Let the Dallas Cowboys tell it, all their defensive woes from the disappointing 28-20 season-opening loss to the New York Giants are fixable as the majority of them were basic communication breakdowns.

It was not just getting the calls right but receiving the calls and it wasn’t just one position, per coach Brian Schottenheimer.

That a failure to communicate was an issue remains mindboggling, considering communication was the central theme of every conversation about why Christian Parker was the right man to be the defensive coordinator and the perfect architect of a defensive turnaround.

That the Cowboys defense against the Giants looked like the putrid unit of a year ago, when it finished last in the league with one of the worst performance in league history, let alone, franchise history, remains a sore point. The Cowboys couldn’t stop the run. They couldn’t stop the pass and couldn’t get off the field on third down.

After the game, Schottenheimer said the Cowboys got humbled.

While it’s too early to panic and the team plans to stay the course for Sunday’s game against the Washington Commanders, Schottenheimer still admits being surprised by the effort and the communication breakdowns.

“Do you want me to say it again? I’m disappointed,” Schottenheimer said. “Did I expect it? No. Am I sitting here saying we’re going to communicate poorly this week? No, we’re going to communicate better this week. Did I sleep loose last night because I’m worried about communication? No, I will be very surprised if we don’t communicate at a much higher level in this game.”

But why did it happen and how?

“You address it first and foremost, it was surprising we didn’t communicate well,” Schottenheimer said. “Spent quite a bit of time in the team meeting just going back through the keys to communication.

Second part, that’s the the person that’s giving it, and then the receiving is where we’re off. You know, on a few things, calls are being made. They have to be louder. They have to be more decisive, but they have to be received. And to co-sign that, you see us. We signal all the time based on you know different things, so you can’t hear what they’re saying on the film. So there should be hand signals that show information being received, and you know we need to do better. And it wasn’t good enough, but we emphasize that we talked about it, and they understand.

The way the National Football League is right now is, you know, we’re this way on offense. You know, you’re trying to change the picture. You’re trying to make things look different. You’re trying to make people have to adjust on the run. Motion shifts, movements are at all-time high in this level. So, if you don’t communicate when the numbers change and the picture changes, then you’re going to put yourself at a disadvantage.”

Cowboys edge rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku brought up the lack of reps in the preseason as a possible reason for the communication breakdowns: “Communication is two-way right. It’s giving and receiving. That’s just something we’ve got to tighten up. You know things are a little different when things are flying around on Sunday night as opposed to it being in practice or camp. First week is never clean. There are obviously going to be mistakes. I, mean, during the preseason, a lot of the starters didn’t really play.”

The Cowboys have addressed the communications issues incessantly this week.

They hope to have them solved.

Of course, the Cowboys now have another problem to overcome with linebacker DeMarvion Overshown sidelined for at least a week with an hamstring injury.

Overshown was the team’s middle linebacker who also served as the green dot play caller on defense.

Rookie Jaishawn Barham, who had scheme issues when he replaced Overshown against the Giants, is expected to start in his place and be the presumptive green dot play caller.

That could lead to more communication issues.

He was seen on video frustrated and visibly upset after talking to Parker during the game.

“We have multiple guys that can do it,” Schottenheimer said of the green dot. “We have all the confidence in the world in Jaishawn. He is actually very loud when he communications. He would do fine in that. But we do have other things we re looking at.”

“We’re not going to put guys out there that we don’t trust. Just cause a player makes a mistake doesn’t mean we don’t trust them. Barham is really smart. He’s a really good football player. Did he play his best football ever? Nope. I have zero doubts he will play really well this game.”

Barham was on the field when the Giants ran the same play three straight times and couldn’t stop it.

“I’m not going to put that on one position,” Schottenheimer said. “That is no fair. Everyone assumes its the linebackers. It’s not just the linebackers. Again, we have rules based off of splits and changes and number counts and things like that that are complicated And so there was one time where a player assumed that it was going to be something because that’s how we’ve done it some, but it was not communicated from another player. And so therefore that player has the trump card. There’s a lot that goes into it and I’m chalking it up to the fact that it was our first game. And again, like I said, we were making calls, we just weren’t making them all the time and then receiving them all the time. And so that’s why you saw some of the things where it looked like they got us on three different plays. Those were actually three different calls, three different defensive calls. And so that’s us not being on the same page. And team defense is about all 11 guys being on the same page.”

If they are not on the same page against Washington on Sunday, the Cowboys could fall to 0-2, putting them on the fast track to missing the postseason for a third straight season.

That message would come through loud and clear.