Fans of the Dallas Cowboys witnessed another disaster-class performance by Matt Eberflus in their ugly loss against the Minnesota Vikings. The Cowboys' defense failed to contain J.J. McCarthy, but the cornerbacks weren't that good either.
Brad Sham, the Cowboys' play-by-play radio announcer for 105.3 The Fan, said his two cents after the game, and while he could've joined the party to rant about Eberflus, he made a point about the cornerback room that's pretty much cooked at this point. Even with Trevon Diggs in the lineup, Sham says, it wouldn't have mattered anyway.
"If Caelan Carson's the best they've got, you've got a problem. I don't really want to hear about Diggs because Diggs hadn't played all year, and I don't know that Diggs would've been any better. "Brad Sham
Cowboys' loss to Vikings exposes CB room as a huge problem
In the second quarter, Carson was burned on a 58-yard heave from McCarthy to Jordan Addison. Addison had at least a five-yard cushion on the deep route, smoking Carson on what became the Vikings’ key play of the drive.
Even on the missed opportunities for the Vikings, you could tell that something wasn't right the entire game. All-Pro wide receiver Justin Jefferson has had an off year by his standards, and there were multiple times when he broke wide open, and McCarthy just missed him.
Jefferson finished with just two catches for 22 yards. Under normal circumstances, that would be considered a stellar performance by any secondary, but the Cowboys are anything but normal. T.J. Hockenson and Jalen Nailor picked up the slack, and Dallas had no answers in coverage
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Obviously, the finger-pointing after an embarrassing loss like this one will land on Eberflus, as it should. But the players also needed to be better, and with their season on the line, they weren’t. According to Pro Football Focus, Carson hasn’t played enough snaps to qualify, but his 56.2 overall grade still registers as below average. It’s just another name to add to the growing list of disappointments in the Cowboys’ secondary.
Kaiir Elam was waived in the middle of the season, and Shavon Revel Jr., a rookie who entered the year late, can only be asked to do so much. Meanwhile, there is obvious tension between Trevon Diggs and the Cowboys’ front office after Brian Schottenheimer said he needs the former All-Pro cornerback to be more consistent in practice and meetings. And DaRon Bland's contract extension looks like a serious overpay.
As Sham said, it probably wouldn't have made a difference with Diggs in the lineup, which tells us all we need to know about where the front office should go with Diggs moving forward.
With the Cowboys' playoff chances extremely close to dead, it's become clear that the secondary needs a major overhaul next season.