Pic 6: Defensive struggles, injury notes and more from Cowboys' Week 3 loss

Need for better execution

After giving up over 500 yards of offense last week to the New York Giants, the Cowboys surrendered 385 total yards of offense to the Chicago Bears in Matt Eberflus' return to Chicago.

Second-year quarterback Caleb Williams finished the game by matching his career high of four passing touchdowns. On all of them, Chicago's receivers were essentially wide open. William's first of the game came when Trevon Diggs slipped after jamming Rome Odunze at the line of scrimmage, leaving him wide open.

The second was a flea-flicker that confused the entire Dallas defense, leaving rookie Luther Burden wide open for a 65-yard score. The next two scores to Cole Kmet and DJ Moore also didn't have any Cowboys defenders in the area.

The secondary continued to be an area of struggle for the Cowboys, a week after communication issues led to Russell Wilson throwing for 450 yards. This time, CB Trevon Diggs said it was more of an execution issue.

"I feel like this week was execution," Diggs said. "We got the calls and, you know, just executing, gave up some big plays in the beginning of the game, and just from there I feel like [it was] a snowball effect."

Racking it up

With CeeDee Lamb exiting the game early in the first quarter after an ankle injury, the Cowboys needed to go elsewhere in the pass catching department.

The primary target in Lamb's absence? Jake Ferguson, who hauled in a career 13 receptions for 82 yards to lead Dallas in receiving. He averaged 6.3 yards per catch and his longest play was a 12 yard pickup.

George Pickens also added five receptions for 68 yards, and Dallas finished with 292 yards through the air.

Men down

In the first quarter, Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb came down awkwardly on a tackle as a running back out of the back field and was quickly tended to on the sidelines. After getting examined and re-taped, Lamb returned for one play at the start of the second quarter, but was clearly uncomfortable and came back out before he'd be ruled out of the game at the start of the second half.

In the second half, CB Trevon Diggs and DT Kenny Clark both went down with respective shoulder and ankle injuries and were ruled as questionable to return. Diggs had come into the weekend questionable with a knee injury, but was able to go after a 25-minute warm up period pregame.

Following the loss, all three of Lamb, Diggs and Clark didn't make much of their injuries and appeared to be confident that they would be good to go for next week's matchup against the Green Bay Packers.

Protection breakdowns

It was not the best day for the Cowboys' offensive line, who has faced a trio of difficult tests on the defensive line to start the season.

Dak Prescott was sacked twice, hurried seven times and pressured 14 times in what would end up being a 31-14 loss. When under pressure, Prescott was 6/10 for 58 yards and an interception.

Tyler Smith was the only Cowboys offensive lineman to not give up a pressure on Prescott. Terence Steele had four, Brock Hoffman and Tyler Guyton had three, and rookie Tyler Booker gave up just one. Steele and Guyton were credited with giving up the sacks to Prescott.

Dak's day

In his third game of the 2025 season, Cowboys QB Dak Prescott finished his day completing 31 of 40 passes for 251 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.

One of the interceptions came on a pass that tipped off the fingertips of George Pickens, and the other was on a fourth and goal throw with the Cowboys trailing by multiple possessions in the second half. Both of the interceptions were made by linebacker Tremaine Edmunds for Chicago.

With the game out of reach late in the fourth quarter, Joe Milton relieved Prescott and completed three of his five passes for 41 yards, but ended his day with an interception from Kevin Byard.

Despite the rough showing, Cowboys owner/GM Jerry Jones believes the Cowboys can still be a playoff team because Prescott is their quarterback.

"It's because you saw No. 4 out there today and you saw what we're capable of doing in the run game…" Jones said postgame when asked if the Cowboys are still a playoff team. "As we evolve toward the playoffs, we have to get better defensively. Certainly."

Pass rush concerns?

In the 31-14 loss to the Chicago Bears, the Cowboys defense failed to sack quarterback Caleb Williams and generated just seven total pressures on the second-year signal caller for Chicago.

Through three games, the Dallas defense has only three sacks. Is the pass rush unit beginning to be a concern for owner/GM Jerry Jones?

"It compromised us with our four man front up there today," Jones said. "We want to try and get there in this defense with that four man rush. We weren't getting there, plus we weren't covering. And that's a bad combination. That's what happened to us out there today."

The staple of Matt Eberflus' defensive scheme is getting home with four rushers and typically not blitzing so they can send more players into coverage. On Sunday, the lack of pass rush was what ended up hurting the Cowboys.