EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — If you find yourself around the Dallas Cowboys’ facility in Frisco, a word of advice: don’t carry a football. Because apparently within those walls lurks someone who’s waiting to punch at that football and knock it out.
“Listen,” Cowboys safety Juanyeh Thomas prefaced as if he was about to tell a tale, “if y’all watch him at practice, that’s nothing new. He punches at the ball every single day. Walkthrough, walking around the building, he’s punching at stuff.”
There’s a reason for linebacker Marist Liufau’s constant punching. It’s so he doesn’t miss the opportunity to do it when it’s actually time to play. Sunday showed why.
While Sunday’s 37-22 win over the Jets proved to be a comfortable one for the Cowboys, there was a point where it looked like it could go differently. The Jets looked like they were on the verge of tying the score before halftime. Jets running back Breece Hall, as he did a handful of times Sunday, broke through the Cowboys’ front lines and into the red zone. That’s when Liufau saw a chance to throw a haymaker. He punched the ball clean, knocking it out and into the chasing arms of Sam Williams for the game’s only turnover.
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“I just saw the ball loose,” Liufau recalled, “and went after it.”
And in doing so, he changed the course of the game. The fumble happened just before the two-minute warning. The Cowboys scored two quick touchdowns before halftime arrived.
“I think that was the game right there,” said quarterback Dak Prescott, who threw four touchdowns and earned “MVP” chants as he exited MetLife Stadium.
“That was impressive and that’s what it’s about: taking advantage of each opportunity, because you don’t know which play is going to be the one that breaks the game open, and that was it for us.”
It was a long time coming, too. Believe it or not, Liufau said after the game that he doesn’t consider himself a natural puncher. Hard hits may come naturally to the second-year linebacker out of Notre Dame — just ask Green Bay Packers wide receiver Matthew Golden after last week’s big hit — but boxing? Not so much.
“It’s just something I practice,” he said.
It’s something the whole team practiced early on, too. During training camp, the Cowboys made it a habit to punch at every ball carrier. Head coach Brian Schottenheimer wanted a physical training camp, and early, before the pads were put on, that was a way to do it. A couple fights early in camp were started after some punches at the ball turned into some back-and-forth physicality.
Early this season, however, the punches were held back. The Cowboys had one forced fumble through the first four games: a strip sack from James Houston in last week’s tie against the Packers that also changed the game.
Cowboys defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus was asked about the team’s lack of punching success earlier in the week.
“We always want more. We never pass up a strip attempt. Our guys are working hard at it,” Eberflus said. “We were really close a couple times last week … it’s important to keep being consistent, keep working at it, keep pounding the rock and they’ll come out.”
It did on Sunday. It was vital, too.
For previous defensive regimes, especially during the Dan Quinn era, turnovers were the lifeblood of defensive success. Reminder: the Cowboys have two corners, Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland, who have signed contract extensions worth a total of $187 million over the course of the last few years. Those contracts were sparked by seasons in which they led the NFL in interceptions. So far, the Cowboys have only one interception this season.
Some of that can be pointed to scheme. Bland said earlier in the week that some of that can be attributed to the symbiotic relationship between a pass rush that wasn’t getting to the quarterback in the first four games — that changed Sunday — and a secondary that was allowing too many big plays.
This Cowboys’ defense hasn’t had the takeaway numbers like previous successful ones. They now have three takeaways in total this season. Liufau’s forced fumble and Williams’ recovery on Sunday showed how much of a catalyst they can be.
“They can shift the whole game,” Thomas said. “It can shift the momentum from the other side. After they fumbled, I feel like they kind of lost their confidence and the [offense] just went down there and scored.”
Williams believes Liufau’s forced fumble could be a momentum shifter for their entire defense, too.
“It’s just the start,” he said. “It’s the fifth game of the season and we’ve got 12 more to go. I feel like it’s just a momentum swing. We’ll get more, and more, and more. It’s going to come.”
And if you take the word of those around the Cowboys, don’t be surprised if it’s not the last forced fumble Liufau creates this season. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wasn’t surprised to see that Sunday’s fumble was caused by him.
“That’s what he does,” Jones said of Liufau. “He practices that way, and we know it. You said, ‘Boy, there he is again, punching that ball out.’”
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