Sturm: The Parker Report – The Run Defense Caves In

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The Parker Report – The Run Defense Caves In​

The first five weeks of the Christian Parker era are disappointing and changes are here.​

Bob Sturm
20 hours ago

• Overall Defensive Evaluation vs Tampa Bay
• Gashed on the Ground
• Enter Mike Pettine
• The Malachi Lawrence Bright Spot
• Film Study and Splash Plays

OK, let’s begin.

OVERALL DEFENSIVE EVALUATION​

To our dismay, this defense is still not close to good enough and Thursday was a massive step in the wrong direction. To play that team in that setting and to receive that play out of this defense was probably going to come with some sort of consequence and the news of Monday is not a terribly huge surprise. We will get to that in a moment, but here is the truth of the matter.

This defense may not be much better than it has been. In fact, it may be about the same.

• 31st in total defense
• 32nd vs the run
• 32nd in interceptions
• 32nd on 3rd down
• 27th in points against
• Tied for 30th in takeaways

And Thursday they played an undrafted rookie QB at home.

What did we get?

The numbers tell a scary story: 419 yards, 241 on the ground, no takeaways, and nearly 40 minutes of possession.



You just can’t. The 3rd downs should be red, too. There is no universe where you can give that many 3rd down conversions against a QB like that on a winless team in your own building.

Guys, what the heck are we doing?

Gashed on the Ground​

6.2 yards a carry on 39 rushing plays. They have spent the money and found the guys and it is still just as bad. Even the progress they had made at limiting interior runs and 3rd down defense took a massive step backwards.



And yes, still no takeaways. None since Week 2. They are tied for dead last on takeaways. We are at an old familiar place. A place we went with Zimmer, Eberflus, and now Parker.

They still stink.

If you are curious how many times they have ever given up 240+ rushing with zero takeaways and still won in Cowboys’ history, let me show you.



There you go. They are 0-9 all time and there are almost no cases where you have been within two scores.

This run is incredible. I honestly want to concede that they actually don’t seem to be playing this run that badly. I mean, there are five runs in this game that they are defending so much worse.

But, this is the first play of the half. You simply got to get a guy to the ground who is dancing back there like Barry Sanders for 5 seconds before he gets free. It is insanity.


This play opened up the game in such a depressing way that it might be the signature play that changed the structure of the defensive room. It also started one of the most depressing quarters in recent team history as the Bucs would have a 17-point third quarter and knock the Cowboys out right then and there.



We can debate whether it was the Giants going back to the flats over and over or the Ravens finding Zay Flowers against man coverage or the 3rd and 21 for Tampa or even that run above, but Dallas spent their long weekend looking to get Christian Parker help.

Enter Mike Pettine​

On Monday, the Cowboys made their move. Defensive mind Mike Pettine is joining up and Christian Parker is moving upstairs to call the defense from the box.



Now, he worked with Schottenheimer in New York, Parker in Green Bay, and coached Rashan Gary and Kenny Clark for three seasons. He also was someone Parker wanted hired last spring and Pettine was still not thinking he wanted to get back in to the league and maybe consider retirement.

So, if Parker needs a trusted confidant, great. Of course, Pettine is not a Fangio guy at all, so we suspect it is more for “another brain to bounce things off” rather than a guy to come fix things. Parker is having growing pains and most of his staff he hired is also pretty young and inexperienced. Maybe this helps or maybe it is another deck chair on our little Titanic. But, I don’t see any reason to be upset about this move because I have always said the Cowboys resource that they don’t use enough is their wallet to hire the best coaching staff they can hire. They go cheap a lot, so if Pettine made them add money to their offer from the spring, good for him. This place is a headache for defensive coaches, so get that check.

The Malachi Lawrence Bright Spot​

I promised to keep “telling you something good” in these bad weeks about the defense, so here we are for this week. 1st Round pick Malachi Lawrence had his best game of his young career on Thursday with four splash plays. He was a force.


The longer this goes and the more we see Von Miller and Rashan Gary look a bit less dynamic than we hoped, the more we look at this young talent and say that he needs to be out there and let’s let him see what he can do with that rookie energy.

Plenty of things in his game need finishing, but I really like his pass rush and his athleticism as we featured in his Sturm 60 profile last spring.

2026 Draft Profile - UCF Edge Malachi Lawrence​

Bob Sturm
·
Mar 22
Read full story
He took a step forward. Let’s see more.

