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Eberflus Report Week 17 - He is Out. We Start Again
Thankfully, we will never have to watch the 2025 Cowboys defense play again.
Bob Sturm
Jan 07, 2026
Our objectives today will be:
OVERALL DEFENSIVE EVALUATION
On Tuesday, the Matt Eberflus era came to a close as he was dismissed as Cowboys’ Defensive Coordinator. It was on one hand an unfair example of a coach set up to fail and was given almost zero support from the organization. And on the other hand was definitely needing to go. There is no way they could carry on with him any longer.
Such is life in the NFL where we could easily argue that Bill Belichick in his defensive genius prime would not have fared much better. But at the same time, the defense was really bad in 2024 under Mike Zimmer and got much worse.
Just look at our key 10 metrics from a defensive standpoint on a year-by-year comparison of Zimmer’s defense vs Eberflus’ group. You will note that Zimmer had Micah Parsons, but you would also note that they got worse in almost every category.
Points, worse. Yards, worse. Passing yards, much worse. Takeaways cut in half. 3rd downs went horribly wrong to one of the worst third-down defenses in history. Explosive plays took a big step backwards. Sacks dropped massively (see: Parsons, Micah). And the thing was a complete mess.
Now, I have written already my tepid defense of being fired from a job where success was unlikely and undermined a fair bit. But, what we haven’t spent much time on is that there has been a lot of rumors of Cowboys players and personnel actually pleased about this firing. The story, if you believe it, is that he had his guys and would not deviate. I am unable to confirm this story in any meaningful way, but it does seem to agree with the mysterious insistence to remain steadfast with Kenneth Murray and to seldom insert Logan Wilson into the lineup, despite the front office trading for him.
That is one way to get yourself fired, if true. If untrue, the number of Cowboys players who don’t seem too bummed today is interesting. Either way, this is yet another reason why the time had clearly come to turn the page.
Matt Eberflus is done.
Now, the options to replace him, I would prefer to close the books on 2025 rather than begin to look too far ahead, but count me amongst those who consider Brian Flores a pipe dream, Jim Schwartz a fantasy, but also am looking at Aden Durde and Jim Leonhard as guys I would be quite interested in visiting with.
But, make no mistake. The answer to better defense is getting much better talent. The defensive side of the ball is very low on talent and it is not going to fix itself. I recommend both 1st rounders to be used on defense and also an aggressive free agency as well. They have to get 4-to-6 starters this offseason on defense and that is an enormous requirement for any team – but especially a team without a full draft pick load.
Sunday was another pretty awful effort from the Cowboys defense and we will breeze through this because it is more of the same. They were simply awful, week after week, and the worst Cowboys defense in 66 years of defending. Nothing was good enough this season and Week 18 was right in line with the year.
2025 was the worst Cowboys defense ever
Only eight defenses in Cowboys history gave up 400 points in a season so to have a defense clear 500 with ease is remarkable, even if it is a 17 game season. We can go as deep as you like in the analytic weeds, but points are the lifeblood of any sport and Dallas has surrendered over 30 a game for the very first time. Not even Mike Nolan’s disaster team in 2020 could claim that, so you know it is brutal.
And yes, as you look at those eight teams below, you see that Dak Prescott has now been the QB for the three worst Cowboys defenses of all time and that Tony Romo has another three.
It must be said that Romo and Prescott are national punch lines, but how many of their colleagues in this line of work can claim being attached to this many historically inept defenses? The list must be very short.
In other words, we know where the Cowboys need the most help in the offseason.
The Offseason Depth Chart Look Ahead
Just like yesterday, I wanted to at least show you how the depth chart on defense looks as we enter the spring. Now, on defense, please keep in mind that we don’t even know the scheme, so I think a lot of this will be “figure it out after we hire a DC”, but as it stands right now, the players in white are under contract.
The players in red are UFA’s and the players in yellow are RFA’s and ERFA’s.
So, honestly, I see nine UFA’s on defense and with the exception of maybe 1-2 veteran edges (including the man we are about to discuss), I am fine with letting them all walk out that door. In fact, a few of them, I would like to escort them out that door. I am not terribly worried about the contract on my defense at all.
I have a suspicion that the personnel on this defense will look incredibly different by next July. And thank goodness for that.
