Has anybody noticed how little hope and hype is coming out of Dallas right now? The national narrative is that the Dallas Cowboys are a mess and that this year is a lame-duck season with no chance to win big. The nonstop contract discussions concerning Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and the looming extension for Micah Parsons next year have been unwanted distractions for a team that has scars to heal. The ugly exit from the playoffs last season forced Jerry Jones to take a serious look at his team and where they are going. I believe that Jerry and Will McClay got on the same page. The outside voices say that the Cowboys didn’t do enough in the offseason to win a Super Bowl. They didn’t sign any household names in free agency. They didn’t draft a star running back to bring young juice to the backfield. They didn’t make a trade for a dynamic and proven weapon at the wide receiver position, and they didn’t fire head coach Mike McCarthy to make sweeping changes. So how could they possibly have success in the coming season?
To find the answers that Cowboys Nation needs, you have to pull on the right thread. Once you stop looking at the roster through the eyes of a frustrated fantasy football junkie or a self-proclaimed Madden general manager on Xbox, you give yourself a chance to see something valuable. When you do the same thing over and over again, you should expect the same result. The Dallas Cowboys have been a team built to play from ahead for the last three years, and that particular design hasn’t held up in the playoffs. You don’t have to be a Hall of Fame coach to see that the lack of a heads-up running game and the inability to stop the run were the two major reasons a perpetually 12-5 team looked like a bunch of frauds. The thing is, we focus on the score and the big plays through the air and miss the real lesson sometimes. The Cowboys had an issue with doing the most basic and boring parts of the game in the moments when they really needed it. Whether it was 3rd-and-1 on offense or defense, the Cowboys did not line up and win at the point of attack consistently enough. The routine surrendering of crucial yardage in the run game, as well as big chunks off of play-action passes, was absolute kryptonite to a Dallas defense that boasted the highest pressure rate and a dangerous secondary that took the ball away at a record pace. You would think that a team that rushes the passer well and gets turnovers would be pretty tough to beat. Don’t get me wrong—12 wins say that they were tough to beat, generally speaking. But that just wasn’t the case against specific schemes and styles of opponents.
Enter a new defensive coordinator and reason number one why this year’s Cowboys just might be a surprising trophy threat. Mike Zimmer is more than just a familiar face in Dallas, returning to his previous role from 2006 as architect of the defense. Zimmer is very familiar with the run-first and bootleg offensive schemes that have given the Dallas defense fits over the last three years. The Shanahan tree is the one that has cast shade over the Star lately, and the hiring of Mike Zimmer seeks to chop that tree right down. Outside of the great Bill Belichick, Zimmer has been the most successful defensive coach against the Shanahan tree, whether it’s the original, the Matt LaFleur version, or the Sean McVay spin-off. Zimmer’s demand for toughness, discipline, and attention to the smallest detail is just what the doctor ordered for a defense that is sick and tired of being confused and outmatched. Zimmer is an old-school coach who was raised on beans, greens, and stopping the damn run! You see it show up right from the beginning with the personnel in his base package. Three real-life linebackers who can run and hit anchor a defense that is bigger, stronger, and more vicious at the point of attack. Mixing up coverages on the back end to confuse opposing quarterbacks is another staple of what Zimmer brings to Dallas. It has already registered five interceptions in the first two preseason games. The Cowboys have majored in turnovers over the past few years, and that’s an element fans do not want to lose from a defense that was able to take the ball away at an astounding rate. If Zimmer can shore up the leaks on defense while also keeping the rare ability to take possession of the ball from opponents, I think Dallas has a playoff-ready unit that can make a deep run.
Yes, the Cowboys have an MVP-caliber quarterback, and Dak has had a top 3-to-5 offense every year of the McCarthy era. But this year, the star will be all about getting stops. Limiting yardage and getting the ball back to Dak with good field position will make him twice as dangerous and will give Dallas a new identity that marries offense and defense together in a way that can actually be sustained in January. Styles make fights, and the battle to win a Super Bowl has been a losing one no matter how good the Cowboys looked in the regular season. The new-look Dallas Cowboys just might have a sneaky knockout punch loading up and ready to deliver!
