Dallas Cowboys: Coaching and defense must improve immediately

After starting the season 3-0, the Dallas Cowboys have lost six out of their last nine games. With four games left, its time to win big or go home.

The Dallas Cowboys had Super Bowl aspirations when the season started, and it looked that way when the Cowboys won three straight games in a blow out fashion.

Those early season blow out wins were against the likes of the evil New York Giants, the always pathetic Washington Redskins, and the horrible Miami Dolphins. And the Cowboys continued to beat the Giants in a rematch, whip the buzzards known as the Philadelphia Eagles. And guess what…the Cowboys have yet to beat a team with a winning record.

Hence, those six losses are to teams with winning records except the New York Jets. The New Orleans Saints, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, and Buffalo Bills all have winning records and are all projected to make the playoffs.

And because of those six unexplainable losses, the Cowboys must improve their coaching and defense if they want to win the division and make a playoff run.

Because of the inconsistent coaching and sporadic defense, the Cowboys must either win their final four games or simply beat the Eagles and Redskins to win the NFC East crown. And that’s very sad for a talented team like Dallas.

So lets dive into the inept coaching and underachieving defense.

Dallas’ defense needs to play like it did against the Eagles and Giants when it forced a combined seven turnovers in a two game stretch. And that’s why they won those games. Creating turnovers gives Dallas’ offense more opportunities to score.

Coaching-Coach Clap-A-Lot and his little Clappers have to get back to the basics

Dallas’ head coach Jason Garrett is known more for his clapping than the three NFC East titles he’s won because quite frankly, he’s a mediocre coach who is incapable of coaching situational football or making game adjustments to no avail. That’s why Dallas…

Of Dallas’ six losses, they were favored in all of them except the game against the Patriots, but Dallas had an opportunity to win four or maybe five of them if the Garrett and his staff made better adjustments.

In order for that to happen, Garrett and is staff have to get back to the basics. On offense, for example, using play-action pass more will only enhance Dallas’ high-octane offense and make Dallas’ receiving corps even more lethal.

With play-action pass, there’s not a secondary in the league that can contain Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, Randall Cobb, Tavon Austin, and Blake Jarwin. To get a better perspective on how the play-action pass will benefit Dallas’ offense, check out site expert Reid Hanson’s article.

I know the Patriots’ defense held Dallas’ receivers in check, especially Stephon Gilmore on Cooper, who had zero catches, but the inclement weather played a significant role, too.

In addition to using play-action pass, its time that Dallas get back to its roots and run Ezekiel Elliott like the All Pro running back that opponents know him to be. Zeke needs to touch the ball anywhere to 25-30 times in some type of capacity to keep opposing defenses honest and to keep him in a rhythm.

Whenever Zeke get his touches, not only will he gain momentum throughout the game, but his running style punishes defenses and by the fourth quarter those linebackers and defensive backs wants no part of Zeke. Once Dallas falls behind by a touchdown or two, the coaching staff completely abandons the running game and Zeke is exempt from the game plan unless he catches a pass out of the backfield, which leads to…

For whatever unknown reason, offensive coordinator Kellen Moore doesn’t use Zeke enough on screen passes when Zeke has scored his longest touchdowns on screen passes. In fact, Zeke is a beast when catching a screen pass and is hard to bring down. More screen passes to Zeke becomes another problem to defenses because its another issue they have to contend with.

Look how effective the Minnesota Vikings uses the screen pass. Dallas defense had a hard time stopping the Vikings screen pass to Dalvin Cook-he simply destroyed them. If Zeke is catching screen passes on a regular basis, its equivalent to a long-handed carry that gains positive yards and once again, if forces defenses to put an extra emphasis on Zeke.

The key is to make each and every offensive weapon a concern to opposing defenses. You can’t cover everyone. Just ask Bill Belichick why his Pats have won six Super Bowls and played in nine.

The coaching staff needs to use Dak Prescott legs more and make him a dual threat. Dak needs to to run the ball more to force defenses to put a spy on him, and use that to their advantage. Dak is not Lamar Jackson (the Baltimore Ravens quarterback) but man Dak becomes a 6’3 245 pound fullback when he runs and not to many players want to tackle him.

Did you see Dak run over the Buffalo Bills player when he ran for a first down on third and 10? Dak mowed him over. Dak running more often will give the offense additional first downs and create more options for the offense.

Dallas’ defense has underachieved

Dallas’ defense is by far the most disappointed one in the entire NFL. Last season Dallas’ defense was a top-10 one and was dominant. The defense was led by “War Daddies” Demarcus Lawrence, Randy Gregory, and interior linemen Tyrone Crawford, and Maliek Collins.

Dallas’ defense came to fruition against the Saints last when it shut down Drew Brees and his high octane offense. Tank and the crew just beat up Brees and linebackers Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander Esch laid wood on running back Alvin Kamara. Dallas whipped the Saints that night and were a fearsome defense moving forward.