The amazing day for Jadeveon Clowney
I am not sure we have ever seen an eight-splash day like we had on Sunday. Now, yes, this is Week 18 and you could ask where that has been all season. But, for a 32-year old to play like he has here to end the season speaks very highly of him.
We will detail his end product, but just look at this cut-up. It was an all-timer.
Giants right tacke Jermaine Eluemunor had himself a rough time trying to deal with Clowney. The former Texas A&M linemen just could not slow down Clowney’s burst and the disruption was insane. We have been keeping splash plays for 14 seasons or so and I cannot remember eight in one game and keep in mind he had three last week!
SPLASH PLAYS - WEEK 18
So, because of this 11 splashes in the final two weeks, take a look at our 2025 Splash Play Champion:
Clowney was way, way back on Christmas Morning. If there is a bright spot for the year it has to be this former No. 1 overall pick from the 2014 draft.
Josh also ran the numbers as we always try to do for the “snaps per splash” which takes all the players with at least 10 splash plays and then divides them by playing time. As you can see, Kenneth Murray led the raw splash plays all season, but also played so much more than anyone else on the list. When ordered this way, he slides down to 9th.
So, it is a weird year. Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Ware would usually be in the 40’s with their championships, but this year, there were no playmakers on this defense and therefore, only two defenders even made it to 20 – with one of those being arguably their worst regular.
Again, it was a weird year.
FILM STUDY
OK, for the last time for about nine months, let’s go through the tape and see what jumps out at us. The frustrations were there!
1Q - 4:14 - 1-10-NYG 49 - J.Dart pass short right to G.Olszewski pushed ob at DAL 23 for 28 yards
OK, this is consistent with a normal Cowboys defensive snap. They are going to play Cover-1 here against trips right. The No. 1 is matched up with 21-Carson, the No. 2 is vs 27-Steward, and the No. 3 is against 28-Hooker. Just off the bat, if you are Jaxson Dart, you would be looking for the No. 3 which is 80-Gunner Olszewski because he is man-up with a safety and that is just never going to be a big problem. Now, there is no pass rush, even 31-Butler as a green dog rusher does not trouble Dart, so he runs a deep out (which mirrors the deep-in with a 10-15 yards step and then the 90-degree angle to the sideline). Here, he is wide open and this is systemic of the Cowboys defense. Every QB on the planet feeds off guys wide open and no pass rush. You can make JJ McCarthy or Jaxson Dart look like a million bucks like this. 28 yard gain.
1Q - 2:04 - 3-12-DAL 12 - J.Dart sacked at DAL 17 for -5 yards (J.Clowney).
Third-down stop from the Cowboys and a rare one, so let’s dig in. They play Cover-4 and nobody is open, so we look back at the pass rush and both edges are doing good things. Jadeveon Clowney is beating Jermaine Eluemunor on one side and Donovan Ezeiruaku is staying after 71-Marcus Mbow on the other side. Together, they corral him for what we would no doubt call a coverage sack that Clowney closes after some pursuit. Good work.
2Q - 14:57 - 3-11-NYG 34 - J.Dart pass short right to D.Slayton to DAL 49 for 17 yards (L.Wilson).
But, here is the issue over and over. 3rd downs. Someone has to help us get off the field. There is no defensive coordinator hire for this. 36-Corey Ballentine is getting a chance to play and the Cowboys are going to do a simple zone drop. The Giants are going to throw a check-down and punt because Darius Slayton has no chance to get 11 yards on this throw. Unless you blow a simple tackle and this is losing football. Ballentine won’t get many chances to show he wants to be on this roster, but this is simply not good enough. Give Slayton credit, I guess. But, brutal.
Speaking of brutal, here is the drive before halftime that made me want a vacation.
2Q - 1:55 - 3-6-NYG 26 - J.Dart pass short middle to G.Olszewski to NYG 37 for 11 yards (S.James).
It starts with an easy conversion on 3rd and 6 where our guy Olszewski gets into a little hole in the zone to extend the drive. No problem.
2Q - 1:31 - 1-10-NYG 37 - J.Dart sacked at NYG 33 for -4 yards (D.Ezeiruaku).
PENALTY on NYG-M.Mbow, Tripping, 15 yards, enforced at NYG 37 - No Play.
