Cowboys' 'mind boggling' defense is back to square one, whether coaches admit it or not

FRISCO – The Cowboys defense is back to square one.

The man who signs the checks, Jerry Jones, said it after his team's 24-16 loss to Tampa Bay late Thursday night.

Jones reiterated his comments Friday morning during a radio interview on 105.3 The Fan.

"Surprising isn't even a big enough word," the team owner told KRLD-FM. "It's mind boggling looking at the stats of our last five games."

The coach, Brian Schottenheimer, respectfully disagreed with the idea that defense is back to square one. Injuries are part of the problem with the Cowboys ' defense, but after five games, this team has made little gains over last year.

After five games, the Cowboys have given up 27.2 points per game. That's three fewer points than last year over the same time span. When it comes to total yards, the defense has allowed 1,977 yards, just 83 fewer yards than last season.

In the first five weeks, the Cowboys defense allowed nearly 500 more passing yards than last year's group.

On the season, the Cowboys front has allowed teams to gain 842 rushing yards. That's last in the NFL.

The next closet team is the Carolina Panthers, and they've given up 261 fewer rushing yards. By the way, the Panthers are off this week, so the Cowboys' defense can maintain the "worst run defense in the league" title for another few weeks.

And speaking of that run defense, Jones invested draft capital and a contract extension for a little over $100 million for defensive tackle Quinnen Williams . Jones also approved trading an elite pass rusher Micah Parsons for Kenny Clark.

He's getting next to nothing out of them, especially on Thursday night.

"The thing that probably bothers me the most [Thursday night] is how they ran between the tackles," Jones said after the game about the Buccaneers' 241 rushing yards. "So [they're] able to have that running game in there with them where we have a lot of strength and so that's something that we've got to really look at and will."

The Cowboys stressed the pass rush would improve this season with the maturity of second-year player Donovan Ezeiruaku, trading for Rashan Gary, spending a first-round pick on Malachi Lawrence and signing Von Miller . It hasn't.

On Thursday night, the Cowboys had just one quarterback hit on undrafted free agent rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels.

He looked poised and confident against the Cowboys' defense .

Lawrence had the one quarterback hit, on a sack. It was the first of his career.

Miller, who said he could roll out of bed and get eight sacks, has none through five weeks.

Schottenheimer said Miller didn't play much because he's more of a situational player.

But with a defense struggling, you need the aging veteran to start turning back the clock, if he can.

If not, then maybe James Houston, who had 5 ½ sacks last season, should become active on gamedays.

The linebackers are up and down, starting with rookie Jaishawn Barham as the middle linebacker. Whenever DeMarvion Overshown returns from his hamstring injury, moving him to weakside might help.

Cornerback DaRon Bland dropped an interception for a potential pick-six against Tampa Bay that would have given his team a chance to tie the score late in the fourth quarter. Bland also gave up a long pass completion as he fell on a double move.

Joey Porter Jr. was supposed to start at the other corner spot Thursday night but an illness sent him home . Ineffective play was left with Porter gone.

You have questions about why safety Caleb Downs is playing so far away from the line of scrimmage. He's playing deep safety, but you wonder if he's better suited to play near the line of scrimmage to help the run defense and maybe, hey, blitz.

Downs, the first-round pick, recorded his first sack of his career when blitzing.

The scheme doesn't make sense. The coaching doesn't make sense. The playing doesn't make sense.

It's all a disaster five weeks into the season. Things were supposed to get better. and instead it's spinning out of control.

Defensive coordinator Christian Parker isn't going anywhere . But he and the staff need to find solutions before the man who signs the checks starts looking at resumes again.