Sturm: The Parker Report – Defensive Growing Pains

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The Parker Report – Defensive Growing Pains​

Explosive plays and third-down conversions continue to hold this defense back for now.​

Bob Sturm
2 hours ago

• Overall Defensive Evaluation vs Green Bay
• The Explosive Problem Continues
• 3rd Downs Have Regressed Badly
• Joey Porter Jr Seems The Real Deal
• Film Study and Splash Plays

OK, let’s begin.

OVERALL DEFENSIVE EVALUATION​

It is an interesting game to analyze from a defensive-specific perspective. On one hand, Dallas was able to intercept a pass that nearly was a pick-6. Only a fluke “back of the hand” downed Dee Winters or the game might have been tied and who knows what happened from there. Also, Daron Bland looked like he had an interception, but a double-catch made him out of bounds at the moment of truth. There were three sacks and a host of other plays that were just missed. Dallas only allowed two touchdowns against a team that has plenty of weapons and confidence these days. They also held Green Bay to a very low success rate in every category.

Yet, we could argue that they allowed three long scoring drives in the 1st half that resulted in 17 points, Jordan Love was making big throw after big throw, maybe it was just a few drops that kept Green Bay from flirting with 40 points, and they converted all sorts of third downs after being a mess in the first five weeks of the season.

Again, it is all about perspective and whether your cup is half-full or half-empty.



If we look at the data box below, the green ink means positive results for the Cowboys defense and there is way more on here than you might expect. But, the red is the back breaking stuff, of course. If you lose two categories, don’t make it explosives and third downs.

The Explosive Problem Continues​

These are chunk plays which we define as 20+ yards. And boy, are they killing this defense in 2026. Dallas has given up a league-leading 29 chunk plays on defense. And by league-leading, we mean the absolute worst. Only one in Week 1 vs the Giants, but then four vs Washington, seven against the Ravens, eight in Houston, four vs Tampa Bay, and five more vs Green Bay.



The Cowboys offense only has 17 explosives of their own, so Dallas is minus-12 on chunk plays this season which might explain the 2-4 record. You cannot give up huge plays and not get enough of your own and live to tell about it. The 4.83 yards per game will need to come way down for this defense, but you will see below that there are way too many here.

3rd Downs Have Regressed Badly​

A few weeks ago, I got excited to see that the third-down defense had been solid vs the Ravens and Texans. Well, we have more data coming in and that has gone back to awful.

NFL league average is slightly better than 40%. We can see that this trend against the two Bays has seen 18 conversions and now Dallas is now dead last in the league at preventing 3rd Downs at 54.7% against.

Obviously, this is where you should have your best pass rushers and coverages called, but you cannot give up this many conversions and play winning football. I do think they are getting to some better answers, but for now, to get sliced and diced by the 32nd best third-down offense entering this game for a season-high 11 conversions is not what the Cowboys had in mind.

Green Bay entered the game at 27.6% for the year (32nd) and by the time the night was over, they had risen to 35.5% and are ranked 24th.

Joey Porter Jr Seems The Real Deal​

To see Joey Porter join this team and immediately cover Nico Collins and Christian Watson like this is very encouraging. He is physical, competitive, and tough. I was so impressed with his play in Green Bay. He wants the challenge and his guy is seldom open. They have not had a corner like this in forever.

I have no idea what is going on with his health right now, so I want to be mindful of this. But, the more he plays, the better Dallas is going to be. In three games so far, he has played:

• Houston 26 snaps out of 52 = 50%
• Tampa Bay DNP
• Green Bay 36 snaps out of 70 = 51%

The sooner he can be put out there on every snap, the sooner we can expect this thing to really take off. But, since joining this team, I have seen nothing that concerns me beyond what it might cost to keep him. We can argue that he instantly is a top defender on this team.

OK, plenty of film to sort through today.

FILM STUDY​

1Q - 10:19 - 3-5-GB 15 - J.Love pass short middle to S.Williams to GB 30 for 15 yards (C.Downs).​

As you will quickly see, this first half from Green Bay was all about third-down conversions. They weren’t really getting much done otherwise, but this 9-10 1st half was really something. Here, they will face a 5-man blitz from the Cowboys and then man across the board. Porter vs Watson looks great as he is hip-to-hip. Bland vs Golden on the other side looks good, too. But, 83-Williams vs Downs is where Love goes with the ball as the blitz is picked up and I don’t think Caleb did a bad job here, but a good throw moves the chains. 1 for 1.

