No team embodies the NFL's week-to-week nature quite like the Dallas Cowboys. Morale was in the gutter following the loss to the Ravens in Rio, only for Dak Prescott's second-half comeback in Houston to completely flip the mood.
And, wouldn't you know it, it's back to the pits after Thursday night's demoralizing loss to an 0-4 Buccaneers team that was potentially one more defeat away from firing its head coach.
There's plenty of blame to go around, but defensive coordinator Christian Parker is currently public enemy No. 1 after his group allowed more than 400 yards and let an undrafted rookie quarterback complete 76 percent of his passes and finish with a 110.2 passer rating.
The current state of the defense is somehow turning Matt Eberflus into a sympathetic figure. Just look at this tweet from Dave Helman of The Athletic Football Show, who so often serves as a voice for Cowboys fans.
Cowboys DC Christian Parker's tenure is worse than Matt Eberflus' through five games
Say what you will about last year's Cowboys' defense, but you're bound to look like shit when you trade away one of the best defenders in the league on the eve of the season.
— Dave Helman (@davehelman_) October 9, 2026
The 2026 Cowboys spent an entire offseason designing this!
Former Cowboys wide receiver Jesse Holley echoed a similar sentiment, tweeting that "Parker is actually doing much less with much more, making his job performance worse than Matt Eberflus."
Being a prisoner of the moment is natural after an embarrassing primetime loss. This isn't that. There's real credence to the idea that Parker has been worse than Eberflus.
As Helman noted, the Cowboys traded Micah Parsons, a generational pass-rush talent, two weeks before the start of the season. It was a brutal hand to deal not only first-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer, but Eberflus as well.
The leftover personnel was so bad that Parsons was expected to carry the defense. Here's a list of the players the Cowboys moved on from this offseason:
- Jadeveon Clowney
- Osa Odighizuwa
- Solomon Thomas
- Dante Fowler
- Kenneth Murray
- Donovan Wilson
- Jack Sanborn
- Kaiir Elam
- Logan Wilson
Clowney, who didn't sign with Dallas until after the 40-40 tie with the Packers in Week 4, was the defense's best player.
To be clear, Eberflus did not do himself any favors. He shoehorned players into his scheme and did not adapt when it became painfully obvious that his personnel wasn't suited to run it.
The Cowboys, presumably with Parker's blessing, sent a lot of those players packing. And in came Rashan Gary, Jalen Thompson, Cobie Durant, Otito Ogbonnia, and P.J. Locke in March. A few weeks later, Caleb Downs, Malachi Lawrence, and Jaishawn Barham entered by way of the NFL Draft.
That's eight new players. To add to Quinnen Williams, Kenny Clark, Donovan Ezeiruaku, and Shavon Revel.
Stats prove that the current Cowboys defense is worse than the 2025 iteration
And, somehow, the defense is in worse shape. Per Aaron Schatz of FTN Fantasy, the Cowboys' 22.7 percent defensive DVOA last year was the third-worst defense by DVOA since 1997. After Thursday night, the 2026 Cowboys have a 24.8 percent defensive DVOA.
Does Dallas still have holes? Unequivocally. I can make a strong argument that they should use their first three draft picks next year on an edge rusher, a linebacker, and a cornerback. But on no planet should this defense be worse than last year's.
What makes it all the more embarrassing is that the Cowboys have hardly faced a murderer's row of quarterbacks: Jaxson Dart, one half of Jayden Daniels, one half of Marcus Mariota, Lamar Jackson, C.J. Stroud, and Jalon Daniels.
And they currently rank dead last in EPA per pass, passing success rate, passer rating, and interceptions. Following a game in which they allowed 240 rushing yards, which is an entirely separate problem.
Growing pains should be expected with a first-time defensive coordinator. But Parker was supposed to provide a much higher floor than Eberflus while he learned on the job. The reality is that the floor has somehow gotten even lower.
The Cowboys aren't executing the basics. They can't tackle. Communication breakdowns are a weekly occurrence. Those aren't growing pains. They're signs of a defensive coordinator who is currently in way over his head.
I can't recall Cowboys fans souring on a coach quite like they did on Eberflus, myself included. Dan Quinn wore out his welcome, but the animosity toward Eberflus reached a different level.
The fact that the start of Parker's tenure has somehow turned Eberflus into a sympathetic figure is Cowboys fans' version of hell.
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