Why is the Cowboys’ defense so bad? It’s complicated.

Last season, under defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli and defensive backs coach Kris Richard, the Cowboys fielded a defense that, per Sports Info Solutions, played more Cover-3 than any team but the Chargers (217 pass dropbacks), allowing 136 receptions for 1,655 yards, eight touchdowns, and just four interceptions. Overall, a defense that was based more on execution than scheme allowed 21 touchdowns to just seven interceptions, gave up an opposing QBR of 92.27, and ranked 16th in Defensive DVOA. None of these numbers were catastrophic — they put Dallas in the middle of the pack in an NFL sense — but owner and ultimate shot-caller Jerry Jones wanted better.

To that end, the Cowboys hired defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, who had not served in that role for any other team since 2014 when he did so for the Falcons (who ranked 31st in Defensive DVOA that season), and had spent the last three seasons as the Saints’ linebackers coach. The move made sense from a continuity standpoint as Nolan served as the 49ers’ head coach in 2005 when now-Dallas head coach Mike McCarthy was the team’s offensive coordinator, but what Nolan prescribed to fix what ailed his new team’s defense was a lot of schematic complexity — the kind of thing that can go very wrong if, for example, you’re dealing with a truncated offseason due to a major pandemic.

“If you give yourself too much of doing one thing, that’s easy for the best quarterbacks to dissect and take advantage of,” Nolan said in February. “You have to have a good mix between man and zone… You don’t want to create so much volume that you really don’t have an identity, but you have to have some kind of variety in order to be successful.”

Variety has not been the spice of the Cowboys’ life through their first four games. At the same time Dallas’ offense is roasting enemy defenses at a record clip, Nolan’s squad is getting equally bombed. Dallas ranks second in the NFL, tied with the Browns behind the Falcons, with 12 touchdown passes allowed, and just one interception for their trouble. That opposing QBR allowed has shot up to 115.37 (only the Falcons are worse), and the defense has plummeted to 24th in DVOA.

Aug 24, 2020; Frisco, TX, USA; Dallas Cowboys player Jaylon Smith (right) talks with Mike Nolan during training camp at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. (James D. Smith via USA TODAY Sports)

McCarthy has said that he’s staying the course with Nolan, and perhaps things will get better as Nolan’s charges get the hang of the new playbook, but coming off a 49-38 embarrassment at the hands of the Browns in which Dallas allowed 307 rushing yards and 508 total yards, there are people who wish to be heard on the matter. Edge-rusher Demarcus Lawrence called his own squad “soft” after the Browns loss, which is about the most cringe-worthy word you can apply to any defense.

McCarthy has also doubled down on the idea of schematic complexity — an interesting construct for an offensive play-designer who would generally have to spice his own playbook up pretty severely to get to “vanilla” status.

“We’re in a scheme change from the prior scheme here, and we’re not off to a good start,” McCarthy said. “The worst thing we can do is narrow everything down and be a one-call defense. I refuse to do that. That’s not the path. We have a defense that fits our players.”

The “soft” comment paid negative dividends, leading to defensive remarks which opened a figurative can regrading the effort — or lack thereof — the Cowboys were putting out on that side of the ball.

“Our effort’s been good,” safety Xavier Woods said Wednesday. via ESPN’s Todd Archer. “I mean, on certain plays some guys, I mean, me included, there may be a lack, but overall the effort is there. I mean, you don’t expect, we’re in the NFL, you don’t expect guys full speed for 70 plays. That’s not possible. But you’re going to push all you can. I mean, we know. You don’t expect a backside corner to make a play on the opposite side. If he’s running full speed the whole time, it’s just not possible, to be honest.”

“I think it was a situation of trying to answer questions after a poor performance is the way I would classify it,” McCarthy said Thursday in an attempt to clarify what Woods said. “I don’t think it’s a statement that can be laid up against every possible situation in football as far as hypotheticals and things like that. We’ve addressed our performance Sunday. It was poor. The coaching on pursuit and expectations is on line with everybody’s expectations and understanding on how you play this game.”

“That [criticism] is outside-the-building noise. It doesn’t really affect us inside the building,” linebacker Joe Thomas said. “If there was an effort issue, it would’ve been addressed inside the building. I don’t think that was an issue at all. It’s just communication. When we’re all on the same page and we know what’s going on, we play faster and it looks a lot better.”

After my own review of Dallas’ defensive miscues, I think Thomas has hit the nail on the proverbial head. It’s not that the Cowboys are lacking effort — in fact, there are too many times when everyone is going all-out to the ball, heading to misdirection issues and instances in which whatever keys the defenders are supposed to read are simply thrown away in the frenetic paradigm. The problem is hesitation and missed assignments from defenders who are used to reacting, and are now asked to think before they move. That takes a split second, and in the NFL, a split second is a lifetime.

In this 43-yard touchdown pass from Russell Wilson to Tyler Lockett in Seattle’s 38-31 win… well, let’s just say that Dallas’ reaction to Lockett’s deep over from the right seam to the left seam is less than optimal. This looks like Quarters coverage in that the outside cornerbacks are creating outside leverage, the outside linebacker and nickel defender work to the flats, and the safeties are responsible for playing any vertical release.

What happened instead was this:

Of Wilson’s five touchdown passes, three came from Dallas’ one-yard line, and this Lockett touchdown is a good study in how to not play man coverage in the red zone. Receiver Freddie Swain gives Wilson a man indicator with his right-to-left motion, and as Swain and D.K. Metcalf flood Dallas’ right-side defensive coverage to the middle of the end zone, and the Cowboys’ linebackers hang out in the middle, Lockett runs all the way through the formation alone and wide open.

The conflict defender here seems to be safety Darien Thompson, who could follow Lockett, but decides instead to double Metcalf over the middle with cornerback Daryl Worley, the aforementioned motion defender. Why nobody sees Lockett as a problem is an interesting question.

Perhaps the most embarrassing thing that has happened to Dallas’ defense this season — to date, at least — is this 37-yard first-quarter touchdown pass from receiver Jarvis Landry to receiver Odell Beckham Jr. This opened the scoring for the Browns, which never really stopped.

It’s hard to say. What is easy to say is that the Cowboys have enough talent on defense to play better than they’re playing. And when that happens, the blame should rest on the head of one person — the guy calling the shots.

That’s Nolan, and Nolan is on the clock in a way he hasn’t been before.

This Sunday, the 1-3 Cowboys face an 0-4 Giants team with an offense that has scored a grand total of three touchdowns all season. It would be bad enough if Giants quarterback Daniel Jones was able to light this defense up as every other quarterback has this season. That it would be at the hand of Giants offensive coordinator and former Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett might be too much for Jerry Jones to stand.

At that point, Nolan and his staff might have to simplify the situation, or stand aside for others who will. Jerry Jones has already established that in his mind, pretty good isn’t good enough. And this defense will have to rise several floors to get back to pretty good.