4 advantages 49ers have over Cowboys in Wild Card round
By Peter Panacy
No. 2: Kyle Shanahan knows Dan Quinn’s defense awfully well
The NFL coaching circle is a small one. And this Wild Card matchup will feature two coaches who know each other awfully well, San Francisco’s head coach Kyle Shanahan and Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.
Quinn, of course, was the Atlanta Falcons’ head coach during the two years Shanahan served under him as their offensive coordinator, 2015 and 2016, and Shanahan surely understands a lot of Quinn’s tendencies.
Heck, that Cover 3 single-high scheme Quinn learned as part of the Seattle Seahawks’ coaching tree is the base format initially adopted when Shanahan took over the 49ers’ coaching vacancy in 2017.
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Quinn has made his tweaks with the Cowboys, of course, and Dallas’ defensive turnaround from an abysmal 2020 campaign to now has been extraordinary, further aided by defensive standouts like cornerback Trevon Diggs and rookie linebacker Micah Parsons.
All to the tune of the Cowboys owning the NFL’s seventh-best scoring defense in the league this year.
While this argument cuts both ways, as Quinn also is familiar with Shanahan’s strategies, all one needs to do is understand how the league now favors offense, not defense, and the advantage here should reside in Shanahan’s hands.