FRISCO, Texas -- After putting up 10.5 sacks in the first seven games of the Dallas Cowboys' season, there was no way DeMarcus Lawrence could keep up that kind of pace in 16 games.

Before the 38-14 win against the Washington Redskins in Week 13, Lawrence had one sack in four games as the pass-rush overall hit a dry spell.

But Lawrence found his pass-rush form against Washington, sacking Kirk Cousins twice to re-take the NFL lead with 13.5.

When a player goes on a sack tear and then sees those opportunities, he will tend to hunt for sacks and get himself out of position, but defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said he did not see that from Lawrence.

“The thing that he’s got that he does a good job of, he just keeps playing hard,” Marinelli said. “He keeps hustling. And he knows something good will happen if I do that, keep knocking off the rust, keep coming off the ball. He’s resilient like that. There’s a lot about the sacks on that but how he plays the run and how he hustles, that’s my favorite part of his game still. It’s every week and he sets a great tempo for us like that. But he just stays after it. He just keeps going. Some guys are pressing, but when you press like that or you try to get out of the defense, that’s when you hurt the defense. He’s one of our leaders. He understands. He’s done a good job.”

With Eli Manning back in the New York Giants' lineup Sunday at MetLife Stadium, the Cowboys figure to have the opportunity to harass the quarterback. In their season-opening win against the Giants, the Cowboys had three sacks, including 1.5 from Lawrence, who had one sack in all of 2016.

Manning has been sacked 26 times this season. Geno Smith was sacked three times in his start last week against the Raiders.

Before last week’s game against Washington, the Cowboys went back-to-back weeks without a sack.

“The whole concept of our defense is rush and cover,” Lawrence said. “Without no rush, you can’t cover. Without no cover, you can’t rush. This is an 11-man game, point blank, period. You can be the best rush front in the world, but you ain’t got no (defensive backs) you ain’t got s---. I give them all the praise.”

Lawrence entered the season with nine sacks for his career. He is the first Cowboy with double-digit sacks since Jason Hatcher had 11 in 2013. The last time a Cowboy had this many sacks was DeMarcus Ware, who had 19.5 in 2011.

Lawrence is on pace for 18.

“Obviously he’s gotten a lot of attention from opposing teams, whether it’s double teams or backs and tight ends chipping him,” coach Jason Garrett said. “He just keeps playing. And he’s playing with such a great spirit, not only rushing the quarterback but defending the run and chasing the ball all over the field and getting in on plays. We saw that again the other night. His get-off is outstanding. He’s really good in the move area and his acceleration to the quarterback has been really, really good. The other thing he did the other night in the game is once he got there, he ripped the ball out. So he’s making those game-changing plays as well.”