Doomsday Roundtable: Cowboys, Ravens and a Different Kind of Challenge in Rio

Two games into an NFL season, nobody really knows what a team is yet. You can, however, start figuring out what keeps its coaches awake at night.

For the Dallas Cowboys, a few candidates have already emerged. The running game hasn't generated much room. The defense has surrendered 173.5 rushing yards per game. Opposing quarterbacks alone have rushed for 126 yards—the most allowed by any NFL team through two weeks. And now the schedule offers its own peculiar sense of humor by sending Dallas to Brazil to deal with Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry.

Baltimore has questions of its own. The Ravens are also 1–1 after allowing New Orleans to come back and beat them 24–17 in Week 2. But Jackson has thrown for 559 yards, Henry has rushed for 212, and Baltimore is averaging 409 yards of offense per game.

Add a long flight to Rio de Janeiro, an unfamiliar stadium and questions—though increasingly fewer of them—about the condition of the Maracanã playing surface, and this isn't exactly another Sunday afternoon in Arlington.

So we brought the table back together. Jesse Worrell, Theo Marsh, Julian Vance and Marty Gaines take on five questions surrounding Cowboys-Ravens.

Question 1: Who's Watching the Quarterback?

Through the first two games, we've seen moments when the opposing quarterback takes off and Cowboys defenders seem unaware that he's running—sometimes with their backs or eyes turned away while he's coming almost directly toward them. Now Dallas gets Lamar Jackson. Is this primarily a scheme problem, an awareness problem, or simply the price of playing coverage against a mobile quarterback? And what has to change this week?

Jesse Worrell:

What concerns me isn't simply that quarterbacks have run against Dallas. Mobile quarterbacks are going to make plays. What bothers me are those moments when the quarterback takes off and a Cowboys defender who could potentially stop him doesn't seem to realize what's happening. We've seen defenders with their attention somewhere else while the quarterback is running almost directly toward them. That's a problem against anybody. Against Lamar Jackson, it can turn into a disaster very quickly. Dallas can't have eleven players staring into the backfield, obviously. Somebody still has to cover the receivers. But there has to be a point when the defense recognizes that the play has changed. Once Jackson commits to running, somebody has to react before he's ten yards downfield. The Cowboys have allowed 126 rushing yards to quarterbacks already. Jackson isn't the guy I'd choose to test whether they've learned the lesson.

Theo Marsh:

It's probably a little of all three, but assignment discipline is where I'd start. Defending a mobile quarterback creates a conflict. A linebacker or defensive back can't simply abandon his coverage responsibility because he thinks the quarterback might run. Do that against Jackson and he'll throw the ball behind you. The answer begins up front. Dallas has to maintain rush lanes and avoid creating escape routes. The cleaner the pocket remains structurally, the fewer impossible decisions you force onto the second level.

Julian Vance:

I'm less interested in what Dallas says it needs to do than whether it actually does it. Jaxson Dart ran. Jayden Daniels ran. Now Lamar Jackson is standing next in line. At some point, the explanation can't continue to be that mobile quarterbacks are difficult to defend. Of course they are. That's why defensive discipline matters. Jackson will probably make somebody miss Sunday. That's what he does. The question is whether Dallas limits those moments or spends another afternoon watching the quarterback reach the sticks before somebody realizes he's carrying the football.

Marty Gaines:

Quarterbacks used to scramble because something went wrong. Now some of them scramble because something went exactly right. That's the adjustment defenses have had to make. Lamar Jackson doesn't necessarily leave the pocket because Baltimore's play has broken down. Sometimes leaving the pocket is the problem Baltimore intended to give you. And nothing makes eleven professional football players look more confused than discovering the quarterback they thought they had surrounded is suddenly fifteen yards downfield. Dallas had better keep its eyes open.

Question 2: How Much Does Brazil Change the Week?

Playing outside the country adds another layer to an NFL week—travel, altered routines, unfamiliar surroundings and the challenge of keeping preparation as normal as possible. With both Dallas and Baltimore dealing with those changes, how much could the international trip affect this game, and which parts of preparation become especially important when neither team is following its normal weekly routine?

Jesse Worrell:

I think the biggest challenge is making an unusual week feel ordinary. These players live by routines. Meetings happen at certain times. Treatment happens at certain times. They practice, eat, sleep and prepare according to schedules they've followed for years. Now you're putting everybody on a long flight to another country and asking them to arrive Sunday feeling as though this is just another road game. The good thing for Dallas is that Baltimore has to deal with it too. Nobody gets to use the travel as an excuse.

Theo Marsh:

The football preparation interests me more than the geography. The more normal teams can keep the installation and practice schedule before getting on the airplane, the less football work they're trying to accomplish after arriving. The danger is mental as much as physical. This is the first NFL game ever played in Rio. There will be attention everywhere. For a few hours Sunday, somebody has to make all of that boring.

Julian Vance:

I'm probably less worried about the trip than everyone else. These aren't two teams flying commercial, standing in a security line and arguing about who gets the middle seat. NFL organizations have medical staffs, nutrition plans and people whose job is making trips like this manageable. Yes, it's different. Yes, the flight is long. But Baltimore is on the same continent as Dallas Sunday afternoon. Miss a tackle? That's not jet lag. Blow a coverage? Rio didn't do it. False start on third-and-2? Don't blame the passport.

