Computer Nation

The Cowboys have the best kickoff coverage team in the league at the moment, allowing just 19.3 yards per return, 2 yards better than second-best Carolina. I asked coordinator Nick Sorensen about the demeanor that unit plays with and how he reacts on the sideline. It led to a lengthy, but good answer. “I think we all love it. Even when I was a kid and I wasn't even allowed to play football, I loved watching kickoff. Obviously, it was old school, you were kicking from the 30, but I remember watching games with my pops and we would always pick a guy, ‘Who's going to make the tackle here?’ We'd always get to pick a dude that we thought was going to make it. And to me it was always so exciting and I'm glad that we still have kickoff. Obviously, I coach special teams, but just I think it's one of the coolest, purest parts of the game and it's violent in the right kind of ways. And I just love when we don't get solo tackles. To me that says a lot about the entire coverage unit and the want-to, finish and cap off and just swarm the ball. “And that's what I think has been the coolest part is it's not just one guy making the play. It's usually a couple guys or if one guy gets doubled, the other guys are going to make it up. And that's been a cool part of the unit. They embrace it. They love it. And it's the first play of our defense. That's really the most important part. We want to have a better drive start at the end of the game on kickoff than our opponent. That's one of our goals, just like we want to have a better net punt than our opponent. Those are two of our main goals that we have each week because it's all about how we're going to win this game? We've talked about season ending, what puts you in top five. It's about how do we help us win the game? So for us, that's the first play of our defense and when those guys are flying around swarming, that energy is contagious.”