FRISCO, Texas – Always happens 'round this time of year. During the playoffs. No matter if you're in or you're out.
If you are one of the 14 teams in, your warts previously camouflaged during the regular season usually get exposed. Guess all but the last team standing, right?
If you're out, if you're paying close attention, these playoff teams will be highlighting with those yellow markers just why you're sitting at home.
This past weekend of six games is no different, though a couple of times was thinking, man, this team sure could use Pro Bowl quarterback Dak Prescott out there, knowing that of the combined six Pro Bowl quarterbacks out there, Dak is the only one not playing. That's how good he was in his 10th NFL season.
Thought that for sure with the Chicago Bears. For three quarters against the Packers, second-year QB Caleb Williams was a strugglin'. The Bears were trailing 21-3 at halftime, then 21-6 at the end of three quarters. At that point, Williams had completed 14 of 27 pass attempts for 177 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. His three-quarter QB rating was 41.7.
And then, as if turning on a faucet, Williams in the fourth quarter completes 10 of 21 passes for 184 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a 110.0 QB rating to ignite the Bears' 25-point quarter. That led to a 31-27 victory over Green Bay and first-year head coach Ben Johnson's expletive-filled postgame locker room celebration.
But then there was this, screaming in blinking lights like those old-days diner signs promoting E-A-T … EAT! to remind the Cowboys of just why, with a team scoring 471 points, with their Pro Bowl quarterback leading the way by throwing for the fourth most passing yards (4,552) and the fourth most passing touchdowns (30), they were sitting at home watching:
D-E-F-E-N-S-E … DEFENSE!
Atrocious.
Why, the 49ers held the Eagles to just 19 points. The Bills held a Jaguars team scoring three more points than the Cowboys this season (474, or 27.6 a game) to just 24 points. The Patriots held the Chargers to just three points. And then the crowning achievement in my books, the Texans held the Steelers and quarterback Aaron Rodgers, in what could be the final game of his illustrious career, to six points – uh, no touchdowns, just 146 passing yards and a 50.8 QB rating, sacking him four times and picking him off once – in a 30-6 victory. The Texans, who also could have used Dak in that game, overcame C.J. Stroud's three giveaways, with an emphasis on the "give," were able to live to play another day.
Not sure if "defense wins championships" since the Rams needed 31 points to win, the Bears 31, the Bills 27 and the Texans, only because of their defense, though, 30.
But even a Pro Bowl quarterback, with two 1,000-yard receivers – one a Pro Bowler himself – and a 1,200-yard running back, a team scoring 51 touchdowns and finishing second in the NFL averaging 391.9 yards a game, just couldn't overcome the NFL's worst defense to finish no better than 7-9-1. And worst is not just some adjective. Nope, it's a statistic, as in finishing 32nd in points allowed (511), 32nd in passing yards allowed (251.5), 32nd in third down conversions (47.26 percent), 30th in first downs allowed (393) – the second most in franchise history – and 30th in total yards allowed (6,409), also the second most in franchise history.
Just gosh awful.
And that is why the Cowboys are canvassing the country for their fourth defensive coordinator in four seasons. While not all the blame for this historic inefficiency should fall on the recently fired Matt Eberflus, there was just no way they could sell the same voice another season to their defenders, to their offense, to their fans. Something had to change, if for nothing else, change sake.
Now, of course the personnel needs an upgrade, too. No way the Cowboys at cornerback can ever again rely on 14 starts from players other teams had given up on, no matter if it came to that because of injury or non-compliance getting ready for a season or failing to re-sign your proven veterans in free agency. But that happened, and one of those guys, slot corner Reddy Steward, who was released by the Bears and then Minnesota after his rookie season in the NFL, not only started five games but became the main guy in the slot when the Cowboys went to their nickel defense. He played in all 17 games and 25 percent of the defensive snaps, that little depth having to make up for injuries to DaRon Bland and Trevon Diggs.
