Can Cowboys' defense bounce back in Week 3? What is biggest issue and how can it be fixed?

FRISCO, Texas -- All the initial progress the Dallas Cowboys' defense showed in their narrow 24-20 defeat at the Super Bowl LIX champion Philadelphia Eagles went up in smoke in Week 2 against the New York Giants. 

Dallas defeated the Giants, 40-37, in overtime, but their defense took a beating and appeared to put New York's 36-year-old quarterback Russell Wilson in a time machine. Wilson connected on 30 of his 41 passes in Week 2 for 450 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. He produced 264 of his 450 pass yards on throws of 20 or more air yards, which stands as the most passing yards on throws of 20 or more air yards by any player in a game since Ben Roethlisberger in 2015, per CBS Sports Research.   

An explosive play is defined as a rushing play of over 15 yards or a passing play over 20 yards. Against the Eagles in Week 1, Dallas gave up five explosive plays and only one through the air. In Week 2 against the Giants, the Cowboys surrendered nine explosive plays and seven were through the air. 

Former Bears coach Matt Eberflus makes return to Chicago, provides valuable intel for Cowboys

Garrett Podell

So what happened? A number of things. One is 2023 All-Pro cornerback DaRon Bland injured his foot in the Monday practice leading up to Week 2, which currently has him sidelined. Dallas is hopeful Bland could return in Week 4 to face the Green Bay Packers, but no official timetable has been set. Two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Trevon Diggs, who is working his way back from another knee procedure he had in January, was pressed into perhaps a higher workload than he should have had. Diggs played just 26 defensive snaps in Week 1 out  of sub packages, but he was on the field for 59 snaps, a starter's workload, in Week 2. Both Schottenheimer and Diggs admitted after the game that the plan was not for him to play as much as he ended up playing. 

"No, I didn't actually, but it's fine," Diggs said when CBS Sports asked postgame if he expected to play as much as he did. "I feel right now. I'll probably feel a little banged up tomorrow, but I'm going to get through it and get ready for Chicago."

In the words of new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, Diggs is essentially getting his feet under him, from a conditioning perspective and going through training camp right now, and that's on top of getting more and more comfortable with Eberflus' scheme. 

"He's getting back into it and the thing about Trevon is he didn't go through training camp," Eberflus said Thursday. "So this is basically his period where he's learning the defense and, again, it comes down to the functional ability to execute on the field, and it's time on task. We're working with him extra to get him up to speed, getting as many reps as we can during practice, and then coaching him up in between when the offense is up there. It's all the above."

Given the injury to Bland and third-round rookie cornerback Shavon Revel, who is still working his way back from a torn ACL he suffered last college football season, the training wheels around Diggs' playtime are off by necessity -- fully healthy or not. 

"I think it shows the competitiveness of Trevon, and the fact of how much he's enjoying playing football. That was not the plan, but he was feeling good," Schottenheimer said. "The game, of course, was 70 minutes long, and so there's a lot of plays. But yeah, I think it speaks to Trevon and how much he loves playing football. Again, you're talking about a guy that's lost that ability a lot over the last couple of years. So I think it's a testament to him, and I would say that now the restrictions are probably off."

However, the biggest reason for the explosive plays surrendered against the Giants in Week 2, according to both players and coaches, is miscommunication. It's a trickle down effect from all the injuries. Diggs is out there not fully back at 100%, and the other outside cornerback Kaiir Elam, a 2022 first-round pick who Dallas acquired in a trade this offseason, is in his first season with the team. With Bland out, the Cowboys turned to 2024 undrafted free agent Reddy Steward as the team's starting nickel corner. Steward was in Chicago with new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus in 2024, but he only suited up in one game. He played 47 defensive snaps on Sunday in Week 2 after playing just 18 career defensive snaps entering the showdown with the Giants.

