a lot of fun.”