Dallas Cowboys

After a 1-1 start, how good are Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys?

Updated Sep. 21, 2021 8:55 p.m. ET

The 2021 Dallas Cowboys are tough to put a finger on.

They're 1-1 after two weeks, with a two-point loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to open the season offset by a narrow victory over the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 2.

With nearly as many points allowed (48) as points scored (49), the Cowboys are spookily even on both sides of the ball.

They're floating around the middle of the league in terms of offensive production, ranked 15th with an average of 24.5 points per game.

And defensively? They're ranked 15th there, too, at 24.0 points allowed per game.

Of course, two weeks is a small sample, and there are other considerations at play ⁠— such as those numbers being skewed by playing the Bucs, who returned all 22 starters from their title-winning 2020 squad. There is also Dallas' long list of sidelined players to keep in mind.

But the NFL is a week-to-week league.

With 17 games over 18 weeks for a team to assert itself, every contest seemingly serves as a new referendum. This leads us back to the question many pundits are pondering about the 1-1 Cowboys: Are they a good team?

On Tuesday's episode of "Undisputed," Skip Bayless made the case that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to his Cowboys.

"My team is shockingly better than it was one year ago," Bayless said. "Let me count the ways. I start with the defense ... All of a sudden, my defense is hanging in in ways it never hoped to hang in last year. ... We are worlds better than we were last year."

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Skip Bayless explains why his Cowboys are better than expected after close loss to Bucs & win over Chargers I UNDISPUTED

Skip Bayless explains that his Dallas Cowboys are better than even he originally thought.

Bayless pointed to the emergence of rookie linebacker Micah Parsons, whom he dubbed a "game-wrecker," as a big reason that he's a believer in Dallas' defense, along with the hiring of Dan Quinn to replace Mike Nolan as defensive coordinator.

Offensively, Bayless said quarterback Dak Prescott is taking it to another level.

"You saw Dak Prescott play his greatest game ever on opening night, head-to-head with the GOAT [Tom Brady] at Tompa Bay," Bayless said.

Furthermore, as Marcellus Wiley detailed Monday on "Speak For Yourself," the Cowboys could have a running-back controversy brewing between Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard ⁠— in a good way.

"Every time he gets the football, you see a different response," Wiley said of Pollard. "Not only from his team, in terms of energy and electricity, but in outcome. Like, Tony Pollard is their starting running back. Now, by pay, by selection, by popularity, it's going to be Zeke, but stop that, y'all. If you want to have the greatest success, Pollard needs to be your starter. "

The issue, Wiley said, is that he isn't convinced head coach Mike McCarthy and the Cowboys will have that same realization.

As he put it, "If you're looking at the Cowboys, you've gotta squint to see some good things from [Sunday]."

Wiley's cohost, Emmanuel Acho, also shared some concerns about McCarthy and Dallas' coaching staff Monday. Early in the Cowboys' Week 1 loss to the Bucs, Acho tweeted that the Cowboys needed to rethink how they deploy Parsons as a defender.

By Week 2, with the defensive end position beset by injuries, Parsons stuck his hand in the ground and played almost exclusively as a pass-rusher.

That's all well and good, Acho said, but he wondered why it took the Cowboys so long to figure that out.

"I'm discouraged because yes, the Cowboys won," Acho said. "I applaud you all for winning. But how does me, an analyst that only watched a quarter and a half, know how to play your players in a better position than you all as the coaches? And Mike McCarthy, I'm still seeing the same errors from you that we've seen previously."

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By Tuesday, Acho was confident that he had determined what the Cowboys are this season.

"The Cowboys are ‘almost-barely,’" Acho said. "… You're almost good enough to beat a Super Bowl champion, and you're barely good enough to beat a team that didn't make the playoffs. … If you think the Cowboys are good, you're right. If you think the Cowboys are bad, you're right."

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Well, that's likely not the answer Cowboys fans were looking for.

But until the team proves otherwise, starting with a Monday night matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles, it's the answer they'll have to settle for.

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