FRISCO, Texas — Passion and accountability, two of the biggest tenets to success. As the Dallas Cowboys enter their Week 2 matchup against the Washington Commanders on Sunday, there is still discussion outside the building regarding the events that led to the 28-20 loss to the New York Giants.
Cue Christian Parker, the defensive coordinator whose debut was spoiled, in large part, by errors on that side of the ball over the course of four quarters. For his part, Parker isn't ducking accountability, nor is he making excuses for himself or anyone else.
Instead, he's begun identifying what went wrong, and says the sky is, in fact, not falling again in Dallas.
"I think that [this is about] handling our stuff — you know, our execution, things that we can own, things that we can control," he said on Thursday. "That's the most important thing. [The Giants] played a good game, so hats off to them but, at the end of the day, it's about we can control what we can do. We didn't do that to our standard, or to our level of performance."
And, more importantly, what's the fix?? Parker critiques are as inward as they are outward.
"We were watching film, and these are fixable mistakes," said Parker. "This is what they did versus this is what we did: losing leverage, eyes in the wrong place. block destruction, all those types of things. Those are things that we can handle internally. We have a lot of confidence in our ability to do so.
"I think the meetings, everybody was accountable, including me. I showed them the plays that I was referencing, that I didn't feel great about. Then, we showed the good and the bad throughout the game, and how we can build upon that, and correct those."
And there's the aforementioned accountability tenet, leaving only the passion to be accounted for. It most certainly was present within the soul of rookie third-round pick Jaishawn Barham — an emotional sideline exchange between him and Parker during the loss going viral on social media midway into preparing for the Commanders.
Barham is seen angry and in tears as Parker tries to calm him, unsuccessfully, before the 22-year-old walks away and is joined by DeMarvion Overshown who echoes Parker's initial statement to the former Wolverine.
"I got you," they assured Barham.
The exchange sparked an online discussion that led to many coming to the defense of Barham — viewing it as justifiable passion spilling over for a young player upset at himself for playing poorly — while others vilified the first-year linebacker for not being more of a cool customer as he watched the clock hit zeroes in a losing effort in his NFL debut.
"He was frustrated. It's his first NFL game, and things weren't perfect," Parker said. "It wasn't a fairy tale, at all.
There were those in the latter faction that also alleged it would fracture the relationship between Barham and Parker but, as is the negative framing of the passion itself, the Cowboys' defensive coordinator stiff-armed any accusation of an issue or that the passion should be viewed as problematic from a seriously competitive player.
Parker wants a roster full of players with that type of fire and drive to win games for the Cowboys.
"Jaishawn cares as much as anybody in that locker room about us winning, No. 1 but No. 2, also our defensive performance," said Parker. "He was frustrated with himself and frustrated with [the way] we played. I don't think anybody in our building has any doubt of what he's gonna do, coming real soon.
"We don't have any reservations about his mentality. We welcome that passion."
And with that, the page turns to trying to take down the Commanders to avoid an 0-2 start to the season and in the NFC East, and Barham's passion will be needed as he likely moves to starting middle linebacker in the absence of an injured DeMarvion Overshown.
The defensive unit, as a whole, needs to make the home opener leagues better than the season opener was on the road, and that will go a long way to reassuring everyone that the Cowboys are finally on the right track on that side of the ball.
