And they’ve been doing exactly that, an interior unit that generates more pressure than does many edge units around the league, and the run defense has been one of the best in the league through the three-game win streak since exiting the bye week.
“You get pressure up the middle, I mean, that’s the toughest pressure for those quarterbacks,” Clark said. “I mean, you get pressure on the edge, you can step up and all that kind of stuff. So getting in their face and just disrupting throws, disrupting their timing — that’s huge.”
They’ll look to keep the good time rolling against the Lions, but that won’t be a cake walk, or even a cupcake jog, given just how scrappy and gritty the Dan Campbell-led Lions are — along with the fact there’s no love lost between these two teams over the past two seasons.
Though this will be Clark’s (and Williams’, and Thomas’) first taste of what has become of the Cowboys-Lions budding rivalry, they all understand the assignment. It’s essentially a playoff game for both teams, a mode the Cowboys have been in since their Week 11 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders; and they’ve since mounted a historic comeback over the Philadelphia Eagles and, just four days later, on Thanksgiving, took down Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
But while that’s great news as they get hot at the right time, none of it will matter to a Lions team that’s lost three of their last five games and are clawing for a playoff berth as well.
“It’s a lot of good momentum, but it don’t mean nothing if we don’t go out and handle business,” said the three-time Pro Bowler. “We gotta wash all that away, what we did. It’s week-to-week, and we got to just keep on proving ourselves, and getting ourselves out of the hole.”
The mission: be lion tamers on Thursday.