The 2023 experience has been as smooth as a roller coaster, something their 3-2 record indicates. Each of their first five games has been decided by at least 10 points, both positively and negatively for head coach Mike McCarthy's bunch. Entering Week 5, the Cowboys were rolling, but after absorbing a 42-10 whooping at the on "Sunday Night Football," everything is up for reevaluation through the first quarter of the season.The combined record of the Cowboys' first four 2023 foes was 5-15, and they outscored them by nearly 100 points, 124-41. That is the mark of what looked to be dominant team. San Francisco has now improved to 5-0, and outscored Dallas 42-10. The Cowboys allowed more points in Week 5 than they had all season, calling into question if they have what it takes to hang in the playoffs this season. That makes Dallas the first team since the 1990to surrender more points in their fifth game of a season than they allowed in their first four games combined, according to. Thosereached the AFC Championship Game, but they were destroyed by Jim Kelly's and Marv Levy's, 51-3. Dallas has lost both of its last two playoff games against the 49ers by one po se sion, but at this point, a similar multi-score defeat feels likely if these two teams meet again in January, calling into question the caliber of the Cowboys. WEEKS 1-4WEEK 5 AT 49ERSW-L3-1L, 42-10Points scored12410Points Allowed4142Opponent W-L5-15*5-0Here's a look at where the Cowboys stand through the season's first quarter. Outside of special teams, there is plenty of room for improvement.In their blowout lo s to the 49ers, the Cowboys were limited to a panic-inducing 8 total yards on their first four drives, forcing three three-and-outs and a fumble. That allowed San Francisco to race out to a 14-0 lead before Dallas even recorded a first down."We didn't establish a rhythm," Dallas Cowboys quarterback. "We couldn't get the run game going. We didn't get the run game going. It was tough to get completions. When that's the case and you're not getting first downs putting yourself in third and manageable, a position we would like to be in, it's always going to be tough. It's a tough busine s. When you're stepping on your own feet against a team like that, you're only making it harder. Against a team like that, it's damn near impo Robyn Regehr Men Jersey sible."Week 5 was the Cowboys' second embarra sing defeat of the season to go along with a 28-16 upset lo s at the previously winle sback in Week 3. With the yo-yo-like nature of the Cowboys "Texas Coast" offense in McCarthy's first season as Dallas' offensive play-caller, frustrations are beginning to show."We got to be complete," Lamb said. "We can't go out there one week and look like a super team and then the following week shit the bed."When asked what the Cowboys' offensive identity is this season, he provided a damning answer."I don't know," Lamb said.McCarthythat not having a "balance" between run and pa s was right up there with not converting "manageable" third downs in the first half. The Cowboys totaled just two carries for 5 yards in the first quarter, one of which ended up as a lost fumble by Pro Bowl running back. The team totaled 21 rushing yards on seven carries in the first half altogether as Dallas entered the locker room with a 14-point deficit, 21-7. The second half wasn't much better as they could only muster 36 rushing yards on 12 carries, which threw off their ideal game script tremendously. On Monday, McCarthy revealed perhaps the biggest kicker when elaborating on a question about his team's offensive identity: the Cowboys are driven by their defense."When we started this offensive approach back in April, I just think it's a matter of: Who do you want to be and who do you think you are? I coached a team the for a lot years that was offensive driven," McCarthy said. "But this team is about defense. Let's make no bones about it. That's not a slight against the offense. We want to score as many points as everybody and we're not playing not to lose, so don't mix the me sage here. But we play to our defense. That's the strength of our team. And by doing that, the time of po se sion Andy Andreoff Jersey , taking care of the football, those are two things that I thought were improvements from past years, the first month. Clearly, it was not versus the 49ers ." When zooming out to look at how different McCarthy's offense is from former offensive coordinator, who is now in the same role with the, it's apparent there isn't much of a difference at all through the first quarter of the season.When you remove non-offensive scores, of which the Cowboys have four this season, and take the temperature of the Dallas offense, the unit is averaging 21.2 offensive points per game this season, down 5.2 points per game from last season. One of McCarthy's big philosophical a sertions about his offense versus Moore's was that he "wanted to run the damn ball." That was said in the context of maintaining po se sion and not wearing out Alec Martinez Women Jersey his defense. So far, the Cowboys are running the football at e sentially the same rate as they did in Moore's offense. Meanwhile, theare averaging five more points per game with Moore (27. 