Frisco, Texas \u2013 Take II.<\/p>\n
Fortunately for the 2026 Dallas Cowboys, while the false start in Game 1 counts, they have 16 more\u00a0redos\u00a0to fix what ails them.<\/p>\n
Thus\u00a0comes\u00a0Game 2 of the 17-game season, 3:25 p.m. Sunday at AT&T Stadium against Washington, both teams knowing the dangers of starting off a season not only 0-2 but also 0-2 in the NFC East.<\/p>\n
And if the 0-1 Cowboys are going to do a\u00a0one-eighty against the equally 0-1 Washingtons, then it’s on you, Cowboys defense\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the newfangled group along with the new defensive coordinator, new defensive assistants and a new defensive scheme\u00a0\u2013\u00a0to play to the preseason aspirations and evidence\u00a0provided that\u00a0most thought\u00a0we had seen during training camp, including the encouraging performances against the Rams and Saints in those two scrimmages\u00a0when the first teamers played extensively.<\/p>\n
Now,\u00a0granted,\u00a0the Cowboys offense got off to an\u00a0unexpectedly\u00a0slow start against the Giants, netting only 37 total yards and two first downs on\u00a0their\u00a0first two possessions of the season. Plus,\u00a0they\u00a0turned\u00a0the ball over once\u00a0during\u00a0their\u00a0four\u00a0full\u00a0first-half possessions,\u00a0with\u00a0the defense preventing\u00a0the Cowboys from fully climbing back into\u00a0the game.<\/p>\n
Look, the Cowboys will be hard-pressed\u00a0to\u00a0win this game\u00a0Sunday\u00a0if allowing Washington to run for more than\u00a0150 yards, as\u00a0eight of the past 18 opponents have,\u00a0which includes\u00a0the Giants this past Sunday running around for 171 yards before kneeling out the victory three times for minus-2 yards each.<\/p>\n
Dallas\u00a0can’t win this game if Washington controls the ball for the 36 minutes, 40 seconds the Giants did. The Cowboys\u00a0were\u00a0limited to just six full\u00a0offensive\u00a0possessions in the game, but\u00a0just\u00a0two in the second half (both touchdowns). Or as Cowboys owner Jerry Jones pointed out this week, “When out-possession-ed is interpreted as out-physical-ed,” and that sure seemed real when the offense rushes for 69 yards, gains just 244\u00a0total yards\u00a0and Dak Prescott completes\u00a0only64 percent of his passes (22 of 34)\u00a0for a mere 175 yards when the 11th-year\u00a0quarterback\u00a0has 53 career games with at least a 70 percent completion rate, seven of those just last year.<\/p>\n
Of course,\u00a0this is not the same defense as last\u00a0season’s unit that\u00a0ranked 30th\u00a0overall\u00a0and32nd\u00a0against the pass. The team\u00a0that gave\u00a0up the franchise’s most single-season points and\u00a0the\u00a0most in the NFL\u00a0last year\u00a0(511). Not even the same personnel,\u00a0with eight new starters. But\u00a0sure seemed like the same song as last year, next verse.<\/p>\n
The suggestion rightfully caused first-year defensive coordinator Christian Parker to recoil a bit.<\/p>\n
“That’s\u00a0really\u00a0not our business. You know,\u00a0we weren’t here,” said Parker, meaning this defense had nothing to do with previous defenses. “This is the 2026 defense,\u00a0and it’s our responsibility to fix our performance on Sunday,\u00a0not the performances from 2025, 2024. It’s\u00a0forus\u00a0to\u00a0fix our performance from Sunday, and I think everybody has been accountable and responsible for that. \u2026 Our preparation has to pick up in terms of having urgency to get those things fixed.<\/p>\n
“But nobody is walking around hanging their heads. Guys know what we have do. We look forward to having to respond.”<\/p>\n
So much has been made of the Cowboys’\u00a0defensive failure to communicate, meaning guys becoming\u00a0unsure of what their particular assignments should have been, resulting in far too many busted assignments and coverages. None\u00a0worse than in the fourth quarter of a 21-14 game\u00a0when\u00a0the Cowboys allowed\u00a0Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart to complete three passes in four plays to his\u00a0uncovered\u00a0running back Devin Singletary. The\u00a0third\u00a0one\u00a0was\u00a0a\u00a0nine-yard touchdown to basically put the game away, giving the Giants a 28-14 lead with 7:26\u00a0remaining.<\/p>\n
