One of the biggest talking points among Dallas Cowboys fans through the first six weeks of the season has been the defense's dismal performance.
Heading into Sunday’s game against the Washington Commanders, defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus’ unit has allowed the most passing yards per game (269.5), the fourth-most rushing yards per game (142.2), and the second-most points per game (30.7).
Simply put, it's been frustrating and embarrassing to watch this unit come up short every week. Dallas fans want Eberflus gone, but owner Jerry Jones isn’t ready to make the call yet. And in fact, Jones said on 105.3 The Fan on Friday, via Jon Machota of The Athletic, he believes that Eberflus is doing the right thing and “trying to eliminate those explosive plays.”
"He will get there. He’s trying to eliminate those explosive plays. … We know Eberflus. … What you really want more than anything is at times like these, you don’t want people that break and run. You want them to hang in, stick in there, look pragmatically, make the adjustment if necessary, but do it begrudgingly because Flus has a plan. It hasn’t worked. It always looks bad when it doesn’t work. … If you can’t take that, you can’t coach in the NFL."Jerry Jones on 105.3 The Fan
Jerry Jones Once Again Backs Matt Eberflus Despite Defensive Struggles
When Cowboys fans caught wind of Jones’ comments on social media, as evidenced by the responses to Machota's post, they weren’t impressed by them and thought he was saying a bunch of nothing.
It's commendable that Jones is sticking up for Eberflus and pointing out how he’s trying to get this defense back on track, but it is clearly not working. The most alarming part of Jones’ quote was the part where he said, “Look pragmatically, make the adjustment if necessary, but do it begrudgingly because Flus has a plan.”
Eberflus isn’t making great adjustments, as this Dallas defense has allowed at least 30-plus points in four out of their last five games. And whatever plan Eberflus has, it isn’t working, and as Jones said, when it doesn’t work, “it always looks bad.”
At this point in the season, we know what type of defense this is and what it won’t be, and that’s the sad part, because the Cowboys’ offense has been good to start this season.
If Dallas’ defense were halfway decent and didn’t get bludgeoned by ex-Cowboys RB Rico Dowdle for 239 yards from scrimmage last week, maybe Dallas is on the right side of the scoreboard. But that’s in the past.
That said, the only thing Cowboys fans can hope for is that the defense shows something of improvement in Week 7 against Washington, because things can and still could get worse from here.