FRISCO, Texas – Now a truer test, can't wait to see.
Not in any way to diminish what the Cowboys did in the season opener, that 33-17 victory over the Browns in Cleveland, an 11-6 team from last year that many are considering a Super Bowl contender this year.
Weird game. Two minutes into the third quarter, the Cowboys are up, 27-3. Then the rest of the way, as if merely going through the motions, the air seeped out of their victory balloon.
"We left some meat on the bone," says Dak Prescott, adding to his millionaire status mere hours before kickoff when agreeing to a four-year extension.
Yet a win on the road is a win on the road, right? The Cowboys lost all five of their regular-season road games last year, the defense letting them down by giving up an average of 30.2 points a game in those five losses. And just as bad, getting spanked for 171.6 rushing yards a game.
"Feels good," says veteran linebacker addition Eric Kendricks about winning the season opener on the road. "But you got to take it with a grain of salt, now moving on to the next week."
Next week is here: The New Orleans Saints marching into AT&T Stadium, noon Sunday. They are also 1-0, as the Cowboys, with a triple-layer cakewalk 47-10 victory over the seemingly still woeful Carolina Panthers.
And don't you dare smirk. You know, coming in with that Aw, it's the Saints.
New Orleans finished out the 2023 season with a 9-8 record, winning four of its final five games, the only loss to the playoff-bound Rams, 30-22. And if you combine scores from those five games with this 2024 season opener, the Saints have outscored their last six opponents, 192-82.
Need more to get your attention?
Start and end here. The Saints piled up 180 yards rushing in the opener. One-Eighty now, but that only ties them for third most in the NFL with San Francisco, and behind Houston (213) and Baltimore (185). And guess what, the Cowboys have to play all four of those teams this season.
Saints running back Alvin Kamara had a team high 83 of those rushing yards on just 15 carries. That Swiss Army knife Taysom Hill – the guy Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, while in Green Bay, wanted to keep on the 53-man roster as a quarterback but lost trying to get him onto the practice squad when Saints head coach Sean Payton immediately swooped him up – had another 35 yards on just five carries.
This means the Saints rushed for 4.9 yards a carry, exactly what Cleveland averaged gaining 93 of them against the Cowboys, though quarterback Deshaun Watson scrambling from heavy pressure accounted for 39 of those yards. The rest, just 54 yards on 14 carries.
Say what you want about quarterback Derek Carr or wide receivers Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed. This game will come down to how well the Cowboys stop the run.
"That was a huge priority in training camp," veteran defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence says.
Sure has been, ever since the Cowboys hired defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer to replace the departed Dan Quinn. Just had to be, not solely because Zimmer's defensive philosophy is based on stopping the run but also centered on what took place last season when these defensive front-four guys were chasing sacks far too often.
Like, do you remember in that 28-16 loss to Arizona the Cowboys gave up 222 yards rushing to a team only winning three more games all year? Do you remember San Francisco ran for 170? And understand Saints new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak's offense is a 49ers knockoff, Kyle Shanahan having learned from Klint's dad, Gary Kubiak, and his dad Mike Shanahan.
As bad, no, wait, worse, the Cowboys should post this somewhere prominently in the locker room: Buffalo in that 31-10 beating racked up 266 yards rushing while averaging 5.4 yards a carry. Translation: More than a half a first down per play. That's no way to win games.
So how do the Cowboys improve? Or how are they improving?
Zimm ain't playing no safety at linebacker, what the Cowboys resorted to doing last year after losing Leighton Vander Esch to injury. Markquese Bell gave it his all, but he's a big safety, not a linebacker. Zimm will not hesitate to play three linebackers against run-heavy formations. He will not hesitate to send the big boys in at defensive tackle, starting with Mazi Smith, who has his weight back into the 320-pound range, and then having traded for veteran Jordan Phillips (341) and signing free agent Linval Joseph (329). Even rather recent practice squad addition Phil Hoskins (6-5, 315), if needed.
And last year's 17-game starter Osa Odighizuwa has his weight up to 294, playing a defensive line-high 61 snaps in the opener.
Zimm even has Micah Parsons buying into his run-stopping philosophy, not only mandating Parsons do a better job of setting the edge against the run if playing defensive end, but moving him all around the defensive formation, some on his own, Parsons saying, "He's giving me the keys to the system. … Now I feel I can't let him down."
Guessing Zimm is all right with that, if that's what Parsons thinks.
Now, the Cowboys offense and KaVontae Turpin's 60-yard punt return for a touchdown to start the second half sure dissuaded the Browns from running the ball, down 27-3. But even in the first half with the game still on the line, the Cowboys held Cleveland to just 23 yards rushing. That was then. This is now.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones knows that only too well, pointing out how "committed" the Saints are to running the ball and saying, "We'll have a real test."
First problem to solve is a healthy Kamara. He's no joke with the ball in his hands, Parsons pointing out, "He's the main focus. … Kamara is Kamara. What he'd do? Put up another 100 last week (83)? He's still one of the best backs in the league."
And Kendricks knows only too well about this Kamara guy.
"He's a very smooth athlete. Nothing is too shifty. He moves around very smooth and effortlessly," Kendricks says. "And at the end of the day he's 225."
So here we go, as if the exam proctor, Cowboys get out your No. 2 pencils, time to start finding out if they have improved their run defense. And it's not just this Sunday, but next Sunday, too, having to take on the Baltimore Ravens and hard-charging quarterback Lamar Jackson, who already ran for 122 yards in the opening loss to the Chiefs, and was a huge part of the Ravens' 185 yards rushing in the game.
Then after the Giants the following week come run-conscious Pittsburgh, Detroit and San Francisco, the Lions fifth in rushing yards last year and the Niners No. 3.
Yep, we're about to find out over these next few games if the Cowboys have not only taken this run defense seriously, but if they have improved over last year's 16th-ranked standing. And probably no need to remind that in the 48-32 playoff loss to Green Bay, the Packers ran for 143 yards and three touchdowns.
You know, if this has been the Cowboys' defensive Achilles heel, normally takes a good eight to 10 months to repair that torn tendon. Well, we're right at nine months out.
Time to find out. Test promptly starts when the clock strikes 12 on Sunday.
