5 NFL Stats to Know Through Week 2

The Cowboys are Second in the NFL in Sacks

It's been a while since the Dallas Cowboys' defense garnered much praise, outside of the universal admiration afforded to stud linebacker Sean Lee. However, after two games of the season, Rod Marinelli's unit find themselves near the top of a very important statistical category.

The Cowboys currently have nine quarterback sacks, one less than the leading Chicago Bears. Their sack percentage of 11.4% trails only the Bears and the Detroit Lions. The take-downs have been shared around, too, with eight different players registering one. Of course, Demarcus Lawrence leads the team with two.

The Cowboys' gaudy numbers were bolstered in their Week 2 win over the New York Giants on Sunday Night Football. The Cowboys were able to sack Eli Manning six times. According to numberFire's Net Expected Points (NEP) metric (you can learn more about NEP in our glossary), the Cowboys were tied for the fifth-best pass defense in the NFL in Week 2 with the Los Angeles Chargers. They restricted the Giants to -0.06 Passing NEP per play.