After an ugly outing on the ground in Week 2, the Dallas Cowboys were handed another crushing blow in the lead-up to Week 2, with massive – literally – free agent addition Jordan Phillips placed on IR with a wrist injury.
Now, on paper, that’s a pretty cut-and-dry story, right? Phillips will be out for the next four weeks at minimum, and they will have to adjust their plans accordingly, including the decision to sign Carlos Watkins off of the Commanders’ practice squad.
And yet, when asked by reporters about his injury, Phillips had some criptic things to say on the matter, noting that he doesn’t know when he injured his wrist, as that question is “above his paygrade.”
“I don’t know. That’s above my pay grade. You have to ask the people making the decisions,” Phillips explained via the Dallas Star. “I think that’s a hard question to answer. I don’t know how to answer these questions without… you know.”
… what what? When he suffered his injury is above his paygrade? Like reporters should be asking the medical staff instead? Or is he insinuating that he isn’t injured and that the Cowboys are asserting that he is in order to… replace him with Watkins, a player who is statistically inferior? Either way, Philips did offer up his take on the Cowboys’ current issues and let it be known that he thinks the issues aren’t structural but instead a matter of cohesion.
“I don’t think effort is an issue,” he said. “The first game was good, the second game was bad. We just have to find an identity… We have to get on the same page. There’s a lot of back-and-forth.”
The Cowboys desperately need to figure out their run defense
Whether or not the Cowboys end up getting Phillips back or not in, the Cowboys do need to figure out what they are doing from a run-defense standpoint, as that has been a clear dark spot on the season so far.
After looking alright in Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns, allowing just 230 yards of total offense versus Deshaun Watson and company, things fell apart against a shockingly potent New Orleans Saints offense, with their dynamic rushing attack, led by Alvin Kamara, picking up 190 yards on the ground.
And the worst part? Mazi Smith was just carted off of practice in the lead-up to Baltimore Ravens Week , which could lead to players like Watkins and Linval Joseph having to play oversized roles against an offense headlined by Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson. Goodness, for fans of Big D, let’s hope Smith is able to go, as if not, this could be a brutal outing against a team hungry to earn their first win of the year.
