Blogging The Boys
The Dallas Cowboys came away with the victory on Sunday against their divisional foe, the New York Giants, but in doing so left a bad taste in our mouths. That’s because the defense was terrible. The Cowboys’ defense allowed 506 total yards, including 422 yards through the air. It was the most passing yards allowed by a Cowboys defense since 2016, when they found themselves in a Thanksgiving shootout with Washington.
On the season, the Cowboys are giving up the third-most passing yards in the league. What is strange about this is that the team had just come off a game where they only allowed Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles to have 144 passing yards. A.J. Brown only caught one pass for eight yards, while DeVonta Smith only had three catches for 16 yards. Hurts only attempted one pass in that game over 10 yards.
But on Sunday, the Cowboys’ defense allowed Russell Wilson to go off. Seven times he completed a pass of 25 yards or more, and three times he completed deep passes of 45 yards or more. The pass defense of the Cowboys looked awful all game as they just couldn’t stop big plays from happening. They even allowed a deep bomb touchdown play in the closing seconds of regulation that should have been their demise had the offense and masterful kicking of Brandon Aubrey not saved the day.
So, what happened?
The first thing people will point to is the absence of All-Pro corner DaRon Bland, who the Cowboys just rewarded with a new deal right before the season started. Not having Bland makes a difference, forcing the team to rely on 24-year-old undrafted free agent Reddy Steward, whom the team claimed off waivers during roster cutdowns. Steward had played with Matt Eberflus last year in Chicago, only seeing the field once and playing only 18 snaps on defense. On Sunday against the Giants, he played in 70% of the Cowboys’ defensive snaps.
The issues with the Cowboys’ pass defense don’t fall on Steward. Neither of the team’s outside cornerbacks, Trevon Diggs and Kaiir Elam, played well. They looked lost in the secondary, expecting someone else to make the play. The communication in coverage was terrible as the Giants’ receivers just roamed free in open space.
Rarely was there any resistance at the line of scrimmage. Both Diggs and Elam played off, many times giving up a sizeable cushion in front of them, but even when the receivers bolted deep, the Cowboys defenders just couldn’t keep up. They looked stiff, couldn’t recover, and were big plays waiting to happen.
Even when they were able to stay with the Giants’ receivers, they still came out on the losing end as they just couldn’t make a play on the ball. The Giants’ receivers were always one step ahead of them.
The Cowboys were lucky that Russell Wilson opted to throw up a Hail Mary that floated easily into the arms of Donovan Wilson. That one mistake proved...
