It’s become a common refrain among Cowboys fans, media and players alike: The team’s defense is not working, and someone should be held accountable. Defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus would be the most obvious target, and the question of whether his style of play meshes with the Cowboys’ personnel has been the subject of much debate.
Or maybe there is no debate—it’s just obviously not working. The Cowboys allowed 30 points in the loss to the Panthers in Week 6, running their season mark to 184 points allowed, 30.7 points per game, which is 31st in the NFL. They are 32nd in pass yards allowed (1,617) and 29th in rush yards allowed (853).
Firing Eberflus six games into the season probably does not make much sense, because the Cowboys would then have to either install a new coordinator and new defense on the fly, or bump up someone from within who would probably only change things on the margins. Still, the team is at a point where it seems matters can’t get worse, and some change is better than no change.
Cowboys Must Put in More Work on Defense
Stephen Jones, the Cowboys VP and son of owner Jerry Jones, was asked on Monday about firing Eberflus, and his response was likely not what the bloodthirsty among the Cowboys’ fan base was looking for.
They’re not making a move for a new DC at this point.
“Guys, we’re worried about getting to work, going to work this week and getting better this week so we can do more consistent executing,” he told 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “We feel like, as coach (Briam) Schottenheimer said well, we’ve got good personnel and I think we’re gonna evolve into a good defense. We just have to go to work.”
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)Stephen Jones of the Dallas Cowboys
Cowboys Players Not Happy With Matt Eberflus’s Defense
Of course, the Cowboys have been working at this since late July, so it’s been two-and-a-half months putting together a system that has not produced. One player who was outspoken about the need for the Cowboys to change their playing style, to go with more man-to-man coverage, has been cornerback Trevon Diggs.
He was decidedly unhappy on Sunday after giving up 410 yards to the Panthers.
“Yeah its very frustrating,” Diggs said after the loss to Carolina, via the Dallas Morning News. “It’s all these points (given up), the receivers are running wide open down the field, too many busted coverages. It’s a lot. I feel like we’re all over the place and we really don’t have no identity.”
‘Matt Eberflus Has Been a Very Successful Defensive Coordinator in This League’
Jones pushed back on that nothing, saying the Cowboys are still evolving defensively. More than a third of the way through the season, that’s probably not encouraging.
“I think it’s a work in progress, there’s no question,” Jones said. “Matt Eberflus has been a very successful defensive coordinator in this league, he was really good when he here, he was really good in Indy to the point where he got a head-coaching job in Chicago and had really good defenses there.
“It’s a matter of our guys executing the defense. There’s probably going to be some give-and-take in there, us doing more and more what our guys may do better in terms of how it works with what he is doing. It’s just one of those things where we have to continue to go to work every week and get better.”
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