Everyone and their grandmother knew the Dallas Cowboys defense was going to be a weakness once again in 2026, with Jerry Jones still struggling to replace the presence of Micah Parsons. 

The Cowboys' offense becoming a significant part of the problem is nothing short of stunning, and that's on Brian Schottenheimer. After losing 24-16 against the previously 0-4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 5 and a 23-13 non-competitive defeat against the Green Bay Packers in Week 6, it's no longer a fluke. Dallas' "Greatest Offense There Is" (GOTI) has gone dark. 

Dallas is out to a 2-4 start to 2026, tied for the Cowboys' worst start to a season this decade. 

In Schottenheimer's first year as the head coach and play-caller in 2025, Dallas' offense soared, ranking seventh in the league in scoring (27.7 points per game) and second in the NFL in yards (391.9 yards per game). While harsh, lifeless is a fair descriptor for this season's back-to-back faceplants. The Cowboys have scored fewer than 20 points in consecutive Dak Prescott games for the first time since the Jason Garrett era.

"I mean, defense to me played a good enough game for us to go out there and win this, and we just didn't hold our own on offense," Prescott said last night, via The Dallas Morning News. 

* Cowboys: Consecutive Dak Prescott starts with under 20 points scored for the first time since 2019 (Jason Garrett's last season as head coach)

So how can a team with a top-10 quarterback, two top-10 receivers (CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens),three star offensive linemen and a running back coming off ranking top 10 in the NFL in rushing yards in 2025 (Javonte Williams) look this lost? 

Schottenheimer's offense has become stale seemingly overnight. Last season, Dallas ranked in the top half of the league in play action rate (28.2%), under-center rate (38.4%) and motion rate (56.6%). This season, the Cowboys now profile as dead last in the NFL in motion rate (36.5%), 28th out of 32 teams in under-center rate (30.4%) and 20th in play action rate. This was always going to be a pass-forward offense with Prescott and All-Pro caliber weapons at receiver like Lamb and Pickens, but between Smith missing the first four weeks of the season with a thumb injury and general inefficacy (76.0 rushing yards per game, second to last in the NFL) in 2026, Dallas is running the football at the lowest rate in the league at a 32.5% clip. 

A static offense that doesn't require opposing defenses to think too much is an easy one to defend against. Prescott (335 yards and a touchdown on 32 of 45 passing) and Lamb (17 catches for 189 yards receiving and a touchdown) went off in Dallas' 34-30 road win at the Houston Texans in Week 4. Houston is notorious for being one of the more vanilla defenses schematically and relying on their high-end talent up front at all three levels to win the day for them. Houston blitzes just 24.7% of the time in 2026, the sixth-lowest rate in the NFL, because they believe Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter are enough more often than not. Skill vs. skill, Prescott, Lamb and Pickens can go toe-to-toe with nearly every defense in the league. They won that battle with the Texans' defense. 

Over the last two weeks, against the Buccaneers (43.9% blitz rate, the third-highest in the NFL) and the Packers (33.9%, tied for the 10th-highest in the NFL), two defensive play-callers who get creative with their pressure packages on a weekly basis, Dallas hasn't presented many answers. Much of the reason for that is Schottenheimer not having the aforementioned easy buttons -- play action, lining up under center to make defenses wonder if it's run or pass, motion rate and running the ball -- makes Prescott's life against the blitz and more schematically-sophisticated defenses much more difficult. 

Forcing Prescott to come up with all the answers himself in real time while processing everything happening on the field is hanging him and his teammates out to dry. The result is him completing just over half his passes (15 for 29) when targeting Lamb and Pickens at Lambeau Field against the Packers in Week 6 for 143 yards and two interceptions. After lighting up the Texans for 17 connections for 189 yards and the game-winning touchdown pass from 12 yards out with 40 seconds left in Week 4, Prescott has completed just 11 of his 23 throws to Lamb for 79 yards and two interceptions across the last two weeks. The inability of the Cowboys' offense to regularly get Lamb and Pickens the ball had Dez Bryant befuddled on his couch Sunday night. 

"We have some of the best WRs in the National Football League. The Packers aren't doing anything exotic, so I don't know why we're not attacking the outside more aggressively," Dez Bryant wrote Sunday night. "Hitch routes, hooks, go's and slants are all there."  

Until Schottenheimer reincorporates some of the sophistication from 2025 into his 2026 offense, Prescott and the rest of Dallas' highly talented offensive pieces will continue to be stuck grinding their gears. The on-field talent present can be a well-oiled machine, but it's going to take the right formula from Schottenheimer to get the Cowboys' offense humming once again.