Dallas City News

The final score from AT&T Stadium on Sunday was not all that indicative of how the Baltimore Ravens forced the issue against the Dallas Cowboys en route to building a 28-6 fourth quarter lead and holding on to win 28-25. For much of the afternoon, it was a position that is becoming head-scratchingly familiar for the Cowboys playing at home, as their last three opponents have had no problem taking the home team completely out of their rhythm and dictating the game while building a big lead.

The playoff loss to the Packers was supposed to be the catalyst for this Cowboys team to learn their lessons and field a more legitimate contender coming into 2024. There were plenty of things fans were hoping to see early on from this team though, but each loss runs the added risk of creating real disconnects, and so far the results have not been there.

The Cowboys won’t have their normal week to break down every nuance of what went wrong against the Ravens, they travel to play the New York Giants on Thursday night, and perhaps this is for the best as their issues are more internal at the moment. It doesn’t take long to browse over the Cowboys’ stat sheets and starting lineups to see that they’ve hardly learned their lesson in several key areas that have held them back before, and are already doing so here in 2024. What were these areas, and how are the Cowboys falling short so far this year? Let’s refresh the memory.

Goal: Get big production from draft picks needing to play right away

In the NFL, a team with any hopes of going anywhere has to be a different team in December than they were in September, and so on. The speed of the game has never been higher and adjustments must be made at this top speed to remain competitive. The Cowboys simply did not do this a year ago, coming out of the gates hot but not having much room to continue growing throughout the year. By the time the playoffs came around, this team clearly lacked an extra gear, and they caught a Green Bay Packers team that had been fighting for their playoff hopes for weeks ready for a different type of game than Dallas prepared for.

A huge part of the reason the Cowboys did not develop as a better team throughout the year was because they got virtually nothing from their entire rookie class. For a team that continued to sit on their hands through much of free agency and the trade market, draft picks are going to have to hit early and get on the field, but the 2023 class did not do this. Mazi Smith was not productive in the defensive tackle rotation, Luke Schoonmaker was hurt and had a minimal role behind Jake Ferguson, Demarvion Overshown tore his ACL, Villiami Fehoko was a developmental guy, and fifth- through seventh-round picks Asim Richards, Eric Scott, Deuce Vaughn, and Jalen Brooks were all hardly on the field if at all.

How did the Cowboys learn this lesson coming into the current season? They once again sat out most of free agency, counting on some of these draft picks to effectively be the new players that could help them. So far, only Smith is regularly seeing the field at DT while Fehoko and Scott aren’t even on the roster. Furthermore, they are relying on two rookie draft picks on the offensive line with Tyler Guyton and Cooper Beebe. Marshawn Kneeland looks like a potential nice piece to the defensive line, but right now is being asked to play too many snaps for a rotation that looks lost when they have to string together plays and not just put their best pass rushers on the field to get off quickly. Both Marist Liufau and Caelen Carson have stepped into a new Mike Zimmer coordinated defense admirably, but their share of good plays have come with expected rookie struggles as well.

Somehow, this Cowboys team feels even more dependent on young talent despite needing to be “all in” to keep this thing from a near full-on rebuild in the years to come. If their bet is to lose ground early while these young players develop, the Cowboys patience will be tested as Sunday saw them become the basement dwellers of the NFC East. The Eagles held the same Saints team that scored 44 against the Cowboys to 12 in a road win, and this week’s opponent, the Giants, beat the Browns in Cleveland – the site of Dallas’ only win so far.

Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images

Goal: Get bigger and better against the run at defensive tackle

In each of the last two weeks, the Cowboys have looked noticeably weak at defensive tackle. When mentioning positions they could have upgraded in the offseason but did not, the Cowboys get the slightest possible pass here because just before the season they did try to shake things up by signing Linval Joseph and trading for Jordan Phillips.

However, when’s the last time any team in the NFL felt great about a position group where players expected to produce were added at the end of August and September?

The Cowboys cut rookie seventh-rounder Justin Rogers despite a strong preseason to make sure Phillips and Joseph would see the field, but now have just Joseph who’s looked past his prime as Phillips is on IR. As mentioned, Mazi Smith is still looking to salvage a 2023 draft class, and did flash a few times against the Ravens, but has a long way to go in being the player the Cowboys need him to be against the run inside.

The Cowboys have not had a lot of success in transitioning defenses under Mike McCarthy, and right now this is a defense with the personnel to still be at their best running the sub looks that previous DC Dan Quinn utilized. The formations under Zimmer may give off the illusion that they’re better prepared to handle the run with numbers committed to the line of scrimmage, but the defensive tackles have not been good enough on a regular basis for to make this scheme work in the front seven.

Goal: Establish a running back by committee approach

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images

Another area the Cowboys were supposed to potentially earn praise this season was their rethought approach to the running back position. Tony Pollard was inconsistent as a number one back a year ago, as the Cowboys saw his best games come previously in a tandem with Ezekiel Elliott. Dallas opted to fully lean into the running back by committee approach, bringing back Elliott to join Rico Dowdle and Deuce Vaughn.

The moves in the backfield put the Cowboys firmly in the “stick anyone back there” school of thought towards running the ball, which is a drastic change of philosophy from how they normally prioritize this part of the offense. The problem is, where four of the current six NFL rushing leaders are in their first year with new teams like Derrick Henry, J.K. Dobbins, Saquon Barkley, and Josh Jacobs. The Cowboys only outside addition to the backfield is Elliott with 16 carries for 56 yards.

The Cowboys at absolute worst need a player that opposing defenses have to actually prepare for, and are right in thinking that a committee can give them this as opposed to one bell cow, but they built their committee in a way that presents such a little threat to defenses right now.

The team made a clear commitment to Dak Prescott as their quarterback before the season, but the pressure has arguably never been higher on his right arm to carry this offense. If the run game can’t find some serious answers moving forward without much of a coherent blocking scheme at the point of attack, or back that can make defenders miss and be a difference maker, Prescott will have to play hero ball.

At the end of the day, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that this current 2024 Cowboys team is struggling. They are clearly staring down some of the same issues that have handicapped them in recent seasons, and doing so with McCarthy coaching for his job but not equipped to overcome these recurring issues. The fight and resolve of the team was called into question for much of Sunday’s second straight loss to the Ravens, but the Cowboys answered some of this with a fourth quarter rally to get within three. They proved this is a team with enough experienced players at the positions that matter most to not lay down, and hopefully can still use NFC East play as a way to get right starting Thursday, but it may not matter if in-season solutions for the issues listed here cannot be found.

The Cowboys simply aren’t a very good football team that inspires a lot of confidence right now, and have nobody to blame but themselves for the way it’s manifested in a 1-2 start being outscored 72-44 at home.