By all accounts, this was one of the more normal offseasons for the Dallas Cowboys. George Pickens didn't get an extension, but the contract drama stopped there. Jerry Jones hinted at big moves but didn't stir up his usual distracting storylines, and he pledged he was all in on winning now.
The Cowboys' moves reflected that: a new defensive coordinator in Christian Parker, two first-round defenders in Caleb Downs and Malachi Lawrence and a plethora of other veterans -- Jalen Thompson, Cobie Durant, Dee Winters and Rashan Gary -- brought in. Add an extension for Quinnen Williams, and even if it didn't have the makings of a dominant defense, it had the makings of a much-improved one.
And it still might. But it sure didn't in Week 1, as the Giants trounced the Cowboys 28-20, a result that indicates how far Parker and his unit have to go and raises questions of whether they can get there.
First, the numbers:
- The Cowboys had a 39.7% success rate, worst of any team that played Sunday. For reference, the worst team last year was at 50.1%.
- Jaxson Dart went 23 for 29 for 230 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. He took two sacks, but they only lost 1 yard combined.
- Isaiah Likely caught six passes for 78 yards and two touchdowns. In his first game in nearly a year, Malik Nabers had six catches for 69 yards.
- The Cowboys currently rank 21st in Week 1 pressure rate despite blitzing at the NFL's seventh-highest rate.
- The Giants converted 9 of their 11 third downs, their best rate in a game since 1978.
"I thought overall we were really, as a football team, we were pretty poor," Brian Schottenheimer said. "... They were the more physical team tonight. That's certainly not our standard. That's certainly not how we see our identity playing. ... Situationally, they were outstanding. They did a really good job of keeping the ball away from us in the second half. I think they had the ball for 36 minutes and 40 seconds. So, this is a humbling business. We got humbled tonight, and that's what I told the guys."
It was indeed humbling, and a reminder that problems don't go away overnight or, in this case, in one week. Some issues actually were mitigated. The Cowboys didn't allow a single play of 25+ yards; last year, they allowed an NFL-high 54.
Rather than bleeding out from huge gashes, though, the Cowboys' defense died by a thousand paper cuts. Dallas allowed 29 plays of between 5 and 15 yards; only the Saints and Rams have allowed more in Week 1. And too many of these were easy, easy gains.
No sequence was more damning than the Giants stamping their 13-play, 65-yard touchdown drive late in the game with three Devin Singletary dump offs in four plays. These are essentially give-up plays from the offense: hope for a few yards and move on. Instead, they gained 13 yards (on a third and 9, no less), 7 yards and, finally 9 yards, untouched, for a touchdown.
Hard watch from the Cowboys defensive film: three straight (pretty straightforward) dump offs with blown assignments to finish a 13-play, 65-yard touchdown drive. pic.twitter.com/B48ZNrWmJL
— Zach Pereles (@zach_pereles) September 14, 2026
This is Day 1 install stuff, and it caused Schottenheimer's blood to boil.
"We don't push three different times to the f---ing flat route, excuse my language," Schottenheimer steamed.
Scottenheimer also mentioned the breakdowns being a product of youth, and that's one area that's indisputable. Downs and Jaishawn Barham are rookies. There are other youngsters. Parker is a young coordinator, and everyone is "young" in his new system. But opponents don't take any pity on that. In fact, the Giants targeted it, and others will, too. On under-center play action plays, Dart was 5-for-7 for 34 yards and a touchdown and ran three times for 26 yards. He had a 0.34 EPA per play on these plays; for reference, that would have been the third-highest mark in the NFL last year.
These are not only the plays Dart feasted on, but the plays that are increasingly popular in the NFL -- the ones that stress linebackers. And Dallas' top linebacker, DeMarvion Overshown, left with a hamstring injury.
"We have to coach the young players better," Schottenheimer said. "But when you play young players, it's part of the deal, and they need to learn quickly."
The pass rush, which has plenty of veterans, proved a similar disappointing reality check. No player had more than two pressures. And the secondary, which has plenty of veterans, had too many issues, too. Here's fourth-year pro Winters and fifth-year pro DaRon Bland completely bungling coverage on a Likely touchdown.
Isaiah Likely hauls in his first TD as a Giant! DALvsNYG on NBC/Peacock Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/FVcsGIrPsG
— NFL (@NFL) September 14, 2026
Dallas upgraded its defense, but it's worth considering that upgrading to try to get to the middle while also acclimating to a new coordinator can lead to uninspiring results. For example, Winters and Gary were trade acquisitions this offseason. Winters started all 17 games last year for the 49ers, but San Francisco finished dead last in defensive success rate. Gary might simply be a "bigger name than game" player at this point; he had one pressure on 20 pass-rush snaps.
Dallas needs pass rush juice to make everything else easier defensively. It's unclear where it will come from consistently, especially if no edge presence emerges to complement Williams. Parker can't create better players, like the players he had in Philadelphia. But he can teach his current players better and put them in more situations to succeed.
"You're going to get humbled at times," Schottenheimer said of the message after Parker's debut. "It happens. He'll learn from it. We'll learn from it."
It should be noted that youth can be a crutch, but it also leaves room for improvement. The Cowboys had some flashes. They forced four fumbles and only recovered one. Downs had a sack. Donovan Ezeiruaku had half a sack and two quarterback hits.
The bad news it's only one game, and it looked really bad. The good news is it's only one game, and there are 16 more to go. The youth will get older, the new scheme more familiar. There's no guarantee either will be enough if the requisite talent or exceedingly good scheme -- two things the Cowboys thought they had this offseason -- isn't there.
"The defense that we saw in practice was not what we saw tonight," Schottenheimer said. "But the offense wasn't the offense that we saw in practice. We just didn't perform very well. ... I'm not going to push the panic button. I know we're better than that."
They had better be, and soon, because Week 1 was a startling yet all-too-familiar disappointment.
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