The Dallas Cowboys suffered their worst loss of the season on Sunday, as they fell to the Carolina Panthers 30-27 in another shootout. The improvement Cowboys fans saw last week was clearly the product of the Jets being the worst team in football than any progression.
Dak Prescott and George Pickens tried their best to carry the team to a win, but it wasn’t enough as the defense allowed Rico Dowdle to rack up over 200 yards from scrimmage and Bryce Young to throw for three touchdowns with a 114.8 passer rating.
While Brian Schottenheimer stopped short of throwing Matt Eberflus under the bus in his postgame availability, Trevon Diggs wasn’t nearly as subtle. He didn’t mention Eberflus by name, but he backed the bus right over the Cowboys’ defense as a whole
Cowboys CB Trevon Diggs threw his defensive teammates and coaches under the bus
“Yeah, it’s very frustrating,” Diggs said. “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.”
That’s a lot better than Diggs singling out Eberflus or a specific player, but that’s not saying much. And as damning as the quote is, it’s 100 percent accurate.
It is also extremely tone deaf of Diggs. It’d be one thing if Diggs, who is making $19.4 million per year, held up his end of the bargain. But he was part of the problem – again – on Sunday. He was responsible for multiple big plays.
The former All-Pro has been outspoken about wanting to play more man coverage. Eberflus has called almost an exclusively zone defense in the first six games, and the players haven’t shown any signs of being more comfortable within it.
Between Eberlfus insisting on playing Donovan Wilson deep despite getting burned by that several times this season, and players looking around wondering who blew their assignment as Panthers receivers run wide open.
The saddest part of it all is that the Cowboys would be 4-2 even if they had the second-worst defense in football. Instead, they sit at 2-3-1 after wrapping up the softest two-game stretch on their entire schedule, so it’s hard to imagine how it gets any better.
Much like this defense wouldn’t be much better with Micah Parsons, the return of DeMarvion Overshown isn’t going to fix everything. This defense needs a new coordinator and better personnel across the board.
Diggs calling everyone out publicly isn’t going to change anything. It’s just stating the obvious.