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The Cowboys defense flirted with historic lows vs. Jaguars and now faces Eagles
By Bob Sturm
25m ago
The game will be remembered one way because that’s how football narratives go. But, in the words of Marlo, “It’s the other way.”
As the Cowboys are on the brink of their long-awaited showdown with the dreaded and feared Philadelphia Eagles — the team that has long been their biggest rival — they must come to grips with their defense just putting out their worst game of the year. And it might not even be that close, to be honest.
This was a stinker of the highest order.
How many ways can we make this case?
Let’s get started.
Let’s begin with this not-so-fun fact: The Cowboys allowed 500 yards and 40 points for just the 10th time in franchise history.
Cowboys all-time: Allowing 500 yards and 40 points
It is the first time since 2020’s ridiculous home afternoon against the Cleveland Browns when Mike Nolan appeared to have forgotten everything he knew about defense. Before that, we had the twice-in-five-weeks Monte Kiffin defense of 2013 that routinely was routed and could not stop anybody. The famous result of that season was the 51-48 home loss to Denver. I believe equally sad was a month later when the Saints destroyed the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football in New Orleans, 49-17. In this debacle, both sides of the ball were easily blamed, but particularly the defense. The Saints punted to start the game and then had eight drives for the rest of the game. They scored touchdowns on all four drives before halftime, started the second half with a missed field goal and then scored touchdowns on their remaining three drives. It was beyond embarrassing.
To make matters more ridiculous about that 2013 defense, between those two stinkers was also a trip to Detroit when the Cowboys gave up 623 yards with Calvin Johnson racking up 329 receiving yards in one of his most “Megatron” performances ever, but Detroit failed to get to 40 points. They still won, 31-30. Yes, 2013 was a rough scene.
Unfortunately, we figured this “elite defense” would never be placed on this list. And if they did, perhaps it would be against a truly “elite offense”, right? The 2013 defense can say it was scorched by Peyton Manning, Matthew Stafford and Drew Brees.
This was Jacksonville and Trevor Lawrence. I have always believed Lawrence will be a superstar in this league, but just to show you the tale of the tape going into this game, let’s not try to convince ourselves Jacksonville was a true heavyweight. They were a 3-7 team after Week 10 that has figured out what it can do under a new coach.
Here is what the matchup looked like Sunday:
Do you see anything that predicts a 40-point, 500-yard offensive fireworks display against this Dan Quinn defense?
“Any given Sunday” is a truism that exists for a reason, folks. Part of me planned for this piece to be mostly a preview on how to slow down the Philadelphia freight train, but we have to adjust on the fly when the Cowboys make the wrong kind of history versus a team that had not demonstrated much history-making quality before this meeting.
Let’s count the embarrassing ways this defense got everything wrong in Jacksonville.
• Dallas gave up a season-high 40 points. Before any of their attorneys contact me and remind me below that the final seven points are not on the defense, allow me to note that even if we deduct that, 33 points is also a season-high. The Cowboys had only allowed 30 points once (31 to Green Bay). You may recall a few similarities between these two games, including they both went to overtime and brought massive reality checks about whether this defense needs to be compared to the best defenses you have ever seen.
• Dallas gave up 33 points after halftime. The previous season-high was 14 to the Bengals and Green Bay in regulation (17 in Green Bay when we add overtime).
• Dallas gave up four passing touchdowns. The season high was three in Green Bay and no other team has had more than two.
• They gave up a season-high 26 first downs (previous high was 22).
• For the second week in a row, the Dallas defense set a season-high in third-down conversions allowed. Amazingly, Houston set the mark last week with seven and Jacksonville broke it with eight. Those are not two historic offenses.
• Not only is 67 percent on third downs the best (or worst) in 2022, but it is the first time that an opponent even made it to 50 percent. This is a great third-down defense, but you didn’t it Sunday.
• 75 percent in the red zone tied the season-worst performance with the Sunday Night trip to Philadelphia in Week 6.
• It was the first time all year that the Cowboys faced three goal-to-go situations and they allowed touchdowns all three times.
• The Cowboys had allowed 350 yards in a game (NFL average is 342) once this season (415 at Green Bay). The Cowboys allowed 503 yards — 496 in regulation — against the Jaguars.
• The 7.2 yards per play Jacksonville racked up was easily the season-worst, topping the 6.8 in Green Bay.
• The 7.1 yards per rushing play also was easily the season’s worst.
