FRISCO, Texas – Words like "unacceptable" and "humbling" were used by Dak Prescott and Brian Schottenheimer respectively to describe the Cowboys' 31-14 loss to the Bears on Sunday.
Cowboys owner/GM Jerry Jones shared similar sentiments. In the team's Monday meeting to go over the game, Jones was looking for answers after a second straight week of defensive struggles.
"What you want is what we're going to do about it," Jones said on 105.3 the Fan. "There's not much argument as to what we didn't do well that resulted in the loss. There's not a lot of conversation about that other than how can we, this coming week and the three days of practice, how can we basically address it personnel wise, scheme wise."
It all boiled down to a lack of complimentary football on Dallas' end. The Cowboys were able to prevent the Bears from running the football well, but struggled once again in their pass rush and it led to a second straight week of explosive plays against the secondary.
"The play on the front didn't match what we were doing in the back," Jones said. "A zone defense is a safe defense, it should allow, when played right, shorter gains but not big plays. If you do a zone defense and you limit your rush by number then that's the perfect storm against you. You got to be able to stop explosive plays. When you don't have it, you have to make adjustments."
In terms of what those adjustments look like, the Cowboys are hoping that the addition of Jadeveon Clowney this week and "good possibility" of DaRon Bland returning Sunday can help in that department. Brian Schottenheimer also said yesterday that the Cowboys will be making both scheme and personnel changes on the defensive side of the ball going forward.
Matt Eberflus returning to Dallas gave the Cowboys their third defensive coordinator in as many years. In 2024, the defense under Mike Zimmer faced similar early season struggles with big offensive showings from the New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens in weeks two and three.
Could the lack of continuity at defensive coordinator be the key reason for the Cowboys' defensive issues?
"I think it plays a role, but it's not an excuse because you've got turnover all over this league in coaching and you've got turnover in players all over this league," Jones said. "So you've got to factor that in."
With changes imminent defensively from a personnel and scheme standpoint, Jones is not putting any thought into those changes extending to the defensive coaching staff, namely Eberflus, and believes they can find the answers they're looking for.
"I think it'd be unfair, not to me, but to you to answer that way as though it's a policy," Jones said. "It is not anything. It is just that I really like our coaching staff and they're really outstanding teachers. They know what they're doing…" Jones said.
"I've got real confidence that this staff that we've got, Flus we know well, coached here for seven years before he left coach elsewhere. Having said that, that's not a discussion point."
Speaking of answers, Jones and the Cowboys are going to need to have some this coming Sunday night when the Green Bay Packers come to town.
They'll especially need them for All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons, who Jones traded in the offseason for Kenny Clark and two future first-round picks in one of the biggest NFL transactions in recent history.
A lot is being made of Parsons' return, and Jones feels an extra competitive fire and motivation for the Cowboys to go out and ruin Parsons' homecoming to AT&T Stadium.
"I think the world of Micah. I might say I wish him well but it's obvious I don't this weekend in terms of Green Bay winning the ballgame…" Jones said. "He's going to make some plays no matter how you play him, but when I saw people play us well with Micah in the game, and it did happen, then obviously we'll be looking to try to run those kinds of plays."
In retrospect, Jones wouldn't have changed anything about the timing of when the trade occurred, which was with less than a week to go before the Cowboys kicked off the NFL season.
"We needed this timing," Jones said. "We needed to be right here at the beginning of the season in my mind to get the highest value. I heard people talking about, 'Well, why didn't you trade him back before the draft?' Because draft picks become the most valuable timing wise, you can have 'em in the offseason before the draft. That's when the pick becomes much more valuable and the player becomes less valuable."
