Cowboys at Rams: Offense finds some life without key starters, defense struggles against run

The first four quarters of Dallas Cowboys football for 2025 are officially in the book as of Saturday in Los Angeles, with the team losing 31-21 at the Rams. The Cowboys and Rams met for a scrimmage and joint practice in Oxnard earlier in the week, then put their depth to the test in a real game setting of two teams hoping to contend in their respective divisions in the NFC this season. The Rams are looking to repeat as winners of the West at 10-7 a year ago, while the Cowboys have much room to improve on third in the East in 2024 at 7-10.

The Cowboys were not expected to play many starters in this preseason opener, particularly on offense where the trio of Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and George Pickens is enough to change the entire dynamic on this side of the ball – no matter how much these players and others are kept on ice in the preseason. A glimpse into what the Cowboys want to be offensively under Brian Schottenheimer was still on display while new QB Joe Milton played most of the game.

When not backed up by penalties or incompletions on deep passes were flashes of the run game finding space between the tackles, and play-action/moving pocket throws creating some easy completions. The Cowboys going four for 11 on third downs and two for four scoring touchdowns in the red zone compared to the Rams four for five red zone efficiency made the final difference on the scoreboard, and leaves the Cowboys with plenty to work on going into another week of practice and next preseason game on Saturday.

The Cowboys defense under DC Matt Eberflus needed every rep possible to sort out who will line up where in a new scheme and a depth chart littered with injuries. The first Cowboys defender to make a statement that he was ready for meaningful games to arrive was second-year linebacker Marist Liufau, who brought the physicality early by making the tackle on the opening kickoff. It already seems like Liufau will be a huge part of the equation at linebacker, but everything else around the “throwback” linebacker, as Schotty called him, was a work in progress against Sean McVay’s offense. The Rams offense had a lot of success against the Cowboys on the practice fields, and carried some of this into the game by racking up 364 yards, averaging 7.3 yards per pass play, and scoring two rushing touchdowns on their first two drives to jump ahead early.

As we’ll do after every Cowboys kickoff this season, here are a few other notes on what transpired between the Cowboys and Rams on Saturday night:

• With this game being the first opportunity for new Cowboys head coach and play-caller Brian Schottenheimer to show how his approach on offense will differ from what Dallas has done in the past, they drew a worthy opponent on the other side with Sean McVay and the Rams offense led the entire game by Stetson Bennett. The Rams have been one of the best teams in the league under McVay at using shifts, motions, and condensed formations to create matchups for their receivers to get open. While these are all goals for Schottenheimer’s offense as well, the Rams certainly looked much more prepared and ready to execute these looks compared to the Cowboys. On their opening drive, Los Angeles went to a five receiver spread formation to pick up a first down, targeting linebacker Damone Clark to do so. The Cowboys had issues throughout the entire game finding second level defenders that could drop to proper depth in coverage, although new additions Jack Sanborn and Kenneth Murray did not play. The Cowboys are also thin at cornerback right now, with safety Israel Mukuamu playing into the fourth quarter of this game despite having an interception in the first half. Mukuamu lined up all over the place, including as a boundary corner which had been a rare sight for him in the past when Dallas was healthier at the position.

• The Cowboys may not be a blitz-heavy team under Eberflus, and may not need to be given their depth on the defensive line, but they will at least have to do a better job disguising coverages and creating more pre-snap confusion for offenses to avoid some of the easy completions they allowed through the air in the preseason opener. Markquese Bell is a player that can go a long way here, with experience playing linebacker under Dan Quinn as well as safety with Mike Zimmer last year. Bell was also primarily used as a cover player by Eberflus against the Rams, but did earn his snaps by making some downhill plays against the run as well.

