The Dallas Cowboys had issues going into the game against the New York Giants. They had an atrocious run defense, weren’t getting their typical pass-rush efficiency, and couldn’t even do a simple thing like tackle well. Now they have lost Micah Parsons and Demarcus Lawrence to injuries.
The easy option to compensate for those losses is to try replacing their production. Dallas will play the next-man-up game with Marshawn Kneeland, Chauncey Golston, and Carl Lawson, but defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer must get creative to replicate the production lost from his two best front-seven players. In 2022, Donovan Wilson had five sacks and nine QB hits on 30 blitz attempts. In college, DeMarvion Overshown and Marist Liufau played all over the field, blitzing and playing off the edge.
Even if the new options are successful, the Cowboys are unlikely to be as good as they would be with Lawrence and Parsons. This underscores the urgent need for the team to improve in other areas to lessen the impact of their injury losses, and the offense has to compensate for the losses as well.
The most manageable area to improve in is penalties. Dallas isn’t an explosive offense, holding the ball for long drives often, but the team continually sets itself back with penalties. The team is in the bottom five in the NFL in penalties, second worst in offensive holding penalties, and bottom 10 in false starts. These setbacks have cost the team first downs, taken them out of scoring range, and the team isn’t good enough to overcome the penalties. It’s crucial to clean those up, as more points will come and the time of possession will shift to Dallas, allowing them to protect their defense.
The offense also needs their superstar to be utilized like a superstar, especially with Brandin Cooks out.
CeeDee Lamb has 17 receptions for 300 yards and two touchdowns receiving in the first half. If he replicated that in all four quarters, he would have over 30 receptions for 600 yards and four scores. Dallas hasn’t used Lamb in the second half of games this season. He has only three receptions for 16 yards in the second half of games this year, and that is a terrible half of football, let alone through eight quarters. Get the best weapon on the team, the ball, and he could make explosive plays for the offense.