• The 311 yards passing allowed was a season-worst, too. No other opponent passed for more than 213 yards this season besides the Rams, who got to 285. Dallas has been exceptional at stopping the pass, but you would not know it based on Sunday’s effort.
• Dallas had one sack for seven yards Sunday. Both would be season lows if they had not had zero sacks against Houston. Needless to say, these are the worst two weeks for the pass rush. Probably not a good time for that to disappear.
That’s 13! I found 13 superlatives of disaster from this game. And to think I was going to focus on the Eagles …I guess the Cowboys decided that was a great idea and they did the same thing.
And honestly, that is why it is so ridiculous to spend the entire week mad at Kellen Moore and Dak Prescott. Sure, they were not nearly perfect and that was emphasized Monday and Tuesday.
But, are you kidding me?
Look at the drive chart. Look at all of the times that Jacksonville needed to move the ball in the second half:
Revisionist history might tell you that the defense was given bad spots and short fields to defend. The average Jaguars drive started at their own 26. The Cowboys surrendered nine drives of multiple first downs. They surrendered nine different drives of at least 32 yards of offense. That is absurd.
We should remember how this league works and definitely judge these guys on a much bigger sample size than one game in North Florida. We know the NFL — we should expect the Cowboys to be pretty great against the Eagles on Saturday because embarrassment is an amazing motivator. But holy heck. This was just brutal from this defense.
Weekly data box: Week 15 at Jacksonville
Just look at all of the red. And it wasn’t even on a collection of huge plays. It was a steady drip of poor play throughout.
What happened?
We can’t kid ourselves about the Cowboys defense. They don’t have the Legion of Doom in the secondary. They have Trevon Diggs and some guys. If you can get past the first level of game-wrecking pass rushers, you can deal with their coverage.
I will show you examples in the film study of that coverage being exposed (it wasn’t pretty). This thing is designed to whip people up front and it isn’t happening nearly enough. Teams are trying to find ways around it, but that’s the thing — there usually isn’t a way around it for the elite defenses. They have an answer to every question. We should probably be concerned that coach Doug Pederson saw what bunch sets and rub routes and quick-game could do. If Lawrence can do all of this so easily, we should really wonder what this looks like in Philadelphia in late January. For the most part, these were not long-developing gunslinger specials. Look at Lawrence’s chart:
Next Gen throw chart: Trevor Lawrence
The Cowboys tried to do a lot of things coverage-wise Sunday.
They tried to play a lot of man coverage and Lawrence and his guys destroyed it. People will keep pointing at Kelvin Joseph, but there were five defenders who were hit for between 40 and 69 yards. Joseph got benched and when Nahshon Wright came in, he looked ready to compete. We’ll see how they handle this.
Joseph conceded two catches for 69 yards, DaRon Bland (7 for 62), Diggs (5 for 58), Anthony Barr (3 for 40) and Jayron Kearse (5 for 40).
It just looked like they were not fully prepared for everything that was coming at them.
Splash plays: Week 15
Even the splash play count was indicative of a day where few made plays. People are starting to wonder about Micah Parsons, but with 12 QB pressures, a sack and a huge fumble recovery, I would not spend much time worrying. He might be banged up, but he isn’t your issue.
But, there is plenty more to worry about, because that matchup with Philadelphia is looming and when you look at the Eagles offense against this defense, the matchup is far more formidable. Of course, Jalen Hurts will determine plenty, but even if it is Gardner Minshew, he will still have that offensive line and those weapons. There is no time to not take an opponent seriously.
Oof. That is a different offense than the one Dallas just played.
Let’s do some film and move on to the next one.
Film study
Qtr: 3 – 4:07 – first-and-10 – JAX 41 – T.Lawrence pass deep right to Z.Jones for 59 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
This is where the game really changed. The Cowboys are in Cover 4. Because the Jaguars are rolling in play-action, you see Malik Hooker (28) step up against the run and the shallow cross or over route from Marvin Jones Jr. (11). Meanwhile, Zay Jones (7) is up against Joseph (1) and they set up the kid up with a beautiful double move and in the blink of an eye, Joseph is beaten badly. Of course, we think that Joseph badly misplayed this because he is expecting something at the sticks. But, on first down, there is no reason to protect the sticks and guess on routes. He is young and naive. Anyway, I need my safety to understand what is happening here and to assist in some meaningful way. I don’t think Hooker could stop this play and I am not even saying this is his guy, but you have to remain on guard — even if you are up 17 in the third quarter and feeling great. Hooker is accomplishing nothing here and is flat-footed. Donovan Wilson (6) is quicker to the scene from across the field. Quarters coverage should never get beaten this badly, but it dramatically opened the door.
