Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer knows his team didn't give itself a good shot at winning against Minnesota.
The Dallas Cowboys' defense has put on its best Jekyll-and-Hyde act over the past five weeks, leaving us wondering exactly what the real Dallas defense is.
We saw early in the year how bad the defense was. But then came a three-week uptick in form, thanks in part to the trade for Quinnen Williams ... and that gave fans hope.
But in the last two weeks, that hope has dissolved.
The Dallas defense got curb-stomped by the Detroit Lions and Jared Goff, and then against the Minnesota Vikings, J.J. McCarthy hung 34 points on them.
The inability to get off the field and make "the" play at the time was again a back-breaker for the Cowboys.
Make no mistake, the offense is at fault here too, going 2/12 on third down while settling for field goals, all adding up to a bad night at AT&T Stadium vs. Minny.
What has coach Brian Schottenheimer seen from the defense over the past two games?
“Our team hasn't done well enough the last two weeks,'' he said. "We've lost two games. I thought we've played well at times, but the execution was not what it was when we were winning three games in a row.''
So, it is purely about execution?
Possibly. But the Cowboys' defense is doing the exact same things - making the exact same errors - that plagued it early in the year, which isn't a great endorsement for the coaching staff.
Week in and week out, the opposing quarterback has his best game of the year against Dallas. And that's not a coincidence. Big plays are given up both in the air and on the ground, and at times, the defense doesn't appear to know what it's doing.
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"There were opportunities for us to make plays at critical times, and we didn't make those plays," Schotty said. "Unfortunately, in a league where there's so much parody, if you don't make those plays, you can't gain momentum."
At 6-7-1, the Cowboys' season is done, and you could make the case that Sunday night's defensive performance was the final straw in Matt Eberflus' tenure as defensive coordinator. ... a take that befits a time when this team needs to be brutally honest about itself.