Mike Zimmer thought the Dallas Cowboys defense was making progress. There were poor showings at home in lopsided losses to the New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens. Dallas gave up 24 first downs and more than 400 yards of offense in both games.
Zimmer’s group followed that up with improvement in consecutive road wins against the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers, holding those offenses to an average of 16.5 first downs and 265 yards per game.
But Sunday against the Detroit Lions was the worst performance of the first six games of the season. Dallas allowed season-highs of 47 points, 27 first downs and 492 yards of offense.
“I anticipated us playing better than we did this last ball game,” said Zimmer, the Cowboys defensive coordinator. “I probably panicked on some calls early because they hit us with some things early. I changed up probably a little bit too soon. But as far as some of the flaws, when we’ve been bad, it just steamrolls. It goes bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.
“I thought we were making progress. Obviously we took about eight steps back the other day. We just have to keep grinding.”
Cowboys DC Mike Zimmer said he thought the defense was making progress the previous two weeks. He expected a better showing against the Lions. “I probably panicked on some calls early. … When we’ve been bad, it just steamrolls.” pic.twitter.com/hG0LCeJTrO
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) October 15, 2024
The Cowboys are in their bye week, so all of the team’s assistant coaches were made available to reporters at The Star on Tuesday. There were several common themes among the coaches. Better effort and execution is needed. But the most common word used was fundamentals.
“Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals,” said assistant head coach and defensive backs coach Al Harris. “Everybody has scheme. We just got to get back to the basics. I think the bye is coming at a great time. We can go over things as a staff, make a couple of adjustments here or there. We just got to get back to the basics.”
The coaches were using this week to go over every defensive snap from the first six games. They’re trying to figure out what has worked, what can be fixed and what needs to be changed. Multiple coaches mentioned defenders needing to do a better job of tackling and shedding blocks. Better eye discipline and players trying to make plays while getting away from their assignments were also mentioned.
The poor tackling stood out against Detroit. It will be an emphasis when the players return to the facility. But it’s fair to wonder how much that can be improved upon when players don’t have the same physical, tackle-to-the-ground practices that used to exist in the NFL.
“You can fix position,” defensive run game coordinator Paul Guenther said. “You can fix angles. You can fix compression tackling, vice tackling, one-on-one tackling just with your body positioning and how you bend your knees and hips and ankles. We got to make sure in practice, No. 1 we’re getting all 11 guys to the ball and we’re all in great position to make a tackle.”
Another area that has been a glaring weakness is takeaways. Dallas only has five in six games, four interceptions and one fumble recovery. For comparison, the Green Bay Packers lead the NFL with 17 in six games. This has been a team strength in previous seasons. The Cowboys led the NFL in takeaways in 2021 and 2022, averaging two per game in those seasons.
The biggest issue there is that they haven’t been able to pressure opposing quarterbacks like they have in the past. Quarterback hits and pressures usually lead to turnovers.
Of course, the Cowboys were without several key contributors on Sunday. All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons (ankle), LB Eric Kendricks (calf/shoulder), CB DaRon Bland (foot), CB Caelen Carson (shoulder), DE Marshawn Kneeland (knee) and DE DeMarcus Lawrence (foot) were not available. That’s not an excuse for how poorly the defense played, but there is hope for improvements with all expected to return this season. The hope is that the younger players getting work in their absence will lead to valuable in-game experience that eventually pays off.
“It’s just going to take for everyone to say, ‘Hey, we know what we’re doing, why don’t we just do the right stuff?’ This is very simple stuff that we’re giving up right now,” Parsons said this week on his Bleacher Report “The Edge” podcast. “It’s very simple but it’s very complicated. We can overcomplicate the simple things.”
Zimmer doesn’t see work ethic being an issue. He says the group works hard in practice. But it doesn’t make a lot of sense how they’ve played in their three home losses compared to in their three road wins.
“It’s just the inconsistency,” Zimmer said. “It’s definitely frustrating. I’m used to having really good teams. We’re going to get there because I believe in these guys and the way that they’re working. But it’s like I got 20 holes in a dike, and I put my finger in this one and then I got to put my finger in that one. It’s not every time. One guy makes a mistake here and it gets ugly. One guy makes a mistake here and it gets ugly. It compounds over the time. Have to get more disciplined.”
(Photo of Mike Zimmer: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)
