The Dallas Cowboys defense let up their second lowest point total of the season while simultaneously having one of their worst games. Let’s take a look at how they performed this week.
Team stats allowed
Against the Buccaneers, the Cowboys defense allowed three touchdowns and one field goal. 17 of the 24 points allowed came in the third quarter.
Tampa Bay ran for 241 yards on 39 attempts, good for an average of 6.2 yards on the day. Two of the three touchdowns scored would come from the rushing attack.
The Buccaneers would end the day with 24 first downs, a 53.8% conversion rate on third down, and a 60% touchdown rate in the redzone.
The Cowboys defense struggled getting off the field, allowing Tampa Bay to hold the ball for nearly 40 minutes.
Individual stat leaders on defense
Dee Winters finished with a team high ten tackles, six of which were solo.
Otito Ogbonnia led the team in tackles for loss with two.
Rookie Malachi Lawrence found his first NFL sack on the day.
Advanced analytics
The highest graded players on the day per Pro Football Focus were Markquese Bell (81.2), Malik Hooker (75.9), and Malachi Lawrence (74.4).
The lowest graded players were DaRon Bland (29.6), Shavon Revel (36.9), and Kenny Clark (41.7).
The Buccaneers cashed in on explosive plays, generating seven on Thursday night. Two of the biggest explosives on the day, Bucky Irving’s 72-yard run and Tez Johnson’s 64-yard reception, led to touchdowns in the third quarter.
How’d the rookies look?
Caleb Downs finished the game with four tackles, but also missed two on the night. Injuries are forcing him to sit back and play deep safety, which is an unfortunate waste of his talent. Once the Cowboys’ secondary begins to get healthy, expect to see Downs back to his normal role at nickel. His impact in run support around the line of scrimmage has been missed.
Jaishawn Barham recorded seven tackles and one miss. He also had another goal line stand this week, sparking life into a team hanging on by a thread. The rookie linebacker continues to be an important piece in the middle of the defense.
Malachi Lawrence was the best of the Cowboys rookie class on Thursday. He recorded his first sack of the season, while also adding three pressures and a pass defended on the night. As Dallas’ most productive pass rusher, Lawrence should continue to see his role increase as the season continues.
LT Overton had 23 snaps this week, generating one pressure and recording one tackle. He flashes on tape, but hasn’t had a huge impact on the box score. He’s a potential bright spot down the road when he sees an increase in snaps.
Final grade: F
Christian Parker and his defense entered Thursday Night Football with a massive opportunity for a get right game. They started their night on defense by allowing a seven point Tampa Bay drive that consumed nearly an entire quarter. After that they buckled down they forced three punts before the half was over. Things were looking up on defense.
But then the third quarter began.
On the first play of the second half, Bucky Irving broke free on a run that seemed to take an eternity to cross the line of scrimmage, finally taken down by Caleb Downs after a 72-yard scamper. The very next play resulted in a Tampa Bay touchdown. Two plays, 86 yards, seven points.
The next drive, coming after a Ryan Flournoy tipped ball interception, blew open on a Tez Johnson 64-yard catch and run. DaRon Bland tripped over his own feet, allowing Johnson to run free deep into Cowboys territory. After three back-to-back run plays, the Buccaneers would go on to score another touchdown.
The final points in the third quarter would come from a field goal after a KaVontae Turpin special teams fumble. A commendable effort by the defense on a drive that started at the Dallas 37.
Those two explosive plays by Irving and Johnson, however, changed everything.
In addition to the explosives, Dallas finished the game with 12 missed tackles. Could this be a result of schedule exhaustion? Traveling to Rio to get beat up by a physical Ravens offense, returning to face off against a winless-but-tough Texans team, and then playing again just four days later surely played a role.
But the Cowboys were still a clear favorite for a reason. And to allow an undrafted rookie free agent quarterback to not only survive, but to thrive, is a travesty. In no world should Jalon Daniels finish with a 76% completion rating and a 40 point higher quarterback rating than Dak Prescott. And that’s no insult to the Buccaneers quarterback – this just isn’t a league that normally allows players in his position to play as well as he played.
Daniels even attempted to give the game away late, throwing a short pass into the arms of DaRon Bland. But the veteran corner rejected the potential game-tying gift, dropping the interception and leaving Cowboys fans across the globe screaming in agony.
The Cowboys didn’t pressure the quarterback enough. The secondary constantly made mistakes, including a 22-yard gain on 3rd-and-21. And the 12 missed tackles contributed to the massive Buccaneers day on the ground.
Allowing 24 points is one of the few positives on the day. With an offense as good as Dallas has, there won’t be many games this team loses when holding opponents to that total or less. It should have been enough to win this game (my score prediction was 34-24), but the offense had a surprisingly tough night as well.
When considering the winless opponent, their undrafted rookie quarterback starting just his second game, and the struggles Tampa Bay has had in pass protection, this should have been a game the Cowboys defense would use to right the ship. Instead they surrendered an unconscionable amount of yards on the ground and allowed the rookie quarterback to live free of pressure for most of the night.
For these reasons, this defense gets their first F of the season. There is hope for better days brought by the return of injured players on defense and the insertion of Joey Porter Jr. into the lineup. We may also see some changes, with Brian Schottenheimer vowing to shake things up.
Next week, Dallas travels to Lambeau Field to take on Jordan Love and the Packers on Sunday Night Football. We’ll see if the Christian Parker’s defense can begin to right the ship against Green Bay’s 28th ranked scoring offense.