Two weeks of the new season are in the books, and the Cowboys sit at 1-1. Ironically, most fans felt more confident after last week’s loss than after this week’s win, as needing overtime to beat the Giants is hardly reassuring.
Right now, the vibes around this team are a bit of a mixed bag, and there seems to be good news and bad news through two games. Our own Tom Ryle and David Howman break down all the takeaways from this one.
Tom: The best news is that the team didn’t start the season 0-2. That’s certainly important, and hardly the only plus to take from the win. But there were some huge red flags that have to be acknowledged, and the biggest for me is how the secondary just completely melted down repeatedly. Russell Wilson completed long throw after long throw for a staggering 450 yards, with Malik Nabers and Wan’Dale Robinson accounting for 309, and Darius Slayton had the longest play of the game on a 52-yard catch. If this were a high school team, the entire secondary would have done nothing but run gassers the first practice of the week. Now we have to ask if they can fix this with the Chicago Bears next up at their place.
David: I have a higher opinion of Russell Wilson than most, so I’m not as concerned about it as you are, but it’s certainly an issue. Matt Eberflus builds his entire coverage scheme around giving up dink and dunk stuff but preventing the big play, and the Cowboys did the exact opposite of that in this game.
That said, it’s only Week 2 and they were playing without DaRon Bland. In many ways, guys are still learning the scheme, and this was a major teaching moment. You expect to have these moments early in the year; it’s a much bigger problem if it’s happening in November. I think it’s encouraging that this teaching moment came in a win, thanks to some great quarterbacking from Dak Prescott, rather than having to learn the hard way.
Tom: Well, that’s putting a happy face on things, for sure. The problem is that the issues were so egregious, and just kept happening.
A related issue is the pass rush, but it was not really terrible. They got three sacks. Most of the credit for that seems to be pressure up the middle, which is nice for a change, and the addition of Jadeveon Clowney shows they are at least trying to address the lack of a certain former member of the team.
The other major concern for me is the offensive line. Cooper Beebee’s injury means having to go to the depth very early in the season. These kinds of injuries are happening all over the league, as they do each year. But the offensive line is one of the most important factors for any success this year. This one bears a lot of nervous watching.
And for heaven’s sake, could we cut down on the penalties at least a little bit?
David: I was going to be concerned about the offensive line even before the Beebe injury. Right now, they’re giving up a high pressure rate but a really low sack rate, which means Prescott is bailing them out a lot. He does that most of the time anyway, but I’d like to get things cleaned up and not have to rely on him being Superman.
Beebe being out only complicates things further. Brock Hoffman has plenty of fight in him, but he had a bad snap in limited work Sunday. It’s not a huge drop-off from Beebe to Hoffman, but it’s one more uncertainty with a line that’s got its issues in pass protection right now.
That said, the run blocking has been really good, and the run game as a whole is really looking good. Javonte Williams is outperforming some of the biggest names out there, just as we all predicted.
Tom: The run game was encouraging, and Dak is an even bigger positive. Wednesday I heard Dan Patrick teasing a guest for later in the week, a former player turned analyst, who has Prescott as the most impressive quarterback of the first two weeks. If he can stay healthy, he might be able to lead this team to good things. And a good ground attack can just help him.
Honestly, there are a bunch of good things going on with the offense. CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens are turning out to be the one-two punch they needed, Jake Ferguson tied Lamb for the most receptions last week, and they are working Kavonte Turpin into the offense more.
If they can figure out some semblance of pass coverage and patch together that offensive line, this might be a better team than many of us (like me) thought. It also requires them to not regress in the good areas.
Color me intrigued.
David: Overall, I’ve been really impressed with what Schottenheimer has done so far. He said he was going to implement more motion and a better run game, and he’s delivered on both fronts. He said the team was going to be more physical, and that’s been true through two games.
What’s most impressive to me, though, is that Schottenheimer has seemingly struck a balance between being positive about the positives while acknowledging there are still negatives. That’s a hard line to walk, especially for rookie head coaches, but it really does seem like he’s pumping guys up while still keeping them accountable when necessary.
If that sticks, we should see this team get better from here on out, which is exactly what needs to happen.
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