Breaking down what went so wrong with the Dallas Cowboys’ pass defense in Week 2
The Dallas Cowboys walked off the field on Sunday afternoon at AT&T Stadium with a 40-37 win over the New York Giants, but the final result did not quite represent the success — or lack thereof — the Cowboys had on the field.
While mostly everything was smooth on the offensive side of the ball, the defensive side experienced issues upon issues in the secondary in preventing the deep pass. Against a quarterback in Russell Wilson that was on the hot seat entering week two after a putrid showing to open the season a week prior, the 10-time Pro Bowler delivered 450 yards through the air, the second-most in his illustrious Hall of Fame-caliber career.
The Cowboys secondary had problems all over the field, but the deep ball specifically made this win a lot harder than it needed to be for the team as a whole. Compared to a more split approach between man and zone coverage in 2024, new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus has the Cowboys playing more zone coverage than any team in the NFL through two weeks.
In 78 coverage snaps through two games, the Cowboys have run a zone concept on 76 of those plays. It’s a stark difference from what the team had been used to under Mike Zimmer in 2024 and even further from what Dan Quinn ran from 2021 to 2023 when he played more man coverage than any coordinator in the league.
It’s only right to draw that contrast when the secondary plays to the low level that it did against the Giants. However, it’s hard to say that it is any one defender’s fault. According to NFL Pro, cornerback Kaiir Elam is leading the NFL in receptions (15) and receiving yards allowed (232), but the film tells a different story that spreads the blame throughout the defensive backfield.
In all, Wilson completed a whopping seven passes for 20 or more yards on Sunday against the Cowboys defense. Let’s dive into each of those seven plays to identify truly what went wrong.
Q1 7:47 - Russell Wilson completes a 50-yard gain down the middle to Wan’Dale Robinson
On this play, Giants wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson leaks through the middle of Dallas’ deep safeties, Malik Hooker and Donovan Wilson, in an area that is supposed to be accounted for by linebacker Kenneth Murray Jr. per his responsibility on a Tampa 2 coverage.
The play could be easily interpreted as a blown assignment from slot corner Reddy Steward or from one of the two safeties, but in reality it is Murray who is not supposed to let the deep middle see any action. In the play, you can see Steward correctly passing off Robinson to Murray who does not take him immediately, allowing for Wilson to exploit the big hole in the middle of the field.
Q1 3:43 - Russell Wilson completes a 28-yard gain down the left sideline to Malik Nabers
Still in the first quarter, Wilson found another big gain, this time to second-year wide receiver Malik Nabers who simply beat cornerback Trevon Diggs off the line and was the benefactor of a perfectly placed ball from Wilson.
In this standard Cover 3 coverage, Diggs is accounting for any deep pass down the left side. With only the threat of Nabers on the left side pre-snap, Diggs’ entire attention was devoted to the LSU product, but Nabers simply beat him to the spot with a good release.
Q2 6:47 - Russell Wilson completes a 25-yard gain down the left seam to Wan’Dale Robinson
In yet another Tampa 2 call, it is yet another linebacker that misses a responsibility in the deep middle portion of the field. In this instance, it’s Jack Sanborn who didn’t have the athleticism to reach Robinson before Wilson was able to perfectly place the pass in the honey hole, or the soft spot, in the zone coverage.
As soon as Reddy Steward passes off Robinson to Sanborn, Wilson was ready to take advantage of a linebacker he knew couldn’t get over in time. As a result, it helped set up the very next big play.
Q2 5:43 - Russell Wilson completes a 29-yard touchdown down the left side to Malik Nabers
This is another instance of Trevon Diggs allowing for too much space on a matchup with Malik Nabers to where the Giants receiver could take advantage.
Throughout his career, Diggs has intentionally played off of receivers to allow for deceived separation, only for Diggs to attack the ball when it is thrown with his length and recovery speed. On this play, he just gives too much cushion on a standard Cover 4 call and Nabers’ athleticism wins in the end zone for a touchdown.
Q3 7:14 - Russell Wilson completes a 52-yard gain down the right sideline to Darius Slayton
This play saw arguably the most egregious blown coverage in the game, as cornerback Kaiir Elam plays Slayton as if it is a Cover 2 coverage when the rest of the defense is playing a Cover 3 coverage. As a result, Elam thinks he is passing Slayton off to Malik Hooker around the 10-yard mark when he is, in fact, the one who is supposed to stay with Slayton down the sideline.
Wilson, an experienced quarterback who has seen a blown coverage or two, immediately takes advantage and finds Slayton for the biggest pass gain of the entire game.
Communication really comes into focus on this play, as Elam’s lack of knowledge of the call results in a huge bust over the top of the defense. It also didn’t help that Hooker took a few steps to his right as a result of the play action, allowing for Slayton to pick up a few extra yards before Hooker was eventually able to tackle him down.
Q4 2:50 - Russell Wilson completes a 32-yard touchdown down the right seam to Wan’Dale Robinson
On fourth down late in the game, the Cowboys defense had a chance on this play to put the game away with a stop. Instead, Wilson took advantage of another miscommunication in the secondary that resulted in a near back-breaking score at this stage in the game.
On a Cover 3 call, Malik Hooker comes underneath rather than taking Robinson down the field like his responsibility calls for. As a result, it puts Trevon Diggs in a tough spot where he is having to account for Hooker’s mistake and catch up to the speedy Robinson. Donovan Wilson, who is also supposed to be in the area to make a play on this ball, gets caught watching a route underneath and does not have the recovery time to get back to contest the pass.
It was an perfect storm -- or imperfect, in the Cowboys’ case -- that Russell Wilson exploited yet again for a big gain.
Q4 0:33 - Russell Wilson completes a 48-yard touchdown down the right side to Malik Nabers
The Cowboys thought they had the Giants dead to rights when they took the lead with under a minute to go, only for Wilson to unload one last bomb to Nabers to regain the advantage.
In what is most like a Cover 2 Man coverage, but could also be interpreted as a Cover 4 call, Russell Wilson challenges Kaiir Elam who had pretty decent coverage on Nabers up until the very end. The ball is placed just beyond Elam’s reach and Nabers makes the catch. All Elam truly could have done better was play the ball a bit better when it arrived.
But truly, the big part of the blame goes on Donovan Wilson for taking a bad pursuit angle to Nabers when the ball was in the air and allowing for the play to happen behind him. If he had taken the appropriate angle, it would have been a routine pass breakup or even a turnover that could have ended the game.
In all, it was a magnificent throw that could really only be hurled by a handful of quarterbacks in the NFL. Still, a pair of defenders watched that play in Monday morning’s defensive meeting with a spotlight on them.
This story was originally published September 17, 2025 at 4:57 PM.
