The Dallas Cowboys have just four quarters of preseason football left before their first regular season under head coach Brian Schottenheimer begins, after losing 31-13 on Saturday night from AT&T Stadium to the Baltimore Ravens. In some ways the Cowboys have taken the field this preseason as a team ready for meaningful games to begin, in the way they’ve rested key starters like usual and expect these players to give them a winning edge come opening night. In other ways though, the Cowboys have struggled
in a lot of areas that have plagued them for multiple recent seasons, and ones they’ve talked plenty about fixing without backing up that talk on the field just yet.
The Cowboys offense was mostly led by Joe Milton at quarterback again, and managed just seven first downs for the game. Dallas went 2-11 on third down and 0-2 on fourth downs and averaged only 2.6 yards per rush with Phil Mafah turning in the longest rushing play of the game for eight yards. Miles Sanders received the “lead back” reps with seven carries ahead of Deuce Vaughn’s five. The Cowboys also allowed four sacks, the first of which happened in the end zone to give the Ravens a 2-0 lead on a safety, and went 0-2 scoring touchdowns in the red zone.
Defensively, the Cowboys took the ball away twice and cashed one of them in for six on Andrew Booth’s interception return for a touchdown. Matt Eberflus’ group looked a lot more coherent at all three levels compared to preseason week one against the Rams, testing out more of their depth and making plays on the ball. The biggest concern for the Cowboys defense remains the same through two preseason games though, which is a major lack of push from the defensive interior against the run. The Ravens had blockers at the second and third level all night, keeping their offense on schedule with plus runs. The Dallas defense again looked better on the edge against the run, with some flashes in pass rush off the edge as well, but have still yet to finish with a sack from edge players in either exhibition game.
The game the Cowboys put on the field against the Ravens was a decent effort when it comes to making some progress compared to the Rams game, but in the end was even more of a glaring example of how dependent they’ll be on the top of their roster players to win this season. With their best all-around player in Micah Parsons yet to practice through training camp, the latest big name Cowboy to be swept up in contract dispute drama with the front office, this is a concerning place for the Cowboys to be now late in August.
The Cowboys will remain at home for their final tune up game against the Falcons on Friday, so before that, let’s get to a few more notes on the loss to the Ravens.
The Cowboys added another name to their potential pass rush unit in this game, as the newly-acquired veteran James Houston got in the mix early. Houston and Sam Williams had pressures on the Ravens opening drive. The Cowboys pass rush also benefited from having a deeper rotation in this game.
If the Cowboys want to maximize aggressive defensive looks by pushing players near the line of scrimmage, they will have to be able to play coverage out of them as well, and players like Shemar James, Damone Clark, Jack Sanborn (making his team debut on Saturday) working in unison with safeties Donovan Wilson, Markquese Bell, and Malik Hooker will go a long way.
It’s well-known at this point with the NFL in a 17-game regular season that teams are sacrificing early season continuity and wins/losses by not risking the players they’ll need late in the year as early as the preseason. The end of the preseason is no longer anything close to the end of teams being a work in progress, as this often carries into September games having a sloppy feel. This doesn’t mean that all phases of the game are created equal when it comes to what a team is still working through come week one, and for the Cowboys, it appears just about everything in the run game is still a work in progress from backfield to offensive line.
The Cowboys looked to establish Miles Sanders in this game, after rookie Phil Mafah led them in carries against the Rams. The choice to run Sanders out of a lot of tight and/or heavy formations was an interesting one though. Two such running plays in a backed up situation set up the third and 13 where Milton was sacked for a safety. Sanders’ longest run of the night was seven yards.
With the Cowboys having procedural penalties against the Rams, and wanting to throw the ball out of more condensed looks this year especially once they have Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and George Pickens all on the field together, perhaps the usage with Sanders here was more about Schotty getting the mental reps for his players than anything else.
Sanders’ best plays have always come out in space, be it as a rusher or a receiving back. The types of runs he got work on against the Ravens would better suit Javontae Williams, Malik Davis, or Mafah. One of the two failed fourth-down attempts the Cowboys had was a run to Sanders, with tight end John Stephens Jr. as the point of attack blocker left of Nate Thomas. Not only was it a tough spot for Sanders to make the first down, but also a spot where the Cowboys may look to other tight ends like Luke Schoonmaker or Brevyn Spann-Ford to execute the same block.
The Cowboys approach to running the ball has seemingly not been sorted out yet, and will likely be the number one item to pay attention to going into the Falcons game. First-round pick Tyler Booker did suit up for the first time against the Ravens, and looked comfortable at right guard, exploding out of his stance in run blocking to get on defenders quickly and use his leverage.
The Cowboys didn’t just find out more about their depth at linebacker defensively in this game, they also got some positive reps at cornerback, a spot they’ll be relying on depth for early this year. Andrew Booth’s pick six was the highlight from this group, coming out of single coverage and another pre-snap pressure look on third and long. It was the exact type of play from start to finish the Cowboys are looking to build this defense around, which may remind fans of the way this defense was under Dan Quinn (with similar concerns about the run defense being an unwanted comparison).
Dallas also saw trade acquisition Kair Elam have another strong game, as well as UDFA Zion Childress. The first year player out of Kentucky has come out of nowhere to insert himself into a potential big role for the Cowboys defense as a slot defender. Childress has great recovery ability in coverage to turn his hips and use his quick feet to rally to the ball, and contests at the catch point with good length. The Cowboys conceded plenty of short passes in this game to Cooper Rush for the sake of keeping the ball in front of them, something they’ll have to continue to do while hoping their pass rush can begin to make more of an impact.
One other great example of the Cowboys not executing a play where they can still be encouraged by the process of it came on an incompletion to Jalen Cropper. The Cowboys had three vertical routes on the same side of the field, with TE Luke Schoonmaker running a great seam route up to the deep safety. The outside defender for the Ravens looked to pass off Cropper’s route to this same safety before taking away the shorter pass, leaving Cropper open on a ball Milton roped to him with his usual fastball approach.
Cropper let the ball bounce off of his hands for a drop, stalling the drive. This is still a concept the Cowboys can bookmark as one to come back to, as it’s easy to see how different personnel can yield a much different result. Whether it’s Jake Ferguson in place of Schoonmaker or Lamb, Pickens, KaVontae Turpin, or Jalen Tolbert in place of Cropper, the Cowboys are teasing a lot of their big-play potential without results so far this preseason, expecting the results to come from their more dynamic receivers.