1Q - 8:58 - 3-13-GB 27 - J.Love pass deep middle to C.Watson to DAL 46 for 27 yards.​

3rd and 13 and here the Cowboys rush four with 7-Rashan Gary beating the RG, but Love steps up in the pocket to elude him. Then, he fires a dart over the arms of 55-Barham into Christian Watson’s open spot in the zone. From the end zone, it is difficult to see how the throw gets through the traffic and Dallas is in a Cover 6 here. But, that ends up as another unlikely 3rd down conversion.

1Q - 7:47 - 2-10-DAL 46 - J.Love pass deep left to M.Golden pushed ob at DAL 9 for 37 yards (S.Revel). PENALTY on GB-M.Golden, Taunting, 15 yards, enforced at DAL 9.​

It looked like Green Bay wanted 0-Golden vs 28-Revel if they could find it, because when Love sees Cover 1 here, he looks off the safety in the middle and then feathers a throw to Golden in stride and they find 37 yards here, although Golden gives back 15 by flexing, or something. It looks like they were judicious with Joey Porter again, perhaps due to his ankle, but as we can see, they really have a tough time playing man coverage against a team with these matchup issues.

1Q - 7:17 - 2-10-DAL 24 - J.Love sacked at DAL 27 for -3 yards (Q.Williams).​

This is a sack by Quinnen Williams on the Love attempted escape, but I think it is important to see the two edges here 7-Gary and 57-Lawrence getting some real nice pressure that causes the play. Gary popped well in that Baltimore and Houston swing and I think I would call this a solid performance, as well. Lawrence is seeing an uptick in his workload and also did some nice things. There is some progress with this DL. So, that sets up another 3rd and long. Chance to get off the field.

1Q - 6:35 - 3-13-DAL 27 - J.Love pass short right to P.Strong to DAL 13 for 14 yards (M.Hooker).​

This one is pretty frustrating as you get them in 3rd and long and Green Bay just wants Pierre Strong to try to give them a chance on a quick play to the flat. 55-Barham has a chance to end the play, but Strong is elusive for sure. What bothers me the most after the LB misses is that 24-Hooker seems so careful to the scene. I want my deep safety to have more conviction to go right to Strong and blow that up. Instead, he is like Bambi on ice and still doesn’t come close to preventing the 3rd down. This conversion was terribly unnecessary.

1Q - 4:46 - 3-6-DAL 9 - J.Love pass short middle to M.Golden for 9 yards, TOUCHDOWN.​

Here, for the 4th time in the opening drive, Dallas has Green Bay on 3rd down. Any stop along the way will result in a punt or a field goal. Instead, Green Bay ends the drive by taking a lead it would never relinquish on the opening drive on a beautiful throw to Golden behind the zone. I am not sure what my safety on that side is looking at (14-Bell), but at no point is he helping 23-Speed deal with Golden.



If you take a picture at 0:17, you can see Love throwing the ball to the red circle in front of him with no Golden even on the screen. I would like to think 14-Bell can get to that spot, but as you can see, he doesn’t even make a play on the ball. Touchdown.

1Q - 2:36 - 1-10-GB 41 - J.Love sacked at GB 39 for -2 yards (E.Garcia).​

When the Cowboys lost Jonathan Bullard to injury, they called up Elijah Garcia from Rice who is 28 years old and wears 93. He got a sack on Sunday and that might be the first time you have ever heard his name. Here it is. We notice two things again that are good for Dallas. 1) the coverage from 25-Porter on Watson and 26-Bland on Golden is really tight and impressive. Then, 2) on this 5-man pressure, Rashan Gary is in the backfield again. People don’t want to hear about pressures that don’t result in sack totals for Gary, but this is the 2nd Cowboys sack that we see because Gary is flushing the QB to his help. I do think that is a very big contribution that we don’t miss. And then Garcia finishes the play for his first Cowboys’ sack.

