FORT WORTH, Texas — From the Stat That Will Make Every Dallas Cowboys Fan Throw-up Category: the Cowboys lead the NFL in losses where they score at least 30 points.

They are the only team in the league with two losses in games where they score 30.

The Buffalo Bills and the Cowboys are the two teams in the NFL that have hit the 30-point marker five times this season; the Bills are undefeated in those games. The Cowboys ... aren’t.

As bad as some of the Cowboys defenses have been in the last five seasons, when they score they’re good.

From 2021 to 2025, the Cowboys were 30-3-1 in games where they scored 30 or more; the last time they lost two games in a season where they scored 30 points was 2020, played in the COVID era under first-year head coach Mike McCarthy, and defensive coordinator Mike Nolan.

Nolan, who was hand-picked by McCarthy, was fired after the season.

The Cowboys are 3-5, but should be 5-3 and in first place in the NFC East. Since we’re cow piling, the Cowboys should be 6-2; losing that home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was another new low, at least until Sunday when they lost 33-30 in overtime to the Arizona Cardinals.

Head coach Brian Schottenheimer deserves a lot of verbal arrows for the state of this team, as well as his “elite play caller” tag, but if he wants to keep his job he may have to do something he doesn’t want to do.

The problem with the Cowboys remains the problem

Re-watching the Cowboys’ latest horrible loss should come with hazard pay, a bouquet of flowers and an 84-pack of Jack Daniels.

Between Sept. 27 and Nov. 1, the Cowboys suffered three of the worst losses conceivable, each more impressive than the next. While they each were “great TV,” they are collective indictment on Schottenheimer, and defensive coordinator Christian Parker.

After the game, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones did his best to defend his head coach, opting instead for the empty rhetorical crutch to explain this latest collapse is a reflection of the entire “show.”

It sounds like accountability but it means nothing.

Jerry will not fire Schottenheimer during this season, but after it feels plausible. Schottenheimer is in the second year of a four-year contract, and while Jerry hates the idea of paying a coach to not coach, he will not want another year of what he’s currently watching.

The problem remains the same as it has been for years. The defense under first-year, first-time defensive coordinator Christian Parker continues to play at a level that is no longer bewildering but a state that will get people fired, most notably himself.

From Week 1 to Week 8, the defense is not improving. The problems that existed in the season-opening loss against the Giants in New Jersey were there on Sunday against the Cardinals.

Can’t stop the run. Can’t pressure the passer. Don’t make the slightest adjustments to basic routes; the Cowboys refuse to cover the flat, something teams routinely exploit.

The Cowboys are getting diced by QB2s, quarterbacks who played in college at Kansas, and gashed by running backs that don’t even get picked in fantasy leagues that last 20 rounds.

First it was Bucs rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels beating them, and then it was backup-backup Garner Minshew on Sunday making like he was an updated version of Neil Lomax.

What can Schottenheimer do about his defense

Always start with players, who are proving once again they aren’t good enough to stop backup quarterbacks, and no-name running backs.

The most alarming trend is that the Cowboys defense is the same in Week 8 as it was in Week 1; that’s a coaching issue. As bad as the defense was in 2025 under Matt Eberflus, the team was 6-1-1 when they scored 30 points in a game last season.

Defensive tackle Quinnen Williams has improved over the last month, there is still considerable noise the Cowboys are not using him properly. Cornerback DaRon Bland looks lost in this new system, and a player whose confidence is gone.

The safeties are very safe for opposing offenses. The linebackers don’t back the line.

Someone is going to take the fall for this, and his name won’t be Jones.

The Cowboys do not want to hire a fifth new defensive coordinator in five years, but it is hard to envision how Jerry can withstand the prospect of another year of a defense that doesn’t win a game where the offense scores 30 points.

The next nine games will determine if Schottenheimer can save his own job, or he will have to offer up someone else’s to save his.

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