The Dallas Cowboys earned a fourth straight win Sunday to improve to 10-3 on the season, but their 27-23 victory over the Houston Texans — which required a last-minute, go-ahead touchdown — was a little too close for comfort in the eyes of coach Mike McCarthy.
With a matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars coming in Week 15, McCarthy says the Cowboys have a major weakness on offense to address because he’d be ready to exploit it if he was coaching the Jaguars.
“It’s more quarters than I’ve ever seen a lot of people play,” McCarthy told reporters of the Houston defense, via Mark Lane of Texans Wire. “I thought they played with good vision, and they were on our hip every time the ball was thrown and caught. We have to take a good look at it, make sure the last two weeks our passing game versus a vision defense.
“If I was the Jacksonville defensive coordinator, I’d play us a vision defense [based] off the last two weeks. That’s how my mind works and that’s why we’ll look at it.”
A vision defense is one that plays in deep zone coverage and keeps everything in front with eyes on the quarterback, ready to break on the ball.
Against the Texans, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott recorded 284 passing yards with a touchdown, but threw two picks and finished with a 70.9 passer rating. In Week 13 against the Indianapolis Colts, he finished with only 190 yards, but still threw three touchdowns with one interception.
While the Cowboys’ win over the Texans wasn’t as dominant as they would’ve liked, the team still scored at least 27 for a sixth straight game. Dallas is averaging 37.7 points over its last six games.
Maybe Jacksonville would be wise to follow McCarthy’s advice and employ some of the tactics the Texans used to slow down the Cowboys, but the Jaguars will need to do better than any team has lately if it hopes to pull off the Week 15 upset.
