It’s week 17 of the NFL season and the 4-11 Washington Commanders will be facing a 6-8-1 Dallas Cowboys team at home at Northwest Stadium on Christmas Day (Thursday) at 1:00 pm EDT. The Cowboys have been a lot of fun to watch most weeks, with one of the highest-scoring offenses in the NFL and a defense that allows some of the most points scored in the NFL.
On offense, the Cowboys are coached by OC and run-game designer Klayton Adams, as well as HC and playcaller Brian Schottenheimer. Adams was previously
the OL coach of the Arizona Cardinals and coached the Cardinals up to the 4th-most rushing yards in 2023 and 7th-most rushing yards in 2024. The combo of Adams and Schottenheimer have designed an offense in Dallas that utilizes a lot of play action, a lot of pre-snap motion, heavy use of tempo, and a very conscious effort to ensure run and pass plays start with the same looks. The result has been an offense that has generated the 2nd-most yards and 5th-most points in the NFL and has revitalized the careers of RB Javonte Williams and WR George Pickens.
On defense, the Cowboys are coached by DC Matt Eberflus, former HC of the Chicago Bears and former DC of the Colts. Eberflus is known for running a Cover 2 zone defense that rushes 4, but has switched things up since last playing the Commanders, going from the 12-lowest blitz rate in the league to the 10th-highest blitz rate and playing considerably more man coverage. The Cowboys have also shored up their DL since our last matchup, trading a 1st and 2nd round pick to the Jets for star DT Quinnen Williams. Despite the changes, the Cowboys have remained one of NFL’s worst defenses, ranked 3rd-worst by yards allowed and 2nd-worst by points allowed. In addition to poor play, the Cowboys defense has been characterized by sloppy play, and are tied with the Giants in allowing the most penalty yards to opponents in the NFL.
I asked David Halprin of Blogging the Boys five questions to better understand the state of the Cowboys and what to look for in this game.
1) What are the biggest things that have changed for the Cowboys since the last time they faced the Commanders?
From an overall standpoint, we now know what kind of team this actually is in 2025. Back in the first meeting, it was really hard to tell where the season was going to go for Dallas. We had won some games, played close or tied in others against what were supposed to be better teams, and we also lost a game we thought we should have won. So overall, we were a little confused as to what kind of team we were – contender, pretender, something in between? Everything was still possible at that point. Now, we know that we are pretenders and that our defense is historically bad. So that feels like the overall takeaway.
On the field, we got Quinnen Williams in a trade and he is as advertised. He will be a big problem for the NFC East over the next couple of seasons. But even he couldn’t lift this defense from its awful production, and everything else is still pretty similar. CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens are the attack, with Dak Prescott putting up productive stats. The run game has slowed a bit, but the offense can still put up points. But the defense is just as likely to give them right back to the opposition.
2) Overall, what do you think of the Brian Schottenheimer regime in Dallas and do you think this coaching staff has what it takes to win a Lombardi if they just fill in some gaps on the roster?
I think Brian Schottenheimer has done a pretty good job in what has been a chaotic season for the Cowboys. He’s had to deal with a few major issues like the Micah Parsons trade and the tragedy of Marshawn Kneeland, but he seemed to hold the locker room together and has the respect of the players. He also did a good job of hiring the offensive staff and updating that side of the ball for the modern game. He’s still finding his footing as a play-caller and hopefully will become a little more unpredictable next year. It was unfortunate that he was saddled with a defensive coordinator in Matt Eberflus who probably was chosen by Jerry Jones. Eberflus had a lot of respect in Dallas from previous accomplishments, but his defense this year tanked Schottenheimer’s rookie year. Overall, there’s a lot of promise in what Schottenheimer has done so far.
As for the coaching staff being able to win a Lombardi, that feels impossible to project. Most of them we’ve only seen for one season, and so much of coaching success depends on the roster anyway.
3) Looking back on it, how would you grade Dallas’s free agent signings and player trades, both in the offseason and during the season? When healthy, is this roster better than it was a year ago?
As always, these things are a mixed bag. The free agent signing of Javonte Williams was a big hit as he has been a consistent force on the ground and he excels at pass protection. The trade for linebacker Kenneth Murray was a big whiff, as was cornerback Kaiir Elam. The Cowboys struck gold when they traded for George Pickens, now they just need to get him re-signed over the offseason. Of course the big trade was Micah Parsons, and while I am never a fan of trading away someone as talented as that, we did end up after some maneuvering with Quinnen Williams and an extra first-round pick. So if they hit on that extra first-rounder, it may turn out to be an okay thing. The Cowboys had a bad defense last year, and they have an even worse one this year. Even with the injuries, it was still a dropoff on that side of the ball.
4) What are the early returns on the Cowboys 2025 draft class?
Guard Tyler Booker is the real deal. He looks like he has the potential to be a fixture on the line for a long time. There is really nothing about his game that is deficient and he should only get better as he settles in as a veteran. Edge Donovan Ezieruaku has a ton of potential and has had times when he looked really good this year. He is not consistent enough yet in his play, and he really needs to start turning some of those pressures into sacks once he gets a decent secondary to play with that forces the QB to hold the ball a little longer. Corner Shavon Revel was hurt in his last year of college so we’ve only seen him in the second part of the season. He is also flashing some potential with his size and athleticism, but is still going through growing pains as QBs have been targeting him lately. Beyond that, no other rookie really showed out in terms of being a starter in the future. We’ll give them a second year to see if anyone makes that sophomore leap.
5) What offseason moves do you most want to see the Cowboys make? How far away are they from being true Super Bowl contenders?
The Cowboys have to revamp their secondary and their linebacker group, along with re-signing George Pickens. Dallas is likely to spend a lot of their early draft picks and use free agency and trades to fix the back seven on defense. They really need playmakers over there and except for a few players like DeMarvion Overshown, DaRon Bland and Shavon Revel, we are probably looking at a lot of new faces back there. We are pretty devoid of overall talent at that part of the roster.
As for Super Bowl contenders? Who knows. I mean just look at you guys. 4-13 in 2023. 12-5 in 2024 and in the NFC Conference Championship. The Jaguars were 4-13 last year, they are 11-4 this year. So who knows, you can be an overnight success, or can’t get there at all.
I don’t believe BtB is planning to do their own Q&A this week, so there will be no companion article to this one.
Thanks again to David Halprin for taking time out of his day to answer our questions about the Cowboys.
