Despite the Dallas Cowboys turning in their second embarrassing defensive showing in the last five weeks, Jason Garrett is not blaming the scheme.
The Cowboys fired Rob Ryan in January, replacing his 3-4 alignment with Monte Kiffin and his 4-3 base defense.
The result has been a 7-6 record with three games to play and statistically, the worst defense in the NFL, allowing 426.8 yards per game.
Fresh off a 45-28 Monday night loss in Chicago, Garrett discussed what went wrong Tuesday morning on 105.3 The Fan [KRLD-FM].
"We simply have to do a better job of getting stops and preventing them from scoring points," Garrett said. "From an offensive standpoint, we have to do a better job of keeping up in a game like that. I thought we did some good things. But when you're in a game like that each of those drives really, really matter and a couple of those third downs we didn't convert to keep the drive alive and it prevented us from getting points and they kept going. Certainly not good enough and we got to make the corrections and make them fast because Green Bay is going to be here on Sunday."
The Cowboys have given up 40 or more points in three games this season, all losses. Denver scored 51 points to go along with 517 yards and 34 first downs. New Orleans posted 49 points, 625 yards and an NFL record 40 first downs. Last night, Chicago finished with 497 yards and 33 first downs.
So, can this defense be fixed?
"I just think we have to go back again in a short period of time and address what happened in the game and make the necessary adjustments," Garrett said. "We've had a couple games throughout this season so far where we didn't do a good enough job. We went back and we felt like we made some adjustments that helped us, and we played better in the ensuing weeks. So, we have to do that again and we have to do it fast."
Dallas responded to the Denver and New Orleans losses by winning the next two games that followed.
Garrett, who wouldn't say whether switching to a 4-3 scheme was a mistake, said the Cowboys have "done a lot of good things on defense during the year."
Like what?
"We've given up yards and points and all that but we have taken the ball away," he said. "That's really helped our football team. That's been a positive thing for us."
The Cowboys are fifth in the NFL with 25 takeaways.
"Having said that, we have to address the issues on our team right now and we got to get them fixed," Garrett said. "We're going to work very hard as a coaching staff to get that done and make sure that our players get that done."
One of the most popular words used by Garrett during a press conference or a weekly radio interview is the "process." Garrett was asked Tuesday morning if the "process" has advanced to his satisfaction.
"We just have to keep going," Garrett responded. "We've done some good things this year to allow us to win ball games, won a couple of games in a row leading up to this ball game, so that was certainly positive for us. Last night, we didn't get the job done. … We didn't do what was necessary to win the game and we all know that, so we got to evaluate it and make sure we get it right prior to this week's game against Green Bay.
"When we talk about the process, that's what it is. Independent of what happened in the game, make sure that everything we're doing as a coaching staff and as a team is corrected and we move on, and hopefully make the necessary adjustments to get better."