FILM STUDY​

1Q - 9:33 - 3-4-TB 33 - J.Daniels scrambles right end to TB 38 for 5 yards (D.Winters).​

Here is the very first Tampa Bay third down of the game and the start of that very long first drive. This is 3rd and 4 and we see a very familiar concept, a QB out-flanking the Cowboys edges to escape to the marker. Jalon Daniels has incredible wheels and we all knew that and Rashan Gary can do a lot of things well, but match that athleticism on the edge would not be one of them. Daniels escapes and the drive will go right down the field with a series of very moderate gains, but a march that will end up in the end zone with more 3rd down conversions than the entire games against Baltimore and Houston – in the first quarter! Ominous sign.

2Q - 15:00 - 2-5-DAL 5 - J.Daniels pass short right to B.Irving for 5 yards, TOUCHDOWN.​

This is how they ended that drive on the 1st play of the second quarter. Dallas is trying to play man across the board with a few extra defenders to assist, but this is where OC Zac Robinson demonstrated a nice concept down in the deep red zone. Since Dallas doesn’t blitz, 7-Irving can slip out to the right. The outside right receivers will try to get in Reddy Steward’s path to give Irving the edge and once he does, that RB is athletic as they come and he gets to the pylon. Love the idea and Reddy had a nearly impossible assignment on this one. Tampa ties the game at 7-7.

2Q - 11:40 - 3-8-TB 5 - J.Daniels pass short right to E.Egbuka to TB 8 for 3 yards (R.Steward; D.Ezeiruaku).​

Five man pressure above vs 3rd and 8 and Tampa calls a WR screen into that blitz. It is actually a very dangerous spot for the Dallas defense because this could have been a very dangerous moment where Tampa springs it but 92-Quinnen Williams and 6-Donovan Ezeiruaku rally back and cut off the path for 2-Egbuka. If they don’t, this one might be a great plan because look at the numbers when the terrifying WR catches the ball (below).



Tampa has numbers and everyone is well blocked, so the hustle from the DL got the Cowboys off the field and forced a punt. That is a nice job.

2Q - 6:55 - 1-10-TB 41 - B.Irving right tackle to DAL 48 for 11 yards (R.Steward).​

This isn’t the biggest run of the game by a long stretch, but we still aren’t defending basic runs like we should. This time, 55-Barham and 40-Miller both leave a lot to be desired for me. Barham goes under the block of the RG and he simply cannot. He has to get outside him to show color to the RB and to force him from that path. Barham trying to go under it and Von Miller out so wide that they leave a hole you can drive a truck through. That is not sound run defense. Miller has to squeeze that down and Barham has to have that gap occupied. Way too easy for me. There is nothing complicated about this run and yet Dallas looks fundamentally unsound. Very poor defending there.

2Q - 2:07 - 3-9-TB 49 - J.Daniels pass incomplete deep left to E.Egbuka (M.Bell).​

Long 3rd down and for the second week in a row, we see a very nice play from a safety 14-Bell coming downhill to break up a pass to Egbuka. They threw a flag and then decided against it and I know this has been a very rough season for Markquese Bell, but he well earned a splash play here. This is how you do it and how you get off the field on a 3rd down.

3Q - 14:54 - 1-10-TB 14 - B.Irving left tackle pushed ob at DAL 14 for 72 yards (C.Downs).​

I looked at this play above already, but this is just an unreal moment and probably the signature play of this horrid performance. It took all day for Irving to find a hole and honestly, the Cowboys are doing pretty decent work on this play until Dee Winters and Malik Hooker knock eachother out of the play and now Irving can bust through that level and there is really nobody behind it. Luckily, Daron Bland runs it down, but, believe it or not, there is a decent amount of good defending on this play. Irving is just a ridiculously elusive player. Luckily, he lacks the long speed so that you can catch him before he goes all the way.

3Q - 14:04 - 1-10-DAL 14 - E.Egbuka left end for 14 yards, TOUCHDOWN.​

This is the very next snap and Irving isn’t even on the field. But, with Gainwell deep, they run a jet sweep to Egbuka and he never really gets touched. The edge 6-Ezeiruaku does not see it until it is past him. The corner 28-Revel has no idea that this is his outside help and never sees it. Caleb Downs sees it, but Revel is in his way (and Barham’s way, too) and can’t do much about it. No communication, no awareness, and no team defense on this play. This is bad defense on this snap.