1Q - 1:53 - 2-12-GB 39 - J.Love pass short left intended for M.Golden INTERCEPTED by D.Winters at GB 42.​

And then on the very next play, this feels like the Cowboys were quite confident that they could undercut a quick out to Golden as 53-Dee Winters makes a heck of a play. You can see Green Bay’s mirrored route concepts on both sides with their top WRs running outs and then Tucker Kraft is up against Porter and Savion Williams vs Bland. There is not much to look at for the QB, so he says Golden vs a LB should work, but Winters undercuts it and almost has a Pick-6. First interception in ever for the Cowboys, going back to December and the first by a LB since 2024. Huge moment.

2Q - 13:36 - 3-8-GB 22 - J.Love pass short left to P.Strong to GB 32 for 10 yards (D.Bland).​

Coming off the Evan Williams goal-line interception, Dallas nearly has a 3-and-out to force a punt. They have Green Bay in 3rd and 8 again, so you have to like their chances. Dallas lines up 7-across and will drop 40-Von Miller to the flat and Bland out wide both to deal with the RB Strong who slips out left and Love must unload the ball because here comes 7-Gary again. Pierre Strong has really helped Green Bay with these quick outlet passes as again he gets just enough to demoralize as the Dallas pursuit is not good enough. Again, I need better work from my DBs in coming up and protecting the 1st down line, but Bland and Miller both leave us wanting here to say the least.

2Q - 11:54 - 2-13-GB 29 - J.Love pass deep middle to C.Watson pushed ob at DAL 43 for 28 yards (C.Downs; A.Speed​

Again, I can’t help but notice how many of these big plays happen when Porter is off the field, because here is another one. Another blitz, another pressure from 55-Barham, Love must unload it and here comes the huge Watson across the middle of the field with Downs in pursuit and it is a huge chunk play yet again. Big Cover 3 beater, but that guy cannot be that wide open if you want any shot at defending that team. Just not nearly good enough as you can see.

2Q - 11:17 - 1-10-DAL 43 - J.Love pass incomplete deep left to M.Golden.​

The next play, they bomb another one. Again, no Porter on the field. Again, Gary is applying pressure, but with a Cover 4 and 23-Ameer Speed left to deal with Matthew Golden, this is a perfect throw and a unbelievable drop right into the hands of an open Golden. I recommend that they figure out how to play Porter every snap.

2Q - 10:37 - 3-5-DAL 38 - J.Love right end to DAL 25 for 13 yards (J.Porter).​

I said on the radio last week that, “at least you don’t have to worry much about Jordan Love on any zone-read keepers” because Love is not a running QB. But, I did forget that the Packers reserve the right to see that everyone on the schedule checks the discipline of the Cowboys edge players and saves it for a big moment like 3rd and 5. And yes, they see Rashan Gary and who knows him better than Green Bay? Of course, they would get a 3rd down by doing that to Gary, right?

Here is Matt LaFleur being asked about it by our friend Aaron Nagler.

“Did you target anyone specifically?”

Oh my!

2Q - 6:46 - 3-2-DAL 2 - J.Love pass short left to T.Kraft to DAL 2 for no gain (M.Hooker).​

Here, Green Bay wants to make Malik Hooker tackle in space against Tucker Kraft. And also here, Hooker answers the challenge so much better than he did above on that Pierre Strong play in the 1Q at 6:35. Not sure if Hooker was chewed out or took it personally, but this is what we need from a safety tackling in space. Well done and a well-earned splash play. This was a 4-point play to keep the damage down to just a field goal.

2Q - 1:01 - 3-8-GB 36 - J.Love pass incomplete deep right to B.Melton (J.Porter).​

This was really interesting because I think the intent of the play is to switch release with late motion to get Joey Porter to bump out to 16-Melton and that leaves Matthew Golden against a LB underneath. If you look, Golden is wide open, but for whatever reason, Love is on “full send” and bombs it to Melton with Joey Porter chasing. I am not positive where the penalty was called, but evidently, it was when they both got back in bounds. I thought Porter was exceptional, so this might have been his one poor play, but he got called for a big flag here.

