DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - The Cowboys are really lucky to be 1-3 with how poorly their defense has played in the first quarter of the season.
Just when it appeared it couldn't get any worse after last week's 38-31 loss to Seattle, the Cowboys defense allowed Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns to hang 49 points on them in Sunday's loss at AT&T Stadium.
The Browns rushing attack, minus their star back Nick Chubb for most of the game shredded the defense all afternoon, gaining 307 yards on the ground.
Following the game, Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence didn't hold back in his criticism of the team's performance.
"We got to hold ourselves to a higher standard," Lawrence said, via Jon Machota of The Athletic. "We got to play together as one. And I don't feel like we are holding ourselves accountable, including myself. So, I call the s–t soft, and we will get better from it."
The defense, under defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, is allowing a league-high 36.5 points per game.
After week 2, Cowboys COO Stephen Jones placed some of the blame for the defensive struggles on the fact that they didn't have enough time to work on the new scheme due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Now that the season is a quarter of the way through, how much time will Nolan need (or get) to fix the Cowboys defense?
"It's not my job to worry about scheme or worry about where the next man is going," Lawrence said. "I already have a hard enough job myself. It's all about just attacking, and I don't feel like we are doing that at all as a unit."