Qtr: 3 – 1:28 – third-and-goal – DAL 10 – T.Lawrence pass short right to M.Jones for 10 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
This likely is the play that got Joseph benched. That said, I really like the design from the Jaguars as they look to high-low young Joseph. Christian Kirk (13) is coming across the field and has the corner on Kearse (27) . Marvin Jones is just trying to get outside Joseph (and does easily with a physical play) to the pylon. The read for Lawrence is low to high and honestly, even if Joseph covers this better, Kearse is beaten to the back corner, too. Not what you want to see on third-and-10 from the 10. The red zone defense was poor.
Qtr: 4 – 10:07 – third-and-goal – DAL 3 – T.Lawrence pass short middle to Z.Jones for 3 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
Another killer on third-and-goal in the fourth quarter, too. If you stop either of these, the Jags are in big trouble, but they cashed them both in for touchdowns. Our dots here are malfunctioning on the football, but this is one of the dozen or so rub routes and pick plays that Jacksonville ran masterfully. They are going to be so good with Calvin Ridley next year. Anyway, they see the rookie Bland (26) and inexperienced Wright (25) and this is too easy.
Kirk is high in the slot and Zay Jones is outside him. Jones runs at Bland and Kirk is looking like the primary to the pylon.
You can see Bland thinking he better stay with Kirk. So, you see the trick here. Both Cowboys go with Kirk and that leaves Zay Jones wide open and Lawrence cannot believe that worked.
By the time the Cowboys sort it out, it is over and done.
Very disappointing assignment football and a long week of dealing with it before Saturday night. I expect a great response from this defense against the Eagles because this was very, very poor.
By Bob Sturm
25m ago
The game will be remembered one way because that’s how football narratives go. But, in the words of Marlo, “It’s the other way.”
As the Cowboys are on the brink of their long-awaited showdown with the dreaded and feared Philadelphia Eagles — the team that has long been their biggest rival — they must come to grips with their defense just putting out their worst game of the year. And it might not even be that close, to be honest.
This was a stinker of the highest order.
How many ways can we make this case?
Let’s get started.
Let’s begin with this not-so-fun fact: The Cowboys allowed 500 yards and 40 points for just the 10th time in franchise history.
Cowboys all-time: Allowing 500 yards and 40 points
| TEAM | DATE▲ | PTS OPP | TOT | WEEK | OPP | RESULT | PTDIF | TO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DAL | 12/9/62 | 52 | 527 | 13 | @ | STL | L 20-52 | -32 | 3 |
| DAL | 10/23/83 | 40 | 519 | 8 | RAI | L 38-40 | -2 | 6 | |
| DAL | 12/8/85 | 50 | 570 | 14 | @ | CIN | L 24-50 | -26 | 2 |
| DAL | 9/13/98 | 42 | 515 | 2 | @ | DEN | L 23-42 | -19 | 0 |
| DAL | 12/10/06 | 42 | 536 | 14 | NOR | L 17-42 | -25 | 0 | |
| DAL | 10/6/13 | 51 | 517 | 5 | DEN | L 48-51 | -3 | 2 | |
| DAL | 11/10/13 | 49 | 625 | 10 | @ | NOR | L 17-49 | -32 | 1 |
| DAL | 10/4/20 | 49 | 508 | 4 | CLE | L 38-49 | -11 | 0 | |
| DAL | 12/18/22 | 40 | 503 | 15 | @ | JAX | L 34-40 (OT) | -6 | 3 |
It is the first time since 2020’s ridiculous home afternoon against the Cleveland Browns when Mike Nolan appeared to have forgotten everything he knew about defense. Before that, we had the twice-in-five-weeks Monte Kiffin defense of 2013 that routinely was routed and could not stop anybody. The famous result of that season was the 51-48 home loss to Denver. I believe equally sad was a month later when the Saints destroyed the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football in New Orleans, 49-17. In this debacle, both sides of the ball were easily blamed, but particularly the defense. The Saints punted to start the game and then had eight drives for the rest of the game. They scored touchdowns on all four drives before halftime, started the second half with a missed field goal and then scored touchdowns on their remaining three drives. It was beyond embarrassing.
To make matters more ridiculous about that 2013 defense, between those two stinkers was also a trip to Detroit when the Cowboys gave up 623 yards with Calvin Johnson racking up 329 receiving yards in one of his most “Megatron” performances ever, but Detroit failed to get to 40 points. They still won, 31-30. Yes, 2013 was a rough scene.
