5 Reasons It's Officially Time for the Dallas Cowboys to Panic

If not for a miraculous comeback against the choker Atlanta Falcons in Week 2, the Dallas Cowboys would be 0-4 following a disappointing Week 4 loss to the Cleveland Browns. 

Still, at 1-3, Dallas doesn't look like a contender to make its first Super Bowl run in a quarter-century. 

We can't count the Cowboys out because they have so much established offensive talent, because the NFL playoff field has expanded to 14 teams and because the NFC East has been the embarrassment of the league thus far in 2020. 

Still, there are already several reasons for the Cowboys and their fans to panic entering the second quarter of the 2020 campaign. Let's review.

Mike McCarthy's Coaching Staff Hasn't Prepared Them

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The Cowboys have trailed by at least 15 points in the second half of three of their first four games. They've been outscored by 20 points in the first quarter and 23 points in the second quarter. They've turned the ball over nine times, with six of those nine giveaways taking place before halftime. 

That, to an extent, is an indictment of new head coach Mike McCarthy, who simply hasn't had his team ready from the get-go on a weekly basis. They've generated a grand total of three points on their four opening drives, and McCarthy's decision to throw undrafted rookie Terence Steele to the wolves Sunday against the Myles Garrett-led Browns defensive front was a tremendous mistake. 

"I don't want to be an alarmist," Bleacher Report's Matt Miller tweeted Sunday afternoon, "but the Cowboys don't look good at all with Mike McCarthy."

McCarthy knows it. He said as much following what he called "a very disappointing home loss," according to Jon Machota of The Athletic. 

"Turnovers got us on offense again," he stated, per Machota. "I'm disappointed. We need to start games better. We need to do a better job of bringing our preparation [to the game]. That starts with me."

Only 15 percent of the Cowboys' points came in the first quarter last season, and a lot of folks put that on former coach Jason Garrett. Maybe that wasn't totally Garrett's fault, but it's clear that McCarthy hasn't been able to fix an alarming, long-lasting and debilitating issue that continues to plague this team. 

The Offense Lacks Balance

Michael Ainsworth/Associated Press

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is on pace to shatter the NFL record with a comical 6,760 passing yards. That's a very bad sign. 

It's a strong indication Prescott is doing too much of the heavy lifting, which is of course partly a result of those aforementioned first-half deficits. But the fact is Ezekiel Elliott—the league's second-highest-paid running back—just hasn't been getting it done regardless. 

At the quarter pole, the three-time Pro Bowler is averaging just 3.9 yards per carry. 

That's largely because the Cowboys offensive line is in shambles. Star center Travis Frederick retired in the offseason, stud left tackle Tyron Smith hasn't been healthy the last few weeks, right tackle La'el Collins is on injured reserve, and Frederick's replacement, veteran Joe Looney, exited Sunday's loss early in the first quarter with a leg injury. 

Smith is on the mend, but the jury remains out on Looney, and Frederick and Collins won't be coming to the rescue this year. Prescott has taken nine sacks but has otherwise held up quite well. The problem is, his prolific early-season pace isn't realistically sustainable, and Elliott hasn't provided support to the degree that a superstar back with a $15 million average annual salary is expected to. 

As a result, the Cowboys are digging themselves one heck of a hole.

They Aren't Opportunistic on Defense

Michael Ainsworth/Associated Press

Those nine turnovers would be more tolerable if the Dallas defense had generated more than two takeaways thus far in 2020. If not for an interception off a deflection in Week 1 and a careless Week 3 fumble from DK Metcalf, the Cowboys—who are missing several key defensive backs along with linebackers Leighton Vander Esch and Sean Lee—would a have a grand total of eight sacks and zero forced turnovers a quarter of the way through the season. 

Two-time Pro Bowl edge-rusher DeMarcus Lawrence, who is one of the six highest-paid defenders in the NFL, has zero sacks, zero forced fumbles and one tackle for loss all year. Aldon Smith is the only Cowboy with multiple sacks thus far, and high-profile free-agent addition Everson Griffen has often been worthy of a milk carton. 

Per Machota, Lawrence on Sunday called the unit "soft."

"We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard," he said. "I call the s--t soft, and we have to get better from it."

Ya think? Dallas has surrendered a franchise-record 146 points through four weeks. That group is on pace to become the worst scoring defense in NFL history. And while you'd think there's too much talent for that not to change, it's already fair to wonder if Mike Nolan was the right man for the defensive coordinator job. 

Nolan hadn't served as a DC since commanding the league's lowest-ranked defense in Atlanta in 2014. His Falcons defensive units ranked 27th in points allowed in each of his last two seasons there, and he was by no means a hot candidate on the coaching/coordinator carousel this offseason. 

He was, however, the guy who hired McCarthy to run the San Francisco 49ers offense 15 years ago.

Jaylon Smith Can't Carry the Linebacker Corps

Michael Ainsworth/Associated Press

When the Cowboys lost Leighton Vander Esch and Sean Lee in the first part of September, you might have figured they could survive thanks to the presence of DeMarcus Lawrence, Everson Griffen and Aldon Smith on the edges and Jaylon Smith in the linebacker corps. 

But thus far, with limited resistance from Dallas pass-rushers, opposing offenses have been dominating games by running all over a front seven that lacks run-stopping talent beyond the heralded Smith, who was a second-round pick in 2016 and a Pro Bowler in 2019. 

Actually, Smith has been much more of a liability than an asset, and that's unacceptable when you consider that he's one of the 10 highest-paid off-ball linebackers in the league. 

The 307 rushing yards compiled by the Browns on Sunday were the highest total surrendered by Dallas in team history. They've been undisciplined, penalty-prone and just—to steal a thought from Lawrence—soft, and a silly, unnecessary, backbreaking facemask penalty against Jaylon Smith on Sunday epitomized the state of that group. 

Even with top Browns back Nick Chubb injured, Dallas made it way too easy on Kareem Hunt and D'Ernest Johnson on Sunday, just as it did with Malcolm Brown in Week 1 and Chris Carson in Week 3. And with Vander Esch unlikely to completely save the day anytime soon, this probably isn't a short-term problem for the 'Boys.

The Secondary Is a Liability

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In fact, this is an entire-unit problem.

With top 2019 cover man Byron Jones gone, starters Chidobe Awuzie and Anthony Brown on injured reserve and the safety position a weakness to begin with, the Cowboys continue to be vulnerable on the back end. 

Those deficiencies are not as likely to be glaring when your opponent is controlling the clock and protecting a lead by running all over your front seven, or when your pass rush is strong enough to mask said shortcomings, and the former applies here. But don't be fooled by the fact that the Cowboys have surrendered fewer than 300 passing yards in all four of their 2020 outings. 

Rookie corner Trevon Diggs might have saved his team a touchdown with superb hustle against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 3, but he's been consistently owned in coverage beyond that. Daryl Worley was schooled on several occasions against the Browns, and safety Darian Thompson has proved not to be a starting-caliber player next to the less-than-awesome Xavier Woods. 

The defensive backfield isn't the primary reason Dallas is off to a 1-3 start, but that's because the depleted unit has hardly been given a chance to succeed or fail. The Cowboys have been finding other ways to lose, and the fear is that a mediocre secondary could be exploited just when other areas potentially straighten themselves out. 

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL for Bleacher Report since 2012. Follow him on Twitter: @Brad_Gagnon.