Cowboys film study: The painful truth about a run defense that showed no resistance vs Rico Dowdle's Panthers in Week 6

Losing an individual matchup in one play can be the difference between winning and losing the rep. Losing every matchup? Consistently? That's how a running back breezes to 183 rushing yards.

Another example of this happened in a play that could have been a touchdown had Dowdle not tripped with his teammate. Once again, pulling linemen are able to get to the second level without resistance from the Cowboys defensive tackles while wide receivers win blocks on the outside and the playside DE (again Sam Williams) gets taken out of the play largely because of his aggression getting upfield.

Gap trouble

Other times, it's either Cowboys players going rogue or the schemed run fits making little sense. It's impossible to know exactly what the problem without being on the defense's meetings but take the play below for example. Dowdle waltzed through a wide-open B-gap that is either no one's responsibility or that DT Osa Odighizuwa abandons to try to play hero ball.

A pre-snap motion "bumps" the linebackers and seemingly puts Kenneth Murray in charge of the A-gap (between the center and guard). Odighizuwa, originally lined up in the B-gap (between the guard and tackle), attacks the C-gap (outside the tackle) post-snap. This leaves the B-gap wide open. Based on the fact that nickel cornerback Reddy Steward comes in to guard the C-gap, it suggests either Odighizuwa left his assignment or the Cowboys' scheme failed to account for the B-gap, often seen as the most important gap in the run game. If I had to guess, it's on Osa. No defensive coordinator will ever leave the B-gap unaccounted for.

Can the Cowboys fix their run defense?

The gap integrity issues can get figured out with time. But the painful reality of the film is that a lot of the issues have to do with players getting dominated, too. That is the real concern moving forward as there's not one trade the Cowboys can execute to immediately get better. Linebackers, defensive, ends, and defensive tackles all need to be better defending the run.

And that's without even getting into the issues in the secondary defending the pass. Maybe we'll get to that later on. But for now, know the Cowboys have more issues than they can solve with a simple addition or subtraction, in the case of Matt Eberflus. What Dallas has right now is the case of a poorly built defense in the offseason. It's nearly impossible to solve those problems in October.

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