The biggest reason why the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive struggles felt terribly insurmountable after the Week 1 loss to the New York Giants is the fact that it was preceded by the 2025 NFL season.

It’s not the same to see an uncharacteristically bad performance than seeing the exact same issues from a previous season despite a personnel and coaching overhaul. For Sunday night to be the continuation of a long season in which struggles were never quite fixed raises a critical question: Can Week 1 issues be fixed?

According to Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer, they can.

Schottenheimer beleives Cowboys defense is ‘fixable’

Schottenheimer was asked about his players saying a lot of the things that happened are very fixable and if he agreed with it.

“Oh yeah, they’re all fixable,” Schottenheimer told reporters on Wednesday. “Communication is fixable, pad level is fixable, contain is fixable, better play calls are fixable.”

The film backs it up. At least partially. A big area of concern is the personnel. Do the Cowboys have enough at linebacker and edge rusher? Down the road, hindsight will have to confirm or deny it. But many of the problems evident on film indeed appear to be fixable.

A big example: missed assignments because of communication.

Expect fixes in Cowboys’ communication

On Sunday, it was clear the Cowboys defenders weren’t on the same page. At times, zones were left completely vacated while two defenders took on the same player or zone as a result of miscommunication.

A key example is Giants TE Isaiah Likely’s touchdown in the corner of the end zone, in which both CB DaRon Bland and LB Dee Winters took on the underneath receiver while neither sunk to the end zone to take away Likely.

Schottenheimer described the communication issues at length.

“We have rules based off of splits and changes and number counts and things like that, tht are complicated,” Schottenheimer explained. “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,” Schottenheimer added. “And again, we were making calls, we just weren’t making them all the time and then receiving them all the time.”

Based on the film, I would expect many of those issues to go away with time. The same goes for contain responsibilities, which should be a quick adjustment. The concern however, should be how quickly they are to get on the same page.

The Cowboys have one of the league’s toughest schedules in 2026 and games against the New York Giants were looked at as some of the easiest on the calendar. Obviously, the Giants look much imporved and deserve credit for it, but starting off 0-1 is a problem considering what’s next.

Will the Cowboys lineup change?

As far as adjustments go, I expect the Cowboys to make some tweaks. But Schottenheimer revealed the plan for the starting lineup is to leave it as is.

“No [there won’t be changes to the lineup], we have our different packages, but in terms of ‘this guy’s been promoted, this guy’s been demoted,” Schottenheimer said. “No, absolutely not.”

Obviously, the Cowboys have to replace Malik Hooker and DeMarvion Overshown over the next couple of weeks. But Schottenheimer’s comments suggest they’ll remain the starters upon returning from injury. I have my questions about the LB room, but that’s another story.

So then, what adjustments could exist?

The biggest one is for them to play more nickel and less base defense. Outside linebackers were consistently exposed in coverage and operating from a base 3-4 front pretty much requires to drop at least one into coverage every snap. If they play from a nickel look, they’ll be operating from a more traditional four-man front with five defensive backs.

Cowboys rookie Caleb Downs can be crucial here as his versatility could allow the defense to stay in nickel regardless of opponents’ personnel groupings.

Other adjustments I’d expect to see is the Cowboys finding ways to blitz more and maybe mix in more man coverage to manufacture pressure. Whatever the Cowboys decide to shake up, it’s gotta work quickly as they host the Jayden Daniels-led Washington Commanders on Sunday.

And I hate to say it in Week 2, but it sure looks like a must-win game.