Every week, we gather to discuss the latest news about the Dallas Cowboys and seek our writer’s perspective on each headline. Welcome back to the roundtable. This week we have myself, David Howman, Tom
Ryle, RJ Ochoa, and Sean Martin
What went worse for the Cowboys against the Bears, the secondary, offensive line, or the lack of pressure?
Mike: The biggest culprit in Cowboys-Bears was the pass rush, or more precisely, the lack of one. Caleb Williams wasn’t sacked, Dallas mustered very little pressure, and once the pocket turned into a lounge, Chicago feasted. The lack of pressure resulted in damaging explosive plays like a 35-yard strike to Rome Odunze and a 65-yard flea-flicker to Luther Burden III. That avalanche made the secondary look worse than it truly was and the coverage busts showed up, but they were symptoms of a quarterback getting to read the paper back there.
By comparison, the offensive line was the least of Dallas’s problems but still struggled at times with two sacks and seven hits allowed, which isn’t ideal. Rank it this way, lack of pressure comes first, the secondary ranks closely behind , and offensive line comes in third. If blame is a pie, the pass rush gets the biggest slice, the secondary gets a closely sized piece and the offensive line gets the crust.
Tom: That’s a hard call to make, but just because there were so many wide open receivers, I have to go with the secondary. The lack of pressure probably contributed to that, but the lack of coverage is just egregious.
Sean: I’ll preface this by saying this week is going to be a fascinating debate in the age old pass rush vs coverage, chicken or the egg problem, because both were really poor against the Bears. As far as which was worse, I’ll go with the secondary because at least there were a few pressures at times. Still, being the first defense to never get a sack against Caleb Williams is bad, but they were rushing with players that have at least gotten sacks before. The “back of their baseball card” says they can do it over time. I don’t think there’s any stats that point to Malike Hooker and Donovan Wilson being good cover players, or what the Cowboys can do about Trevon Diggs not being able to play single man coverage reliably, so that is the bigger concern coming off this loss.
Howman: Secondary, without question. The pass rush wasn’t ideal but they looked worse because Caleb Williams had plenty of options to throw the ball quickly. Busted coverage assignments and just poor techniques were rampant all day long, and you just don’t win many games like that in the NFL.
RJ: It has to be the secondary. They got absolutely destroyed over and over and that it happened against a team who had a moribund passing game it was particularly deflating.
What positives, if there are any, do you have from last week’s game that you hope to see more this week against the Green Bay Packers?
Mike: There were some positives amid the mess against the Bears. The quick-game rhythm was crisp, the protection held up well enough to keep the ball on schedule early in the game, and the motion, play-action, and screens created some easy buttons for Dak Prescott.
Jake Ferguson found voids and made 13 receptions without a single dropped pass, Javonte Williams got downhill showing great vision and was effective with the ball despite the fumble, and penalties didn’t torpedo as many drives last week. Against the Packers, more of that same tempo and first-down efficiency is something to key in on. RPOs and screens will make Green Bay’s edges think instead of teeing off, play-action to hit seams behind the linebackers, and a steady diet of Javonte playing smart and physical will keep the pass rush from dictating the offense.
In short, keep the ball coming out on time, force Green Bay to tackle in space, and turn the “easy yards” into drive finishers.
Tom: I don’t really see any. The running game was good early, but they had to get away from it. And it isn’t going to be very useful if they are always playing from behind because the defense can’t stop a junior high school offense.
Sean: The offensive line, even with Brock Hoffman in for Cooper Beebe at center, continued to get some push in the run game even though it was a limited sample size. Dak Prescott didn’t seem as phased by Lamb going out of the game as he would have been in the past, when Dallas was more handicapped at receiver. If the defense even gives a slightly better effort against the Packers, enough to make these things matter for the offense, these are the positives they’ll have to expand on with much better intensity back home for a night game.
Howman: Outside of that one fluke fumble (my brain still refuses to believe that was legitimate), Javonte Williams is the real deal. Yep, that’s it, the only positive I’ve got.
RJ: You can count me among those who ran out of ideas after Javonte Williams. Even then he had the fumble.
We see the return of Micah Parsons this week back in AT&T Stadium. What sort of threat does he pose to the Cowboys offense and how does Dak and company find a way to win?
