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By Jon Machota
Sept. 15, 2026
No one would argue that the Dallas Cowboys have as much talent on defense as they do on offense. Their biggest offseason additions were all on the defensive side of the ball, including their first three draft picks. They would probably need another similar offseason to bridge that gap.
But many of the Cowboys’ biggest defensive issues in their 28-20 season-opening loss to the New York Giants on Sunday night were not about talent. And that’s concerning with all of the offseason defensive coaching staff changes.
Communication and discipline were the team’s two biggest defensive issues, according to Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer.
After watching the game film, Schottenheimer saw too many examples of poor communication either being delivered or received. It led to too many big plays that prevented Dallas from getting off the field. The Cowboys only had two possessions in the entire second half.
The discipline issues came while attempting to keep contain against New York quarterback Jaxson Dart. He finished with 11 carries for 54 yards, including one for 22. The Cowboys face Washington’s Jayden Daniels on Sunday and then Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson the following week. If those problems continue, it’s a decent bet Dallas starts the season 0-3.
“It’s part of the learning curve,” Schottenheimer said Monday. “We have to get better, but we’re going to make mistakes. I see this defense every day and we did not perform well enough as a football team last night, coaching and playing. It’s certainly not the standard. But I’m also not ready to say the expectations for where we think we’re going to get to as a defense and as a football team are not accurate.”
Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said Monday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas that they “probably had a little unrealistic expectations” in terms of what they could immediately do defensively with all the new coaches and players added in the offseason.
The Cowboys didn’t play many of their starters in the preseason by design. They wanted to get to Week 1 as healthy as possible. And they accomplished that goal. Starting inside linebacker DeMarvion Overshown and starting safety Malik Hooker exited Sunday night’s game with injuries, but the Cowboys were basically at full health defensively entering the game.
Schottenheimer doesn’t second-guess that plan.
“It’s a philosophy and it’s a catch-22,” he said. “If you put a player out there and all of a sudden someone comes and they get dinged up and they’re out for the year, you’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t. I felt really, really good about our work in training camp. I felt really good about the work in the two (practices with the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints).
“There was plenty of padded work. We just did not perform to the level that we should perform to (Sunday) night and we own that. I’m always going to be the first one off the bus taking responsibility and accountability for that. We’ll get back to work. We got the right guys in this locker room to fix it.”
There’s only so much that can be gleaned from watching training camp practices. The players aren’t tackling to the ground, and the quarterbacks can’t even be touched. Maybe most important of all, the offense isn’t going to stick with certain plays just because it’s working. Both sides are trying to get as much work for their side of the ball. It’s not like a game where an opponent will continue running something because the other side is showing it can’t stop them. That was on display in Dallas’ loss to the Giants.
According to Pro Football Focus’ individual player grading, Dallas’ top five defenders against the Giants were outside linebacker Donovan Ezeiruaku, defensive linemen Otito Ogbonnia and Quinnen Williams, rookie defensive back Caleb Downs and cornerback Cobie Durant.
The most notable of the Cowboys’ lowest-graded defensive players, according to PFF, were Overshown, inside linebacker Dee Winters, rookie outside linebacker Malachi Lawrence, Hooker, outside linebacker Rashan Gary, safety Jalen Thompson and outside linebacker Von Miller.
One poor showing won’t mean much if the issues are corrected in the coming weeks. A noticeable jump should come from Week 1 to Week 2 for a team playing so many new players who are working with a new coaching staff. Much of that responsibility falls on the shoulders of new defensive coordinator Christian Parker.
Schottenheimer said the two had great discussions after the game and again Monday morning at the team’s headquarters. Nothing that happened Sunday night has changed the way the second-year head coach feels about the first-time defensive coordinator.
“He’s been great,” Schottenheimer said. “Very methodical, as you would imagine, just like what we’ve seen with every experience and exposure to him. Very methodical, very convicted. Didn’t make excuses. ‘Need to be better. Will be better, starting with X, Y, Z.’
“He and I were on the same page with that, which is a good thing. And then this morning he was amazing with the staff and having hard conversations and real conversations. And this is not just the players, this is us as a staff. That’s a leader. That’s a leader of men.”
Things can’t go much worse than they did a year ago for Dallas’ defense. It was arguably the worst in franchise history. It was so bad that Matt Eberflus didn’t get a second season as defensive coordinator. Some of those issues looked to still be hanging around Sunday night.
Schottenheimer has confidence Parker will fix them.
“I’m around him every day,” Schottenheimer said. “There’s adversity all the time in what we do. You (reporters) don’t hear about all of it. You don’t see all of it. You don’t deal with all of it. But whether it’s the things we deal with off the field, whether it’s the things we deal with in coaching meetings and discussions that we have from a strategy standpoint, from a personnel standpoint, and until you go through all those things, you don’t really know.
“But I have no question Christian Parker is the right guy for this job. He’s an outstanding coach. He will learn from this, just like our young players are going to learn from this. We’re going to play our young players this weekend, too. They’re going to play better and Christian’s going to call a better game this week and feel better about it.”
