R1 After watching Dallas get carved up, a former NFL head coach didn’t sugarcoat a thing — blasting the Cowboys for making J.J. McCarthy look like “Fran Tarkenton in his prime.”
The Minnesota Vikings defeated the Dallas Cowboys 34-26 on Sunday Night Football. The Cowboys desperately needed this victory to keep their playoff hopes alive. However, their defense allowed J.J. McCarthy to put together the best game of his young career. As a result, one former NFL coach laid into the Cowboys’ defense on Monday morning
Rex Ryan Calls Out Cowboys Defense Again
On Monday morning’s episode of “Get Up,” the crew was discussing the Cowboys and Vikings Sunday night football matchup.
Rex Ryan made his opinion on the Cowboys’ defense clear yet again. He said,” Their defense. I mean, 100% this is a Super Bowl-caliber offense. We’ve seen it all year. But this defense stinks; they made J.J. McCarthy look like Fran Tarkenton.”
This is not the first time Ryan has taken a shot at the Cowboys’ defense this season. Earlier in the year, he mockingly referred to them as the “Dumbsday Defense,” a play on words referencing the dominant “Doomsday” Dallas units of the past. While the comment was tongue-in-cheek, it reflected Ryan’s skepticism about the group’s actual performance.
That said, Ryan did soften his stance slightly after the trade deadline. Dallas acquired defensive tackle Quinnen Williams from the New York Jets, a move that helped stabilize both the pass rush and run defense. For a brief stretch, the Cowboys’ defense looked more respectable, which led to fewer public criticisms from Ryan.
Despite that, Dallas’s defense deserves all the criticism for its loss on Sunday night. McCarthy completely diced up the Cowboys’ defense, and they failed to get much pressure on him. He completed 62.5% of his passes for 250 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception.
For most quarterbacks, that’s a pedestrian game. For McCarthy, though, that’s an all-time performance. In the other seven games he’s started this season, he’s only passed for over 200 yards once and completed more than 60% of his passes three other times. The Cowboys’ defense allowing him to achieve both of those in one game is embarrassing.
According to PFSN’s defensive impact metric, the Cowboys are the 31st-ranked defense after 14 games with an impact score of 62.3. Even after a few decent outings, two bad back-to-back games brought them back to being one of the worst defenses in the league.
After Sunday night, Dallas’s chances of making the playoffs are very slim, and it’s all thanks to their defense.
