The Cowboys Hyped an Improved Defense, but Week 1 Looked Like More of the Same

The Dallas defense was supposed to be the reason. Rich had the Cowboys in his top five all offseason, and the moves on that side of the ball were why.

Then Week 1 happened in New Jersey, and the unit that was supposed to change everything could not stop a cold.

Dak Prescott spent the summer selling an acronym, GOTI, the greatest offense there is. Rich noted the branding debuted in New Jersey and got buried beneath the stadium, which is about as gently as that joke can be told.

Hindsight is a wonderful tool and Rich copped to using it. Even so, he did not see the season opening with a three and out and a fourth down capitulation from the head coach.

The sequence was compounded by a Hawkeye replay assist review that wiped out a first down and turned it into fourth and inches. Rich thought Dallas got hosed on that. What he could not believe was the response.

"I couldn't believe they were trying to make the guys jump and then punt," he said.

The framing writes itself. You are the Dallas Cowboys. You walked into the Giants' lair on Sunday night with the greatest offense there is, and on fourth and inches you decided the risk was too rich.

Rich reached for poker to explain the instinct and then rejected it anyway. First hand of the night, good odds, and you are still hesitant to shove all in. Fine. Understandable.

"But come on, man."

His read is that Brian Schottenheimer trusted the new pieces to get the ball back. New defensive coordinator, newfangled scheme, go get a stop.

Nope.

When the offense finally started clicking in the second half, the defense had already made the score irrelevant. For a team with aspirations of playing at SoFi Stadium on Valentine's Day next year, and of finally ending a 30 year drought without an NFC Championship game appearance, that is a problem no amount of offense solves.

The specific failure was repeatable, which is the worst kind. Prescott would look the defense off for a second, stare down the middle, and find Devin Singletary wide open in the flat. High loopers, over and over.

"How are, if it worked once and the Giants were like, okay, let's try it again," Rich said. "All right, let's keep doing it."

Someone at the desk had a simpler diagnosis. "I was convinced we had nine men on the field, because everything was coming towards you on your TV." The left side was open all night. There was a hole in that defense and nobody closed it.

Rich did not soften the verdict on Christian Parker's debut as coordinator. Disastrous. There is no other way to put it, particularly because the offense started to click even with George Pickens catching the dropsies.

To Schottenheimer's credit, he did not hide behind coach speak when the details came up after the game.

"Not excuse guys, we did not play well," he said. "But you got young players. And young player closes in, Jaxson Dart boots and gets outside. We don't push three different times to the flat route. Excuse my language. Those are going to happen and we have to coach the young players better, but when you play young players, it's part of the deal and they need to learn quickly."

Rich appreciated it, and said so twice. That is honesty.

Prescott handled his end the way he usually does, which is to say correctly.

"It sucks to lose. Damn sure sucks to lose the first one to this team, a division game, but still optimistic," he said. "That doesn't change our goals, doesn't change how we feel about our team. Credit to those guys that they beat us tonight. This is a marathon though. It's a long season. Guys are pissed off. Nobody's more disappointed than the players in that locker room and the coaches and everybody that put this game plan together and attempted to go out there and execute it and failed to do so. They'll have to see us again and we've got to turn the page."

Rich complimented the never forget shirt as a native New Yorker, then took issue with exactly one line.

"I have to push back on there's nobody more disappointed than them in the locker room. It's me, who's been sitting here in front of this microphone for months putting him in my top five in my power rankings."

He also acknowledged that TJ had told him to pump the brakes, which is its own kind of penance.

The quarterback did not escape clean either. Prescott threw an interception that flipped the game, and Rich was blunt about the standard. A young quarterback might throw that pass. Year 11 cannot.

"That was awful and it led to points. He should have never done that."

Which brings up the word that has been following Dallas since Sunday night. Rich wanted to define it properly. Getting punked is when one team runs something over and over and you cannot stop it, when you know it is coming, your coaching staff is smart enough to know it is coming, and you still cannot stop it.

That is what happened. Add a nonexistent pass rush, and credit where it belongs, to a Giants offensive line that has spent recent years either failing to protect or failing to keep its hands to itself. That is the thing Rich says Harbaugh changed immediately.

The second half was the summary. The Giants could not be stopped, and Dallas could not get off the field.

The schedule does not offer a soft landing. Washington comes to town next, having taken the Eagles to the limit. Then Brazil against a Ravens team that just dog walked the Colts in Indianapolis. Then Houston, a Thursday night home date with Tampa, and a trip to Green Bay where Micah Parsons is expected to be back. Then the first of two with Philadelphia, then the Cardinals, who tend to show up and show out in that building.

"Not great, Bob."