Is the Cowboys Defense Finally Beginning to Slip Up?
The Dallas Cowboys improved to 8-3 with a prime-time victory over the division rival New York Giants Sunday night, but defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli was in no mood to celebrate.
“I don’t know if we figured anything out,” he said after the game, per Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News. “It’s about us, just tackling and doing the things we’re supposed to do. There’s nothing else to figure out.”
The Cowboys defense allowed the Giants to pick up 27 first downs, which was New York's second-highest total this season and the most the Cowboys have surrendered this year. In terms of points and yards allowed, it was their worst performance since September. They missed a season-high 15 tackles and often looked lost against an offense that entered Week 12 ranked below the middle of the pack in terms of points and yards per game.
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They allowed the Giants to score a touchdown on their first possession for only the second time in 21 games, with quarterback Eli Manning completing six of seven passes on a 13-play drive. New York required just six plays to find the end zone again on its second drive and scored on a 12-play drive on possession No. 3.
To their credit, the Cowboys clamped down by forcing the Giants into four three-and-outs over the remainder of the game, but they again allowed Manning and Co. to put together a marathon drive—this time 14 plays for a touchdown—with the game on the line in the fourth quarter.
That's three drives of 12 plays or more, which isn't cool. They allowed the Giants to convert 11 of 16 third-down attempts and couldn't stop rookie Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. (10 catches on 11 targets, 146 yards and two touchdowns) all night.
Because the Cowboys couldn't wrap up, Beckham somehow wound up with five extra yards from this point forward:
And this is the kids-soccer-level mess Rashad Jennings saw while reaching the line of scrimmage on a 27-yard catch-and-run in the fourth quarter:
While running back Andre Williams somehow brought this another eight yards to the Dallas 18:
And despite being pursued by both Sterling Moore and Rolando McClain here, Williams would end up with a first down at the Dallas 38-yard line:
The Cowboys also struggled to get any pressure on Manning, who was working with a shabby offensive line one week after being pressured 22 times by the San Francisco 49ers, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required).
That unbelievable Beckham touchdown catch in the second quarter doesn't happen if Manning isn't drinking tea in the pocket.
The Cowboys sacked Manning on back-to-back plays late in the second quarter but didn't get to him again after that. He was pressured only 13 times in total, per PFF, but hardly at all in the first half. They didn't get through on the few blitzes they attempted, and they continually bit on play action despite the fact the Giants running game was stagnant most of the night.
It was ugly, but that doesn't mean Marinelli doesn't deserve to take some heat. There were times when I questioned what Dallas was doing schematically, with one particular example coming on a 3rd-and-5 on that very first Giants touchdown drive.
In this case, the idea was to have Moore come on a delayed corner blitz, with safety Jeff Heath—originally showing blitz—breaking off to cover Beckham in the slot.
But you can't give a player like Beckham that kind of space. Heath was out of position from the get-go, and the safeties were too deep to help out.
That made for an easy first-down catch, and it was the first of many indications that Marinelli was overlooking Beckham.
They were outsmarted again on the very next third down, allowing themselves to become flat-footed when faced with having to account for Beckham in the backfield. This time, cornerback Orlando Scandrick was forced to let wide receiver Rueben Randle run by him because Beckham was creeping into the left flat. But safety J.J. Wilcox wasn't able to pick up on that early enough to bite.
And it could have been a whole lot worse. The Cowboys were extremely lucky Manning didn't see Beckham in time as the rookie wide receiver sprinted wide-open deep down the left side of the field late in the third quarter.
By the time Manning noticed Beckham, a pass-rusher was in his face, forcing him to check it down to running back Rashad Jennings. The Giants punted a few plays later. Had they scored instead, Dallas might be 7-4 right now.
And a little earlier, the Giants were threatening to score in the red zone on an 11-play drive when a high Manning pass was deflected and intercepted by safety Barry Church.
That had little to do with Dallas and everything to do with Manning's missing a layup, as NBC's Cris Collinsworth noted on the broadcast.
Of course, the breaks weren't all in the Cowboys' favor. It did appear as though Williams fumbled one play before a second-quarter touchdown, but there wasn't enough evidence to overturn the call on the field when Dallas challenged.
And one play before New York scored in the first quarter, Scandrick dropped a potential interception on a silly pass from Manning.
Again, the Giants scored on the next play.
But on only one of those four game-changing plays did Dallas suffer from bad luck beyond its control. The Cowboys probably deserved to give up 28 points Sunday night, if not more. Against a depleted team that hadn't scored that many points since Week 5 and had just three touchdowns in its last two games, that's a bit concerning.
Same thing happened two weeks ago at home against the Arizona Cardinals, when Dallas was exposed on three touchdown drives of eight plays or more, as well as a fourth that came on a short field in the fourth quarter.
Those mediocre performances sandwiched a decent showing against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, but Jacksonville is the league's lowest-scoring team. It's hard to heap too much praise on the Cowboys for limiting those guys to 14 points on offense. That's the exact number of points per game the Jags have averaged this season against opponents that currently have winning records.
Dallas ranks 28th in the league with just 18 sacks and has had more than two in only two games this season. It now has the fourth-worst third-down defense in the NFL, thanks largely to the fact the Cardinals and Giants converted 20 of their 31 third-down attempts against it this month.
| New Orleans Saints | 49.3% | 4-7 |
| Atlanta Falcons | 47.7% | 4-7 |
| New York Jets | 47.4% | 2-9 |
| Dallas Cowboys | 45.1% | 8-3 |
| San Diego Chargers | 45.1% | 7-4 |
This is tricky, because many—yours truly included—figured this would be a historically bad defense this season. That hasn't been the case, but a lot of us began to believe in Marinelli and the personnel after the defense started the season so strong despite not having key cogs like Scandrick, Bruce Carter, McClain, defensive end Anthony Spencer and defensive tackle Henry Melton at various points. Plus, it was without second-round rookie pass-rusher Demarcus Lawrence for the first half of the season.
All of those guys are back now, making this unit as healthy as it's been in years. But now it's struggling, which has me wondering if we purchased fool's gold earlier this season.
If that's the case, we'll find out soon enough, because four of the Cowboys' final five games come against high-powered offenses. They play Chip Kelly's fast-paced Philadelphia Eagles twice in the next three weeks and also run into the talented Chicago Bears (who have arguably the best one-two receiver duo in the league and have scored a combined 79 points against Dallas in their two recent meetings) next Thursday night. Plus, in Week 16, they've got the Indianapolis Colts, who right now have the league's top-rated offense.
This defense might not be the worst of all time, but we might now have to come to grips with the idea that it may be a lot worse than many of us were beginning to believe.
Brad Gagnon has covered the NFC East for Bleacher Report since 2012.
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