OK, we know that the Dallas Cowboys defense was not great in Week 1 against the Giants. The rebuilt unit was steamrolled in the 28-20 loss, giving up 394 yards to an offense that won on at the line of scrimmage, won over the middle, won down the field and won in the flat. The Cowboys could not pressure Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, could not slow the New York running game and could not cover the pass-catchers downfield. It was only Week 1, but there was such a defense-wide letdown that it’s hard to see what lever new coordinator Christian Parker can pull that will change things significantly.
That, for former 3-time All Pro and Super Bowl champ Richard Sherman was not just problematic. He watched the Cowboys get rolled by the Giants–who possessed the ball for 36:40, to just 23:20 for the Cowboys–and found a pretty strong adjective for the inability to make decisions to change the approach: “I am thinking it is disgusting.”
Cowboys, Christian Parker Did Not Make Adjustments
Oof. Harsh, but Sherman did have a point about what the Cowboys did on Sunday night. Parker did not shower himself in glory with the way the team came out defensively, and his adjustments were either nonexistent or too slow. There were multiple times when it appeared that the Giants beat Dallas on the same play in succession, and the inability to adjust to stop Dart’s scrambles was a theme of the evening.
But Sherman, speaking on Kevin Clark’s “This Is Football” podcast, found that the Cowboys did not do basic football things–did not make the basic individual adjustments that defenders are taught to make for years.
He said: “I don’t even know if this is a good learning opportunity because at times in football, you say, ‘You’re gonna learn a lot from this.’ It’s like, this wasn’t—this is two plus two is four. You’ve learned this, this is simple football. This isn’t man, we gotta correct something. This is fundamentally, at the fundamental, foundational level, there is an issue.”
Christian Parker’s First Game a Dud
That should fall on Parker. The Cowboys just spent about six weeks in training camp in Oxnard, then into the preseason, then into Week 1 practice, and it’s a little odd that they should have come out and looked–on some plays, at least–like everything the Giants were doing was foreign to them.
Sherman continued: “For that to happen fresh out of training camp, fresh out of two weeks preparing for this game, this opponent. Now, sure, you did not know which offense they were running … But when you’re in game and you see these, it’s really concerning. If I am a Dallas Cowboys fan, I am not encouraged.”
Cowboys Stars Were No-Shows
One last wrinkle: The Cowboys do have good defensive players. They’ve invested in this defense, sending a first-round pick this year for Quinnen Williams, getting Kenny Clark in the Micah Parsons trade, bringing in Rashan Gary, picking Caleb Downs at No. 11 in the draft. But it’s unclear why, in a Week 1 divisional road game on national TV, so few of those players lived up to their reputations.
Again, Sherman: “It’s concerning, because it is such a talented defense, and they attacked your strengths. … It’s discouraging fundamentally because you’re like, who’s gonna be the guy? Where’s Quinnen Williams, where’s Kenny Clark, where’s the pass rush we were expecting? They paid these guys. They’ve been good players in this league. Great players—Quinnen Williams has been an All-Pro. I expected to see impact in this game.”
Cowboys’ ‘Disgusting’ Decisions Called Out by 3-Time All-Pro Before Week 2