ARLINGTON, Texas -- The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
The Dallas Cowboys' run defense has now reached the insanity zone after a second consecutive home loss in which they allowed their opponent to enter AT&T Stadium and ground them into a pulp. In Week 2, New Orleans Saints five-time Pro Bowl running back Alvin Kamara ran wild for 180 scrimmage yards (115 rushing on 20 carries) and four touchdowns (three rushing and one receiving) in a 44-19 New Orleans win. That was a serving of "humble pie" in the words of linebacker Eric Kendricks.
Week 3 against the Baltimore Ravens provided some déjà vu. Four-time Pro Bowl running back Derrick Henry steamrolled Dallas for 151 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns on 25 carries for an eye-popping six yards per carry in a 28-25 Baltimore victory on Sunday. Reigning NFL MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson chipped in with another 87 yards on the ground and a touchdown on 14 carries -- 6.2 yards per carry-- as did running back Justice Hill with 33 yards on five carries -- 6.6 yards per carry.
"F--- yes it's frustrating," Cowboys four-time Pro Bowl edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence said postgame when asked about losing again at home in similar fashion. "Of course, it's frustrating. If you don't love the game, it won't be frustrating. I know the men in this room love the game. That's why you've seen the difference in the second of cleaning up our mistakes in the first half."
What's specifically frustrating? Lawrence elaborated: people not doing their jobs and more.
"The losing. Not having our stuff together on defense where we're playing 11-man football," Lawrence said. "It's all frustrating. Having a game plan but not following the game plan. Once we get out of playing little league football and get back to playing pro football, we'll be alright."
Pro football, to Lawrence, looks like following instructions and executing. Not playing hero ball.
"Play pro football," Lawrence said. "Do what your coaches teach you to do. Play your gaps, play your blocks. Stay in your gaps. I'm included in this. I'm not disconnected from this at all. It's just small things That we have to get back to, and we'll do it this week."
Hero ball, in Lawrence's eyes, is defined as guys trying to do much and not playing in control.
"We've got to do our jobs man," Lawrence said. "Not overcommitting and playing hero ball. ... Our season is our season. All the wins and losses that we attract, we have to take it with us. We have to learn from it and get better through it all. Rome wasn't built in a day and Dallas Cowboys wasn't either. It's just really about honing in our details coming together as a team, and we'll be straight. We've got the guys to do it, so that ain't the problem. It's just all about f----ing doing it."
The Cowboys have surrendered three or more rushing touchdowns in consecutive games for the first time in franchise history, and their eight rushing touchdowns allowed in 2024 are more than half of the 14 they allowed across the entirety of the 2023 season. The 274 rushing yards Dallas surrendered to the Ravens on Sunday is the most allowed by any team in a game so far this season, and it's the most the Cowboys have allowed since they gave up 294 rushing yards in a 34-17 loss at the Ravens in Week 13 of the 2020 season. That was before Parsons and former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn arrived in 2021. Parsons and Lawrence had an animated in-game conversation, but Parsons maintained it was a solution-focused talk.
"Definitely that was frustration," Parsons said of his talk with Lawrence. "We talk. Like I said, DLaw has always been a big brother to me. We're losing. It was something simple. Like we didn't even mess up. We came up with a three and out [at that time]. It's the simple fact of like for us to be the best, our best players always have to do the right things right. Coach [Zimmer] is like 'man, go back.' I said 'Coach, I'm still playing in the framework of the defense.' I need to get these guys behind me [the linebackers, defensive backs] to trust me first. Like I don't want to make those plays by myself because that's going to slow them down right? I need everyone to do that. Not just me. Not just DLaw. Everyone. 'I'm just going to say in my gap. Right now, the trust is not there."
The Pro Bowl edge rusher duo is in agreement that the Dallas defense needs to play in unison, and that they need to do so quickly.
"Same thing. Right now, we just got people trying to be Superman," Parsons said.. "People just got to own their jobs. We don't need any Supermans at all. We just need 11 guys playing together. Right now, it's just not in unison."
How do you get people to not play Superman? Even Parsons, who always has an insightful quote or reply for almost any question was out of answers Sunday night.
"Bro, I have no idea, I'm going to be real," Parsons said. I really believe we're being tested. ... It has to come together. It's humbling. ... right now we're low as shit. Everyone has to be strong in their faith and say at one point, 'are we going to trust in God, trust in ourselves, trust in the team, trust in the framework of our defense? Because some of the stuff is at one point, it's just us being us. So when is the faith and trust going to be?"
For the second week in a row, the Dallas defense had to face the music in the form of uncomfortable questions from the media. At what point do they put their foot down and play in such a way that this conversation ceases?
"It's just at some point, we're all grown men. We all get paid a lot of money to do this man," Parsons said. "At one point, you got to win it for yourself. Your own family. Your own dignity. You got to win it for the brothers who sit next to you. I got my own kids. I got my own life. I do this for them. I do this for my family, so I don't feel like I should be telling another grown man to consistently be accountable at some point. They got to take it within themselves. ... We have all have to take the mindset to say 'I got to get better today, then we'll all get better.'"
"Preaching something all week, everyone is in the locker saying 'we're going to do what we got to do, and everyone's gonna be accountable' to then when you come out and we're just like, 'how are we getting gashed and not being accountable?' .... If we do what we're supposed to do, we win the game," Parsons said. "It's just like at what cost are we just gonna keep doing this to ourselves?"
For the second week in a row, Cowboys Pro Bowl cornerback Trevon Diggs labeled the loss "unacceptable by saying he would say "the same" about the Week 3 loss to the Ravens that he did the Week 2 loss against the Saints.
Is it the tough luck of facing two of the league's top running backs of the last decade in Henry and Kamara in back-to-back weeks, or will this be a problem the Cowboys will suffer through all season?
"That's a good question," Diggs said. "We'll see next week. I think that we know we got the guys to do what we need to do. We got talent from top to bottom, so I'm not worried about that. We just got to do it."
Next week is already this week for Dallas as they will prepare to hit the road for "Thursday Night Football" to play another desperate team in the New York Giants, a fellow 1-2 squad whose sole win is also against Deshaun Watson's Cleveland Browns. While Dallas has to quickly get over Sunday to be ready for Thursday, Diggs doesn't feel like the should skip over how much of a letdown Week 3 was.
"I feel like we should still do feel it," Diggs said. "I feel it for sure. When Monday come, Monday come. ... We have to feel this and feel it burn. I hate losing. I don't like losing."