Next play, here is Ezeiruaku with maybe his best rep of the season with a spinning sack against Mbow for the rookie. He is on top of the world with an awesome moment to go into the offseason. But, there is also a Giants tripping penalty on Mbow, apparently. Now, analytically, we can debate whether 1st and 25 or 2nd and 14 has better probabilities and which one you should accept if you are playing for the playoffs or something. But, if you have told us that you are not taking this game seriously, you should allow your rookie’s big moment to matter. Instead, they take the penalty and anger their own players who are heard yelling at the sideline and seemingly bewildered that they accepted the yards and didn’t let Ezeiruaku have his sack. It was really weird. But, 1st and 25, at least now get off the field, right?
2Q - 1:21 - 2-21-NYG 26 - T.Tracy left end pushed ob at NYG 31 for 5 yards (K.Murray).
PENALTY on DAL-K.Murray, Unnecessary Roughness, 15 yards, enforced at NYG 31.
Two plays later, the Cowboys commit a dumb personal foul and negate the entire decision as pointless. Tyrone Tracy catches a harmless swing and here is Kenneth Murray making his last impression with the Cowboys by pushing Tracy into sideline personnel and drawing a very silly personal foul which is an automatic 1st down. Just brain dead from a veteran and I would like to bid him farewell.
2Q - 1:07 - 2-2-DAL 46 - J.Dart pass short right to G.Olszewski to DAL 23 for 23 yards (R.Steward).
Two plays later, Olszewski again versus man coverage again and another deep out that is open with little pass rush and Dart puts another nice pass on his guy for another easy 23 yards. And now, you have allowed 1st and 25 to become a real scoring chance as they are in field goal range.
But, surely, facing 3rd and 16, the Giants will have to settle for a field goal.
2Q - 0:31 - 3-16-DAL 29 - J.Dart pass short left to D.Bellinger for 29 yards, TOUCHDOWN [J.Houston].
When you call a dump-off TE screen on 3rd and 16, you are just trying to make your field goal a little easier. I promise, it never occurred to the Giants that this harmless idea could end up as a touchdown. But, what should have been a James Houston sack turns into a wonderful escape, a bunch of horrendous tackling efforts and angles: Donovan Wilson, Reddy Steward and Caelen Carson seem all able to give us a bit more here and the Giants have a Keystone Cops TD right before halftime.
3Q - 9:53 - 3-6-DAL 13 - (9:53) (Shotgun) J.Dart pass short middle to T.Tracy for 13 yards, TOUCHDOWN [J.Houston]. - Penalty on DAL-Q.Williams, Unnecessary Roughness, declined.
PENALTY on DAL-D.Ezeiruaku, Disqualification, 1 yard, enforced between downs.
This one is crazy. Another moment where the Giants are trying out the Cowboys man coverage to see if they can find something and I have no idea what Tracy and Bellinger are doing as there is no way there is a pass route combination that has the TE and the RB running the same route, right? But, that should mean that either 6-Wilson or 50-James can keep Tracy from catching the touchdown. But, no, the Cowboys absolutely are the worst defense we have ever seen – so much so that Dart is having a career day now and is putting the ball into very tight windows without a whole lot of resistance. Sometime in the offseason we will see how many QBs had the best day of the season against the Eberflus bunch, but I bet it is more than one. Dart certainly did.
4Q - 14:10 - 3-19-NYG 18 - J.Dart pass incomplete deep right to I.Hodgins (C.Carson) [S.Thomas]. PENALTY on DAL-C.Carson, Defensive Pass Interference, 33 yards, enforced at NYG 18 - No Play.
And then one more dumb play from a defense that probably has to be described as low Football IQ as a unit in this game. It is 3rd and 19. You simply cannot take a unnecessary pass interference on 3rd and 19. Caelen Carson says, yes you can.
So, if you made it this far, I thank you. The season ends and they have fired Eberflus. We will never give up our coverage of the Cowboys, but next time we meet, this series will have another new name.
They have plenty of work to do back at the drawing board. It was a very forgettable season of Cowboys defense. Or, on 2nd thought, maybe we will never forget it. It was that bad.
Thankfully, we will never have to watch the 2025 Cowboys defense play again.
