5 reasons to be nervous about the 2022 Dallas Cowboys

1. Penalties are still a huge problem

Mike McCarthy was frustrated with his team for getting flagged constantly during their scrimmage with the Denver Broncos. Afterward, he expressed that they needed to be more disciplined, but clearly, the players didn’t receive the message.

Dallas went in the wrong direction as they were flagged an unbelievable 17 times, surrendering 129 yards in the process. What’s worse is that there wasn’t just one area where the flags were popping up.

They got dinged for playing too aggressively as there were a few roughing the passer penalties. There were also penalties due to getting beat by their opponent with offensive linemen and cornerbacks drawing flags for holding.

Pre-snap penalties were there as well, showing the general lack of discipline that we’ve come to expect from the Cowboys.

McCarthy continues to preach accountability but things don’t seem to be changing. Dallas was the No. 1 penalized team in the league last season and while there were several reasons they lost to the 49ers in the playoffs, this was a huge reason they couldn’t mount a comeback.

One player who really could be an issue in this department is rookie Tyler Smith. Their newest starting guard was a flag magnet for Tulsa and after the front office tried to say he was penalized for being too strong, he still found himself called for holding multiple times in his NFL debut.

Dallas has constantly made things hard on themselves by giving up free yards to the opposing offense while pushing their own back several times per game. It won’t suddenly fix itself and it doesn’t seem as though they’re committed to doing anything, so this is a huge reason for concern in 2022.

5 reasons to be excited about the 2022 Dallas Cowboys

It wasn't a pretty game at all for the Cowboys but underneath all of the yellow flags were signs that this team may be pretty good this season.