The Dallas Cowboys defense is not good at football. Relying on the defense would be a horrible strategy.
Nothing about the state of the defense surprises us anymore which means that capitalizing on the moments where they are successful is of the highest priority. The Cowboys did not do that against the Arizona Cardinals.
Dallas squandered the defense’s stops
On the surface it seems like the Cowboys offense did enough to win the game on Sunday. They scored 30 points, after all. But those 30 points are a little misleading. Consider that
one of the Cowboys’ touchdowns came after Shemar James returned an interception to the Arizona 5-yard line. That wasn’t a ton of work to cash in.
What we are interested in looking at here is how the offense performed in moments like that, off of stops generated by the defense. There were six in total.
In sequence:
- Cardinals Punt……………… Cowboys Turnover on Downs
- Cardinals Interception downed at Arizona 5-yard line… Cowboys TD
- Cardinals Punt………………. Cowboys TD
- Cardinals Fumble…………. Cowboys Missed Field Goal
- Cardinals Punt………………. Cowboys Punt
- Cardinals Punt (OT)………. Cowboys Punt
Of the six instances in question the Cowboys offense successfully capitalized just twice, and it only required them to travel a handful of yards as noted. What’s more is it only even happened because of a fumble recovery in the endzone after Javonte Williams had the ball pop loose.
The point here is that the Cowboys offense was given six opportunities by their defense to make the opponent pay. They hardly delivered in that respect. Their 30-point performance is a little hollow in that way, and a little might be generous.
These are the moments that you have to capitalize on in general in football, but especially when everyone understands that your defense is what the Cowboys’ is this season.
Obviously they did not and they paid the price for that.
