FRISCO – Mike McCarthy doesn’t want to trade volleys with reporters regarding the statistics of how bad the Cowboys’ run defense is after two weeks.
The same problems the Cowboys encountered last season with their run defense haven’t left them.
This team has allowed an NFL-high five rushing touchdowns. Its 4.9 yards per carry allowed is tied for ninth-most in the league, and they’ve stopped runners for no gain on an NFL-low 6.9% of carries.
Sunday the Baltimore Ravens visit in one of those early-season must-win games. The Ravens are 0-2 and a loss places their ability to contend in the AFC in serious doubt. Baltimore comes to AT&T Stadium with a running attack led by running back Derrick Henry and quarterback Lamar Jackson.
Henry was the subject matter in the offseason of upgrading the Cowboys’ running game. Dallas never made an offer to Henry, mainly for financial reasons. The Cowboys elected to sign Ezekiel Elliott and eventually added another veteran, Dalvin Cook, to the practice squad.
While the Cowboys run game has its issues, the Ravens are averaging 5.7 yards per carry, third in the NFL with 50.8% of their runs ending in positive yardage.
On Sunday, the Cowboys will face the Ravens’ powerful rushing attack while dealing with their own problems along the defensive line and quite possibly lineup changes to the linebacker corps.
Reserve defensive tackle Jordan Phillips (wrist) was placed on injured reserve, though he believes he’s healthy. Mazi Smith, the starting defensive tackle, is dealing with a back injury and missed practice the last two days.
Fellow starter Osa Odighizuwa said he’s coming off the worst game of his career last week against New Orleans.
Linebacker Eric Kendricks said he’s done talking about what happened in the Saints game, in which his team allowed 190 rushing yards.
Pass rusher Micah Parsons said it takes 11 players to control a game, not just him.
Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer took the blame for last week’s debacle. Zimmer reminded reporters and forced some to Google: It’s not the first challenge he’s faced with the Cowboys. Zimmer mentioned the 2000 Pickle Juice game against the Eagles where the Cowboys gave up 306 rushing yards in blistering heat. The Eagles believed drinking pickle juice was beneficial in dealing with the heat.
There are no real scientific results confirming pickle juice works. But there is scientific evidence man can solve problems. At least run-defense problems.
“I don’t really think it was an effort issue,” Zimmer said. “I think that team, they beat us off the snap quite a few times, got us where I thought we were slow with our hands. That’s my fault. I got to get them better ready to play than that. I talked to them during the week about it. But at the end of the day, we didn’t get moving quick enough.”
It’s commendable that Zimmer wants to take criticism for the specific problems of the run defense. But changes might be forthcoming. The base defense could see more of rising linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, who was limited to the nickel defense over the first two weeks.
Defensive end Carl Lawson, currently on the practice squad, might get called up to the game-day roster.
Possibly.
The Cowboys’ inability to stop running plays off the edge — 69% of the runs are outside the tackles against them — might prompt changes with the defensive ends.
“It was not good enough,” Kendricks said. “We can sit here and talk about last week, I’m so over that. We got a great opportunity [against the Ravens]. I’m ready to move on.”
The Cowboys need to solve these problems soon, because a season-long issue isn’t the best way for a team with title aspirations to go.
“That was definitely disappointing,” Odighizuwa said of the Week 2 loss. “I felt like we could have done a better job executing, especially me personally.”
Zimmer can make all sorts of changes to the personnel, but the scheme isn’t changing. What must happen is the personnel make more plays against a physical runner such as Henry and an elusive runner such as Jackson.
McCarthy said a better evaluation of a unit takes four weeks. Halfway there, the Cowboys are lacking in the execution department.
“This is the time of year we’ve got to really make sure we’re growing,” he said. “Week 1, we know the result of that. There was a lot of work to do after that game. Week 2, a lot of work to do. It’s about beating Baltimore, staying specific to the challenge they bring in here on Sunday, how they play, particularly schematically, what they do, they have a long history there.”