Mike: Cowboys fans know all too well that Micah Parsons is a one-man fire drill and his return at AT&T means snap-to-snap ambiguity for protection up front. He ruins offensive timing and makes defensive coordinators call the “don’t get sacked” section of the playbook. The path for Dak and the offense is classic early-down efficiency with quick game passing and RPOs, tempo to blunt sub packages, motion, followed with plenty of pocket movement and get the ground game running.
Tom: Kidnap him and secrete him in the Omni Hotel. I think this is going to be brutal despite the Packers losing Sunday, especially with how the pass protection looked against the Bears. I have little doubt that he was traded mainly because he didn’t want to go along with Jerry’s unethical insistence on doing a deal without Micah’s agent. He’s going to be out to prove a point.
Sean: Parsons is a game wrecking threat still. He was in Dallas, and he has shown a little more each week how he can be that player for Green Bay, I expect Prescott/Schottenheimer to have a good plan when it comes to identifying Parsons pre-snap and not having any surprises, but if this doesn’t translate to them blocking him enough to push the ball downfield and try to pile on points, it might not matter much.
Howman: I’m really curious to see how Brian Schottenheimer tries to neutralize him. The Eagles, among others, have already put up teach tape on how to do it. If he can copy that formula, it’ll be a good day. But if not, Parsons will be his usual game wrecking self.
RJ: Everything feels so bad for the Cowboys that I would not be stunned if we were in for an Adrian Clayborn-like performance from Micah. This literal match has been brewing for longer than since the time Dallas traded him. This is a show of who gets the first and loudest laugh. Generally speaking those circumstances tend to favor Cowboys opponents.
Rapid Fire Section
Bigger “revenge” game impact: Kenny Clark vs. Green Bay or Micah Parsons vs. Dallas?
Tom: Micah, no contest.
Sean: Micah Parsons, because GB has a million ways they can run away from Clark.
Howman: Micah who? Just kidding, it’s obviously Parsons.
RJ: This isn’t even kind of close.
If CeeDee Lamb is out, who becomes Dallas’s top target: George Pickens, Jake Ferguson, or KaVontae Turpin?
Tom: I think we’ve already seen it’s going to be Ferguson. They’d like to make it Pickens, but teams would rather take him away and let Ferguson try to beat them.
Sean: I think it has to be more Pickens.
Howman: Fans will hate it but Jalen Tolbert. Dak Prescott trusts him a ton.
RJ: In this world I want the Cowboys to force feed the ball to Pickens. It’s the only chance they have.
Dak Prescott passing yards over/under 268.5.
Tom: Over – until you factor in the yards lost to multiple Micah sacks.
Sean: Over.
Howman: Under, because they’ll be riding the Javonte Williams train, as they should.
RJ: Under. I’m with Howman.
Who scores first for Dallas?
Tom: Javonte Williams
Sean: Miles Sanders
Howman: Bold of you to assume they score, but… Tolbert.
RJ: I’ll take the low-hanging fruit and say Brandon Aubrey.
Cowboys sacks over/under 2.5
Tom: Under.
Sean: This might be a whole season’s worth of sacks right now. Under.
Howman: Over
RJ: Under. They might not have any.
Turnovers forced by Dallas over/under 1.5
Tom: Under
Sean: Under, hard to see Love putting the ball in harm’s way that much.
Howman: Over
RJ: Again… under. They might not have any.
Which tackle worries you the most, Tyler Guyton or Terence Steele?
Tom: Guyton
Sean: Opposing defenses seem to readily go after Steele more, so Steele.
Howman:¿Por qué no los dos?
RJ: I’ll take Steele.
Javonte Williams rushing yards over/under 76.5.
Tom: Over
Sean: Over
Howman: Over
RJ: Over.
Jake Ferguson receptions over/under 9.5.
Tom: Over
Sean: Under, as I choose to think optimistically about Lamb being ready to go.
Howman: Under
RJ: Over
Packers third-down conversion rate over/under 49.5%.
Tom: Over slightly
Sean: They’ve gone under this twice and over last week, so I’ll go with another under.
Howman: Under
RJ: Over.
