Blogging The Boys
The Dallas Cowboys having a bad defense through three games is easily the storyline of this early season for first-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer to navigate. The current situation of coming off a loss to defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus’ former team the Bears, and now prepping for a Packers team that features former Cowboy Micah Parsons on defense, has certainly not helped the issue go away whatsoever. They say everything is bigger in Texas, and always is with the Dallas Cowboys, and the way this defense has given up a slew of big plays and points at will is a big deal right now.
The Cowboys defensive issues may feel familiar in some of the same ways all of their other recent defensive coordinators had their struggles at times. When the level of familiarity is closest to Mike Nolan’s one-and-done year in 2020 though, also working under a first year HC in Mike McCarthy, the Cowboys defense is flat out tough to watch on gameday right now. Any of the plays they made late in the second half against the Eagles in week one, after already allowing 21 points on three straight touchdown drives to start the game, feels like ages ago compared to their even bigger struggles against the Giants and Bears.
Be it Mike Nolan, Dan Quinn, Mike Zimmer, or now Eberflus, the Cowboys have had a lot of change in philosophies defensively. The two most recent coordinators in Quinn and Zimmer had their differences in how to play defense aggressively, create negative plays, take the ball away, and make plays which get opposing offenses off schedule. Quinn’s point of emphasis to achieve this was through the front seven, wanting to attack the quarterback first and foremost. Zimmer’s defense was less about adding extra numbers to the rush, but trusting his secondary with patented man coverage to make plays on the ball.
Eberflus’ defense has done none of these things. They have no discernable identity or starters playing well enough right now to really be schemed against by other offenses. Last Sunday, they became the first opponent playing against Bears QB Caleb Williams to not get home with at least one sack versus the second-year passer. They also gave up passing touchdowns of 35 and 65 yards in the first quarter, a week removed from allowing 29, 32, and 48 yard touchdowns against Russell Wilson and the Giants. The only other Giants touchdown this season is a 13 yard rush, and Wilson is now benched. The eye test does show that the Cowboys have been improved against the run between the tackles, but they still conceded 158 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns to the Eagles.
There is just nothing for this defense to hang it’s hat on right now, and it has Cowboys fans back in the feeling of hopelessness about this team, even after some initial good feelings being built by the compete they showed in Philadelphia and the way they pulled out a win at...