Unfortunately, we figured this “elite defense” would never be placed on this list. And if they did, perhaps it would be against a truly “elite offense”, right? The 2013 defense can say it was scorched by Peyton Manning, Matthew Stafford and Drew Brees.
This was Jacksonville and Trevor Lawrence. I have always believed Lawrence will be a superstar in this league, but just to show you the tale of the tape going into this game, let’s not try to convince ourselves Jacksonville was a true heavyweight. They were a 3-7 team after Week 10 that has figured out what it can do under a new coach.
Here is what the matchup looked like Sunday:
Do you see anything that predicts a 40-point, 500-yard offensive fireworks display against this Dan Quinn defense?
“Any given Sunday” is a truism that exists for a reason, folks. Part of me planned for this piece to be mostly a preview on how to slow down the Philadelphia freight train, but we have to adjust on the fly when the Cowboys make the wrong kind of history versus a team that had not demonstrated much history-making quality before this meeting.
Let’s count the embarrassing ways this defense got everything wrong in Jacksonville.
• Dallas gave up a season-high 40 points. Before any of their attorneys contact me and remind me below that the final seven points are not on the defense, allow me to note that even if we deduct that, 33 points is also a season-high. The Cowboys had only allowed 30 points once (31 to Green Bay). You may recall a few similarities between these two games, including they both went to overtime and brought massive reality checks about whether this defense needs to be compared to the best defenses you have ever seen.
• Dallas gave up 33 points after halftime. The previous season-high was 14 to the Bengals and Green Bay in regulation (17 in Green Bay when we add overtime).
• Dallas gave up four passing touchdowns. The season high was three in Green Bay and no other team has had more than two.
• They gave up a season-high 26 first downs (previous high was 22).
• For the second week in a row, the Dallas defense set a season-high in third-down conversions allowed. Amazingly, Houston set the mark last week with seven and Jacksonville broke it with eight. Those are not two historic offenses.
• Not only is 67 percent on third downs the best (or worst) in 2022, but it is the first time that an opponent even made it to 50 percent. This is a great third-down defense, but you didn’t it Sunday.
• 75 percent in the red zone tied the season-worst performance with the Sunday Night trip to Philadelphia in Week 6.
• It was the first time all year that the Cowboys faced three goal-to-go situations and they allowed touchdowns all three times.
• The Cowboys had allowed 350 yards in a game (NFL average is 342) once this season (415 at Green Bay). The Cowboys allowed 503 yards — 496 in regulation — against the Jaguars.
• The 7.2 yards per play Jacksonville racked up was easily the season-worst, topping the 6.8 in Green Bay.
• The 7.1 yards per rushing play also was easily the season’s worst.
• The 311 yards passing allowed was a season-worst, too. No other opponent passed for more than 213 yards this season besides the Rams, who got to 285. Dallas has been exceptional at stopping the pass, but you would not know it based on Sunday’s effort.
• Dallas had one sack for seven yards Sunday. Both would be season lows if they had not had zero sacks against Houston. Needless to say, these are the worst two weeks for the pass rush. Probably not a good time for that to disappear.
That’s 13! I found 13 superlatives of disaster from this game. And to think I was going to focus on the Eagles …I guess the Cowboys decided that was a great idea and they did the same thing.
And honestly, that is why it is so ridiculous to spend the entire week mad at Kellen Moore and Dak Prescott. Sure, they were not nearly perfect and that was emphasized Monday and Tuesday.
But, are you kidding me?
Look at the drive chart. Look at all of the times that Jacksonville needed to move the ball in the second half:
Revisionist history might tell you that the defense was given bad spots and short fields to defend. The average Jaguars drive started at their own 26. The Cowboys surrendered nine drives of multiple first downs. They surrendered nine different drives of at least 32 yards of offense. That is absurd.
We should remember how this league works and definitely judge these guys on a much bigger sample size than one game in North Florida. We know the NFL — we should expect the Cowboys to be pretty great against the Eagles on Saturday because embarrassment is an amazing motivator. But holy heck. This was just brutal from this defense.
Weekly data box: Week 15 at Jacksonville
Just look at all of the red. And it wasn’t even on a collection of huge plays. It was a steady drip of poor play throughout.
What happened?
We can’t kid ourselves about the Cowboys defense. They don’t have the Legion of Doom in the secondary. They have Trevon Diggs and some guys. If you can get past the first level of game-wrecking pass rushers, you can deal with their coverage.
