It’s 2020 all over again for the Dallas Cowboys unless something major changes | Opinion
Go back in time with me for a bit. Let’s jump back five years to 2020.
The Dallas Cowboys, under a first-year head coach, are 1-2 after three weeks of the season. In the opening week, a close, hard-fought loss on the road offered more optimism than a miracle Week 2 win at home against a lesser opponent. In Week 3, the problems reared their head in a major way for an even tougher road loss.
Led by CeeDee Lamb and another star receiver, the Cowboys’ offense hasn’t had issues finding consistency — when everyone is healthy. The running game has been serviceable, and Dak Prescott is playing at an elite level by just about every metric and statistic out there.
But the defense. Oh my goodness, the defense. The unit is giving up over 30 points per game and has been wasting some of the best ball Prescott has played in a Cowboys uniform. It’s resulted in the first-year defensive coordinator being on the hot seat before the season can even really get going. Without Micah Parsons, there’s no life in the pass rush, and multiple starters in the secondary have writing on the wall that this could be their last season in Dallas.
The offensive line, while it has talent, has holes. The right tackle is toward the end of his run with the team, while a former high draft pick just isn’t living up to the hype.
Oh, wait. Were we discussing 2020? I ended up fooling myself. Five years later, the storylines are the exact same three weeks into the season.
In 2020, the Cowboys opened with a 20-17 loss at the Los Angeles Rams, then pulled out a 40-39 home victory over the Atlanta Falcons with the help of an onside kick before losing 38-31 at the Seattle Seahawks.
Obviously, that season flew off the rails in Week 5 when Prescott was lost for the season to a broken ankle. The Cowboys ended up finishing 6-10.
This year, Prescott has a chance to right the ship, an opportunity he wasn’t afforded in 2020 after the injury. But with the defense this bad through three games — allowing 30.7 points per game and 397.7 yards per game — what more can Prescott do?
After the 31-14 loss to the Chicago Bears on Sunday, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said that he still believes that this is a playoff team. For that to be the case, the mounting issues that are eerily reminiscent of the scene in the first season under Mike McCarthy have to be corrected.
The awful pass defense. The lack of a pass rush. The offense not being able to use its serviceable running game to full effect because it continually has to play from behind, and the offensive line making it harder than it needs to be — specifically at right tackle with Terence Steele — when things are looking up.
“There’s just too many big plays [allowed], and we know that,” head coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “We addressed it. I told the guys, I said, ‘Hey, here’s the deal. I don’t just talk to you guys after a game and just throw a bunch of coach speak at you.’ I’m going to be honest with them, and I was. I told them like I just said. I said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to stop giving up big plays, explosives, and we got to protect the football.’”
Aside from the arrival of Parsons and the Green Bay Packers next Sunday night at AT&T Stadium, the easiest stretch of the season for the Cowboys is here.
The Bears were supposed to be the second step in that stretch after defeating the Giants last week, but we all know how that went. With games against the lowly Jets and Panthers on the horizon, Dallas has only so many shots to get right before the gauntlet of the November and December slate arrives.
Will the Cowboys use this early adversity as a turning point? Or will this be yet another season under a first-year head coach where they are relegated to just figuring things out for the future?
While the first three weeks haven’t completely offered that answer, the next three surely will.
This story was originally published September 21, 2025 at 9:40 PM.
