- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 120,345
By Jon Machota Sep 27, 2020
The Dallas secondary was expected to be a weakness entering the season. The group then lost starting cornerbacks Chidobe Awuzie and Anthony Brown to the injured reserve list. Earl- season MVP frontrunner Russell Wilson was supposed to have his share of success Sunday at CenturyLink Field.
What wasn’t expected was the back end of Dallas’ defense looking as lost at times as it did the previous week against Atlanta. Blown coverages again led to several wide-open touchdown passes for Wilson en route to a 38-31 Seahawks win.
“People are not supposed to run wide open,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said. “That’s what Mondays are for. We’ll take a hard look at it.”
Wilson’s first of five touchdown throws went to a wide-open Tyler Lockett for 43 yards midway through the first quarter. He should have scored a second long TD six minutes later, but rookie cornerback Trevon Diggs snuck up behind Seahawks wide receiver D.K. Metcalf to knock the ball out of his hands at the one-yard line. Instead of a 62-yard touchdown, Dallas got the ball back on a touchback.
But the wide-open touchdowns weren’t done. Lockett scored his third of the first half with seven seconds left in the second quarter on another play where no defender was near him on a crossing route in the back of the end zone, this time from only one yard out.
“In the past, the Cowboys were a single-high (safety), predominantly zone coverage team,” Troy Aikman pointed out on the FOX broadcast after Lockett’s third score. “Mike Nolan has come in, and they give a lot of different looks. They have different looks in their blitz packages, they give different looks in coverages, they try to disguise those looks and that’s good. That’s good if you do that, and it’s harder then for a quarterback when you don’t know for sure what you’re getting. But you still have to execute. That’s what it comes down to. And if the volume is creating confusion, then that’s not so good.”
On the play that ended up being the game-winning score, Metcalf came across the field, left to right, to catch a deep ball with plenty of room between him and the safety for a 29-yard touchdown.
There was plenty of blame to go around, from starting corners Trevon Diggs, Jourdan Lewis and Daryl Worley to safeties Xavier Woods and Darian Thompson. When it wasn’t blown coverages in the first half, it was penalties on Dallas’ defensive backs that kept drives alive.
“It was miscommunication,” Diggs said. “Most of the plays that we gave them were because of us. We’ve got to fix that. If we fix that, the score may be different. So, it’s communication. I have all the faith in all of us, and it will take all of us. We’re going to get it done.”
There are some serious questions going forward. Can the Dallas secondary be fixed? Is it as simple as players just spending more time together adjusting to the new system? Will some scheme changes make a noticeable difference?
Through three games, the Cowboys have given up 97 points. The Vikings and Falcons are the only NFL teams to have given up more. Both of those teams are 0-3.
Here are some other key takeaways from Sunday’s Cowboys loss at Seattle.
(Photo: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports)
1. Containing Russell Wilson. The goal was to keep him in the pocket and limit his outstanding ability to extend plays. Easier said than done, but Dallas’ defensive front did a solid job at time.
“I mean, there’s a lot of quarterbacks in the league that move around a lot, and if you let them get outside the pocket they become a force, they’re pretty good at it,” DeMarcus Lawrence said. “So, hats off to Russ and them, they won the game. But we’ll see them again.”
The Cowboys sacked Wilson four times and hit him eight times. Wilson was sacked three times by the Falcons in Week 1 and twice by the Patriots in Week 2. The Seattle QB finished 27 of 40 passing for 315 yards, five touchdowns, no turnovers and a 130.0 passer rating. He also improved to 5-1 in regular-season games against the Cowboys.
“I thought, for the most part, we did a great job keeping him in the pocket,” Mike McCarthy said. “I thought the challenge for second reaction rush was a bit challenging the way the play was expanded and the way they were able to hold on to us and extend those plays even when we did a great job keeping him in the pocket. I thought it was a good plan.”
2. Dak Prescott’s day. Prescott turned the ball over three times. It’s going to be tough to beat a good team like the Seahawks when you lose the turnover battle 3-1. But Prescott also played well enough to keep the Cowboys in it until the very end. He threw for at least 450 yards for the second consecutive game while also tossing three touchdown passes.
The Cowboys were driving to tie the game in the final seconds when Prescott nearly was sacked. But he somehow kept his feet and tossed up a deep ball into traffic in the end zone. The play ended with his second interception of the game. Entering Sunday, Prescott hadn’t thrown an interception since last Thanksgiving.
“I always want the ball in my hands,” Prescott said. “I’m never going to shy away from the moment with the ball in my hands and having a chance to win the game. I want to make those throws, and I want to have those opportunities. We just have to be better, starting with myself, of converting those and making more of these one-score games wins for us. I know we will. We’ll just go back this week, have some tough practices, get back on to the details and we’ll change this thing around. We have a long way to go, and we’re just 1-2.”
3. Aldon Smith breakout game. From the very beginning, it looked like Sunday was going to be a pretty good day for the veteran pass-rusher. He got his hands on Wilson’s first pass attempt, knocking it incomplete. He then sacked Wilson on the next play. Smith finished with three sacks, four tackles, two tackles for loss, a pass deflection and four quarterback hits. Smith leads the Cowboys with four sacks in three games.
“I feel like I try to bring my A-game every time I go out and play,” Smith said. “I work well with the other guys, and we work well with each other. Rushing is a team effort, especially with this quarterback. If it wasn’t for the other guys playing their roles and doing things, it would have been much tougher for me to make some plays out there.”