Bob Sturm
Jan 07, 2026
Our objectives today will be:
- Overall Defensive Evaluation
- Matt Eberflus is out as Defensive Coordinator
- 2025 was the worst Cowboys defense ever
- The amazing day for Jadeveon Clowney
- Splash Plays
- Film Study
OVERALL DEFENSIVE EVALUATION
On Tuesday, the Matt Eberflus era came to a close as he was dismissed as Cowboys’ Defensive Coordinator. It was on one hand an unfair example of a coach set up to fail and was given almost zero support from the organization. And on the other hand was definitely needing to go. There is no way they could carry on with him any longer.
Such is life in the NFL where we could easily argue that Bill Belichick in his defensive genius prime would not have fared much better. But at the same time, the defense was really bad in 2024 under Mike Zimmer and got much worse.
Just look at our key 10 metrics from a defensive standpoint on a year-by-year comparison of Zimmer’s defense vs Eberflus’ group. You will note that Zimmer had Micah Parsons, but you would also note that they got worse in almost every category.
Points, worse. Yards, worse. Passing yards, much worse. Takeaways cut in half. 3rd downs went horribly wrong to one of the worst third-down defenses in history. Explosive plays took a big step backwards. Sacks dropped massively (see: Parsons, Micah). And the thing was a complete mess.
Now, I have written already my tepid defense of being fired from a job where success was unlikely and undermined a fair bit. But, what we haven’t spent much time on is that there has been a lot of rumors of Cowboys players and personnel actually pleased about this firing. The story, if you believe it, is that he had his guys and would not deviate. I am unable to confirm this story in any meaningful way, but it does seem to agree with the mysterious insistence to remain steadfast with Kenneth Murray and to seldom insert Logan Wilson into the lineup, despite the front office trading for him.
That is one way to get yourself fired, if true. If untrue, the number of Cowboys players who don’t seem too bummed today is interesting. Either way, this is yet another reason why the time had clearly come to turn the page.
Matt Eberflus is done.
Now, the options to replace him, I would prefer to close the books on 2025 rather than begin to look too far ahead, but count me amongst those who consider Brian Flores a pipe dream, Jim Schwartz a fantasy, but also am looking at Aden Durde and Jim Leonhard as guys I would be quite interested in visiting with.
But, make no mistake. The answer to better defense is getting much better talent. The defensive side of the ball is very low on talent and it is not going to fix itself. I recommend both 1st rounders to be used on defense and also an aggressive free agency as well. They have to get 4-to-6 starters this offseason on defense and that is an enormous requirement for any team – but especially a team without a full draft pick load.
Sunday was another pretty awful effort from the Cowboys defense and we will breeze through this because it is more of the same. They were simply awful, week after week, and the worst Cowboys defense in 66 years of defending. Nothing was good enough this season and Week 18 was right in line with the year.
2025 was the worst Cowboys defense ever
Only eight defenses in Cowboys history gave up 400 points in a season so to have a defense clear 500 with ease is remarkable, even if it is a 17 game season. We can go as deep as you like in the analytic weeds, but points are the lifeblood of any sport and Dallas has surrendered over 30 a game for the very first time. Not even Mike Nolan’s disaster team in 2020 could claim that, so you know it is brutal.
And yes, as you look at those eight teams below, you see that Dak Prescott has now been the QB for the three worst Cowboys defenses of all time and that Tony Romo has another three.
It must be said that Romo and Prescott are national punch lines, but how many of their colleagues in this line of work can claim being attached to this many historically inept defenses? The list must be very short.
In other words, we know where the Cowboys need the most help in the offseason.
The Offseason Depth Chart Look Ahead
Just like yesterday, I wanted to at least show you how the depth chart on defense looks as we enter the spring. Now, on defense, please keep in mind that we don’t even know the scheme, so I think a lot of this will be “figure it out after we hire a DC”, but as it stands right now, the players in white are under contract.
The players in red are UFA’s and the players in yellow are RFA’s and ERFA’s.
So, honestly, I see nine UFA’s on defense and with the exception of maybe 1-2 veteran edges (including the man we are about to discuss), I am fine with letting them all walk out that door. In fact, a few of them, I would like to escort them out that door. I am not terribly worried about the contract on my defense at all.
