It was a fun couple of weeks thinking that the Dallas Cowboys defense had turned a corner. It turns out, the showings against the Eagles and Chiefs were nothing but a mirage. The former's offense crumbles at the first sight of adversity, while the latter's offense has been broken all season, even with Patrick Mahomes under center.
Matt Eberflus has been under fire all season, and the vitriol came to a head following Dallas' 34-26 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday night. The Cowboys' defensive coordinator has nowhere left to hide after allowing J.J. McCarthy to go up and down the field in a must-win game.
While Jerry Jones is quietly losing faith in Eberflus, he stopped short of throwing him under the bus. Trevon Diggs did not follow Jones' lead. Here is what Diggs said after the game about why he thinks the defense has struggled to click this season (h/t to Jon Machota of The Athletic).
"It could be the change in defensive coordinator,” Diggs said. "That’s hard to deal with, changing plays, changing personnel, finding what fits, finding what scheme fits your players that you have, and then trying to find a balance that you can run with. I think we made some great additions, like on the interior with adding Quinnen and Kenny Clark and that was good. I feel like it’s headed in the right direction."
Trevon Diggs backed the bus right over Cowboys DC Matt Eberflus after Week 15 loss
Diggs did his best to sugarcoat that quote by saying that the defense is heading in the right direction. It's also possible that Diggs was referring to the Cowboys' revolving door of defensive coordinators, and not just Eberflus, who is the team's third DC in as many years. Mike Zimmer replaced Dan Quinn last year, before Eberflus replaced Zimmer this season.
That said, it's not hard to see the forest for the trees here. While Diggs has a lot of pent-up tension with Jerry and Stephen Jones, it's no secret that he isn't Eberflus' biggest fan.
Diggs took issue with how much zone Dallas played earlier in the season. The entire defense seemingly looked uncomfortable in Eberflus' scheme. There were multiple communication breakdowns and explosive plays allowed per quarter, sometimes on consecutive plays. Opposing receivers were catching passes without a Cowboys defender within 10 yards of them.
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Those haven't occurred nearly as frequently in the second half of the season, but the results haven't been all that different. They've allowed nearly 30.0 points per game over the last two months.
This year's get-right team for opposing NFL offenses allowed J.J. McCarthy, who entered Week 15 ranked 36th (!) among quarterbacks with a -0.205 EPA per play and 34th with a 39.9 percent success rate, to throw for a career-high in passing yards (250) and set a new career-high in yards per attempt (10.0). To call that a fireable offense would be an understatement.
Like in last week’s loss to the Lions, Eberflus found early success blitzing McCarthy in the first quarter, only to completely abandon it for the rest of the game.
A lot of Cowboys fans will roll their eyes at Diggs throwing shade, given he's likely on his way out of Dallas and didn't even play in the game. But his quote was spot-on.
While the defensive personnel needs a mini-overhaul this offseason, the defensive coordinator has shown little to no ability to maximize the talent already in the building.