And worse than that, as Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer pointed out, the Cowboys had three different defensive calls on those three plays totaling 29 yards, with the touchdown coming on third-and-goal.<\/p>\n
But if listening to Parker on Thursday, he rarely used lack of communication for those defensive lapses. If he said it once, must have said it a half-dozen times, blaming the faulty defense on a lack of “execution,” meaning guys not playing winning football. And after what we witnessed in training camp, that was somewhat surprising, since unlike last season, far fewer times after plays in camp were guys standing around with their palms up, as if to say, hey, where were you?<\/p>\n
Most surprised by this unacceptable performance\u00a0is four-time Pro Bowl veteran defensive lineman Quinnen Williams, one of the stalwart defenders trying to anchor that defensive front.<\/p>\n
“Yes, I was surprised, I definitely was surprised,” Williams told me the other day about the defense’s performance. “We had such a great offseason, such a great training camp. To go out there and not have the execution, the communication, that was definitely surprising.”<\/p>\n
There is that word again, “execution.”<\/p>\n
“They executed and we didn’t execute, and that don’t win football games,” Williams continued. “I think the things we messed up on, we can fix.”<\/p>\n
And it’s not as if Q is pointing fingers. He sure pointed one right at himself, saying he thinks he could have done more. And as a team captain, he knows\u00a0that\u00a0while he only had two tackles, he did have one QB hit and one forced fumble.<\/p>\n
“I definitely think I could do\u00a0more, especially when it comes down to gap-and-a-half things, making\u00a0plays, being more disruptive in that backfield,” Williams said, describing how he needed to control the B-gap\u00a0and\u00a0fight through those blocks to also occupy the A-gap\u00a0while\u00a0not getting\u00a0pushed out of\u00a0plays against the run.<\/p>\n
In fairness, the Giants realized\u00a0Williams’ ability to be disruptive and made sure\u00a0the\u00a0majority of\u00a0the\u00a0time they were doubling him inside,\u00a0so\u00a0other guys up front needed to win more one-on-one situations.<\/p>\n
Now, the other Cowboys’ priority in stopping the Washington run game is making sure they control quarterback Jayden Daniels’ ability to escape the pocket for big runs and key runs. They need to do so better than they did against Giants QB Jaxson Dart, who rushed eight times for 59 yards before his three kneel-downs, and for sure also Dart’s ability to escape the pocket, like when he did before throwing the two-yard TD pass to Isaiah Likely. Think about this: Over his past 25 games, Daniels has rushed for 1,200 yards. The only other NFL quarterback rushing for more in 25 games? Uh, Lamar Jackson (1,304), and guess who is up next.<\/p>\n
Why, against the Cowboys in three previous career games, Daniels has run 19 times for 236 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 12.4 yards per run. The Cowboys must keep an eagle eye out for him, too.<\/p>\n
So here go the 2026 Cowboys again, second time around, insistent on demonstrating\u00a0that\u00a0the first take\u00a0against the Giants\u00a0was\u00a0an aberration.<\/p>\n
Problem is,\u00a0when it comes to these “takes,” unlike video recordings, these all count.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frisco, Texas \u2013 Take II. Fortunately for the 2026 Dallas Cowboys, while the false start in Game 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,151520,1091,1090,1093],"class_list":["post-440919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-featured-wasvsdal-2026","tag-featured-editorials-2025","tag-news-all-news","tag-news-mickey-spagnola"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}