The Dallas Cowboys defense continues to improve, but is still not good enough. Let’s take a look at how they performed this week.
Team stats allowed
Against the Ravens, the Cowboys defense allowed four touchdowns (two rush, two pass) and two field goals.
They gave up 186 yards through the air and 192 yards on the ground, totaling 378 yards on the day.
The defense allowed a 136.7 passer rating to Lamar Jackson and 5.1 yards per carry average to the Ravens on the ground.
In the redzone, the Ravens were four-of-six. Early
in the fourth quarter, Jaishawn Barham led the assault on a goal line stand, tackling Derrick Henry for minus three yards.
Individual stat leaders
Markquese Bell finished with eight total tackles on the day, the most on the defense.
Jaishawn Barham led the team with two tackles for loss.
Alijah Clark was the only player on the day with a pass breakup.
The team finished again with zero sacks with twelve total pressures. Von Miller led the team with three pressures on the quarterback.
Advanced analytics
The defense allowed a +0.13 EPA/play against the Ravens paired with a 50% success rate.
They had their best day on third down of the season. Parker’s unit surrendered only three first downs on third down all day (3-of-9). The 33% conversion rate put Dallas in the top ten in this important category for the week. They also surrendered zero fourth-down conversions on the day (0-for-2). I cannot overstate how impressive this is considering the offense they faced and their lack of success in this realm through the first two weeks.
How’d the rookies look?
If they didn’t understand before, the NFL now knows who Jaishawn Barham is. The rookie looked across the line of scrimmage at Derrick Henry and saw an opportunity to prove himself to the world. Barham was responsible for multiple short-yardage stops including tackles for loss at the goal line. The young linebacker was a major reason why Dallas was in this game until the clock expired. The Barham stock is skyrocketing as he continues to make huge plays at key moments.
Caleb Downs had another solid performance this week versus the Ravens. He was involved in short-yardage stops behind the line of scrimmage alongside Barham and second-year edge Donovan Ezeiruaku. He continues to be a chess piece that Parker can utilize all over the field. It will be interesting to see if he’s reserved to more of a pure safety role this week if Dallas is without multiple starters on the backend.
Malachi Lawrence was nearly invisible this week. The rookie did have three total tackles, one solo. Lawrence still holds onto an elite pass rush win rate on the season, but this defense desperately needs him to figure out how to turn those into sacks.
LT Overton was utilized as a rotational piece behind the starting trio up front. He didn’t have many warts but didn’t do much to notice either. He was involved late on one goal line stop.
Final grade: C+
The Cowboys defense was the best unit on the field. “But they allowed the Ravens put up 34 points on them,” you say. This is where context matters.
When the Ravens assumed possession of the football off of a kick return or punt, the Dallas defense gave up just 24 points. We can call those “natural possessions”. That’s a completely acceptable number. However when you add in the three extra possessions given to the Ravens through two turnovers (downs, fumble) and a blocked field goal, that’s where the extra ten points come into play.
To zoom in further on those three events, the Dallas defense took to the field at their own 44, the Baltimore 23 and the Baltimore 41. The two possessions near mid-field resulted in ten points while the Jake Ferguson fumble at the Baltimore 23 resulted in a punt. That’s commendable considering the field position and the fact that this defense is extremely banged up.
And when you look at the offensive and special teams, those units left between 14-18 points on the field. Two goal line possessions resulting in a total of six points, the Ferguson fumble in field goal (possibly touchdown) range, and the blocked field goal. That’s the perfect formula to lose a game. Yet at the end, the team was still in it in the end thanks to multiple short-yardage stops by the defense, ending drives and keeping points off the board.
The most impressive and insane improvement for this defense was their third- and fourth-down performance. This was an area the defense struggled with mightily through the first two weeks. If you told me that the Ravens would only have three first downs between third and fourth down on the day, I’d say the Dallas Cowboys would win by multiple scores. And that very well should have been the case if the offense had not sacrificed points.
The defense did not have to let up the touchdown drive towards the end of the fourth quarter. They did not have to let Zay Flowers run uncovered resulting in the game-winning kick. And to be clear, the defense was great – they may not even have been good. But if we’re comparing units, when you look at the 14-18 points left on the field by the offense, the turnovers, the amount of times the defense stood tall and held up on third and fourth down – this unit finally showed up to play.
The defense gave the team a chance multiple times throughout the game and that’s all we’ve asked for since the beginning of 2025. This included back-to-back Ravens drives in the fourth quarter that resulted in a turnover on downs and a punt. And they were doing all of this while missing so many players due to injury.
The offense had the ability with just over seven minutes in the game go to down the field and put the game away. And they went three-and-out. That’s unacceptable for the “Greatest Offense There Is” when this growing defense successfully puts the ball in their hands to win.
Their efforts in short-yardage situations, goal line stands and their third/fourth-down performance earns them a C+ on the week. When considering all of the context above, the defense did their job. Now the injuries are beginning to mount, especially in the secondary, but this unit has continued to grow each week. We’ll see if the trend continues versus the Houston Texans this week.