I have a suspicion that the personnel on this defense will look incredibly different by next July. And thank goodness for that.
The amazing day for Jadeveon Clowney
I am not sure we have ever seen an eight-splash day like we had on Sunday. Now, yes, this is Week 18 and you could ask where that has been all season. But, for a 32-year old to play like he has here to end the season speaks very highly of him.
We will detail his end product, but just look at this cut-up. It was an all-timer.
Giants right tacke Jermaine Eluemunor had himself a rough time trying to deal with Clowney. The former Texas A&M linemen just could not slow down Clowney’s burst and the disruption was insane. We have been keeping splash plays for 14 seasons or so and I cannot remember eight in one game and keep in mind he had three last week!
SPLASH PLAYS - WEEK 18
So, because of this 11 splashes in the final two weeks, take a look at our 2025 Splash Play Champion:
Clowney was way, way back on Christmas Morning. If there is a bright spot for the year it has to be this former No. 1 overall pick from the 2014 draft.
Josh also ran the numbers as we always try to do for the “snaps per splash” which takes all the players with at least 10 splash plays and then divides them by playing time. As you can see, Kenneth Murray led the raw splash plays all season, but also played so much more than anyone else on the list. When ordered this way, he slides down to 9th.
So, it is a weird year. Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Ware would usually be in the 40’s with their championships, but this year, there were no playmakers on this defense and therefore, only two defenders even made it to 20 – with one of those being arguably their worst regular.
Again, it was a weird year.
FILM STUDY
OK, for the last time for about nine months, let’s go through the tape and see what jumps out at us. The frustrations were there!
1Q - 4:14 - 1-10-NYG 49 - J.Dart pass short right to G.Olszewski pushed ob at DAL 23 for 28 yards
OK, this is consistent with a normal Cowboys defensive snap. They are going to play Cover-1 here against trips right. The No. 1 is matched up with 21-Carson, the No. 2 is vs 27-Steward, and the No. 3 is against 28-Hooker. Just off the bat, if you are Jaxson Dart, you would be looking for the No. 3 which is 80-Gunner Olszewski because he is man-up with a safety and that is just never going to be a big problem. Now, there is no pass rush, even 31-Butler as a green dog rusher does not trouble Dart, so he runs a deep out (which mirrors the deep-in with a 10-15 yards step and then the 90-degree angle to the sideline). Here, he is wide open and this is systemic of the Cowboys defense. Every QB on the planet feeds off guys wide open and no pass rush. You can make JJ McCarthy or Jaxson Dart look like a million bucks like this. 28 yard gain.
1Q - 2:04 - 3-12-DAL 12 - J.Dart sacked at DAL 17 for -5 yards (J.Clowney).
Third-down stop from the Cowboys and a rare one, so let’s dig in. They play Cover-4 and nobody is open, so we look back at the pass rush and both edges are doing good things. Jadeveon Clowney is beating Jermaine Eluemunor on one side and Donovan Ezeiruaku is staying after 71-Marcus Mbow on the other side. Together, they corral him for what we would no doubt call a coverage sack that Clowney closes after some pursuit. Good work.
2Q - 14:57 - 3-11-NYG 34 - J.Dart pass short right to D.Slayton to DAL 49 for 17 yards (L.Wilson).
But, here is the issue over and over. 3rd downs. Someone has to help us get off the field. There is no defensive coordinator hire for this. 36-Corey Ballentine is getting a chance to play and the Cowboys are going to do a simple zone drop. The Giants are going to throw a check-down and punt because Darius Slayton has no chance to get 11 yards on this throw. Unless you blow a simple tackle and this is losing football. Ballentine won’t get many chances to show he wants to be on this roster, but this is simply not good enough. Give Slayton credit, I guess. But, brutal.
Speaking of brutal, here is the drive before halftime that made me want a vacation.
2Q - 1:55 - 3-6-NYG 26 - J.Dart pass short middle to G.Olszewski to NYG 37 for 11 yards (S.James).
It starts with an easy conversion on 3rd and 6 where our guy Olszewski gets into a little hole in the zone to extend the drive. No problem.
2Q - 1:31 - 1-10-NYG 37 - J.Dart sacked at NYG 33 for -4 yards (D.Ezeiruaku).
