The Dallas Cowboys have been known for being a well-rounded team. Historically, Dallas has stars on both sides of the ball and can be counted on to be one of the most competitive teams in the NFL each year.

The Cowboys’ defense lost a star player ahead of the 2025 season when Micah Parsons was traded to the Green Bay Packers. Parsons fell out of favor with the organization, but his production has been tough to replicate for Dallas over the first half of the regular season.

The Cowboys’ defense heads into Week 10 allowing the second-most points (31.3), second-most yards (404.6), third-most rushing yards (146.0), and third-most passing yards per game (258.6). 

While those are all bad marks, they aren’t historically bad. Unfortunately for the Cowboys, one of their defensive stats is on pace to be the worst in NFL history. 

Here is more on the Dallas defense as their success on stopping opponents on third down.

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Why Cowboys have struggled on third down

Watching Dallas take on Arizona in Week 9’s “Monday Night Football” game was a perfect example of what has been going wrong with the team. The Cowboys weren’t bad on first and second down, getting five sacks in those situations, per head coach Brian Schottenheimer. The head coach then pointed out what led to the loss. “Then situational football. We weren’t able to sustain enough drives because we weren’t good on third down, and they did a good job, converted some third-and-longs,” Shottenheimer said.

Arizona’s first drive of the game displayed Dallas’ problems in primetime. The Cardinals faced third-and-eight, third-and-10, third-and-six, third-and-six and third-and-five on their first offensive possessions. In those situations, Arizona had an 18-yard completion, a 15-yard completion, a defensive holding penalty which resulted in an automatic first down, a seven-yard completion, and an incomplete pass. 

Through nine games, Dallas is allowing a third-down conversion rate of 54%, per Bobby Belt. The record for the worst third-down conversion rate for an NFL defense is 51.9%. 

While the Cardinals started the game converting on 3-of-4 third downs because the penalty technically isn’t a play and thus doesn’t count. Arizona finished the game converting 7-of-13 third downs. Still, at one point in the game, Arizona converted 7-of-9 third downs, good for a 53.8% third-down conversion rate, right in line with Dallas’ average for the season.

The Cardinals were 4-for-5 on third down in the first quarter and three of those conversions were passes to Marvin Harrison Jr., who finished the quarter with 3 catches on 5 targets for 53 yards.

— Josh Weinfuss (@joshweinfuss) November 4, 2025

Schottenheimer said in his post-game press conference that the problems facing the team are inconsistencies. Unfortunately for Dallas, the Cowboys have actually been extremely consistent on defense and historically bad on third down. Dallas will look to Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline to try to find a boost for the defense, and will have a bye week in Week 10 to get things right for the second-half of the season. 

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Cowboys remaining 2025 schedule