The Dallas Cowboys hit a new low Thursday night.
They were a half-yard away from falling behind 31-10 in the fourth quarter. Against an 0-4 team. At home. Before the eyes of the whole country. Luckily, Todd Bowles decided to go for a 4th and goal on this one instead of kicking a field goal to go up by three scores.
This team is now 2-3 with 10 days to prepare for a bad Green Bay Packers team next Sunday night. The unfortunate truth? The Packers probably feel the same way about Dallas.
Brian Schottenheimer said after the game that he was going to evaluate everything, which should open the door for more personnel changes and adjustments. This process has to start with Schottenheimer looking in the mirror, but we’ll give the Cowboys head coach a helping hand.
7 changes the Cowboys need to consider to get their season back on track
1. Start Cobie Durant, bench DaRon Bland
Bland set the bar incredibly low for expectations through the first four games, and he somehow lowered it on Thursday. He was the closest defender during two grueling moments for the Cowboys defense.
First, he lost his footing on a deep post route from Tez Johnson. He slipped again on a 3rd-and-21 conversion against Emeka Egbuka. Say what you want about Christian Parker making everyone cringe. Bland needs to know not to retreat behind the line to win after the snap. Once Jalon Daniels let it rip, Bland lost his footing trying to snap the ball.
And to make it a trio, Bland dropped a gift-wrapped pick six with the Cowboys trailing by eight with just under four minutes left in regulation. Daniels telegraphed the pass, Bland jumped it and dropped the ball.
Bland could have erased a lot of his wrongdoing if he had brought this home. If he can no longer hold up in coverage, the pick-six king can’t give up routine interceptions either. He’s paid to make a difference, but he shouldn’t be on the field at this point.
The former All-Pro is expected to be benched once Cobie Durant returns from his hamstring injury. For the sake of Dallas, it better be next Sunday night in Green Bay.
2. Jake Ferguson Bench
Will Ferguson’s bench save the season? Maybe not. What we do know, however, is that he did more harm than good for this offense.
Ferguson dropped two more passes against the Buccaneers, and both were huge momentum shifts.
The first came on 1st-and-10 from the Tampa 27 with less than a minute left in the second quarter. Playing the pretend game is always tricky, but Dallas’ offense would have been in the red zone with a chance to take a 14-7 lead while burning the rest of the way. At the very least, he cost the Cowboys three points on the scoreboard.
Ferguson’s second fall sounded the death knell. Trailing 24-16 at the end of the fourth, Dak Prescott looked at his tight end on 2nd and 1 against the Bucs 24. Prescott stayed calm in a collapsing pocket and fired a strike that hit Ferguson’s hands and ricocheted off his helmet, setting up an easy interception for Alex Anzalone.
Failure became a recurring theme for Ferguson. He doesn’t block well. He fumbles more than any other tight end in the NFL. And now he’s not doing what he’s paid to do: catching the ball. What is its redeeming quality? Being Dak’s best friend? He probably cost this team two games this season.
Ferguson must take a back seat to Brevyn Spann-Ford and, yes, Luke Schoonmaker, starting next week against the Packers.
3. Give Malachi Lawrence more shots
My God. How bad was the Edge Room this year? Rashan Gary doesn’t give you anything, and Donovan Ezeiruaku might just be a good passer who can’t finish. He has five missed tackles in as many games, according to Pro Football Focus. This makes up for all his rushed victories.
It’s time to release Malachi Lawrence, who has been the team’s best passer. He had some impressive wins Thursday night, including an eventual sack without a holding penalty. He eventually returned home to check a bag that had originally been given to Ezeiruaku.
Lawrence struggled to finish. He has four missed tackles this year. You can tolerate this from a beginner.
What’s not explainable, however, is that he played in 27 of 72 games against the Buccaneers. Dallas’ defensive front made little to no impact. He desperately needs a quick pass, and Lawrence is the only one to provide it consistently.
