Beyond the hype and smoke and mirrors, the challenges facing the Dallas Cowboys heading into the 2025 season were always clear and obvious: could they get stops on defense.

When Jerry Jones traded the Cowboys best defender and arguably their best player in defensive end Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers less than a week before the season opener, he said it was about making the defense better with the addition of nose tackle Kenny Clark addressing the team’s long-standing weakness of stopping the run.

He also said it was the best way to maximize the investment in quarterback Dak Prescott and reach the Super Bowl with him at the helm.

Newsflash: following the Cowboys 31-14 blowout loss to the formerly winless Chicago Bears (1-2) on Sunday, the Cowboys (1-2) are no closer to the Super Bowl than they have been in any time during their now 30-year drought since their last Super Bowl title following the 1995 season.

Even more demoralizing is the Cowboys may now be farther away than ever, no matter Jones’ seemingly unconscionable words in the bowels of Soldier Field Sunday.

“I will tell you, yes,” Jones said when asked after the game if the Cowboys were still a playoff team. “It’s because you saw No. 4 (Prescott) out there and you saw what we’re capable of doing in the run game…As we evolve toward the playoffs, we have to get better defensively. Certainly.”

Jones is certainly hoping against hope when it comes to the Cowboys defense, which has gone from not being able to stop the run to not being able to stop anything _ but especially big plays in the passing game in seemingly record fashion.

One week after allowing old man Russell Wilson (age 36) to pass for 450 yards and three touchdowns with a 73.1% completion percentage in a 40-37 overtime victory against winless the New York Giants, the Cowboys allowed the young Caleb Williams (age 23) to complete 19 of 28 passes for 298 yards and four touchdowns and fashion a 142.6 quarterback rating in a Bears that was largely over in the third quarter.

What plagued the Cowboys against the Giants, they gave up big plays by the bushel. Williams has passes of 65, 35, 41 and 31. His four touchdowns came with no defender within five yards of the receiver.

The Cowboys gave up a 35-yard touchdown pass from Williams to Rome Odunze on the opening drive of the game and then gave up a 65-yard touchdown pass from Williams to Luther Burden on a flea flicker the next time the Bears had the ball.

Bears coach Ben Johnson said that the flea flicker call came from watching film on Dallas and realizing that they would be susceptible to that type of play.

“I give the staff a lot of credit,” Johnson said. “They’re going through, watching the tape and finding out things that may or may not fit, whether it’s Dallas this year, or some of the stuff we’re watching of Chicago’s defense from yesteryear [under Eberflus]. So that was really a staff find. And we worked it all week and felt comfortable calling it this week.”

With receiver CeeDee Lamb sidelined in the first quarter with an ankle injury, Prescott and the Cowboys offense simply couldn’t pace.

Add in the turnovers, a fumble by running back Javonte Williams after a 22-yard run on the Cowboys opening drive, which ruined a solid effort on the ground (10 carries for 76 yards) and two fourth quarter interceptions from Prescott and it was simply no contest.

The foundation of the team’s woes continue to be the team’s woeful defense, which has allowed 92 points (30.7 PPG) this season.

It is the fourth most through three games of a season in franchise history, per ESPN Research.

Jones may not know this, but the Cowboys failed to reach the playoffs in each of the previous three seasons in which they allowed that many points through three games.

And according to Elias, the 13 completions and five passing touchdowns of 25 yards or more are the most the Cowboys have allowed over the first 3 games of a season in the last 45 years.

The Cowboys continue to blame communication issues in the secondary for the team’s woes against the pass. Whether they are playing zone or playing man coverage, the Cowboys are simply allowing too many receivers to run wide open in the secondary.

They are also aren’t getting any heat on the quarterback. The Cowboys got no sacks on Williams, who seemingly had all day to survey the field and when he did get pressured he out maneuvered the rushers with his athleticism to make plays down field.

All that points back to the team’s decision to trade Parsons, arguably the best pass rusher in the NFL. Much of the blame falls on defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus and his scheme, which relies mostly on four pass rushers backed by a zone defense.

He doesn’t blitz much. The owner took note.

“I think it compromised us with our four man front up there today,” Jones said. ” Of course we want to try and get there in this defense with that four man rush. We weren’t getting there, plus we weren’t covering, and that’s a bad combination. That’s what happened to us out there today. We did give them a little more pressure and dialed it up a bit in the second half, but [the Bears] had a lot to say about it with how productive their offense was.”

Jones, however, doesn’t know if sending extra rushers will make much of a difference, considering the problems the Cowboys have had covering in the secondary.

“Well of course if we can’t cover them, there’s not but one thing to do and that’s try to rush them up,” Jones said. ” We’ve got to get better, we’ve got to get better… I’m confident we will, but we’ve got to get more on the [same] page. It’s inordinate to give up that many big plays.”

And it’s convenient to say that the Cowboys have finally found an answer against the run, consider the Bears final drive of the first and their opening drive of the second half.

Up 17-14 with 2 minutes, 25 second left in the second quarter, the Bears march 71 yards on seven plays against a Cowboys defense hoping to get a stop to put the offense back on the field.

Two running plays got a first down. Three plays later, Williams hit Burden for a 29-yard pass and then found a wide open Cole Kmet in the back of the end zone for a 10-yard score a 24-14 lead at halftime.

The Cowboys got the ball first in the third quarter and were forced to punt.

The Bears marched 76 yards on a whopping 19 plays, including 11 straight runs.

Williams found a wide open D.J. Moore in the back of the end zone to all but end the fight.

Most embarrassingly is that the touchdown pass came on fourth and goal from 4. The Bears showed no respect for the Cowboys defense and the play showed it. Williams had all day to throw before finding Moore in the back of the end zone all by himself with no Cowboys defender close to him.

Last week, coach Brian Schottenheimer said the Cowboys had fixed their communication issues in the secondary. On Sunday, he said they may have to simply some things.

Most importantly, he said the Cowboys need to coach better and play better.

“Got to tighten the coverage down for sure,” Schottenheimer said. ” We’ll take a hard look at it and maybe simplify things and we’re gonna do what we do well. I can promise you that.”

Former Pro Bowl cornerback Trevon Diggs was beaten for the first touchdown to Odunze when he slipped. He said the Cowboys will get better.

“We believe in each other,” Diggs said. “We’re not gonna give up on each other. It’s early in the season. New coaches, new everything. We’re still getting accustomed, still learning. We’re gonna be better in the future for sure.”

Time will tell.

Things certainly don’t look promising but it’s just game three with 14 more to go.

With Parsons and the Packers (2-1) headed to AT&T Stadium next Sunday night for the much-anticipated homecoming showdown, the war of the season may soon be coming to an end if the Cowboys don’t find a way to fix their woes.

Following the Packers, they have road games at the New York Giant and the Carolina Panthers before hosting the Washington Commanders, whose appearance in the NFC title game last year left the Cowboys with the longest championship drought in the conference.

It reminds of the immortal words of former Saints coach Jim Mora: “Don’t talk about – playoffs?! You kiddin’ me? Playoffs?! I just hope we can win a game.”