Shelves, a cage and autographe...

FRISCO, Texas — At the front of the room, when players enter, they see the cage. Along the left and right walls of the Dallas Cowboys' defensive meeting room span long shelves.

More than 30 signed photos now line those shelves, accompanying the more than 30 footballs piling up in the cage. Each corresponds to a team takeaway.

“Every day you walk in there, it’s the first thing you see,” Cowboys linebacker Luke Gifford, who signed a fumbled ball he helped recover vs. the Packers, told Yahoo Sports. “A constant reminder of how conscious we have to be as a defense about the ball.”

Cowboys defenders embraced that message last season. Dallas led the league with 34 takeaways in 2021, intercepting 26 passes and forcing eight fumbles. Coordinator Dan Quinn sought to increase the fumble awareness but also to maintain the group’s generally high volume of theft. So after the Cowboys’ Week 1 game vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Quinn called safety Donovan Wilson up to the front of the room.

Wilson had intercepted Tom Brady. Now, he would sign the ball he swiped and a photo of the hallowed moment. Each takeaway that has followed since, Wilson and teammates repeat the ritual.

The Cowboys’ defensive ‘personality’

A feisty December of four straight multi-takeaway games has led Dallas to this point. The Cowboys have robbed their opponents 30 times. The next closest contenders are the Philadelphia Eagles with 26 takeaways, followed by the New England Patriots at 25.

If the Cowboys hold onto their lead through the Jan. 8 regular-season finale, they will become the first team to lead the league in takeaways for consecutive seasons in nearly 50 years. The Pittsburgh Steelers last held the crown from 1972 to 1974.

Why does this matter? Undoubtedly, snapping opponents’ possessions eliminates their ability to score. But the Cowboys’ complementary strategy doesn’t stop there. As the defense continues to rear its opportunistic head, each takeaway energizes the offense to spark accordingly. More than a quarter of the Cowboys’ points this season have resulted from turnover-gifted possessions. Dallas has scored a league-high 110 points off takeaways to power 11-and-counting wins.

Eyes on the prize

Like all good motivation tactics, the Cowboys’ emphasis on takeaways requires at least an ounce of caution. Coaches try to teach the paradoxical philosophy that players should chase balls with hunger – defenders don’t refer to themselves simply as ballhawks, rather ball hunters – while also not freestyling so thoroughly that alignments and assignments err.

Quinn and his staff preach that if Cowboys players do their jobs as sharply as they can, the ball opportunities will come to them. Kearse, who intercepted a pass and recovered a fumbled snap in the Cowboys’ 40-34 win over the Eagles last Saturday, said he saw that calculus play out.

“I had an interception but going into halftime, another play I could’ve had an interception if I just did my job,” Kearse said.