Dallas City News

It was a rough one for the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. After such a convincing win in the opener, they were brought back down to earth with a 44-19 trouncing courtesy of the New Orleans Saints. The only thing worse than sitting through that game is sitting through it twice, which is what we’ve done in an attempt to gain a better understanding of what went wrong. We know the defense was bad, we know the offense settled for too many field goals, but was it really that bad the second time around? Yes. Yes, it was. Let’s see what we can gain after further review.

THE SAINTS WENT MARCHING ON

Everything the Saints’ offense wanted to do against the Cowboys’ defense, they did it. There was little resistance. The Saints exploited them in the running game and they exploited them in the passing game. Each drive looked worse than the last. It was terrible.

What makes it more unappealing is that the Cowboys’ defense wasn’t even really close to stopping the Saints. New Orleans blocked extremely well at the line of scrimmage and into the second level. The Saints line overpowered the Cowboys’ “new and improved” nose tackles and walked them back into the secondary. Upon another look, it was embarrassing.

The PFF grades for the Cowboys defensive tackles were let’s say, less than impressive.

• Mazi Smith = 30.3
• Osa Odighizuwa = 29.6
• Linval Joseph = 29.2
• Jordan Phillips = 26.1

We didn’t see a whole lot of the free agent big boys last week, but what we saw against the Saints wasn’t pretty. Should the Cowboys consider hitting the reset and putting a help wanted sign out in front of The Star? Last week, things seemed fine, but it was only one game. This week, the sky is falling, but it’s only two games. It’s hard to know where this team truly stands along the interior defensive line, but it’s certainly unnerving for a fanbase who has watched them struggle to stop the run for the last several years.

Credit the Saints blockers for great execution and getting into the second level. Unlike last week, the Cowboys’ linebackers did not have clean shots on the ball carriers.

And it wasn’t like the Saints were pulling off any crafty play designs. It was their strength and execution against the Cowboys, and the Cowboys were severely outmatched.

It’s hard to know what this means for the Cowboys defense. Some will point to a lackluster effort, others will point to being out-schemed. Head coach Mike McCarthy stated in the press conference Monday that the Saints were just quicker to the first punch. They weren’t handling things in the trenches and it put more pressure on their second-level defenders. Now, the question is, how fixable is this? Does the team need reinforcements or can this be cleaned up by better schemes and technique adjustments? Now, we’ll just wait and see how Mike Zimmer’s group responds.

DAK DIDN’T HAVE IT EASY

The defense was atrocious, but things weren’t rosy on offense. The Cowboys moved the ball okay in the first half but had trouble closing the deal. The Saints didn’t fear the Cowboys rushing attack and many times just sat extra defenders at the sticks creating a lot of congestion for Dak Prescott.

It was quite contrasting to when the Saints had the ball…

There wasn’t a lot of creativity in the Cowboys’ rushing attack. The running space was minimal and they left their running backs to figure things out for themselves.

Nothing the Cowboys tried came with any level of surprise and seldom had enough blockers to help give their ball carriers a fighting chance.

Of course, Dak wasn’t perfect by any means. Tom Brady commented multiple times about Prescott not putting enough on the throws and there were multiple instances where he was just a bit off with his accuracy.