- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 120,146
By Jon Machota 4h ago
FRISCO, Texas — No Cowboys player has taken more criticism this season than linebacker Jaylon Smith. While he’s one of the NFL’s 10 leading tacklers entering Week 5, the missed tackles, penalties and trouble in coverage have been magnified.
Smith is regarded as one of the defensive leaders on a team that has started the season with a historically bad defense.
“This is the honest truth: I don’t know why Jaylon takes the criticism he does,” Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Nolan said this week. “He’s a good football player. He plays extremely hard. I think he has improved. Look, I’d be the first to say it. I always call it like I see it. But Jaylon, look, nobody has played a perfect game for us thus far, and I don’t think they will. And, naturally, as bad a game as (last Sunday) was, certainly no one played a winning-grade performance.”
Nolan went on to share that each defender is graded after the game as having either a winning effort, a losing effort, or ‘did your job.’
“And thus far, I can’t say he’s had a game of the four that he’s had a losing effort,” Nolan said. “I think all of his games have been ‘do your job,’ or a little better. And so, again, I think he’s doing all the things we’re asking of him, or at least trying to do, and I believe he’s just going to get better as the year goes along.”
Smith, who made his first Pro Bowl last season, signed a six-year, $68 million contract extension with the Cowboys in Aug. 2019, making him one of the league’s highest-paid players at his position.
“I think Jaylon Smith has been courageous,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM). “I’ll use that word right there, in his performance. He gives you everything that he’s got.
“I’ll say without question, he has the talent to be the middle linebacker on a winning, championship team.”
Smith addressed this week where he needs to improve.
“I believe execution on every single play, doing my job on every single play,” Smith said. “I believe getting my guys to sprint to the ball, myself sprinting to the ball, that extra effort, that strain. It has to be done. And it’s on us. And we’re taking responsibility. And we’re getting it right and we’re going to get it right. So looking forward to Sunday, but right now, we’re grinding.”
Here are 10 other notes to get you ready for Sunday’s Cowboys vs. New York Giants game at AT&T Stadium.
1. Former players’ criticism. It’s difficult to remember the last time that former Cowboys players have been as critical of the team’s effort as they have been in the last week. Troy Aikman said Tuesday that he would’ve been embarrassed to put the effort the Dallas defense did on film in last Sunday’s 49-38 loss to the Cleveland Browns.
Michael Irvin took it to another level on Thursday.
“Those Cowboys that are out there playing that Oprah Winfrey defense: ‘You get 40 points! You get 40 points! You get 40 points!’ It is absolutely sickening,” Irvin said on the NFL Network. “I can’t even speak to it. People are trying to say, ‘I don’t think it’s a manhood thing.’ Yes it is. It’s about your manhood. You can beat me, but you will not break me. That Cleveland Browns team looked like they broke that defense the way they ran up and down the field the other day. Cleveland looks good. Dallas, I don’t know what Dallas looks like. They don’t look like a football team.”
What did Jerry Jones think of Irvin’s comments?
“Michael Irvin used to, in the middle of two-a-days,” Jones said on The Fan, “the roughest part of all of football, padded two-a-days, you would see where he was between practices, and he’d be down with his pads on in the heat of the day out in Austin, Texas, running with his pads on between practices. Now, the other thing he’d do is he wouldn’t go to bed much at night, either. And that’s a man. So when he talks about effort, I listen.”
2. What is going on with the offensive line? The Cowboys are now officially without starting tackles Tyron Smith (neck) and La’el Collins (hip) for the rest of the season. Pro Bowl-caliber players at that position are difficult to find even if a team has an entire offseason to address the issue. The Cowboys are now again looking at potentially starting two undrafted players to fill those roles, Terence Steele and Brandon Knight.
The Cowboys also have Greg Senat, whom they recently signed off Cleveland’s practice squad, and Jordan Mills, who is on Dallas’ practice squad. Senat was a sixth-round pick by the Baltimore Ravens in 2018. He has not played in an NFL game. Mills was a fifth-round pick by the Chicago Bears in 2013. He has played in 90 NFL games, starting 84. Most recently, he started two games for the Arizona Cardinals last season. The Cowboys also have veteran swing tackle Cameron Erving (knee) working his way back into practice.
