The Dallas Cowboys’ month of horrors continues. After the signs of optimism following the down-to-the-wire opener against the defending Super Bowl champions, the subsequent shootout with the woeful Giants, and the blowout loss to the shaky Bears, this club has shown it is nowhere close to being a competitive force in the NFC.
It goes beyond the raw record – the injuries to superstar wideout CeeDee Lamb and emerging guard Tyler Booker come at a point when this squad is starving for production. With a date with Micah Parsons and the Green Bay Packers on the horizon, rock bottom could be rapidly approaching.
Much of the blame for the team’s sluggish start has rightfully landed on the defense, which ranks 31st in total EPA. For the past two weeks, in particular, the secondary has been outplayed by Russell Wilson, who has since been benched, and Caleb Williams, who, before the matchup, was generating boos from his hometown fans. If only the Cowboys had an All-Pro edge rusher to take some strain off the back end!
Brian Schottenheimer had to address his struggling corps at his recent press conference while fielding a question about the notion that the defense would be better with Parsons still in Dallas. His response was a masterclass in deflection.
Cowboys’ Brian Schottenheimer dismisses obvious Micah Parsons landmine
“I would say that we have not been playing to the standard that we want to play to,” Schottenheimer said. “But if we had Micah, you can’t predict that we’d be playing any better. You can’t predict that we’d be playing any better or worse – those are projections.”
Even for “coach speak,” this was wildly disingenuous, but it’s not Schottenheimer’s job to provide the media with his authentic opinion. If Leonardo DiCaprio joined a random indie film, that movie would see a dramatic increase in publicity. That’s a projection based on combining numerous statistics with basic logic.
Would Micah Parsons’ 19 pressures, which are second in the NFL, help this embarrassing front seven? Obviously, but what benefit is there to Schottenheimer to inflate the ego of a player who is no longer on the roster? Being overly candid can be a detriment, and at least someone in this organization is trying to earn buy-in from those in the building.
Parsons will be playing with a massive chip on his shoulder and will put on a show while everyone in AT&T Stadium will ponder how much better life could be for the former #11 barreling around the edge. That point’s obvious and doesn’t need to be said to further dysfunction in this group.
More Cowboys News and Analysis
Source link