Then there is AM (After Micah) at defensive end. You realize going into the 17th game of the season, Jadeveon Clowney and James Houston were the team's co-sack leaders with 5½? And if not for Clowney's three sacks in the final game of the season, they would have become the team leaders with the fewest sacks in franchise history once sacks became an official NFL stat in 1982. Put an SOS out here, too.
As much as anything else, there is a need for a true middle linebacker. Can they find the second coming of Sean Lee? Maybe even Dat Nguyen? Leighton Vander Esch? Heck, I'd take another young Eric Kendricks, who led the team with 145 tackles in 2024. You know, when it seemed Kendricks was retiring, the 33-year-old did attract interest during the season from Baltimore, and then wouldn't you know it, the Niners signed him to the practice squad as insurance in early December. And when starter Fred Warner went down, and then backup Tatum Bethune, too, Kendricks ended up starting for San Francisco in their first-round playoff victory over the Eagles. The heady Kendricks finished with 10 tackles, two TFLs and one huge pass breakup of Jalen Hurts throwing to Dallas Goedert in the end zone on a fourth-and-11 play from the San Francisco 21-yard line with just 43 second remaining to preserve the 23-19 victory.
So there is work to be done this offseason, not just with the hiring of a defensive coordinator here in the coming weeks but also restocking the cupboard. Just can't afford to allow this defense to crumble another season like happened in 2025.
Because here might be a key to why the Texans finished with the No. 1 defense in total offense given up and No. 2 in points allowed – at 17.4 a game just 0.2 behind No. 1 Seattle. The Texans had three defensive players named to the Pro Bowl team: edge defensive end Will Anderson Jr., inside linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair and cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. And two of those guys, Anderson and Stingley, were named first-team All-Pro while their other edge rusher, Danielle Hunter, made second-team All-Pro.
Let's end with one last stat. The Cowboys finished the season with just 12 takeaways, six of each, interceptions and fumble recoveries. The six interceptions is a franchise low, fewer than the previous low of eight in 2015. The six fumble recoveries is the second fewest in a single season, to the three of 2015. All totaled, the 12 takeaways is a franchise low, and only Washington's 10 was less this season. Thus, the Cowboys' 2025 minus-9 turnover differential tied for 29th.
By comparison, to me impressed with that Houston defense in the playoff game, the Texans finished second in turnover differential at plus-17 to only the Bears' plus-22. That impressive mark came thanks to Houston's 29 takeaways, second in the NFL to only the Bears' 33.
"I think where we ultimately came up short was we weren't able to take the ball away," Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer went out of his way to point out prior to the playoffs starting. "You look back at our shortcomings and the team's playing this weekend, and I agree with Jerry [Jones]. I'm sick that we're not playing this weekend. We're good enough to play this weekend.
"Unfortunately, starting with me, we didn't play good enough in terms of the ball. Minus-9 in the giveaway/takeaway ratio? That's terrible. It's terrible, and so we have to protect the football on offense. We did not do that at a high enough level, and quite frankly, we did not get enough turnovers."
Think we can second that motion.
At least the Cowboys are not blind to their defensive failures in 2025. And chances are, if these playoff games this weekend play out as usual, they will get a second look at just how important defense really is. Or, of course, how vital improving the Cowboys defense certainly is.
Now then, first things first, finding that new defensive coordinator. The search so far is up to nine candidates, though betting there could be more candidates to interview as these head coaching vacancies begin to fill. Might need a second net to find that right guy to fit this team's needs.
"The guys who fit what we want to be as a defense, the identity that we want to have, and that fit with the personnel that we have on the defensive side of the ball. Because we think we have a lot of good pieces in place," Cowboys co-owner and COO Stephen Jones told our Tommy Yarrish on Thursday on what they are looking for in a DC. "We know we have to improve not only from a coaching staff standpoint, but we also need to improve from a personnel standpoint.
"So all that goes into the mix and the equation, and I think we're making good progress."
These playoffs certain to make an indelible impression on that need.
