Late into Sunday night, a flood of discontent was felt among the Dallas Cowboys.
They had suffered a rather embarrassing 28-25 loss at home to the Baltimore Ravens, in a game that wasn’t particularly competitive until the last half of the fourth quarter. The defense had been held down to an absurd 274 rushing yards. The offense was largely toothless for most of the evening, undermined by a system that struggles to find the balance between a stunted running game and an inconsistent passing game. All of this was held together by a group of players who seem to have lost interest in hiding their frustrations.
You could see it in the face of quarterback Dak Prescott, who was caught on video glancing sideways at reporters on his way to the Cowboys’ locker room and seemingly declaring to anyone within earshot, “Jump down if you want to. Please. Please, please, please.”
You could also see it in the disappearance of wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, whose absence from the locker room was noted by several reporters on social media. Later, you could hear it in the voice of head coach Mike McCarthy, who navigated cliches about Dallas needing to “look straight in the mirror,” being “a work in progress” and needing to “sweep our own doorstep.” Around this time, McCarthy’s predecessor with the Cowboys, former head coach Jason Garrett, took a sharper stance on the pregame show of NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” offering eyebrow-raising criticism that effectively labeled Dallas as a softie.
“Everyone understands this now about the Cowboys,” Garrett said. “They’re not a physical football team — we have to go in there and run the ball. They’ve been dominant at home the last two years. (But) I think teams have found a formula. Run the ball, get the lead. That’s what silences the pass rush. The Ravens controlled most of the game because they gave the ball away (and) dominated the line of scrimmage.”
The Cowboys didn’t see this chaotic dry spell coming. Not after they had strengthened the offense with the huge contract extensions for Prescott and Lamb. Not after they had replaced departed defensive coordinator Dan Quinn with the team owners’ favorite Mike Zimmer. And certainly not after Dallas had knocked off a talented Cleveland Browns team 33-17 on the road in Week 1 and then returned to the friendly confines of AT&T Stadium for Weeks 2 and 3.
But here the Cowboys are, stumbling at 1-2 after two home losses to the New Orleans Saints and the Ravens — both losses destroyed by running games while simultaneously being frustrated by their own mistakes and inconsistencies on offense. The latter got so bad against the Ravens that after Dallas got off to a false start in the third quarter, Fox’s Tom Brady momentarily dropped his polished commentator facade and lamented in disgust, “Another penalty. Oh my God.”
He could just as easily have spoken for the majority (if not all) of the Cowboys fans who were furious on social media during Sunday’s loss.
Perhaps the only bright spot for Dallas was that the failure to pull off a miraculous comeback late in the fourth quarter ensured that this loss won’t be sugarcoated. Instead, the focus will be on how Dallas got here: with a weak defense that can’t stop running plays — not to mention an offense that relies more on finesse than ever (and tends to get out of whack when trailing in games). That was all on display again for the second week in a row, when Ravens running back Derrick Henry held Dallas to 151 yards and two touchdowns.
Henry was flanked by quarterback Lamar Jackson, who threw for 182 yards and ran for another 87 yards, scoring both a passing and running touchdown. Jackson also helped the Cowboys on Baltimore’s final drive, throwing and running for two key game-ending first downs. Jackson was never sacked and was rarely under significant pressure.
It highlighted real issues the Cowboys have. Some of it is extension-related salary cap issues. Some of it is scheme-driven. Some of it is player-driven. Some of it is financial stubbornness and a lack of creativity. All of this can be attributed in some ways to ownership mistakes that happened long ago (like the missed Lamb and Prescott extensions earlier) or happened more recently (financial cuts at running back). Add in draft picks that haven’t contributed the way Dallas hoped they would (see the majority of the 2023 class), and there’s a reason certain parts of the roster feel thin and troubling. And all of this isn’t even before we get to the fit between Zimmer’s system and the players who execute it.
I don’t want to put too much weight on that last point, because it’s early days and fixable coordinator issues could linger into the middle of the season before everything comes together. But sure, the defense is a big red flag for Dallas right now, with the starting seven guys looking completely out of shape in the two straight weeks in which the Cowboys allowed a combined 464 rushing yards and six touchdowns. While it’s not exactly a Mike Nolan-era panic attack, there’s definitely something weird going on in this system. That was made clear by DeMarcus Lawrence telling reporters there’s too much “hero ball,” to which Micah Parsons responded that the players have to do their jobs. At one point on Sunday, Lawrence and Parsons were also seen having a lively discussion on the sidelines.
These things don’t come up when a system and its personnel are functioning properly. And they don’t come up when the stars of a defensive unit are able to fill in for weaknesses. Neither Lawrence nor Parsons have managed to do that two games in a row. If that continues in Thursday’s road game against the New York Giants, you can bet those defensive issues will be addressed even more.
On Sunday night, team owner Jerry Jones said it’s not a personnel problem. Or a coaching problem. Or even a spending problem — which he defended after being pressed for not courting Henry before he signed with the Ravens. Instead, Jones dismissed it all as things that still need to be worked into shape. He called it solvable problems. But make no mistake, they’re Jerry’s problems. And if they’re not solved soon, everyone will be focused on them in a season that could go by as quickly as the joy of winning Week 1.
