The Dallas Cowboys find themselves under .500 after losing 31-14 to the Chicago Bears on Sunday in a game where they also lost wide receiver CeeDee Lamb.
Where did national pundits place the Cowboys on power rankings list following their second loss of the young NFL season?
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Todd Archer, ESPN
It’s really everything, but the most egregious part is the number of big pass plays allowed. The Cowboys have given up 13 pass plays of 25 yards or more, including five touchdown passes of 25-plus yards. Whether it is communication or execution issues, it doesn’t matter. Twelve of those big plays came in the past two games against QBs Russell Wilson and Caleb Williams.
Eric Edholm, NFL.com
The pass defense has utterly crumbled the past two weeks. Russell Wilson and Caleb Williams have otherwise looked ordinary this season, but the Cowboys have brought out the absolute best in both, allowing Wilson to throw for 450 yards and three scores and Williams to tie his career high with four TD passes. Williams had 239 pass yards and three TDs at halftime, so it could have been worse had the game been closer. The problem with Dallas’ defense is, well, just about everything. No pressure, poor tackling, awful coverage lapses — give them credit for not making this about only one thing.
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Nate Davis, USA Today
No Parsons. No CeeDee Lamb for the foreseeable future. No ability to stop other teams defensively. But Jerry Jones thinks this is a playoff team. Naturally.
Diante Lee, The Ringer
I couldn’t imagine worse circumstances for Dallas ahead of the Micah Parsons revenge game. The Cowboys are fresh off a blowout loss to Chicago — a game in which they committed several turnovers, lost star receiver CeeDee Lamb to an ankle injury, and watched their defense fold against Caleb Williams.
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Pete Prisco, CBS Sports
Man, is that defense bad or what? Even if they had Micah Parsons, the secondary is a disaster. They have more busts and bad plays than any group in the league.
Chad Graff and Josh Kendall, The Athletic
No quarterback has thrown more big-time passes, per PFF, than Dak Prescott (11). But it hasn’t mattered because Prescott also ranks 19th in yards per attempt (6.3). And the task doesn’t get any easier for Dallas this week.
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Ralph Vacchiano, FOX Sports
It’s obviously a big problem for this Cowboys offense when CeeDee Lamb isn’t healthy (high ankle sprain). But their bigger problem is clearly that their Micah Parsons-less defense stinks.
Frank Schwab, Yahoo Sports
Russell Wilson has played eight bad quarters this season, and against the Cowboys he looked like Dan Marino in 1984. Caleb Williams had the best game of his pro career against Dallas on Sunday. The Cowboys’ defense, without Micah Parsons, might be way worse than anyone could have feared.
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Staff, Bleacher Report
The big storyline in Big D this week will be the health of wide receiver CeeDee Lamb’s ouchie ankle. But what folks deep in the heart of Texas should be worried about is the Dallas defense. Because it’s bad. Really bad.
Entering Sunday’s game in Chicago, Dallas was 30th in total defense and 27th in scoring defense — and neither of those numbers are going to improve after the Cowboys gave up 385 yards and 31 points to a Chicago offense that had struggled over its first two games.
Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk
It’s George Pickens’s time to shine.