• Speaking of defensive line depth, also from the Rams opening drive, the Cowboys saw some of the pass rush potential from their latest UFL signee, Perrion Winfrey. The always-aggressive LA offense went for it on fourth and six in Dallas territory, and converted on a great touch pass down the sideline for 39 yards to Xavier Smith working against Andrew Booth. Winfrey was able to bull rush the left guard and get in the face of Bennett on the play though, which also nearly gave rookie second-round pick Donovan Ezeruika a chance at the QB on a twist. Just because the Cowboys approach under Eberflus won’t be to bring extra rushers, it’s a far cry from not changing things up on the front four to get free rushes. Relying on a player other than Osa Odighizuwa from the interior to bring pressure will be crucial here. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Cowboys lack quality depth elsewhere at defensive tackle right now, but Winfrey comes with some pedigree as a former fourth-round pick. Earnest Brown and rookie seventh-round pick Jay Toia also had some positive snaps at DT, but overall Dallas clearly lacked the size and personnel to win the line of scrimmage against the run in this game.
• The Rams were able to attack the edges of the Cowboys defense with their short passing game when more of the field was in front of them, but found more success pounding it between the tackles in red zone. On both of Blake Corum’s first half rushing touchdowns, the previous play was stopped by the Cowboys on the edge. First it was Payton Turner and Tyrus Wheat holding the edge against an option play before the Cowboys could not do the same on a middle run the next play for six. Wheat was a player that very quietly appeared in seven games for the Cowboys last year, and is using that experience to stand out as a depth option early in camp.
• It took until much later in the game for the Cowboys to establish some of this same physicality in their own run game with rookie seventh-round pick Phil Mafah and the newly-signed, but familiar face, Malik Davis. Of course, none of this will matter much if the Cowboys can’t fix a run defense that’s been an issue for multiple seasons now and keep teams out of the end zone themselves, but getting some early returns on two players thrown into the fire like Mafah and Davis is an encouraging sign on its own.

• To start the second half, these two teams traded turnovers on a pair of interceptions. First it was Joe Milton forcing a deep pass to Ryan Flournoy into double coverage that was picked off by Cam Lampkin. The Cowboys obviously did not have their preferred receivers to be tracking long passes and make contested catches in Lamb and Pickens available on Saturday, but this didn’t stop Schottenheimer from staying true to his scheme and letting Milton try to flash the arm talent. The timing was just not there to receivers like Flournoy, Jalen Cropper, and Jalen Brooks consistently. These are the types of big bodied receivers the Cowboys want to get the ball to this season, with Flournoy leading the team in targets with five. If this game was any indicator at all, ‘fade’ and ‘go’ routes are going to be seen a lot from Schottenheimer.

• It was interesting to see the Cowboys not try to get Jalen Tolbert more involved on these routes, but keep him active in the game with a punt return. Tolbert went into camp as a clear favorite for the third wide receiver spot, but has a lot of competition now vying for targets with UDFA Traeshon Holden making the longest play of the game for Dallas on a 35-yard completion and even UDFA tight end Rivaldo Fairweather catching Milton’s only touchdown. Tolbert’s speed is a natural fit alongside Lamb and Pickens, but his lack of precision in route running may hurt him much more than expected against the rest of the field Dallas has to choose from at WR.
• The second interception of this back-to-back sequence came from Mukuamu, who was lined up as a press corner on the play. Mukuamu had UDFA safety Mike Smith in deep coverage on his half of the field, and was able to turn and run with the receiver to track the ball for a takeaway.

• The Cowboys offensive line has been by far their most banged up position group by injuries this training camp. Because of this, the best thing that can be said about the unit as a whole against the Rams was that nothing egregiously negative stood out. The Rams defense called by Chris Shula is aggressive getting after the quarterback at all times, and Milton was certainly forced to use his legs a bit more than Dallas may be comfortable with when Prescott is under center, but the Cowboys allowed just one sack. Nate Thomas had a strong game at left tackle while Brock Hoffman and T.J. Bass, both fantastic depth options with experience to have along the line, played every snap for the offense in “lunch bucket” duty.

• The opportunities weren’t always there for these linemen to get to the second level and block out in space, mostly because of the general lack of timing throughout an offense making it’s preseason debut, but when they were the Cowboys looked good doing so as well. Overall, this should be a game tape OL coach Conor Riley and OC Klayton Adams can be encouraged by, especially with 12th overall pick Tyler Booker – still expected to be a week one starter at right guard – not seeing the field at all yet.