Cowboys vs. Patriots: Can Rob Ryan Repeat Success against New England's Offense?

The last time the New England Patriots offense was sufficiently slowed down in the regular season was Week 9 against the Cleveland Browns. The Patriots scored just 14 points in that game.

Fast forward through 13 regular season games and the Patriots have scored no less than 30 points in...well, 13 regular season games. And one more breaks a record.

The only thing standing between the Patriots and that record is the same defensive coordinator that was last able to keep the Patriots under 30 points: Rob Ryan, who now leads the defensive charge for the Dallas Cowboys.

The difference is, he got it done with a lot less talent the last time. Cleveland's talent in the front seven in 2010 was a far cry from what he has to work with this year.

Moving parts

Rob's success against the Patriots last season came largely as a result of moving parts. Defenders would stand up at the line of scrimmage and move around, making it difficult for Tom Brady and New England's offensive line to identify where the pressure was coming from. That also happens to be part of the strategy employed by Rob in his utilization of DeMarcus Ware's many strengths as a pass rusher.

It didn't take long for questions to come up about how the Patriots planned to stop Ware, as Bill O'Brien was asked that very question on Monday.

"Rob Ryan and his staff do a great job of moving him around so you really can't get a beat on where he is," said O'Brien. "We always talk on Tuesday at noon and that's when we're right in the middle of game planning and that's [what] we're doing. We're just making sure we have a plan for knowing where he is and making sure that we have him accounted for."

Ware is just one cog in a defense that's playing pretty well through four games.

The Cowboys are a scary unit when it comes to stopping the run (3.13 yards per carry) and generating negative plays in pass defense (13 sacks, four interceptions). They aren't the 1985 Bears by a long shot, but they are a solid defense and a lot of that starts with Ware.  

Protection

An interesting subplot here is Dan Connolly. He has done well at center, and continues to get the starts with veteran Dan Koppen on the shelf. Last week was a rough outing for the offensive line, which let up nine pressures and four sacks on Brady. The Jets defense is certainly fond of their exotic blitzes, but the Cowboys will be another big test for him.

Luckily, it looks like they'll be getting Sebastian Vollmer back at right tackle. Thomas Welch was exposed a couple of times last week, and gave up a clean shot on Brady. While that's inexcusable, it's a credit to how talented and complex the Ryan brothers' defenses are.

It's also worth mentioning that the Patriots excel in two areas on offense where the Cowboys excel on defense: running the ball (4.7 yards per carry) and keeping Brady clean (eight sacks, six interceptions). 

Carryover

The Cowboys defense has played very well in spots, but a couple of late collapses have exposed them in others.  Bill Belichick will no doubt be looking to exploit those weaknesses, and it helps that he faced a Ryan defense just this past week.

"I wouldn't say they are exactly the same, but there's definitely some carryover," Belichick said when discussing the similarities between the two defenses. "Both [are] based out of the 3-4 but use a lot of different looks. Both defenses use a lot of multiple defensive backs—four, five, six, seven. There's a lot of carryover in a lot of those respects. I'm sure they talk a lot and exchange a lot of ideas."

Consistency between the two bodes well for New England, as they will likely see at least shades of what they saw against the Jets just a few days ago.

That being said, considering the amount of pressure the Jets were able to get on the Patriots, the carryover may or may not be a good thing (the exchanging of ideas definitely isn't). Still, the two are not one in the same.

"There are individually some things that are the same, but the big thing is that this is a lot of different personnel," said Belichick, "personnel that we're not very familiar with that's very good. They have a lot of good players on defense and offense."

Those two factors—the sharing of ideas and the lack of familiarity with personnel—may help give the Cowboys a slight edge on the Patriots.

That's in addition to a third advantage—extra time to prepare, as the Cowboys are coming off a bye week. Belichick refused to make excuses, and he wouldn't need to anyway. The Cowboys are a damn good defense, despite what standard stats may tell you. 

Conclusion

The Ryan brothers have had more success than most against the Patriots. In fact, they are the only ones over the past 14 games—regular season and postseason combined—to have any success at all, and these Dallas Cowboys look capable of doing it again.

Win the battle of the sky they may, but win the war of the scoreboard they may still not. The Patriots have proven that they are capable of winning even when Brady doesn't light it up. Look no further than last week for an example of that—an example that comes against the "other" Ryan brother's defense.

Erik Frenz is the co-host of the PatsPropaganda and Frenz podcast. Follow Erik on Twitter  @erikfrenz.