Smith said last week that everyone needed to “chill out” when the talk focused on simplifying the defense after the group’s struggles the first two weeks. He didn’t back off those thoughts Sunday night.
“I feel as if we can keep improving each week,” Smith said. “That’s the main goal. I think if we are going backward and not getting better, then we obviously can talk about a lot of different things. But right now, with where we’re at, I do feel that we’re getting better and growing each week.
“Honestly, I feel like every week we’ve had a different obstacle. We had a starting linebacker go out the first week. There’s always been something that was new for us. So, us coming together and getting a rhythm as a collective (group), I’m excited to see what happens next game.”
4. Bad special-teams play. The special teams unit got a lot of hype last week because they were responsible for the unlikely onside kick recovery and the game-winning field goal. But as a whole, the special teams haven’t been great through three games. And on Sunday, two missed extra points and a muffed kickoff return that led to a safety didn’t help things.
“A three-play period makes it hard to say it was a good day,” McCarthy said of the special teams play. “The fact that it was a big play in the game, obviously gave them momentum. We came out strong and obviously a nine-point swing right there. We’ve got to do a better job. I think like anything in the game of football you need a return on investment on what you emphasize. We’ve spent a tremendous amount of time handling the football, and we need to do a much better job in that area.”
5. Cedrick Wilson breakout game. After flashing often in training camp, Wilson put together his most productive game as a pro, catching two of Prescott’s touchdown passes.
The first one was a 40-yard score that pulled Dallas to within 15-16 midway through the second quarter.
“It was a play where we had three slants, and he went through all his progressions and Dak threw me the ball,” Wilson said. “I just ran as fast as I could.”
The second was a 42-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter, helping Dallas pull back within eight points.
“It was a little deeper of a route, but good throw by Dak,” Wilson said. “Did what I did to get to the endzone. Hopefully next time it’ll be a win. … It feels good to get out there and help the team move forward.”
Raise your hand if you had Wilson leading the team in touchdown receptions after three weeks.
(Photo: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports)
6. Offensive line combinations. The patchwork continued up front as Joe Looney left for a series and rookie Tyler Biadasz stepped in to play center. Then rookie right tackle Terence Steele was replaced, moving Zack Martin out to right tackle for his first time since college. Looney then moved to right guard and Biadasz stayed at center. The group actually did quite well, all things considered.
“Well, coach did a nice job kind of putting us in the right scenario coming into this, getting me some reps at tackle and getting Joe some reps at guard,” Martin said. “So it wasn’t like I was blindsided. I knew that was going to be a possibility. It’s a little different out there, but I’ve got to be ready to play that and do whatever we need to win.”
The Cowboys are hopeful that Martin can move back to his right guard spot with the possible return of left tackle Tyron Smith (neck) this week. Starting right tackle La’el Collins is also eligible to come off the injured reserve list on Monday.
“Those guys are working their ass off, and that’s all you can ask for,” Prescott said. “They’re getting in there and fighting and competing. … Those guys are going to do whatever it takes, and they’re fighting. I’m right there fighting with them. Credit those guys, win or loss, I’m thankful to have them up front, and I know they’re going to battle for me.
“I have to help them out by getting the ball out of my hands faster and getting out of the pocket. I always tell them, ‘We work hand-in-hand.’ They help me, and I help them. I’m proud of those guys, and I love the way they fight.”
7. Ezekiel Elliott didn’t have a great day. It was clear from the beginning that the running game was going to take a back seat to the passing game. Elliott finished with only 34 yards on 14 carries. He did run for a one-yard touchdown, but made some costly drops in the passing game. Elliott was targeted 12 times. He made six catches for 24 yards. It appeared, however, that he did some of his best work helping in pass protection.
“I’m a pro, it’s my job to go out there and get my job done no matter the circumstances,” Elliott said. “So I just got to stay locked in, stay focused in and finish that play.”
8. Screen game was a disaster. It didn’t help Elliott that the screen game never got going. Really, nothing in the short passing game had much success. But for some reason, the Cowboys kept leaning on it.
“Well, they are a team that presses a lot, so screens are normally a good option,” Elliott said. “But they were good at sniffing out the screens and making plays on them. One, probably the one we had the most room on, I dropped that one, so I got to focus up and get better.”
9. Turnover margin. The Cowboys lost that battle (3-1) for the second consecutive game. The Falcons won it 3-0 in Week 2. The Cowboys won it 1-0 over the Rams in Week 1.
“Continuously, looking at it the last three weeks, we’re only stopping ourselves,” Prescott said. “We have to get out of our own way, be cleaner with the ball, play smarter football and find a way to start faster. Our coaches and these players are going to go back and figure out a way to get this thing right and clean it up.”
10. Awful NFC East. The Cowboys should be thankful that they’re in a bad division. Through three weeks, they are tied atop the standings with Washington at 1-2. It’s the NFL’s only division that doesn’t have a team with a winning record.
“All we can control is what we do from this point on,” Elliott said. “Just got to go figure out how to win a game next week.”
The Cowboys play their next three games at AT&T Stadium. They host the 2-1 Cleveland Browns next Sunday and then face the 0-3 New York Giants and then the 2-1 Arizona Cardinals.
“A lot of football left to be played,” Amari Cooper said. “Obviously when you’re at home you want to kind of protect that home turf. Win all of those at home, so that’s what we plan on doing.”
