FRISCO, Texas — Sometimes it takes frustration giving way to anger for things to finally change and for progress to be made, and the Dallas Cowboys have officially blown past the former and taken the exit toward fury after their second loss this regular season and third in a row at home, the Baltimore Ravens serving as the latest reminder of some age old problems.
The primary issue is the inability to stop the run, allowing a combined 464 rushing yards in the past two games alone, and a slow start on both defense and offense hasn't helped — Jourdan Lewis joining other locker room leaders like Micah Parsons, Trevon Diggs and DeMarcus Lawrence in demanding more of players going forward.
"We've got to be detailed," said a clearly angry Lewis on Monday, hoping the help steer the ship away from the iceberg on a short week with the New York Giants awaiting on Thursday Night Football. "I mean, at the end of the day, this sh-t is about us stopping people. That's just what it is.
"We've gotta be credible and f-cking accountable every single play, and that's for 60 minutes of football."
After all, that's where the devil pays his mortgage:
The details.
Lewis also isn't buying any narrative that it's a lack of talent on the Cowboys' roster. Instead, he's calling on the roster to get better in how seriously they treat the little things on a practice-to-practice basis, and on a rep-to-rep basis during contests.
That said, don't go penciling in the Cowboys to blow out the Giants. It's not that they can't, but the things that have cost them over the last two weeks could easily do it again in Week 4, that is unless Dallas locks in on deleting them.
"It don't matter who we play, we've got to go out there and be detailed in the plays," said Lewis."It don't matter who we play. This is the NFL, if we are not doing that sh-t, anybody can beat us. … We are not detailed in our work. You can take advantage of the details. So that's how you win in this league.
"Everybody's good in this league. It's the details that make you different."
Operating in his eighth year in the NFL, all with the Cowboys, Lewis is working under his fourth defensive coordinator and that means he's seen it all — all manner of adversity — making him highly qualified to challenge the locker room in such a fashion.
It's why he plays every rep like his hair is on fire, and that means he's within his rights to demand the same from everyone around him, every single time.
"You can't be detailed if you don't go to work every day and act like it," said Lewis. "You have to practice how you play. You have to practice every day like it is your last day — it's Thursday, Sunday, Monday and you're about to play a game.
"Until we do that, it's going to be the same old thing."
Message sent.
But … message received?