"It was not the standard. I think there are a lot of things we can clean up. I think that's what I'm excited about. This is not a multiple week thing. This is something that we think we can correct. I felt like it was a lot of different pieces, a lot of different parts. It wasn't one person. It wasn't one type of coverage," Schottenheimer said on Monday. "When you're going to be multiple the way we are, we have to communicate better. I didn't think that our communication was to the standard that it needs to be. ...  There's a lot of things to tighten up. Any time you give up seven explosive passes, and Russ played incredibly well, but there were a lot of things that we can tighten up. ... We're going to make the corrections. We have to, because giving up those types of plays, you're not going to win many games, and we were very fortunate to find a way to win."

Diggs and Elam were very clear that they concurred with Schottenheimer about the Week 2 issue being one of communication. 

"We had a lot of blown coverages today. The defense didn't play too well in the pass game. I got to be better. Everyone has to be better," Diggs said postgame. ... I felt like we needed it. I'm glad that they were throwing the ball like that so we can see how they want to attack us, especially with our coverage that we play. We have a lot of mixed coverage and stuff, so just seeing that, we're going to be better next time."

"It really just comes down to we have to do our jobs better. I don't feel like it's a talent issue. It's just more so just being on the same page," Elam said on Wednesday. "Take away the seams and the posts. ... We just have to be on the same page just knowing what to take away in the defense that we're playing.  ... It's all about being a pro. It shouldn't be a drop off [with Bland out with an injury]. It's just one of those things that we got to get cleaned up now, but it's one of those things that we should have cleaned up earlier."

So how simple is the remedy to the miscommunication problem? Simple according to Elam. 

"You just have to mentally sharp and just be extra vocal [when] communicating, that's it," he said. 

Just because the solution is simple doesn't mean Dallas is downplaying the severity of the problem. The Cowboys understand the issue they have on the back end of their defense is very real. 

"Yeah, I think when you give up big plays, I don't think they're minor. Those are major things," Eberflus said. "We have to do a better job, all 11 players and including the coaches, executing on the certain play. ... You have to execute. Again that's coaches and players."  

One of the casualties of the secondary miscommunication is Elam being credited as the NFL's leader in yards allowed in coverage with 232, according to NFL Pro. Both Elam and Eberflus disputed the validity of the metric on the grounds that no one from outside the team knows what the coverage responsibilities are on a given play unless they know the play call itself.  

"That's very false. That's very false because you don't know the [play] call," Elam said. "How can you put that on me? That's very false. All 11 guys have to be on the same page."

"I don't look at that. Kaiir has played well," Ebeflus said. "He's tackled well, he's done a good job, and he's going to continue to improve. I like where Kaiir is at."

Coverage shift coming?

The Cowboys may have to adjust their overarching coverage philosophy whenever Bland returns from his foot injury.  Dallas used to utilize a high volume of man coverage when current Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn ran the Dallas defense from 2021 to 2023: Quinn's Cowboys played man coverage on 33.8% of their plays, the third-highest rate in the NFL across those three seasons. They were also aggressive and blitzed at a top 10 rate in the NFL, 30.2% (10th in the league).

Eberflus Cowboys', likely because of injuries and being in a new scheme, have run zone at the highest rate in the NFL (87.4%), run man at the lowest rate in the NFL (4.7%) and blitzed at the fifth-lowest rate (16.7%) in the NFL through two weeks. 

"We want to be multiple and we're going to be multiple, and we're going to do different things and we play man and we play zone," Schottenheimer said. "If there's one thing you can look at for us, we were good at both at times, and we were poor at both at times. Again, the word I use is consistency, we just weren't very consistent. We have plenty of calls where we can get in guys' faces and things like that, but the multiplicity that we want to have in a Matt Eberflus defense I think is really important."

* Weeks 1 and 2, 2025 season

Perhaps just as or more important is Bland, whose 14 career interceptions since he entered the NFL in 2022 rank as tied for the second-most in the NFL in that span, returning to action. 

"I feel like the more guys on the field that can get the ball, the more careful they'll [opposing offenses] will be trying to throw the ball," Diggs said. "His absence was felt today [in Week 2], and the sooner he'll be back, we'll be better."