3Q - 9:36 - 2-14-TB 21 - J.Daniels pass deep right to T.Johnson pushed ob at DAL 15 for 64 yards (M.Hooker).​

2nd and 14 in a pivotal spot of the game. You got them behind the sticks so you run a simple man coverage where your best corner 26-Bland (I guess) is assigned 15-Johnson in the right slot with 14-Godwin outside him. Now, there is no real coaching point for Bland here because he simply fell down. We don’t know why Bland keeps falling down at important times and I realize he has had enough foot injuries that we probably cannot rule that out. But, a 64-yard gain from a backup QB to a seldom used WR is most disappointing when everything is going wrong in a game like this. Bland fell down on the two most critical pass plays for the Bucs all day and I am not sure you can play him if that is happening.

3Q - 7:35 - 1-1-DAL 1 - B.Irving left guard for 1 yard, TOUCHDOWN.​

Dallas has been pretty decent in these goal-line runs this year and part of it is 55-Barham just firing into the backfield and getting there before they can block him. Well, Tampa had a plan and they were going to run a counter-trey with the RG and TE coming over with the RG getting the edge (55) and the TE getting the lead to the goal-line. Dallas had no answer for this one with 57-Lawrence, 14-Bell, and 53-Winters being overwhelmed in short space. Too easy again.

3Q - 7:24 - 1-10-DAL 37 - J.Daniels sacked at DAL 48 for -11 yards (M.Lawrence).​

This is the sudden change after the Turpin fumble on the kick return. We know that teams like to go for the kill-shot after turnovers and they often want to do it on the first play. Sure enough, Tampa has a play-action fake with a post-dig behind it and Dallas has a Cover 3 back so this is something everyone does and it leaves acres of space for WRs to grab chunks. But, the Cowboys have a heck of a snap in getting home on the pass-rush where they see the fake but just keep coming. Ezeiruaku flushes him to Malachi Lawrence for a sack with LT Overton right there, too. Nice work by the kids for a big sack.

3Q - 6:31 - 3-21-DAL 48 - J.Daniels pass deep left to E.Egbuka to DAL 27 for 21 yards (D.Bland).​

As I said in the Morning After piece, the sheer audacity to try this throw with the lead, on the road, with a backup QB, and all the reasons to just try to get a few yards to try a long field goal is off the charts. What is Zac Robinson doing? What is Todd Bowles doing? Well, I will tell you. They are converting a 3rd and 21 vs Dallas with ease and Bland falls down with Hooker so deep that Daniels can’t throw it that far. It is the softest zone you will see and probably the number one reason why Mike Pettine is here today helping with the defense. Between this and the Ravens call, this is just not what we are looking for from the defensive coverages.

Because I am a sicko, I went back to the last 35 times Dallas has faced a 3rd and 21+ to see how many times they have allowed conversions and it turns out it happened in that ridiculous Giants game in 2025, too.



But, otherwise, Dallas is now 33-of-35 for defending these 3rd and a mile.

4Q - 3:58 - 3-8-TB 37 - J.Daniels pass incomplete short right to E.Egbuka (D.Bland).​

3rd and 8 and this is a spot in the game where Dallas is hard-charging and closing in. This might be the last important throw of Daniels night and this can seal the victory. Parker calls a six man pressure and the solution is a quick out to Egbuka again. This time, Daron Bland is sitting on it and never will you see a more likely Pick 6 from the guy who has the records for this very moment. Bland is going through it right now, but holy cow, what an opportunity to save the night with a dream moment and it hit him right in the hands.


That is sort of how things are going right now.

4Q - 1:11 - 2-12-TB 10 - B.Irving right tackle to TB 32 for 22 yards (M.Hooker).​

Ok, the Cowboys have their timeouts and one last chance to get a stop and tie this up maybe. Guys, they came right back to the counter trey again, but went to the other side. You can spot the counter step of the RB to the opposite side, then the down blocks are set with the pullers coming around on the counter with the guard getting the edge and the TE getting the lead through the hole. Simple as you run it on install day. Again, our edge-6 is too wide and our LB-55 goes underneath his block again. It is the same problem and it was exposed the same way yet again.

The Cowboys have some very talented young players, but they are not playing the techniques correctly yet and the poor defense will continue until it gets fixed. It is just that simple.

SPLASH PLAYS vs TAMPA BAY​

There were a number of big plays by the defense, but as you see, no takeaways and just the one sack.

SEASON SPLASH LEADERBOARD​

Well, long week to get ready for Green Bay in what is always a spirited affair. No rest of the weary (aside from the long weekend), so let’s see what Week 6 has.

Before I go, as we wait for this defense to grow into something better than what it is, I found this video this past week very enjoyable.

It is the great Robert Saleh, one of the best defensive minds in our sport, talk through the defensive development and the personnel selections therein. If you have a few minutes, do yourself a favor and consume this. I think it is great.