FRISCO – Mike Zimmer’s honeymoon is over. Has the Dallas Cowboys’ season also expired?
When Jerry Jones hired the veteran defensive coordinator last Spring, there was hope that Zimmer could sustain the level of defense that helped the team win 12 games in three consecutive years under Dan Quinn. Led by pass-rushers Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence and decorated cornerbacks Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland – injected with a fusion of good ol’ Zimm fundamentals – the consensus that the Cowboys would only slightly different while performing essentially the same.
Kevin Jairaj, USA Today, Jason Parkhurst-USA TODAY Sports
The Cowboys’ defense smothered the Cleveland Browns in the season-opening win. And then the wheels fell completely off. Zimmer’s crew surrendered touchdowns on six consecutive drives to the New Orleans Saints in Week 2 and it’s been downhill since.
On a recent podcast, it was Parsons and Diggs that openly pined for Quinn and praising his motivational skill.
Besieged by injures to Bland, Diggs, Parsons and Lawrence (and even Sam Williams), the Cowboys have coughed up 47, 30 and 27 points during the three-game losing streak that’s plummeted them to 3-5 and gasping for air.
Some media are fabricating preposterous opinions that quarterback Dak Prescott “quit” on his team by takin himself of last week’s loss with a pulled hamstring.
But Zimmer, whose bedrock is assignment discipline and sure tackling, is visibly souring on his players, if not the season. Never to be confused with a media darling, he got feisty this week at The Star when asked about a Falcons’ walk-in passing touchdown in which no defender was within 15 yards of Darnell Mooney.
Diggs ran into four other players – including two teammates – allowed the receiver to break into the open. Zimmer was asked if his players are yet comfortable in his scheme.
“You’d have to ask them,” he said characteristically gruff. “It was man-to-man coverage. … We just didn’t play good, misaligned a little bit. Just got caught in the trash.”
Diggs, meet the underbelly of a bus.
While Quinn flourishes as head coach of the Commanders, Zimmer’s brief benefit of the doubt is evaporating in Dallas.
