As things wore on for the Dallas Cowboys throughout training camp, new defensive coordinator stuck within a theme of academia.
He referred to the earlier part of the offseason, things like OTAs, as the undergraduate program for the defense, from a learning perspective obviously. He followed that up by saying that training camp was akin to a master’s program. Philosophically, the analogy made sense.
In the lead up to Week 1 and the first formal work for the group, Parker was asked what that worked out
to within his analogy. He said that Sunday night against the New York Giants was walking the graduation stage.
I’m not so sure that the Cowboys received any kind of diplomas at MetLife Stadium in their 28-20 loss.
Consider that the Giants scored a touchdown to start the game, and then followed it up with a punt and fumble. To be fair that fumble came after they picked up 65 yards.
But then the Giants scored three touchdowns in a row that just about put the game on ice. One came to end the first half, another to start the second, and then the third to ice things midway through the fourth quarter.
It felt like the Cowboys found out while waiting in line to walk that they actually didn’t have the grades to graduate.
Christian Parker was afforded an enormous amount of optimism and trust over the offseason. To be clear, he could still wind up being the answer. One game does not make anything.
But the first outing for this new-look defense felt a lot like all of them for the group that they are trying to replace, one of the worst defenses in franchise history. Unfortunately it felt like more of the same, the same failing grades where the bare minimum of passing felt so far out of reach.
Maybe Parker and company will turn things around over their version of summer school? The analogy is difficult to build on at this point because nobody expected this. Nobody expected more of the same.
How did this possibly happen?
