After a last-second loss to the Carolina Panthers in Week 6 off a game-winning field goal, the Dallas Cowboys fell to 2-3-1 despite another great game from Dak Prescott, who threw for 261 yards and three touchdowns, including one of them to new star weapon George Pickens.
The defense continued to have difficulty stopping the Panthers, just like the rest of their previous opponents, allowing 30 points for the fourth time out of six games.
Obviously, defense was going to be a reasonable concern for the team, especially after deciding to move on from four-time Pro Bowler and former Defensive Rookie of the Year, Micah Parsons, after disputes about a new contract with long-term Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
A move like this was shocking to many around the sports world, who thought the Cowboys were trending in the right direction after improving the offense with the Pickens trade. It seemed like a no-brainer that Parsons would end up getting taken care of, and the team would roll the dice on another year with the same core plus a young star addition.
However, once the massive trade happened, the team was left with questions that only became more urgent and remained unanswered as defense continued to be America’s team’s Achilles heel.
The reason comes from the lack of pass rush, which, according to Jerry Jones, was not considered a significant issue for the Cowboys. However, it has statistically proven to be a primary catalyst for why they can’t get stops when it matters and has arguably led to all three of their losses.
Although the defense has been bad, not all the league-wide stats support this. The Cowboys actually rank inside the top ten for pressure rate, but they have allowed quarterbacks the fourth-longest average time to throw, meaning that all pressure has not resulted in good pressure.
2.9 seconds may not appear to be a lot of time to many non-athletes, but in the football world, that is unacceptable for any decent quarterback in the league to be able to make a good decision.
Much like many experts thought, Dallas’s offense has not been a concern. However, even in a time when scoring points is the more exciting aspect of the game, defense is still a big difference between winning and losing.
Regardless of how many superb performances Prescott and his star receivers have had throughout the season, they will only be wasted if the defense can’t buckle down, get into the opposing teams’ backfield, and create some turnovers.