Christian Parker told us months ago what he wanted the Dallas Cowboys defense to be. Stop the run, affect the quarterback, win early downs, and get off the field.
That was the blueprint for this defense.
After we watched Dallas’ 28-20 loss to the New York Giants, I went back to those comments because I wanted to see how Parker’s first game lined up with what he said this defense had to become.
It didn’t become any different from last season after one game.
The Cowboys 26' Defense: Blueprint vs. Reality
Christian Parker Gave Us the Standard
Christian Parker, if you recall, wasn’t vague when he laid out his defensive philosophy. He talked about controlling the line of scrimmage, making offenses uncomfortable, and getting them into bad down-and-distance situations.
Here’s how that looked against New York.
Parker said games are won and lost up front. We lost all night Sunday.
Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Quinnen Williams know the defense needs to step up afte the Giants loss.
The Cowboys 26' Defense: Blueprint vs. Reality
The Front Didn’t Give Parker Much to Work With
Dallas pressured Jaxson Dart 11 times, but only two of those pressures came when the Cowboys rushed four. Two pressures with four is nowhere near enough for what Parker wants to do.
Against the four-man rush, Dart completed 17 of 19 passes for 200 yards and two touchdowns. If Christian Parker has to keep sending extra people just to make the quarterback nervous, the rest of the defense gets iffy.
We watched it happen when somebody came out of coverage, the spacing changed, and against a quarterback who can run, one missed lane can turn into a first down fast. We got to see Dart run 11 times for 54 yards because of the issues.
I don’t think he once looked bothered by what Dallas was doing.
That gets back to the point Parker made about the defensive line and the scheme creating some pressure, four pressures by the line, but not enough of it. At some point, we will need to see one of these guys beat a blocker.
The Cowboys 26' Defense: Blueprint vs. Reality
The Run Defense Didn’t Look Any Better
Christian Parker made stopping the run a major part of what he wanted this defense to become. He had this to say before the season.
“Definitely stopping the run and affecting the quarterback are the two most important things you can do,”
The Giants ran 37 times for 165 yards. Cam Skattebo had 81 yards, Dart had 54, and this all led to New York not having to get away from the run game because Dallas never made them stop.
Parker wanted early downs to set up the pass rush. Sunday night, Dallas rarely got that advantage. Instead of putting New York into obvious passing situations, we watched the Giants do whatever they wanted most of the night.
I want to see quarterbacks play desperate, but we didn’t get to see that Sunday.
The Cowboys 26' Defense: Blueprint vs. Reality
Nine of 11 Tells the Rest of the Story
The third down number was down right ugly.
New York converted 9 of 11 on third downs on Sunday night. This happened enough that New York ended up controlling the ball for 36:40 and running 68 plays compared to Dallas’ 52.
I don’t know if you all realized this, but this cause and effect resulted in the Cowboys getting the ball on offense twice in the second half. Which Dak Prescott and company scored on both possessions.
These third down conversations let New York decide how long the Cowboys’ offense had to stand on the sideline. And that is the best way to stop the best offense in the NFL.
The Cowboys 26' Defense: Blueprint vs. Reality
Coverage Mistakes Kept Showing Up
I believe the pass rush issues would have been easier to hide if Dallas wasn’t terrible in coverage. There were too many snaps where the Giants were open because something in the secondary broke down, not because the Giants won every matchup.
Isaiah Likely is the number one example. He finished the night with eight catches for 78 yards and two touchdowns because he kept finding space.
The Giants didn’t have to throw deep shots because everything was open underneath and in the flats. They took what was given to them by the defense and moved the chains. That is Harbaugh football and the veteran coach took the young defensive guru to the cleaners.
Now We Find Out What Christian Parker Changes
I’m not ready to decide what Parker’s defense is after one game. Some of these starters hadn’t played together, ever, and Christian Parker was calling his very first game as an NFL defensive coordinator. There were going to be issues.
Still, the standard came from him. Stop the run, affect the quarterback, win early downs, and get off the field. Dallas didn’t do much of that against New York.
The Giants gave Parker plenty to work on this week. We will see soon which part of the defensive issues he attacks first.