It is far from a hot take to point out that Dallas Cowboys special teams coordinator Nick Sorensen is in some hot water after Thursday's 44-30 loss to the Detroit Lions. While there is no shortage of Dallas coaches and players who can be blamed, Sorensen went out of his way to make sure his name was atop the list. The coach oversaw a unit that gave the Lions an average field position of their own 42-yard line. This doesn't include the final drive when Detroit had salted the game away. This was noticed and pointed out by Dallas Cowboys writer Tommy Yarrish.
It is important to note here that when talking about special teams failures, in no way does this reflect on star kicker Brandon Aubrey, who went 5/5, including another 60+ yard kick. With that said, the failures certainly have the attention of head coach Brian Schottenheimer, who offered the following comment via Tommy Yarrish.
"We certainly didn’t cover very well. I thought that kind of flipped the field, gave them a bunch of short fields, and we have to look at why that was. And we’ll do that, certainly an area for us to clean up."Brian Schottenheimer
Schottenheimer is speaking in typical coach fashion, not throwing anyone under the bus, even though it is obviously deserved. For Sorensen, this has to present a level of urgency that could cause his seat to quickly warm if these issues continue.
Cowboys Special Teams Coordinator Nick Sorensen Under Fire After Atrocious Week 14 Performance
Sorensen is understandably not a popular figure among Dallas fans as the team's playoff hopes took a brutal hit on Thursday night. You cannot show up to what feels like an elimination game and offer this level of performance from a unit that simply has one job: hit the ball inside the landing zone and finish the play. The lack of physicality and urgency from a group that understood what they were playing for speaks to a coaching failure.
Whether it is a lack of talent or execution is up for debate, no matter the answer, it is going to be the coach and not the players who earn the blame. This is especially the case with Sorensen when the coach has already been consistently uplifted by having the game's best kicker in Aubrey.
If the Cowboys miss the playoffs, it is fair to wonder if this performance invites a coaching change at the end of the season. For now, it is going to leave a number of alarming questions that the coordinator must quickly find answers for, as Dallas clearly needs to run the table the rest of the way.
This obviously isn't going to happen if you have a special teams unit giving up half the field before your defense gets off the sideline. No question, Sorensen is deservedly in some hot water and must show drastic improvement in the final weeks of the season, or the franchise will have no choice but to make a change.