Blogging The Boys
They say that on average it takes 66 days to break a habit. Unfortunately, after watching the Dallas Cowboys lose to the Chicago Bears on Sunday, the Cowboys have several bad ones and cannot afford that much time to remedy their bad tendencies. The Cowboys’ loss exposed lingering problems with the team that many of us were hoping they could sweep under the rug while still managing to win games.
Regrettably, the lump of shortcomings under the carpet is becoming more and more noticeable. Despite Jerry Jones affirming his belief that he still sees the Cowboys as a playoff team, one wonders if even he believes that after watching his team over the last three weeks. Here are four glaring red flags after the Cowboys fell to 1-2 versus the Bears.
In week one, the Cowboys did a terrific job in coverage to bottle up Jalen Hurts and take his receivers out of the game plan. Yet, they still couldn’t manage to get to him and allowed him to break the pocket to extend plays. Once again, Dallas struggled to contain a mobile quarterback in the pocket, and Caleb Williams made them pay for it. When you thought that after a lengthy drive by the Bears, Dallas may be able to get off the field without giving up any points, Chicago goes for it on 4th-and-goal, and again the Cowboys allow Williams to escape the pocket and find a wide-open D.J. Moore to effectively end the game, putting the Bears ahead 31-14.
Dallas sacked Caleb Williams zero times yesterday, the first time in his career that he has not been sacked. He had a near-perfect passer rating of 142.6. Despite having the fifth-best pressure rate in the NFL at 20.8% per Pro Football Reference, the Cowboys have only mustered 1.3 sacks per game, good for the fourth-worst in the NFL.
The Cowboys can rush four, send a blitz, it doesn’t matter; the pressure is not equating to sacks. A large reason is that the Cowboys are not maintaining good rush lane integrity, and it has presented itself as a concern over the last three weeks, including in the game against the Giants. To throw salt in the wound, Dallas plays Micah Parsons and the Green Bay Packers next Sunday night in primetime, serving as a blatant reminder of what’s lacking from their defense.
It’s not to say that Dallas should have seller’s remorse, especially so soon after a trade, but it’s impossible not to wonder how much differently things would look if Parsons were still in Dallas. Overall, the pass rush and pass rush discipline are among the most pressing concerns thus far in the season.
For a defense that is unable to sack the quarterback, they need to be able to get turnovers here and there. The Cowboys struggled mightily in that department as well. The Cowboys had four turnovers against the Bears. Three interceptions by the quarterbacks,...