All-Pro right guard Zack Martin kicked out to right tackle mid-game two weeks ago at Seattle, but it doesn’t appear that the Cowboys are interested in him making the full-time move to the outside. It appears that they will continue going with Connor Williams, Tyler Biadasz and Martin on the interior of the offensive line.
“I mean these are professional athletes, and these are NFL offensive linemen we’re talking about, so I’ve got confidence that they can do the job or they simply wouldn’t be out there and they wouldn’t be on this team being asked to do that,” Dak Prescott said of the team’s offensive tackle replacements. “So for me, it’s worrying about my responsibilities and my duties to this team and then instilling the confidence and trust in them. Obviously, you can’t replace some of the guys we have on this team and some of our original starters, but I have a lot of confidence that the coaches and the people in the front office make the right decisions putting these people here. Not only that, I see the way these young guys come in and practice and prepare. For me, it’s about instilling confidence and allowing them to know that I trust in them, I believe in them and I’ll go to war with them.”
3. Tyron Smith’s future. The seven-time Pro Bowler has been dealing with a nerve issue that has been causing stingers in his neck. The Cowboys are hopeful that his surgery next week will correct the problem, and he’ll have enough time to recover and be ready for next season. Smith, 29, has three years remaining on his contract.
“They’ll get in there and fix it but certainly feel like he should be good to go after this,” Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said Friday on 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM). “He’s a warrior through and through, and was trying to push through it. But just seems like every time that he took some time off, did some things to treat it, that unfortunately he’d get in a game with full contact and start feeling it toward the end of the game. Just feel like we need to fix it. Now’s a good time to fix it, and fix it to where he can come back and continue his career.”
4. What does the loss of Tyron Smith mean for Dak Prescott? A franchise quarterback is going to play better when his blind side is being protected by an All-Decade player. But Prescott has plenty of experience playing without Smith on the field. Since 2016, Smith has missed 14 games. The Cowboys are 8-6 in those games.
The eight wins have come against the Bears and the 49ers in 2016, the Eagles in 2017, Washington, the Saints and the Giants in 2018, Washington last season and against the Falcons this season.
Prescott’s totals in those games: 323 of 479 passing (68 percent), 3,921 yards, 21 touchdown passes, nine interceptions, 40 sacks, seven rushing touchdowns and a 99.2 passer rating.
“It’s obviously going to be hard to replace a Pro Bowler,” wide receiver Amari Cooper said of the loss of Smith. “And so we got to have that mentality of ‘next man up.’ But I just hope that Tyron can have a great recovery, hope the surgery goes well and hope everything for him is good as far as him coming back next season. But, yeah, replacing him is going to be really difficult, going to be a challenge for the team, challenge for the O-line. Just have to keep moving forward.”
5.) Other injury news. Leighton Vander Esch returned to practice this week after having his broken collarbone surgically repaired four weeks ago. Mike McCarthy declined to completely rule Vander Esch out for Sunday’s game, but it’s unlikely that he is active. The team’s starting middle linebacker is likely still a week or two away from playing in a game.
“The thought is hopefully crank it up more next week,” McCarthy said of Vander Esch on Friday, “and especially with the extra day of preparation of going into the Monday night game, we’ll see how far along we are.”
Tyron Smith and Joe Looney (knee) are the only two Cowboys on the active roster who have been ruled out for Sunday’s game. DeMarcus Lawrence (knee), Trevon Diggs (knee/shoulder), Tyrone Crawford (ankle) and Dorance Armstrong (knee) were the other Dallas players on this week’s injury report. All four are expected to play against the Giants.
6. Defense in practice. Following an awful performance Sunday against Cleveland, the Cowboys defense has apparently been fired up during the practice week.
“I would say practicing the defense has definitely been getting fired up from what I can see,” Amari Cooper said Friday. “I don’t know what I would call it, but it’s definitely some fire out there, and hopefully it’s a good thing for us.”
Defensive tackle Antwaun Woods was also pretty fired up when talking to reporters this week.
