Confused Dan Quinn blames missing ‘secret sauce’ for Cowboys loss to Bills

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The Dallas Cowboys coaching staff has been bombarded with questions about what went wrong following a 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn is trying to put his finger on how his group were so poor in virtually every respect.

Cowboys Sloppy Tackling

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the Cowboys were brutal against the run, allowing a whopping 266 to Buffalo on Sunday.

The Bills’ James Cook ran wild throughout the game, registering 179 yards rushing on 25 carries with a touchdown.

That’s the first time since 2012 that the Cowboys have given up over 175 yards on the ground.

In 2012, Washington’s Alfred Morris scorched the Cowboys with 200 rushing yards.

On the Cowboys’ official website, Quinn had a simple answer for why his run defense struggled so mightily.

“The biggest impact on this game was our tackling and our ball-hawking,” Quinn said.

“We’re excellent at those two things, and we had a poor performance in both. Our tackling wasn’t up to the standard we’ve set. That is our secret sauce, our tackling and our ball-hawking, and we didn’t have it.”

That much is clear, but how do you fix that issue?

Quinn says it’s challenging to find a quick fix, adding that it could boil down to the base of their techniques.

“I would say it’s more in the concentration piece,” he said.

“The other is maybe you’re too aggressive. You’re flying past and not taking the right angle. Usually, the truth is somewhere in the middle. In this case, we needed to take the extra step. We weren’t going to lunge and miss because we didn’t have the right angle in taking the next step.”

Quinn was missing Jonathan Hankins through injury, and his absence was felt.

Mazi Smith took his place, and though he had a sack, Cook left him in the dust numerous times.

The truth is the Cowboys have been average at best against the run all season, 13th per NFL.com, allowing 4.3 yards per carry.

It only gets more complicated from here

Looking ahead to the following two Dallas opponents, their job against the run will not be any easier.

This weekend, the Cowboys head to South Beach for a date with the #1 ranked offense in the Miami Dolphins.

We all know the danger Tyreek Hill poses should he be healthy, but the Phins also have a two-headed monster to contend with out of the backfield.

Raheem Mostert is third in NFL rushing this season (966), while De’Von Achane is productive when he touches the ball, averaging 8.5 yards per carry on 72 attempts.

As a team, Miami is fourth in overall rushing, averaging 139.6 yards per game.

After that, Dallas battles the Detroit Lions, who boast a formidable running back themselves.

David Montgomery is seventh in NFL rushing with a 4.8-yard average and has 855 yards in 11 games.

If they want, make a Super Bowl run; meanwhile, there’s a good chance they’ll have to go through the San Francisco 49ers and the league’s leading rusher, Christian McCaffrey (1,292 yards).

The next couple of weeks will test this group’s character.