5 in 2023 vs. 22.5 in 2022) while quarterbackhas increased his average pa s length to 8.8 in 2023, the fifth-longest in the, after averaging 6.4 last season, the third-shortest in the . On the flip side, the Cowboys now average almost an air yard fewer per pa s attempt this season than they did last season (7.9 to 7.0), an indicator of McCarthy's desire to overcorrect on a 2022 campaign in which Prescott's 15 interceptions co-led the league despite the quarterback mi sing five games with a thumb injury. While remaining a top-five third-down offense, the Cowboys went from being the most efficient red zone offense in 2022 to the fifth-least efficient red zone offense in 2023.What will the offensive identity be going forward? Well, McCarthy had a long-winded answer on Thursday that didn't really answer that question. Two things are certain, more variety and plays downfield are musts.20222023Offensive PPG26.421.2*Total YPG354.9327.4*Yards/Play5.44.9*Air Yards/Pa s Att7.97.0*Red Zone TD Pct71.4%36.8%*Run Pct47.7%44.8%Third Down Pct45.5%49.3%Red Zone TD Pct71.4%36.8%Time of Po se sion29:20*32:16* Ranks 16th or worse in NFLThe heartbeat of the Cowboys is two-time All-Pro linebacker as he and the rest of the team's pa s rush sets the tone for what kind of game the team is going to play in. Against the 49ers, Parsons and the pa s rush couldn't do much of anything. Dallas entered Week 5 leading thewith 55.6% quarterback pre sure rate, the best in the NFL by over 10 percentage points. On Sunday, they pre sured Brock Purdy on 23.1% of his dropbacks, ranked as the fifth-lowest of Week 5 entering "Monday Night Football." Safetyaccounted for the only sack of the night. Even after the defeat on a night in which there wasn't much to brag about, Parsons still remains one of the NFL's best at getting after the quarterback. His 29 quarterback pre sures are the second-most in the NFL as is his 22.3% quarterback pre sure percentage among the 92 players with 100 or more pa s rushes this season. Dallas as whole remains the league's best unit at pre suring opposing quarterbacks (46.7% pre sure rate), but holes remain in the run game and converting all these pre sures into sacks. The pa sing defense, despite the lo s of Pro Bowl cornerback , remains a bright spot. That is thanks to second-year, fifth-round pick cornerback , who is stepped up in a ma sive way on the outside in his absence. Bland's 12.9 pa ser rating in coverage this season is the best in the NFL among the 153 players with 15 or more pa ses thrown their way.NFL RankPPG Allowed18.6T-11thTotal YPG Allowed319.113thYards/Play Allowed5.524thRush YPG Allowed125.026thPa s YPG Allowed194.1 7th3rd Down Pct Allowed37.8%13thRed Zone TD Pct Allowed57.1%T-13thQB Pre sure Rate46.7%1stSacks1724thPa ser Rating Allowed80.810thTakeaways137thIn the Cowboys' two lo ses this season, their run defense has been brutalized, allowing 222 yards on the ground against the Cardinals and 170 on the ground against the 49ers. The Cowboys face the on "Monday Night Football" in Week 6, and then they have their bye in Week 7. That means there is time for defensive coordinator Dan Quinn to figure out how to clean up some of the i sues the team has up front."When you get your a s kicked,you really only got a couple choices in a fight: You pout about it or you get back up and say, 'Bring it on' and you get rocking again," Quinn . "And I certainly know that's what we're going to do. I've been on teams where it goes the other way, where there's finger pointing and blame. And that's certainly not this group. We're extremely disappointed, but Jeff Zatkoff Jersey also know what we're made of. We're not going to let this game beat us twice." The special teams unit was one of the more maligned phases of the Cowboys a season ago after veteran kicker got the yips. However, , who McCarthy has likened to a "young " -- the Green Bay Packers all-time leading scorer that McCarthy coached for over a decade -- has been automatic. He has drained all 14 of his field goal attempts in 2023, making him the first kicker in the era to make his first 14 field goal attempts in the first five games of his career. Aubrey is also only the seventh kicker in NFL history to begin his career 14-for-14 or better. That is outstanding.The rookie has also been excellent on kickoffs as he leads the league with 31 touchbacks on 32 kickoffs. Pro Bowl punter 's 45.3 net yards per punt rank third in the NFL, making special teams the Cowboys best unit so far in 2023. This is a tough element to grade because only the players and the coaches know the intricate details of their play calls and what is trying to be accomplished each snap. However between Lamb not being able to describe the Cowboys' offensive identity, and what Parsons has said since the 49ers game, it's clearly the coaches on offense and defense have a lot of work to do to get on the same page with their players."I don't know, that's something that there's only so much I can do from where I'm standing at," Parsons said when asked about the team's run defense after the 49ers game on Sunday. "Like, I don't know what's going on inside. I just set the edge, bro. Like, I don't know things that the interior or whatever needs to get addre sed. It's just something the coaches need to look at." Saying the defensive coaches need to do a better job of putting the interior defense linemen in the right spots is one thing. Parsons taking a blowtorch to Quinn and his defensive staff on his podcast Monday night is another."They had every counterattack," Parsons said on hisMonday night. "They outschemed us. And that's just the truth of it. They were prepared for everything we were in, everything we were prepared to do. And we just didn't help ourselves at that. My hat is off to Kyle Shanahan and how he prepared. I definitely think he was prepared for us. I don't think that we were put in a position to be prepared for what they have. I feel like they knew exactly what we were in. They game planned and outschemed us. Simple as that. I just feel like we were in a position where we could have made plays and did better. That's just the truth about it. Only the players know what is going on out there at the end of the day, and I'm not going to go too in depth into it, but that's just what it is."These next few weeks will require much soul-searching in order for the Cowboys coaches and players to be Jonny Brodzinski Men Jersey back in sync.