{"id":379698,"date":"2025-09-19T07:22:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T07:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/379698\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T07:22:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T07:22:14","slug":"cowboys-believe-secondarys-dismal-outing-vs-giants-is-fixable-whats-their-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/379698\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys believe secondary\u2019s dismal outing vs. Giants is fixable. What\u2019s their plan?"},"content":{"rendered":"

FRISCO \u2014 Cowboys<\/a> defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus returns to the place on Sunday that expected more from him: Chicago.<\/p>\n

Eberflus spent three years as the head coach with the Bears before his firing 12 games into the 2024 season<\/a>. He enters Sunday\u2019s game with a Cowboys\u2019 defense that\u2019s minus one of the best pass rushers in the business, Micah Parsons, but could debut Jadeveon Clowney, a former No. 1 overall pick, as one of his edge rushers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But more than anything, Eberflus comes to the Windy City with a defense that\u2019s taken heavy criticism for its pass coverage.<\/p>\n

After Giants quarterback Russell Wilson threw for 450 yards, the second-most in his career, last week,<\/a> the calls for fewer defensive assignments in zone coverage and more man-to-man have grown. It seems zone coverage is what Eberflus\u2019 defense is all about. <\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s not what Flus does, we want to be multiple and we\u2019re going to be multiple and we\u2019re going to do different things and we play man and we play zone,\u201d coach Brian Schottenheimer said. \u201cIf there\u2019s one thing you can look at for us, we were good at both at times and we were poor at both at times.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to NFL\u2019s NextGen Stats, the Cowboys play zone coverage 96.2% of the time, the highest in the NFL. Last season, under coordinator Mike Zimmer, the Cowboys were in zone coverage 70.8%, 12th in the league.<\/p>\n

Eberflus\u2019 defense relies on pressure up front, little blitzing and defenders in pass coverage to make plays on the ball.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to say things are not working after watching the Giants receivers run wild in the Cowboys\u2019 secondary. Malik Nabers and Wan\u2019Dale Robinson combined for 309 yards and three touchdowns. The Cowboys had clear communication problems, as receivers often ran past cornerbacks with safeties arriving late to the play. Linebackers also didn\u2019t close out on receivers in certain situations.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers (1) reaches for and secures a pass in the end zone as Dallas Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs (7) tries to punch it out during the first half of the home opener at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, September 14, 2025.<\/p>\n

Tom Fox \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

Changing the scheme isn\u2019t happening. Cowboys\u2019 officials are resolute in believing that the scheme works, and while there isn\u2019t any opposition to playing man-to-man, it\u2019s all based on the matchup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about player availability and what you think will work against the opponent,\u201d Eberflus said. \u201cCertainly we have those concepts in and we\u2019re going to use concepts that we like that fit the players and what we can execute well.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s forgotten is the Cowboys shut down the Eagles\u2019 top receiver A.J. Brown in the season opener. He was held to just one fourth-quarter catch for eight yards. Also, No. 2 wideout DeVonta Smith had just three catches for 16 yards.<\/p>\n

The Giants game changed everything. You could view what happened as a preview on what quarterbacks and receivers might do later in the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust over-communicate honestly,\u201d safety Malik Hooker said of how to solve the issues. \u201cIt\u2019s just about obviously emphasizing when you got the call and passing the call off to whoever you got to communicate with on the play. So that\u2019s all it is honestly, to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The numbers related to the Cowboys\u2019 secondary are hard to compute and look awful. <\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Dallas<\/p>\n

Cornerback Kaiir Elam is credited with allowing 15 catches for 235 yards on 19 targets by NFL\u2019s NextGen Stats. If the Cowboys play so much zone, how does one figure the proper context of these numbers? <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t look at that,\u201d Eberflus said. \u201cKaiir has played well. He\u2019s tackled well, he\u2019s done a good job and he\u2019s going to continue to improve. I like where Kaiir is at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, Elam has been targeted 24.9% of the time, compared to Trevon Diggs, the other starting corner, who is targeted only 7.9% of the time.<\/p>\n

The biggest issue with the secondary is communication. Players must talk to each other, understand their hand signals and be more aware of what\u2019s going on. <\/p>\n

Everyone involved believes it\u2019s a simple fix.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always want to keep the ball in front of us, always,\u201d Elam said. \u201cRally and tackle everything in front of us. We gotta be on the same page when it comes to taking away those post routes. It\u2019s something that\u2019s an easy fix. We just got to get done.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Cowboys can\u2019t solve the problems against the Bears, then Eberflus\u2019 return will be a rough one.<\/p>\n

Letters to the Editor \u2014 D-FW National Cemetery, water plans, ballots, Cowboys<\/a>Cowboys legend Troy Aikman reveals what he admires most about Dak Prescott<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRISCO \u2014 Cowboys defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus returns to the place on Sunday that expected more from him:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[2886,230,229,257,2461,7,8996,6,9,20584,3428],"class_list":{"0":"post-379698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-brian-schottenheimer","9":"tag-cowboys","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys","12":"tag-dallascowboys","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-frisco","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-the-star-in-frisco","18":"tag-trevon-diggs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115229762907146382","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}