I will show you examples in the film study of that coverage being exposed (it wasn’t pretty). This thing is designed to whip people up front and it isn’t happening nearly enough. Teams are trying to find ways around it, but that’s the thing — there usually isn’t a way around it for the elite defenses. They have an answer to every question. We should probably be concerned that coach Doug Pederson saw what bunch sets and rub routes and quick-game could do. If Lawrence can do all of this so easily, we should really wonder what this looks like in Philadelphia in late January. For the most part, these were not long-developing gunslinger specials. Look at Lawrence’s chart:
Next Gen throw chart: Trevor Lawrence
The Cowboys tried to do a lot of things coverage-wise Sunday.
They tried to play a lot of man coverage and Lawrence and his guys destroyed it. People will keep pointing at Kelvin Joseph, but there were five defenders who were hit for between 40 and 69 yards. Joseph got benched and when Nahshon Wright came in, he looked ready to compete. We’ll see how they handle this.
Joseph conceded two catches for 69 yards, DaRon Bland (7 for 62), Diggs (5 for 58), Anthony Barr (3 for 40) and Jayron Kearse (5 for 40).
It just looked like they were not fully prepared for everything that was coming at them.
Splash plays: Week 15
Even the splash play count was indicative of a day where few made plays. People are starting to wonder about Micah Parsons, but with 12 QB pressures, a sack and a huge fumble recovery, I would not spend much time worrying. He might be banged up, but he isn’t your issue.
But, there is plenty more to worry about, because that matchup with Philadelphia is looming and when you look at the Eagles offense against this defense, the matchup is far more formidable. Of course, Jalen Hurts will determine plenty, but even if it is Gardner Minshew, he will still have that offensive line and those weapons. There is no time to not take an opponent seriously.
Oof. That is a different offense than the one Dallas just played.
Let’s do some film and move on to the next one.
Film study
Qtr: 3 – 4:07 – first-and-10 – JAX 41 – T.Lawrence pass deep right to Z.Jones for 59 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
This is where the game really changed. The Cowboys are in Cover 4. Because the Jaguars are rolling in play-action, you see Malik Hooker (28) step up against the run and the shallow cross or over route from Marvin Jones Jr. (11). Meanwhile, Zay Jones (7) is up against Joseph (1) and they set up the kid up with a beautiful double move and in the blink of an eye, Joseph is beaten badly. Of course, we think that Joseph badly misplayed this because he is expecting something at the sticks. But, on first down, there is no reason to protect the sticks and guess on routes. He is young and naive. Anyway, I need my safety to understand what is happening here and to assist in some meaningful way. I don’t think Hooker could stop this play and I am not even saying this is his guy, but you have to remain on guard — even if you are up 17 in the third quarter and feeling great. Hooker is accomplishing nothing here and is flat-footed. Donovan Wilson (6) is quicker to the scene from across the field. Quarters coverage should never get beaten this badly, but it dramatically opened the door.
Qtr: 3 – 1:28 – third-and-goal – DAL 10 – T.Lawrence pass short right to M.Jones for 10 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
This likely is the play that got Joseph benched. That said, I really like the design from the Jaguars as they look to high-low young Joseph. Christian Kirk (13) is coming across the field and has the corner on Kearse (27) . Marvin Jones is just trying to get outside Joseph (and does easily with a physical play) to the pylon. The read for Lawrence is low to high and honestly, even if Joseph covers this better, Kearse is beaten to the back corner, too. Not what you want to see on third-and-10 from the 10. The red zone defense was poor.
Qtr: 4 – 10:07 – third-and-goal – DAL 3 – T.Lawrence pass short middle to Z.Jones for 3 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
Another killer on third-and-goal in the fourth quarter, too. If you stop either of these, the Jags are in big trouble, but they cashed them both in for touchdowns. Our dots here are malfunctioning on the football, but this is one of the dozen or so rub routes and pick plays that Jacksonville ran masterfully. They are going to be so good with Calvin Ridley next year. Anyway, they see the rookie Bland (26) and inexperienced Wright (25) and this is too easy.
Kirk is high in the slot and Zay Jones is outside him. Jones runs at Bland and Kirk is looking like the primary to the pylon.
You can see Bland thinking he better stay with Kirk. So, you see the trick here. Both Cowboys go with Kirk and that leaves Zay Jones wide open and Lawrence cannot believe that worked.
By the time the Cowboys sort it out, it is over and done.
Very disappointing assignment football and a long week of dealing with it before Saturday night. I expect a great response from this defense against the Eagles because this was very, very poor.
