The big story out of Arlington, Texas, as the Dallas Cowboys fell 44-19 to the New Orleans Saints was all about the defense getting walked over by Derek Carr, Alvin Kamara, and friends. However, the offense is certainly not without blame in what amounted to be a footrace they couldn't stay on due to poor red zone performance.
This isn't lost on Mike McCarthy, who understands the big difference between Week 1 and Week 2 for this offense: They weren't nearly as explosive. That starts with the fact that the Cowboys were facing a Dennis Allen-led defensive group that focused on playing its safeties deep to eliminate any potential big plays.
“Look at the depth of their safety, you know, it's different than last week, " McCarthy told reporters when asked about the lack of big plays. "That was one of the things disappointing from last week was the opportunity for potential big plays. But you know they're going to be deeper in the deepest in match unit. So sometimes you got to be a little more patient, which we've shown we've been able to do, but yeah, when you get down in there you got, you got to hit your shots.”
The Cowboys didn't hit those shots, going 0-for-3 in the red zone and consistently settling for field foals. Dak Prescott missed an open CeeDee Lamb for what could've been a touchdown as miscommunication issues came up between the two. Jalen Brooks missed a key block in a reverse end around where Brandin Cooks had a shot at finding the end zone. Play makers struggled to get open and pass protection broke down in bad spots.
The Cowboys need to fix their red zone offense as soon as possible as McCarthy's comments foreshadow a dangerous reality for the team: Playing bend-but-don't-break defense will work against Dallas until these issues are fixed, and NFL teams aiming to bring down America's Team will be paying close attention to this.
To be fair, the Cowboys missed Jake Ferguson in Week 2, but there are reasons to believe it'll take a while for Dallas to turn things around inside the 20-yard line: The team lacks a fearsome running game and there are enough concerns in the pass protection department to be totally bullish on the passing game. With Ferguson out, the Saints got away with zeroing in on CeeDee Lamb in key spots.
"You’re trying to play complimentary football and if your defense is struggling to stop a group, you want to do your part and score us downs and come back," quarterback Dak Prescott said postgame. "We weren’t able to score touchdowns but were able to move the ball up and down the field, (...) going from last week to this week, there were some things that we wanted to get better at. We got better at third downs this week, but now it’s the red zone that I think we scored some touchdowns."
Prescott added that not only had that put up more points on the board but even boosted the defense's morale. Naturally, a tighter score makes life easier on the defense in the sense that the opponent can't just keep running the ball like New Orleans was able to do Sunday.
"It makes the defense feel a bit better, and it’s a while different feel within the game for both sides of the ball," Prescott added.
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