FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys defense has made it very clear across the last few days that the unit’s issues stem from its mentality.
Four-time Pro Bowl defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence said Dallas needs to “get out of playing little league football.” Three-time All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons said “We don’t need any Supermans at all. We just need 11 guys playing together. Right now, it’s just not in unison.” Veteran cornerback Jourdan Lewis said the Cowboys defense needs to “be credible, f—ing accountable every single play.”
The Cowboys (1-2) will travel to New York on Wednesday before facing the Giants (1-2) on “Thursday Night Football” to kick off Week 4, following two deflating home losses against the New Orleans Saints in Week 2 and the Baltimore Ravens in Week 3. After preparing for their first NFC East game of the season, have those messages been received?
“I mean, everyone says it, but we’ve got to see what happens on Thursday,” Parsons said on Tuesday.
Five-time Pro Bowl running back Alvin Kamara (115 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries) helped power the New Orleans Saints to a combined 190 rushing yards in a 44-19 victory in Week 2, and four-time Pro Bowler Derrick Henry and the Ravens rushed for the most yards in a game this season (274) in a 28-25 Week 3 win against the Cowboys.
“Well, it’s very hard to tell, right,” Parsons said when asked if the message will be put into action. “Everyone is nodding their head like they all agree. But at the same time, it’s not [happening] out there on the field. I’m too prideful. I feel like as a competitor, you’ve got to be prideful and say, ‘Hey, I’m not going to allow this to happen to me.’ I just feel like some people are allowing them[selves] to keep getting smacked in the face. ‘Well, are you going to stand up or what?'”
Stopping the run is always critical to victory in football, obviously, but it’s especially so for Dallas. Forcing a team to become a one-dimensional passing attack is how the Cowboys win. They only allowed 93 rushing yards in their 33-17 Week 1 win at the Cleveland Browns. In that game, Dallas went up 7-3, and that lead ballooned to 14-3 and then 17-3 and then 20-3 and then 27-3 behind shutout defense and an offense that was able to at least get into 2023 First Team All-Pro kicker Brandon Aubrey’s “near unlimited” field goal range.
That’s why it made sense that Dallas led the NFL with six sacks, co-led the league with two interceptions and ranked third in team quarterback pressure rate (42.9%) after Week 1. Pressuring the quarterback has been Dallas’ forte since drafting Parsons in 2021, leading the league with a 41.4% quarterback pressure rate from 2021 to 2023. Their team quarterback pressure rate has declined to 36.7%, the 12th-best in the NFL through three weeks thanks to a meager 26.5% rate across losses against the Saints and Ravens in Weeks 2 and 3, matchups in which Baltimore and New Orleans combined to throw 31 passes. That’s the fewest amount of pass attempts against an opposing defense in the entire NFL in the last couple of weeks.
“People have to pass the ball huh?” Parsons said when asked where Dallas’ quarterback pressure went. “What, I pass rush 10 times in the last two games?
So it starts with stopping the run?
“That’s pretty blatant,” Parsons said. “First game, they [the Browns] dropped back 40 times [they threw 45 passes], and Weeks 2 and 3, 15 and 16 times. Unheard of football.”
Opposing offenses have called run plays versus the Cowboys on 51% of plays in 2024, the most in the NFL, according to NFL Pro Insights. Why is that? Well, Dallas is the worst run defense in football, allowing 185.7 yards per game on the ground (the most in the NFL), with a missed tackle rate of 33.9%, the second-highest in the NFL, trailing only the Los Angeles Rams’ 40.6% figure. The Cowboys have another tough running back matchup in Week 4 with Giants running back Devin Singletary, who leads the NFL in tackles avoided this season with 21.
“Yeah, super agile,” Parsons said of Singletary. “He’s a great guy to go against. … It’s going to be a fun matchup.”
The Cowboys also have to contend with quarterback Daniel Jones’ feet since he has averaged 5.2 yards per carry on 28 carries in four games versus Dallas since 2021 for 145 yards rushing.
“Going against him the last couple of years, he always likes to run against us,” Parsons said. “It’s definitely going to be a nice run day just like last week.”
Parsons isn’t having a bad, individual season despite what Dallas’ run defense has looked like. His 18 quarterback pressures are tied for the second-most in the NFL, and his 22.2% quarterback pressure rate is the fourth-highest in the league. He’s even been steady against the run with a Pro Football Focus run defense grade of 62.7, the 13th-best among 114 edge rushers this season. Yes, he has said everyone needs to do their job and not attempt to be Superman, but is it about time for him to crank him up his play to even greater heights to help get things back on track?
“It’s hard because I have to fit into the system, I have to fit into my framework,” Parsons said. “That was the whole point of everyone doing their 1/11th right? So to elevate yourself, what you need others to do, elevate too. We all got to elevate together. It can’t just be one or two right? To me, I just have to make plays when they’re there and just do my job for my guys.”
Parsons acknowledged some of the growing pains can be attributed to youth or inexperience playing together. All of Dallas’ inside linebackers — DeMarvion Overshown (second season but first playing after suffering a torn ACL as a rookie), Damone Clark (third season), Marist Liufau (rookie) — are incredibly young with the exception of 10-year veteran Eric Kendricks. The Cowboys are also starting fifth-round rookie Caelen Carson at outside corner with 2023 NFL interceptions leader DaRon Bland out while working his way back from a foot stress fracture he suffered in training camp. Veteran defensive tackles Linval Joseph and Jordan Phillips were added in mid-August at the tail end of training camp. Defensive tackle Mazi Smith, the team’s 2023 first-round pick, is in his first year as a true starter in 2024.
“A lot of guys are in their first year [in Dallas’ front seven],” Parsons said. “The only people that have crazy significant playing time is me, D-Law and Osa [Odighizuwa]. They’re just going through growing mistakes man. … This is just hardship right? This is a faith testament, and we’re going to grow and learn.”
The silver lining for the Cowboys is they’re going through their issues with 14 games left to play, unlike their NFC East rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles, who finished 11-7 after a 10-1 start last season, including an opening-round playoff defeat against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Parsons much prefers the early-season issues than having them in December and January
“One hundred percent, we got to figure it out. I’d rather get knocked in the head now because when you fail what do you do? You got to get back up, and I think that’s going to create a great locker room environment, great team environment right?” Parson said. … “It’s only up from here. So when I saw we’re low, where do you go from when you’re at the bottom? You climb, but you have to be willing to climb.”
Has the Cowboys defense climbed high enough during a short week of preparation to get its run defense ironed out? As Parsons says, we’ll see on Thursday night.