2Q - 0:46 - 2-6-DAL 23 - J.Love pass incomplete deep right to M.Golden (A.Speed).​

This is what they call a QB heat-check. This is a screen and it is blocked up well enough to think it is a very big gaining screen if they throw it to the flat. Instead, Love decides to sight-adjust this to a go-route for Golden vs Ameer Speed again (no doubt remembering that they had a touchdown in this very matchup a drive ago) and Love wants to give Golden another shot at it. Everything works, but again, Golden does not finish the play. That will maybe help force a field goal if they can get one 3rd down stop.

2Q - 0:42 - 3-6-DAL 23 - J.Love pass deep left to M.Golden to DAL 2 for 21 yards (C.Downs).​

But, by now, we know they cannot. Because on 3rd and 6, Love goes right back to Golden. This one will be called “too much time for a NFL QB to have” and the coverage cannot hold up this long. Love had 7.1 seconds to throw here and finally Golden is open near the sideline for a big conversion. Tough to ask a team to cover for that long, so you need a better pass rush. They would go up 17-0 two plays later into halftime on a QB sneak where Kenny Clark gets pushed back into his end zone.

Two more snaps from the 2nd half:

3Q - 6:52 - 4-3-DAL 44 - J.Love pass short left to T.Kraft to DAL 30 for 14 yards (C.Downs).​

This is a 4th and 3 at a critical time in the game where Dallas is just one stop away from getting right back in this game. Green Bay will stack their two studs – 9-Watson and 0-Golden on the left and their whole goal is to get in the way of 55-Barham. Then, an orbit motion for Tucker Kraft should allow an easy conversion. But, 92-Williams and 7-Gary both get to Love quickly, so this is quite a contorted throw as Love gets smashed hard, but they do move the chains and end up with a field goal. If you switch Barham to Watson, they probably go there. But, if they keep their matchups, Barham can’t get through the traffic. I know some wanted offensive pass interference, but they just don’t make that call very often on this concept.

3Q - 5:21 - 2-6-DAL 26 - ) J.Love pass incomplete deep middle to C.Watson (M.Lawrence).​

Here is another big pass play without Joey Porter on the field. This is 2nd and 6, but Green Bay is in empty and Dallas rushes just 3. This looks like Cover 4, but somehow 57-Malachi Lawrence is shadowing Christian Watson the entire play. This is the play where all of the Dallas rushers end up on the ground, as you can see below:



Anyway, Love has all day and Watson vs an edge rusher is something Love really likes. Somehow, Lawrence stays with Watson and I think Love would like this throw back because if he leads the WR, there is no chance it can be broken up, but let’s give big Malachi a lot of credit because his finger-tips broke up a touchdown here. Not sure I would recommend doing that very often, but when we talk about an athletic freak of nature, this is what we are speaking about. He really showed off his ability there.

SPLASH PLAYS vs GREEN BAY​

We saw some nice stuff from this Dallas defense in this game. Plenty of poor, but it is always good to see splash plays at this quantity.

SEASON LEADERBOARD​

CONCLUSIONS:​

I was asked the other day if the Stars and Mavericks should get more coverage because of the struggling Cowboys and the answer for me is always no. These seasons are journeys and I think every game can tell us a story. I understand some people getting frustrated and losing interest, but I will be on this wall breaking down the plays so that those who have the appetite can carry on. I’m not going anywhere at 2-4.

They are in a bad spot right now and on both sides of the ball. We are seeing young players have growing pains, but that is a very normal journey for rookies in this league. I leave Sunday Night thinking the defense has issues, but also looked a bit better on film than I first thought. I expect this defense to keep improving as the year goes along and this division is still very much in play.

I know everybody is down, but this is what building a defense looks like. You keep going through players until you find the right ones and you keep trying different tactics, as well. The next few weeks we expect some more strides as the schedule gets a bit more reasonable between now and San Francisco.



Of the next six games, only one appears to be against a playoff team. If a 2-4 team is to figure things out, now is the time to hit the gas. But, on both sides of the ball, the coaching will need to be fully on point.

For now, they keep their head down and grind away. The results are mixed and even in this silly division, they must figure out how to play winning football in a real hurry.