1 week Ago
FRISCO — The Dallas Cowboys have fallen flat at home in consecutive weeks. Abysmal starts have buried this team six feet deep within the first 30 minutes. Somehow, they nearly crawled their way out of that hole Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens, but a deceptive finish does not tell the full story of a struggling offense and a woefully incapable defense.
Surely the team would like more consistent results through the air and the run game has offered essentially nothing through three games. However, the crux of the Cowboys' issues remain on the defensive side, specifically in stopping the run. Tony Fisher Last week, Alvin Kamara and the Saints ripped this group to shreds with 190 rushing yards.
Sunday, that effort somehow looked worse with the Ravens posting 274 total rushing yards behind a 151-yard effort from Derrick Henry. For defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, the issues stem from players not buying into the game plan. “Having a game plan but not following into the game plan — it is just small things.
Once we get out of playing little league football and get back to playing pro football, we'll be all right.” However this team has prepared, it seemed at times there was no game plan. In reality, "Tank's" comments merely protect the truth of what has become apparent in the last three weeks: the Cowboys do not have any "pro football" players at the front of their defensive line.
Countered Tank teammate Micah Parsons, however: "Right now, we just got people trying to be Superman. People just gotta own their jobs. We don’t need any Supermans.
We just need 11 guys playing together.” Hmm. There's a conflict.
One defensive leader thinks Dallas is doing too little ...
and the other thinks Dallas is doing too much. So it's "Strategy'' vs. "Superman.
'' Related: 'We're F****** Little League!' Tank Trashes Team At certain moments, Dallas' defense resembles a high school junior varsity squad getting reps against the varsity starting offense. Players are blocked and turned in such a decisive manner at the point of attack. Surely an entirely new defensive scheme under incoming boss Mike Zimmer projected some growing pains at the start of the season and a certain margin would provide room for understanding.
But 274 yards zips past that threshold and becomes a simply unacceptable mark for a "pro football" team. Regardless, the root of this issue traces back to the offseason where the higher ups refused to address the talent deprivation and inability to stop the run defensively. Right now, there is no evidence that this group has the capacity to turn things around.
...
and really, it's pretty hard to find evidence of answers to the question when the team's stars can't even agree on what the question is..