PENALTY on NYG-M.Mbow, Tripping, 15 yards, enforced at NYG 37 - No Play.
Next play, here is Ezeiruaku with maybe his best rep of the season with a spinning sack against Mbow for the rookie. He is on top of the world with an awesome moment to go into the offseason. But, there is also a Giants tripping penalty on Mbow, apparently. Now, analytically, we can debate whether 1st and 25 or 2nd and 14 has better probabilities and which one you should accept if you are playing for the playoffs or something. But, if you have told us that you are not taking this game seriously, you should allow your rookie’s big moment to matter. Instead, they take the penalty and anger their own players who are heard yelling at the sideline and seemingly bewildered that they accepted the yards and didn’t let Ezeiruaku have his sack. It was really weird. But, 1st and 25, at least now get off the field, right?
2Q - 1:21 - 2-21-NYG 26 - T.Tracy left end pushed ob at NYG 31 for 5 yards (K.Murray).
PENALTY on DAL-K.Murray, Unnecessary Roughness, 15 yards, enforced at NYG 31.
Two plays later, the Cowboys commit a dumb personal foul and negate the entire decision as pointless. Tyrone Tracy catches a harmless swing and here is Kenneth Murray making his last impression with the Cowboys by pushing Tracy into sideline personnel and drawing a very silly personal foul which is an automatic 1st down. Just brain dead from a veteran and I would like to bid him farewell.
2Q - 1:07 - 2-2-DAL 46 - J.Dart pass short right to G.Olszewski to DAL 23 for 23 yards (R.Steward).
Two plays later, Olszewski again versus man coverage again and another deep out that is open with little pass rush and Dart puts another nice pass on his guy for another easy 23 yards. And now, you have allowed 1st and 25 to become a real scoring chance as they are in field goal range.
But, surely, facing 3rd and 16, the Giants will have to settle for a field goal.
2Q - 0:31 - 3-16-DAL 29 - J.Dart pass short left to D.Bellinger for 29 yards, TOUCHDOWN [J.Houston].
When you call a dump-off TE screen on 3rd and 16, you are just trying to make your field goal a little easier. I promise, it never occurred to the Giants that this harmless idea could end up as a touchdown. But, what should have been a James Houston sack turns into a wonderful escape, a bunch of horrendous tackling efforts and angles: Donovan Wilson, Reddy Steward and Caelen Carson seem all able to give us a bit more here and the Giants have a Keystone Cops TD right before halftime.
3Q - 9:53 - 3-6-DAL 13 - (9:53) (Shotgun) J.Dart pass short middle to T.Tracy for 13 yards, TOUCHDOWN [J.Houston]. - Penalty on DAL-Q.Williams, Unnecessary Roughness, declined.
PENALTY on DAL-D.Ezeiruaku, Disqualification, 1 yard, enforced between downs.
This one is crazy. Another moment where the Giants are trying out the Cowboys man coverage to see if they can find something and I have no idea what Tracy and Bellinger are doing as there is no way there is a pass route combination that has the TE and the RB running the same route, right? But, that should mean that either 6-Wilson or 50-James can keep Tracy from catching the touchdown. But, no, the Cowboys absolutely are the worst defense we have ever seen – so much so that Dart is having a career day now and is putting the ball into very tight windows without a whole lot of resistance. Sometime in the offseason we will see how many QBs had the best day of the season against the Eberflus bunch, but I bet it is more than one. Dart certainly did.
4Q - 14:10 - 3-19-NYG 18 - J.Dart pass incomplete deep right to I.Hodgins (C.Carson) [S.Thomas]. PENALTY on DAL-C.Carson, Defensive Pass Interference, 33 yards, enforced at NYG 18 - No Play.
And then one more dumb play from a defense that probably has to be described as low Football IQ as a unit in this game. It is 3rd and 19. You simply cannot take a unnecessary pass interference on 3rd and 19. Caelen Carson says, yes you can.
So, if you made it this far, I thank you. The season ends and they have fired Eberflus. We will never give up our coverage of the Cowboys, but next time we meet, this series will have another new name.
They have plenty of work to do back at the drawing board. It was a very forgettable season of Cowboys defense. Or, on 2nd thought, maybe we will never forget it. It was that bad.
