{"id":38321,"date":"2025-11-24T23:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T23:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=38321"},"modified":"2025-11-24T23:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T23:33:12","slug":"cowboys-struggling-defense-steadily-improving-post-quinnen-williams-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=38321","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys\u2019 Struggling Defense Steadily Improving Post-Quinnen Williams Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a57.foxsports.com\/statics.foxsports.com\/www.foxsports.com\/content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1294\/728\/daldh.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1\" \/><\/p>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">Dak Prescott had a hand in all three touchdowns and made the big throws on the drive to the winning field goal as the Dallas Cowboys erased a 21-point deficit to beat the defending champion and NFC East rival Philadelphia Eagles.<\/p>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">The star quarterback knew where to begin while trying to explain the improbable rally that kept Dallas (5-5-1) in the playoff conversation entering a short week before a Thanksgiving meeting on Thursday with Kansas City (6-5), last season&#8217;s other Super Bowl team.<\/p>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">&#8220;Defense, defense, defense, defense,&#8221; Prescott said after he broke Tony Romo&#8217;s club record for yards passing in the 24-21 victory over the Eagles on Sunday. &#8220;We wouldn&#8217;t have won this game without the opportunities they gave us over and over again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">Imagine Prescott saying that a month ago after the Cowboys let a middle-of-the-pack Denver offense score six touchdowns in a span of seven full possessions during the Broncos&#8217; 44-22 win and finished that week ranked last at 32nd in passing defense and 31st in scoring defense and total defense.<\/p>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">Of course, something significant has changed since. The Cowboys used one of the two first-round draft picks acquired in the trade that sent star edge rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers a week before the season to get standout defensive tackle Quinnen Williams from the New York Jets at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">Dallas is 2-0 with Williams, starting with last week&#8217;s 33-16 victory over Las Vegas in which the Cowboys recorded season bests by allowing just 236 yards and holding the Raiders to a 25% conversion rate on third down. Dallas still has the league&#8217;s worst third-down defense.<\/p>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">The Cowboys followed that by shutting out the Eagles over the final 41 minutes.<\/p>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">&#8220;We\u2019re hitting our stride and it\u2019s all coming together,&#8221; Williams said. &#8220;I can\u2019t go out there and do everything on my own. Nobody can. I just think we\u2019re all putting our heads together and executing as one.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">Odighizuwa had the third-down sack of Jalen Hurts that gave the Cowboys the chance to drive for Brandon Aubrey&#8217;s game-ending field goal after Prescott and company failed to take advantage of two fourth-quarter fumbles by the Eagles. The fifth-year player who was drafted by the Cowboys will say he has more room to roam with Williams around.<\/p>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">&#8220;Offense has been rolling all year,&#8221; Odighizuwa said. &#8220;So we know just getting some stops, getting them the ball back, giving them as many opportunities as they can to score, they&#8217;re going to get the job done. Being able to do that and have a complementary win like this, especially in a comeback like that, I feel like it just speaks to our play style and our character. We&#8217;re going to be fighting, scratch, claw, every play, until it&#8217;s over.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>What&#8217;s working<\/h2>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">The connection between Prescott and George Pickens is something to behold after the receiver was added in an offseason trade with Pittsburgh. Pickens&#8217; spectacular leaping catch for 43 yards set up Prescott&#8217;s tying 8-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter against the Eagles. Pickens has tied his career high of nine catches three times and already has a career-best 67 grabs this season. His 1,054 yards receiving are 86 shy of his best, and he&#8217;s on pace for more than 1,700.<\/p>\n<h2>What needs help<\/h2>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">Pickens&#8217; sidekick, CeeDee Lamb, needs a boost of confidence after drops plagued him against the Eagles, just as they did in the NFL season opener, a 24-20 Philadelphia victory that might have been a Dallas win if Lamb had hung on to any one of three crucial drops. Lamb did have a big catch on the drive that got the Cowboys within a touchdown, but the drops are a bad look when Pickens keeps making crazy catches.<\/p>\n<h2>Stock up<\/h2>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">TE Brevyn Spann-Ford stumbled coming out of a break on a route in the end zone with Prescott watching him the whole time, hoping he wouldn&#8217;t fall. Spann-Ford stayed on his feet and ended up with his first career TD on a 4-yard catch.<\/p>\n<h2>Stock down<\/h2>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">Receiver and kick returner KaVontae Turpin lost a fumble after taking a handoff out of the backfield and was penalized when he half-heartedly signaled for a fair catch on a punt and ran anyway. The penalty cost Dallas field position on the final drive, but the Cowboys overcame it.<\/p>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">While Turpin is fourth among qualifying kickoff returners a year after being named All-Pro, he&#8217;s nowhere to be found on the punt return list. Without value in those areas, ball security could threaten the diminutive Turpin&#8217;s job security.<\/p>\n<h2>Injuries<\/h2>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">The biggest concern was Williams staying down after a play and saying after the game that Saquon Barkley got a shot to his ribs on a pass rush. Williams did return, though. &#8230; LT Tyler Guyton injured an ankle and was replaced by Nate Thomas for almost half the game.<\/p>\n<h2>Key number<\/h2>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">34,378 \u2014 Prescott&#8217;s career yards passing after beating Romo&#8217;s previous record of 34,183. The next big number is TD passes. Prescott would have to average two TD per game the rest of this season to beat Romo&#8217;s mark of 247. He has 236.<\/p>\n<h2>Next steps<\/h2>\n<p data-v-160ccf97=\"\">The first winning streak of the season gives Dallas a chance against the Chiefs to get over .500 for the first time. The Cowboys are 0-3 when playing for a winning record this season.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dallas defense is transforming from a liability into a strength after new additions, including standout defensive tackle Quinnen Williams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dallas-cowboys"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cowboys\u2019 Struggling Defense Steadily Improving Post-Quinnen Williams Trade - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=38321\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cowboys\u2019 Struggling Defense Steadily Improving Post-Quinnen Williams Trade - 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