Whether it’s Gary or Ezeiruaku, Lawrence needs to start playing more. Damn the recruits. The Cowboys aren’t getting enough from their veterans to justify keeping Lawrence on the sidelines.
4. Better preparation for lightning defenses
For whatever reason, the Cowboys offensive line had trouble handling the stunts. And, unusually, Dak Prescott was hit or miss during the blitz.
Prescott struggled with that in the first half against Houston, and it shook him again Thursday night after he led the offense to a touchdown on his first possession. The 33-year-old QB deserves some responsibility. It was clear he was pressuring and couldn’t see the pitch well.
However, Brian Schottenheimer waited too long to change the game plan. One of the main reasons the Cowboys were able to get back into the game late was because they countered Tampa’s blitzes with quick passes, primarily a heavy dose of slants to George Pickens and Ryan Flournoy.
Blitzing inherently moves defenders away from the middle of the field. However, in the first half, we saw far too many route concepts that took time to develop. Loops, deep crossovers and other slow-developing patterns. These are not built to punish blitzing.
If a defense is going to send extra rushers, the Cowboys need to have answers that get the ball out of Prescott’s hands quickly. Even with CeeDee Lamb on the sidelines, the offense looked unstoppable once Schottenheimer leaned into the fast-paced game.
Preparation during the week needs to be better.
5. Bring back Caleb Downs to nickel
To be fair to Christian Parker, his hands have been tied in the last two games. Having lost several key secondary players, Parker opted to move Downs to safety to move Markquese Bell off the field. That, in turn, propelled Reddy Steward into the nickel. After two games, it’s clear that Steward is worse in the slot than Bell is at safety.
According to NFL Pro, Steward allows 2.89 yards per coverage snap. That’s 112th out of 114 qualified cornerbacks.
Downs is not a locked-in slot player five games into his career. But his presence is absolutely necessary around the line of scrimmage. We welcome sending pressure, but what will blitzing a 178-pound CB accomplish? Downs outweighs Steward by almost 30 pounds.
The budding rookie is more than capable at safety, but he will make his biggest impact as closer to the football. Even if PJ Locke isn’t ready for Week 6, Downs needs to return to play in the slot. Steward is chased by opposing attacks and he kills this defense.
6. More aggression, less passivity from Christian Parker
To say that the Christian Parker rose no longer blooms would be an understatement. Thursday night was considered a breakout game for their defense, and they had their worst performance of the season, allowing more than 400 total offensive yards to an undrafted rookie quarterback.
Parker needs to take his don’t break it and put it in a locker approach. The decision to only rush four on the 3rd-and-21 conversion in the third quarter was indefensible. He put everyone in coverage, and everything was covered except for the lone receiver, Emeka Egbuka, who was on the slot line when Jalon Daniels released the ball.
The Cowboys DC needs to start being more aggressive. Send pressure. Call for more man coverage, even if he doesn’t fully trust his corners to hold up.
At this point, it’s better to go down swing rather than sit and bleed yourself dry for 8-12 rounds of each drive. These possessions eat up time and keep Dak Prescott on the sidelines, which is the exact opposite of what this team needs.
7. Demote Von Miller and play James Houston
It’s hard to say that making a change at the bottom of a rotation will have a seismic impact, but Von Miller doesn’t give you anything. His passing juice is gone and teams are starting to chase him in the running game. The Bucs had great success wherever Miller lined up.
James Houston may not give you much in terms of defining the edge, but he at least has a full tank as a passer. At this point, he’s a marked improvement over Miller.
Miller said before the season that he was first made a mentor.
“They pay me, and my contract is to be the locker room guy.”
It certainly looks like it. And while there’s certainly something to be said for having a future Hall of Famer coaching the youth, the Cowboys need production first and foremost.
At some point, Miller’s mentorship and cheering can’t make up for what happens on Sunday. Houston can’t continue to watch from the sideline while Miller gets 10-20 snaps and basically does nothing with them.
Add us as your favorite source on GoogleFollow
Gn sports
