A year ago the Dallas Cowboys were embarrassed in their joint practice with the Los Angeles Rams, manhandled in the trenches. Of course the defense went on to be one of the worst in NFL history, selling out the offense's stellar effort. That brought some importance to this week's travel, especially considering the Rams are considered strong Super Bowl candidates for February.
The key focus for most was how well the defense would compete, and with so much emphasis on the run-defense rebuild, how would it hold up against a good offensive line with good running backs, and one of the best play designers in the league?
Looking at Nick Harris’ article chronicling each play of the first-team reps, they showed themselves incredibly well. There were 16 rush attempts between first-team units, and Dallas allowed four successful plays. That's a 25% success rate, and the average is 42%-45% for the league. They included one for-sure explosive run over 10 yards and another that could’ve been 10 or more yards, but was definitely a big gain. There were also four- and five-yard rushes among the 16 attempts.
Dallas made six run stops, plays where the rusher is stopped right at the line of scrimmage. That’s an unbelievable 37.5% of the attempts in first-team reps. They added two tackles for a loss and four rushes for under three yards gained. If that is anywhere near how the defense performs this year, it’ll be a top-five run defense in 2026 and one of the biggest turnarounds in the history of the NFL.
It's only one practice, but considering the opponent, this is an enormous positive for the Cowboys.
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Cowboys most significant revelation to emerge from Rams joint practice