After three weeks, the Dallas Cowboys have plenty of problems on the table, but one issue keeps punching through everything else: they cannot stop the run.
That flaw has hung over a 1-2 start to the 2026 NFL season, and it has little to do with one isolated breakdown. Yes, there have been miscues from Brian Schottenheimer, with his early-season mistakes already drawing heat.
Yes, the team has also given away field position at times because of a few errant Brandon Aubrey kickoffs and struggled to keep quarterbacks contained in the pocket. But the most basic issue is the one that keeps showing up snap after snap.
Opponents are running the ball straight at Dallas, and Dallas is not answering.
Christian Parker’s defense has shown some improvement in spots after a rough debut, but when teams commit to the ground game, the Cowboys have been vulnerable. That makes Week 4 against the Houston Texans feel like a real checkpoint.
If Dallas can slow that attack, it can start to steady itself. If not, the questions are going to get a lot louder.
The early numbers are ugly. Through three games, Dallas has been hit for 165 rushing yards by the Giants in Week 1, 182 by Washington in Week 2 and 192 by Baltimore in Week 3. The Cowboys also gave up one rushing touchdown to New York, none to Washington and two to Baltimore, while allowing 4.5 yards per carry, 5.7 and 5.1 in those three games.
A big part of the damage has been self-inflicted. Dallas has missed 33 tackles in three games, and opponents have piled up 304 of their 539 total yards after contact. That is a brutal number, and it helps explain why the run defense has looked so leaky.
The league-wide picture isn’t much prettier. Dallas ranks 32nd in rushing attempts allowed, 31st in rushing yards allowed, 18th in rushing touchdowns allowed and 29th in yards per attempt. Compared with 2025, the Cowboys are worse in nearly every key category, which is not exactly the kind of trend anyone in Dallas wanted to see.
That’s why the Texans arrive as a possible reset button. On paper, Houston’s ground game does not look overwhelming. The Texans have David Montgomery and Woody Marks, and they recently added Dare Ogunbowale from the Las Vegas Raiders’ practice squad, but that group does not exactly scream danger.
The production backs that up. Houston ranks 24th in rushing attempts, 30th in rushing yards, seventh in rushing touchdowns and 25th in yards per attempt.
In three games against a mixed slate of opponents, the Texans have only 254 rushing yards. That is just 62 more than Dallas allowed last week alone.
The recent trend is even more favorable for the Cowboys. Over the last two games, Houston has totaled only 130 rushing yards, a number that would stand as the lowest single-game total Dallas has allowed this season by a wide margin.
Houston has also been easy to bring down. The Texans have broken only 10 tackles on the year, and eight of those came in Week 1. They have 153 rushing yards after contact, with 79 of those coming in the opener.
For Dallas, this is the kind of matchup that should either calm things down or expose the problem even further. If the Cowboys can’t handle a Texans rushing attack that has been relatively quiet for most of the season, then the concern around this defense gets a lot harder to ignore.
And it wouldn’t just be about the defense in a vacuum. If Dallas is giving up steady yards on the ground and letting the clock bleed, that creates a bad setup for an offense that could end up chasing the game. In the NFL, that scenario comes fast.
The Giants and Ravens both bring strong rushing attacks, and Washington is not a pushover on the ground either, but the bottom line is simple: Houston is the next chance for Dallas to prove this problem can be fixed. If Parker’s group can shut it down, it gets a little breathing room. If it can’t, the discomfort around this run defense is only going to grow.
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Cowboys Defensive Struggles Make One Coaching Miss Hurt Even More
Through five weeks, the Cowboys defense has been sitting at the bottom of the league in EPA per play and EPA success rate, a brutal start for a unit that was supposed to stabilize things under new defensive coordinator Christian Parker. It has also put a spotlight back on the process that led to the hire, especially since Dallas spent time looking at several candidates before choosing Parker, most of whom had little or no prior play-calling experience.
The part that stings a little more now is the name Dallas tried to get in the mix before Parker was hired. The Cowboys requested permission to interview Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, but Atlanta blocked it, keeping him in place after he had already built a strong defensive reputation there. Ulbrichs group has again been disruptive this season, leading the league in pressures and pressure rate even while working through personnel challenges, which only makes the missed opportunity feel bigger in hindsight. [Read more 🡒]
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One option under discussion is a former Cowboys fan favorite who knows the division well and has long shown he can handle meaningful carries. For Philadelphia, the appeal is obvious: a proven back who could absorb snaps now and still fit as insurance if Barkley returns to the lineup, leaving the Eagles with a late-season decision that could ripple far beyond the trade market. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys May Need Real Lineup Changes To Stop This Early Slide
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Ameer Speed has given the staff a reason to look harder at the cornerback rotation after making the most of his limited snaps, and the offensive line has its own pressure point on the right side. Terence Steele has struggled in both pass protection and the run game, which is why Broderick Jones is now part of the conversation as a possible replacement if Dallas decides the slide requires a more aggressive lineup shakeup. [Read more 🡒]