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Will the real Cowboys defense please stand up?

Originally posted on Inside The Star | By Shane Taylor | Last updated Dec 5, 2025 10:29 AM ET

Well, as you can see, the Dallas Cowboys playoff hopes took a massive hit last night in the loss to the Detroit Lions, mainly because the defense we saw early in the season returned last night.

A lot of us, including myself, did think that maybe the Cowboys defense could be just good enough to match the offense and help this playoff push after the last two weeks, but the real Dallas defense stood up on Thursday night!

It Was Ugly

The Cowboys pressured Jared Goff four times on his first six drop backs, blitzing him three times. They pressured him four times over his next 29 drop backs. Dallas blitzed just five times on those 29 drop backs.

The Dallas offense had a total of 417 yards and scored 30 points. Heck, they even cut it to a three-point game with just about nine minutes left in the 4th quarter and the Dallas defense let the Lions score a touchdown to make it a two-score game in less than 8 plays!

We can’t kid ourselves any longer, they still have a major issue on defense, and the Lions’ game plan was perfect.

Lions 44, Cowboys 30 — FINAL

The offense had its issues, but it battled behind Dak, CeeDee and Flournoy. The defense on the other hand? It couldn’t buy a stop when the door was left cracked.

Postseason hopes aren’t gone, but they’re super dire.

Cowboys fall to 6-6-1. Thoughts?

— Nick Harris (@NickHarrisFWST) December 5, 2025

The Dallas defense has now given up 40 or more points in three games this season, the worst in football. How can you bring Matt Eberflus back? You can’t, right?

One more thing I should add is that when the special teams unit is giving up kick returns to nearly the 50-yard line, it makes it even harder, but the Lions had no trouble putting the game away when it was a three-point game and when you as a fan have no faith in the defense, that is an issue.

The Cowboys are now 6-6-1, and although they could win and get to 10 wins, it won’t be enough now to get into the playoffs with how loaded the NFC is top to bottom. They had to have this game.

We will see how the rest of the season goes, but this loss just feels a lot like a playoff one because they had to have it, and say what you want, the offense had issues, but this was a one-score game in the second half more than twice, and the Lions offense ran over this defense.

It now feels like we are back to where we were before the trade deadline, and I am sure a lot of talk is going to happen over the next few days, but it is very simple, this defense is just not good enough in 2025.

This article first appeared on Inside The Star and was syndicated with permission.

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