“I’m fired up, up here, we have to get that bad taste out of our system, it’s not like us,” Woods said. “It’s not our true identity. We just got to get back to playing ball and once we do that you guys will stop panicking.”
Is everyone on that same page?
“Look this is the NFL, bro. We gave up 300 yards rushing; we’re all on the same page to get that bad taste out of our mouths,” Woods said. “We’ve been working on it every single day, and we’re not going to stop until Sunday, so that’s not acceptable.
“Any time you get hit in the mouth, especially a performance like that, the whole world is going to be looking at how we’re going to respond, so you’ll see.”
7. Simplifying the defense. That was a popular storyline after the first couple of weeks of the season. In training camp, players were embracing the idea of Mike Nolan’s defensive scheme being more multiple than in previous years. Players then talked of simplifying things.
Judging by Mike McCarthy’s response to a question about the defensive call volume on Friday, it doesn’t sound like it can be reduced any more than it has over the last few weeks.
“The facts of the matter are that we’re not multiple,” McCarthy said on The Fan. “I mean, we are operating on very low volume. We made that decision after Week 2. We’re not going to go down to one single call. You can’t play that way in the National Football League. There is a long-term process to this too. This is not a volume issue by no means. We just need to execute better.”
8. Jason Garrett’s return. As expected, the former Cowboys head coach didn’t offer much when asked about his emotions going back to Dallas and how awkward it was to not officially be let go when the Cowboys were bringing in a new coach in January.
Here is the assessment of Dallas’ defense from the new Giants offensive coordinator.
“It’s really a completely different style of defense from when we were there the last number of years,” Garrett said. “Mike Nolan is the defensive coordinator now, so his whole scheme is different than what we played. Obviously, there are some familiar names. They have really good pass-rushers up front, they have linebackers who can run and guys on the back end who are good cover guys. I’m familiar with a lot of the names, but the scheme is really very different.”
Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham provided the following assessment of the Cowboys’ offense.
“Dallas, we’re dealing with another top-notch offense,” he said. “They score ten billion points a game, I think, or something like that, and about 30 billion yards a game. We have a challenge right there and then they have great players. From the O-line to the skill players, starting with the quarterback. The coordinator, this guy is calling it at a high level. On top of that, you have Coach McCarthy, who in my opinion is one of the best offensive minds in the league from my time here in the NFL. I have a lot of respect for him.”
9. Latest on Connor McGovern. Coming out of last year’s draft, the Cowboys were very high on the potential of the third-round pick out of Penn State. There was a belief that he could help immediately at any of the interior line positions. But McGovern missed his entire rookie season with a pectoral injury.
He’s now healthy, so why hasn’t he seen the field for an offensive line that has been decimated by injuries? Stephen Jones said last week that McGovern was technically still a rookie because he wasn’t able to play last season. But that explanation isn’t enough considering undrafted rookie free agent Terence Steele has started four games.
“Connor will be ready,” Mike McCarthy said Friday. “I’ve really liked the work that he’s done. You can see him really improving each week individually in the drills, the fundamental drills and he’s getting more of an understanding of the protection volume and the schemes that we’re doing. So I think he’s done a nice job, and I feel he will be ready to go if needed.”
10. Zeke fumbles. Ezekiel Elliott has fumbled three times in the Cowboys’ first four games. He fumbled three times all season last year.
“It hurts,” Elliott said. “It hurts. I look at myself as a leader for this team, and I look at myself as a guy who is supposed to help pick the team up when we get down and not be the cause of getting behind. I’ve got to get rid of that issue. That can’t continue to be something that I do for the rest of the season. I can’t give the ball up anymore.”
The Cowboys offense is on pace to turn the ball over a league-high 36 times this year. To compare, only two teams in the last five years have turned the ball over that much: the 2019 Buccaneers (41) and the 2017 Browns (41). The Buccaneers finished 7-9. The Browns went 0-16.
In the last six years, the Cowboys have not turned the ball over more than 33 times in a season. That was the 4-12 finish in 2015. They have averaged only 18 turnovers per season over the last four years.
