Dallas Cowboys: 3 things from Week 1 to polish up heading into Week 2

The Dallas Cowboys were ran on by the Rams, but it wasn’t due to what you may have thought.

Linebacker play

In Week One against the L.A. Rams, things seemed a bit soft. It seems as though anytime they needed a few yards, they were able to hand the ball and get them.

While it wasn’t quite that simple, stopping it or what went wrong for Dallas in that scenario isn’t quite that simple either. Most think it had everything to do with poor defensive line play, but that isn’t quite the truth.

After watching film and key plays over the past few days, most of the Cowboys defensive issues seem to stem from the middle of their defense, the linebackers.

The defensive lineman did two things on 75 percent of their snaps on Sunday, they either penetrated the offensive line or held their own ground, subsequently blocking up the hole for the runner.

It was rare to see a guy along that defensive front get pushed off their spot. What happened after all that is the issue though.

When clear lanes, holes, and/or gaps are created by the lineman’s penetration, rush, or stalemate, it is then up to the linebackers to scrape and/or fill those gaps, in order to not allow a ball carrier through them. The Dallas linebackers were slow, absent, or seemingly unaware on Sunday night as most times, the lineman got their part of the job done.

Also in other areas, such as pass defense, this is a similar issue. Where as the defensive backs were preventing most stuff over the top or wide along the outsides of the hash marks, the middle of the field was being picked apart like the turkey on the day after Thanksgiving.

The backers were almost there everytime, although most times a smidge late or a smidge too low on a deflection attempt. Plainly and simply, a lot of the Cowboys defensive issues on Sunday were due to the linebackers not fulfilling their responsibilities the way they should have after everyone else had done their jobs.