3 Cowboys fatal flaws that could come back to haunt them in the playoffs
By Josh Wilson
The Dallas Cowboys are a relatively complete team poised to make a run in the postseason, but these flaws could be their undoing.
Don’t look now Dallas Cowboys fans, but your hopes and dreams of being a competitive playoff team have finally arrived. While it’s been almost comical to see this team undo itself time and time again over the last decade-plus, they are a team right now that should strike fear in other NFC teams hoping to make a Super Bowl run.
Outside of the Eagles, the Cowboys feel like the best bet in the conference to make it to the big game. FiveThirtyEight gives them a nine percent chance of winning the Super Bowl.
Every team has flaws, and the Cowboys are no different. Dallas is a relatively complete team, but if anything keeps them from getting to the Super Bowl, it’s going to be one of these.
Cowboys fatal flaws going into NFL Playoffs: The run defense
The Cowboys front lines are relatively solid. Micah Parsons has been everything he was expected to be and then some in his young career. He has over 20 QB hits, and Dorance Armstrong Jr., DeMarcus Lawrence, and Osa Odighizuwa each are double digits in that stat, too.
The combination of their pass rush and secondary protection has, thus far, been pretty solid — but the secondary is eroding a bit, more on that later — The Cowboys are second in the league in sacks per game, and they are tied with the Eagles for first in pass rush win rate percentage according to ESPN (53%).
One flaw you could pick out, though, is the run defense. We’re nit-picking a bit with this one, but the Cowboys give up 4.6 yards per carry, 10th-worst in the NFL. The Eagles are right there with them at 4.7 indicating that perhaps going strong at rushing the pass has come at the expense of run defense, but Philadelphia keeps total rushing yards lower (1,695) than Dallas (1,863).