Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer knows his unit needs to be better. Allowing 7.5 yards per play and not generating a stop until late in the fourth quarter while giving up explosive play after explosive play is losing football. Point blank period.
Are the players or coaches to blame? When it's this bad, it's definitely both. But Zimmer had no issue making a painful admission about his part on the disastrous performance.
"I anticipated us playing better than we did in this last ball game, Zimmer told reporters on Tuesday. "I probably panicked on some calls early because they hit us with some things early, and so I changed up a little bit, probably a little too soon."
In a game where you knew heading into it the Cowboys were at a disadvantage talent wise against the high-powered the Lions offense, the last thing you want is for your coach to go into panic mode and abandon the team's gameplan.
Zimmer, however, did not keep the admissions limited to his own work, as he called out players for an issue that's been a theme for the 2024 Cowboys: Not being disciplined as far as each player's assignment. Earlier in the season, a frustrated Micah Parsons talked about some people trying to be Superman on the field. Jourdan Lewis has talked about the defense not being detailed in what they do.
Per Zimmer's comments, that remains an issue in Dallas after six weeks of football.
"When we've been bad, it's like it just steamrolls," Zimmer said. "It goes bad, bad, bad, bad. So guys, sometimes they try to make a play, or they think, 'I'm going to go do this,' or 'I'm going to go do that,' and then it gets out of whack fast."
Take the play below as an example, where you can see linebackers DeMarvion Overshown and Damone Clark try to fill the same gap, leaving the B-gap completely open for David Montgomery to exploit.
It's a tale as old as football itself. When you abandon your gap to go be a hero, you're going to be punished for it. Offenses won't let you get away with uncovered gaps at any level of football. The Lions sure didn't.
Now granted, the Cowboys defense was seriously banged up on Sunday as it missed its top three defensive ends while also being down LB Eric Kendricks and CB DaRon Bland. However, most of these issues were evident even in Week 2, when the Cowboys looked lost against the New Orleans Saints and they were quite complete back then.
"I thought we were making progress," Zimmer said about the defense. "We took about eight steps back the other day and we just have to keep grinding."
The Cowboys defensive coordinator is making his unit do exactly that as he revealed they're doing extra film sessions, extra drill work, extra walkthroughs.
"We'll just keep grinding away," Zimmer added.
