{"id":94347,"date":"2025-09-17T09:31:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T09:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=94347"},"modified":"2025-09-17T09:31:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T09:31:30","slug":"%f0%9f%9a%a8%f0%9f%9a%a8%f0%9f%9a%a8-crisis-in-dallas-the-cowboys-may-have-slipped-past-the-giants-in-an-overtime-thriller-but-their-defense-is-collapsing-as-all-pro-ballhawk-daron-bland-goes-down-j","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=94347","title":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8 CRISIS IN DALLAS: The Cowboys may have slipped past the Giants in an overtime thriller, but their defense is collapsing as All-Pro ballhawk DaRon Bland goes down just weeks after a $92 million extension, leaving a secondary already torched for 450 yards by Russell Wilson exposed and fragile heading into a must-win Week 3 showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"C\u00f3<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Dallas Cowboys\u00a0overcame a poor showing on defense to even their record in Week 2, outlasting the\u00a0New York Giants\u00a040-37\u00a0in a wild overtime finish.<\/p>\n

While the Cowboys hope to improve on that, it won\u2019t be easy. Next Sunday, they\u2019re expected to again be without All-Pro cornerback\u00a0DaRon Bland.<\/p>\n

Cowboys executive vice president\u00a0Stephen Jones said Monday on 105.3 The FAN\u00a0that Bland is \u201cprobably a long putt\u201d to suit up in Week 3, as Dallas visits the\u00a0Chicago Bears.<\/p>\n

Bland\u2019s Injury Stems From Practice<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bland, 26, is currently sidelined with a\u00a0left foot injury stemming from an incident in practice\u00a0on Sept. 8. While the injury is unrelated to the foot issue that limited Bland to seven games last season, it\u2019s believed to be serious enough to keep him out multiple weeks.<\/p>\n

Complicating matters, it comes as fellow cornerback\u00a0Trevon Diggs\u00a0ramps up from offseason knee surgery.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Bland set an NFL record with five interception returns for touchdowns and led the league with nine interceptions overall. He missed 10 games last season with a stress fracture in his right foot.<\/p>\n

Despite that, Bland signed a four-year, $92 million extension in August that included $50 million guaranteed.<\/p>\n

He played well in the\u00a0Week 1 loss\u00a0to the\u00a0Philadelphia Eagles, allowing only two catches for 11 yards.<\/p>\n

Cowboys\u2019 Defense Draws Scrutiny<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Bland-less secondary was picked apart by\u00a0Russell Wilson, who threw for 450 yards and three touchdowns. Two of those touchdowns went to\u00a0Malik Nabers, who had nine catches for 167 yards.\u00a0Wan\u2019Dale Robinson\u00a0added eight catches for 142 yards and a score.<\/p>\n

Even after a win, the Cowboys\u2019 porous defense was a hot-button topic Monday.<\/p>\n

Former NFL quarterback and ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky ripped the unit on X (formerly known as Twitter), calling its game tape a \u201cdisaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cScheme, Communication, Execution, Leverage, Discipline. About as bad as can be,\u201d\u00a0Orlovsky wrote.<\/p>\n

Orlovsky\u2019s colleague\u00a0Stephen A. Smith also unloaded on the Cowboys.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe statement that (the Cowboys) made (in Week 2) is that their defense is trash,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI mean, that\u2019s the statement that they made. Did you see how Russell Wilson looked? We didn\u2019t expect that. \u2026 Dallas\u2019 secondary, my Lord. What the (heck) is going on there?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer, of course, offered a much more subdued take, saying the team has \u201cthings to clean up\u201d ahead of Week 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was not the standard. I think there\u2019s a lot of things we can clean up. I think that\u2019s what I\u2019m excited about is that this is not a multiple week thing. This is something that we think we can correct,\u201d Schottenheimer said, via the\u00a0Cowboys\u2019 website.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like it was a lot of different pieces, a lot of different parts that did those. It wasn\u2019t one person, it wasn\u2019t one type of coverage. When you\u2019re going to be multiple the way that we are, we have to communicate better. I didn\u2019t think our communication was to the standard that it needs to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Dallas Cowboys\u00a0overcame a poor showing on defense to even their record in Week 2, outlasting the\u00a0New York Giants\u00a040-37\u00a0in a wild overtime finish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":94348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\n\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8 CRISIS IN DALLAS: The Cowboys may have slipped past the Giants in an overtime thriller, but their defense is collapsing as All-Pro ballhawk DaRon Bland goes down just weeks after a $92 million extension, leaving a secondary already torched for 450 yards by Russell Wilson exposed and fragile heading into a must-win Week 3 showdown - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=94347\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8 CRISIS IN DALLAS: The Cowboys may have slipped past the Giants in an overtime thriller, but their defense is collapsing as All-Pro ballhawk DaRon Bland goes down just weeks after a $92 million extension, leaving a secondary already torched for 450 yards by Russell Wilson exposed and fragile heading into a must-win Week 3 showdown - 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