Sept. 15, 2026
No one would argue that the Dallas Cowboys have as much talent on defense as they do on offense. Their biggest offseason additions were all on the defensive side of the ball, including their first three draft picks. They would probably need another similar offseason to bridge that gap.
But many of the Cowboys’ biggest defensive issues in their 28-20 season-opening loss to the New York Giants on Sunday night were not about talent. And that’s concerning with all of the offseason defensive coaching staff changes.
Communication and discipline were the team’s two biggest defensive issues, according to Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer.
After watching the game film, Schottenheimer saw too many examples of poor communication either being delivered or received. It led to too many big plays that prevented Dallas from getting off the field. The Cowboys only had two possessions in the entire second half.
The discipline issues came while attempting to keep contain against New York quarterback Jaxson Dart. He finished with 11 carries for 54 yards, including one for 22. The Cowboys face Washington’s Jayden Daniels on Sunday and then Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson the following week. If those problems continue, it’s a decent bet Dallas starts the season 0-3.
“It’s part of the learning curve,” Schottenheimer said Monday. “We have to get better, but we’re going to make mistakes. I see this defense every day and we did not perform well enough as a football team last night, coaching and playing. It’s certainly not the standard. But I’m also not ready to say the expectations for where we think we’re going to get to as a defense and as a football team are not accurate.”
Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said Monday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas that they “probably had a little unrealistic expectations” in terms of what they could immediately do defensively with all the new coaches and players added in the offseason.
The Cowboys didn’t play many of their starters in the preseason by design. They wanted to get to Week 1 as healthy as possible. And they accomplished that goal. Starting inside linebacker DeMarvion Overshown and starting safety Malik Hooker exited Sunday night’s game with injuries, but the Cowboys were basically at full health defensively entering the game.
Schottenheimer doesn’t second-guess that plan.
“It’s a philosophy and it’s a catch-22,” he said. “If you put a player out there and all of a sudden someone comes and they get dinged up and they’re out for the year, you’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t. I felt really, really good about our work in training camp. I felt really good about the work in the two (practices with the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints).
“There was plenty of padded work. We just did not perform to the level that we should perform to (Sunday) night and we own that. I’m always going to be the first one off the bus taking responsibility and accountability for that. We’ll get back to work. We got the right guys in this locker room to fix it.”
There’s only so much that can be gleaned from watching training camp practices. The players aren’t tackling to the ground, and the quarterbacks can’t even be touched. Maybe most important of all, the offense isn’t going to stick with certain plays just because it’s working. Both sides are trying to get as much work for their side of the ball. It’s not like a game where an opponent will continue running something because the other side is showing it can’t stop them. That was on display in Dallas’ loss to the Giants.
According to Pro Football Focus’ individual player grading, Dallas’ top five defenders against the Giants were outside linebacker Donovan Ezeiruaku, defensive linemen Otito Ogbonnia and Quinnen Williams, rookie defensive back Caleb Downs and cornerback Cobie Durant.
The most notable of the Cowboys’ lowest-graded defensive players, according to PFF, were Overshown, inside linebacker Dee Winters, rookie outside linebacker Malachi Lawrence, Hooker, outside linebacker Rashan Gary, safety Jalen Thompson and outside linebacker Von Miller.
One poor showing won’t mean much if the issues are corrected in the coming weeks. A noticeable jump should come from Week 1 to Week 2 for a team playing so many new players who are working with a new coaching staff. Much of that responsibility falls on the shoulders of new defensive coordinator Christian Parker.
Schottenheimer said the two had great discussions after the game and again Monday morning at the team’s headquarters. Nothing that happened Sunday night has changed the way the second-year head coach feels about the first-time defensive coordinator.
“He’s been great,” Schottenheimer said. “Very methodical, as you would imagine, just like what we’ve seen with every experience and exposure to him. Very methodical, very convicted. Didn’t make excuses. ‘Need to be better. Will be better, starting with X, Y, Z.’
“He and I were on the same page with that, which is a good thing. And then this morning he was amazing with the staff and having hard conversations and real conversations. And this is not just the players, this is us as a staff. That’s a leader. That’s a leader of men.”
Things can’t go much worse than they did a year ago for Dallas’ defense. It was arguably the worst in franchise history. It was so bad that Matt Eberflus didn’t get a second season as defensive coordinator. Some of those issues looked to still be hanging around Sunday night.
Schottenheimer has confidence Parker will fix them.
“I’m around him every day,” Schottenheimer said. “There’s adversity all the time in what we do. You (reporters) don’t hear about all of it. You don’t see all of it. You don’t deal with all of it. But whether it’s the things we deal with off the field, whether it’s the things we deal with in coaching meetings and discussions that we have from a strategy standpoint, from a personnel standpoint, and until you go through all those things, you don’t really know.
“But I have no question Christian Parker is the right guy for this job. He’s an outstanding coach. He will learn from this, just like our young players are going to learn from this. We’re going to play our young players this weekend, too. They’re going to play better and Christian’s going to call a better game this week and feel better about it.”
