Another rough Sunday night left the Cowboys with more questions than answers, and the timing couldn’t be worse. After a 23-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 6, Dallas heads into a Week 7 Monday Night Football meeting with the Philadelphia Eagles carrying three glaring concerns that have to be addressed fast.
The first issue is the ground game, or more accurately, the lack of one. Javonte Williams was coming off a 2025 season in which he ran for 1,201 yards and averaged 4.8 yards per attempt.
Six games into 2026, though, he has only 317 rushing yards, is sitting at 3.7 yards per carry and still hasn’t posted a 100-yard game. Dallas was supposed to have an offense that could lean on its running attack, but that part of the plan has barely shown up.
If Williams doesn’t get going against Philadelphia, Dak Prescott may be forced into another high-volume passing night, and that usually doesn’t end well.
Prescott’s recent problems are the next major concern. He has long handled the blitz well, but the last two weeks have been a different story.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Packers both made life difficult on him with pressure, and the results were Prescott’s two worst performances of the season. Tampa Bay blitzed on 43% of the plays in Week 5, and Jon Ledyard noted the drop-off in efficiency.
"On non-blitzed dropbacks, Prescott had a +0.09 EPA/play, a number that fell to -0.31 EPA/play on blitzed dropbacks. That means the Cowboys were losing about a third of a point on every Bowles blitz," Ledyard wrote.
Green Bay came after him, too, blitzing 35.71% of the time, and Prescott finished with two interceptions and one touchdown in each of those games. Afterward, Cowboys insider Bryan Broaddus didn’t hide his concern.
What's going on with Dak Prescott against the blitz? @BryanBroaddus: "The quarterback hasn't been very good (against the blitz).
He got fooled tonight. This is the second week in a row (he's struggled against it)." pic.twitter.com/SpNFzmJy5N
Now the Cowboys have to deal with a Vic Fangio defense that usually doesn’t blitz much, but that doesn’t mean the pressure won’t come. Fangio is experienced enough to change the plan if he thinks it can expose Prescott’s current issues. If Dak hasn’t cleaned that up, it could be a long night for Dallas.
The third problem is the defense, which has been a mess in every area. Coverage has been shaky, the run defense has struggled and third downs have been a disaster.
Against Green Bay, the Packers converted 11 of 18 chances, and Dallas is now allowing a first down on 54.67 percent of third-down snaps. That ugly number is a big reason the Cowboys have given up at least 20 points in 13 straight games, the longest active streak in the NFL and the longest in franchise history.
Dallas still has a path in the NFC East because the division remains wide open, but none of that matters if the Cowboys don’t start stacking wins. That turnaround has to begin with a defense that can finally hold up.
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