Cowboys’ DeMarcus Lawrence frustrated with losing, says Dallas is playing ‘little league football’ |Max Sporty|

ARLINGTON, Texas — The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

The Dallas Cowboys’ run defense has now reached the crazy zone after a second straight home loss in which they allowed their opponent to enter AT&T Stadium and grind them into a pulp. In Week 2, New Orleans Saints five-time Pro Bowl running back Alvin Kamara ran wild for 180 scrimmage yards (115 rushing on 20 carries) and four touchdowns (three rushing and one receiving) in a 44–19 New Orleans victory. That was it a serving of “humble pie” in the words of linebacker Eric Kendricks.

Week 3 against the Baltimore Ravens provided some déjà vu Four-time Pro Bowl running back Derrick Henry steamrolled Dallas for 151 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns on 25 carries for an eye-popping six yards per carry in a 28-25 Baltimore win on Sunday. Dominating NFL MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson chipped in with another 87 yards on the ground and a touchdown on 14 carries — 6.2 yards per carry — as did running back Justice Hill with 33 yards on five carries — 6.6 yards per carry.

“F— yeah, it’s frustrating,” Cowboys four-time Pro Bowl edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence said postgame when asked about losing again at home in similar fashion. “Of course, it’s frustrating. If you don’t love the game, it won’t be frustrating. I know the men in this room love the game. That’s why you saw the difference in the second cleaning up our mistakes. in the first half .”

What is specifically frustrating? Lawrence elaborated: people not doing their job and more.

“The loss. Not having our stuff together on defense where we play 11-man football,” Lawrence said. “It’s all frustrating. Having a game plan but not following the game plan. Once we get out of playing little league football and go back to pro football, we’ll be fine.”

Professional football, to Lawrence, looks like following instructions and executing. Not playing hero ball.

“Play pro football,” Lawrence said. “Do what your coaches teach you to do. Play your gaps, play your blocks. Stay in your gaps. I’m included in this. I’m not disconnected from this at all. It’s just little things that we have to get back . to, and we will do it this week.”

Heroball, in Lawrence’s eyes, is defined as guys trying to do a lot and not playing in control.

“We have to do our job man,” Lawrence said. “Not to overcommit and play hero ball… Our season is our season. All the wins and losses we incur, we have to take it with us. We have to learn from it and get better through it all. Rome wasn’t built in a day and Dallas Cowboys it’s not just about fine-tuning our details coming together as a team either, and we’ll be honest, so that’s not a problem. It’s just about f—-ing it.”

The Cowboys have surrendered three or more rushing touchdowns in consecutive games for the first time in franchise history, and their eight rushing touchdowns allowed in 2024 are more than half of the 14 they allowed in the entire 2023 season. The 274 rushing yards Dallas surrendered to the Ravens on Sunday are the most allowed by any team in a game so far this season, and it’s the most the Cowboys have allowed since they gave up 294 rushing yards in a 34-17 loss at the Ravens. in Week 13 of the 2020 season. That was before Parsons and former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn arrived in 2021. Parsons and Lawrence had a spirited in-game conversation, but Parsons maintained it was a solution-focused talk.

“Definitely that was a frustration,” Parsons said of his chat with Lawrence. “We talk. Like I said, DLaw has always been a big brother to me. We lose. It was something simple. Like we didn’t even screw up. We came up with three. [at that time]. It’s the simple fact that we are the best, our best players always have to do the right things right. Trainer [Zimmer] it’s like ‘man, go back.’ I said ‘Coach, I still play in the framework of the defense.’ I have to get these guys behind [the linebackers, defensive backs] trust me first Like I don’t want to make those plays by myself because that will slow them down right? I need everyone to do that. Not just me. Not just DLaw. Everyone. – I will only say in my gap. Right now, the trust isn’t there.”

The Pro Bowl edge rusher duo agrees that the Dallas defense must play in unison, and that they must do so quickly.

“Same thing. Right now, we just have people trying to be Superman,” Parsons said.. “People just own their jobs. We don’t need any Supermans at all. We just need 11 guys playing together. Right now, it’s just not is unanimous.”

How do you get people to not play Superman? Even Parsons, who always has a witty quote or answer for almost any question, was without answers Sunday night.

“Bro, I have no idea, I’ll be real,” Parsons said. I truly believe we are being tested. … It has to come together. It’s humiliating. … Right now we’re low as shit. Everyone must be strong in their faith and say at one moment, “are we going to trust God, trust ourselves, trust the team, trust the framework of our defense? Because some of the things are at one moment, it’s just us being us. When will there be faith and trust?”

For the second week in a row, the Dallas defense had to face the music in the form of uncomfortable questions from the media. At what point do they put their foot down and play so that this conversation stops?

“It’s just at some point, we’re all adults. We’re all getting paid a lot of money to do this man,” Parsons said. “Someday you have to earn it for yourself. Your own family. Your own dignity. You have to earn it for the brothers that sit next to you. I have my own children. I have my own life. I’m doing this. for them I’m doing this for my family, so I don’t feel like I have to tell another adult that they should ever get into the mindset of saying ‘I’ve got to get better today, then we’ll all get better.'”

“Preaching something all week, everybody’s in the locker room saying ‘we’re going to do what we have to do and everybody’s going to be held accountable’ then when you come out and we’re just saying, ‘how are we hurt? and not answer?’ …. If we do what we’re supposed to do, we win the game,” Parsons said. “It’s like at what cost are we going to keep doing this to ourselves?”

For the second week in a row, Cowboys Pro Bowl cornerback Trevon Diggs labeled the loss “unacceptable” by saying he would say “the same” about the Week 3 loss to the Ravens that he did the Week 2 loss against the Saints.

Is it the hard luck of facing two of the league’s best rushers of the last decade in Henry and Kamara in back-to-back weeks, or will this be a problem the Cowboys will suffer all season long?

“That’s a good question,” Diggs said. “We’ll see next week. I think we know we got the guys to do what we need to do. We got talent from top to bottom, so I’m not worried about that. We just have to do it.”

Next week is already this week for Dallas, as they will prepare the way for “Thursday Night Football” to play another desperate team in the New York Giants, a fellow 1-2 squad whose only win is also against Deshaun Watson’s Cleveland Browns . While Dallas needs to quickly get over Sunday to be ready for Thursday, Diggs doesn’t feel like it should be overlooked just how much of a setback Week 3 was.

“I feel like we should still feel it,” Diggs said. “I feel it for sure. When Monday comes, Monday comes… We have to feel that and feel it burn. I hate to lose. I don’t like to lose.”