Marty Gaines:

There was a time when an NFL road trip meant getting on an airplane, finding the hotel and hoping somebody remembered where they packed the shoulder pads. We've advanced considerably. Now there are sleep schedules, hydration plans, nutrition programs, recovery protocols and enough data to tell a player how well he slept while he was sleeping. And yet the basic challenge hasn't changed much: go somewhere unfamiliar and play good football. Once the ball is kicked off, though, Maracanã is still 100 yards long. At least I assume nobody in Brazil has converted that to meters.

Question 3: What Have We Actually Learned Through Two Games?

Two games aren't enough to tell us exactly what either of these teams will become, but they are enough to start revealing some tendencies. What have you seen as the biggest strength and biggest weakness of both Dallas and Baltimore so far—and which of those early-season trends matters most when they meet in Rio?

Jesse Worrell:

Dallas has made one thing pretty clear: the passing game can carry this offense. Dak Prescott has six touchdown passes through two games. When he's protected and the receivers are getting open, Dallas can move the football. The weakness is just as obvious. Dallas hasn't established much on the ground offensively, and defensively it hasn't stopped the run consistently enough. Baltimore presents almost the opposite problem. The Ravens already have a dangerous rushing attack, with Henry at 212 yards through two games, and then there's Jackson. To me, that's the matchup that matters most. Dallas can probably survive another week without a dominant running game if Prescott keeps playing like this. I'm not convinced it can survive an afternoon of Baltimore running successfully and keeping Prescott standing on the sideline.

Theo Marsh:

The numbers point toward a fairly straightforward clash. Dallas is allowing 173.5 rushing yards per game and producing only 67.5 rushing yards per game itself. Baltimore comes in averaging 409 yards of total offense. So Dallas needs to force Baltimore into situations where its own defensive strengths have a chance to matter. Get the Ravens behind the chains. Make Jackson operate on obvious passing downs. And offensively, let Prescott attack rather than spending three quarters trying to prove Dallas can run the ball.

Julian Vance:

Dallas' biggest strength right now is Dak Prescott. There. I saved everybody some time. The biggest weakness is that Dallas is becoming increasingly dependent on Dak Prescott. That's the part that should make people uncomfortable. Through two games, the Cowboys haven't demonstrated that they can consistently run the football, and the defense hasn't demonstrated that it can consistently stop somebody else from doing it. That's a difficult combination because both problems eventually put the game back in the quarterback's hands.

Marty Gaines:

Two games into an NFL season is about the time everybody starts discovering trends that will be completely forgotten by Halloween. So I'll offer that warning first. But some things are worth noticing. Dallas can throw the football. Baltimore can run it. Dallas hasn't run it particularly well. Dallas hasn't stopped it particularly well. You don't need Tex Schramm's computer department to recognize the potential problem there. The interesting part is what happens if Baltimore controls the ground game but Prescott keeps answering through the air. Then we're no longer talking about statistics. We're talking about which team eventually gets forced away from what it does best. And football games have a funny way of being decided right around that point.

Question 4: Jackson, Henry and the Problem With Picking Your Poison

Baltimore can attack a defense with Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry on the ground, while stopping the run has already been one of Dallas' biggest concerns. Is this the week we find out whether the Cowboys' rebuilt defense is actually improving, and how do you defend Jackson without creating opportunities for Henry—or vice versa?

Jesse Worrell:

This is probably the part of the matchup that worries me most. It's difficult enough preparing for Derrick Henry when the quarterback isn't also one of the most dangerous runners in football. With Baltimore, Dallas can't simply load everything toward Henry because Jackson can keep the ball, get outside and turn what looked like a successful defensive play into a big gain. And if defenders start hesitating because they're worried about Jackson? That's not exactly the reaction you want when Henry is coming through the line. Dallas doesn't have to stop every run for two yards. It has to avoid turning six-yard problems into 30-yard problems. After what we've seen through two games, this is a pretty serious examination of whether the run defense is actually getting better.

Theo Marsh:

Baltimore forces defenders to play assignment football. Against a conventional running game, the defense can often pursue aggressively once it identifies the direction of the play. Against Jackson and Henry, that aggressiveness can be manipulated. The backside defender matters. Edge discipline matters. Interior gap control matters. Everybody has to understand who is responsible for Jackson if he keeps the football. You aren't going to guess correctly every snap. The objective is making sure the structure of the defense gives you an answer regardless of who ends up carrying the football.

Julian Vance:

Here's the uncomfortable part: Baltimore doesn't need to invent anything exotic. The Cowboys have already shown teams where to test them. Run the football. Make Dallas prove it can stop you. And Baltimore happens to have Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson available for the experiment. If Dallas holds up reasonably well against this running game, that's meaningful evidence of improvement. If Henry is consistently reaching the second level untouched and Jackson is running through open space, then we're probably going to spend another week discussing the same defensive problem with a different opponent's name attached to it.

Marty Gaines:

Derrick Henry is 6-foot-3 and 252 pounds. Lamar Jackson runs like he's late for an appointment. This seems unnecessarily complicated. The real problem isn't simply that both can run. It's that defending one can make you wrong against the other. Take one false step toward Henry and Jackson may be outside. Start drifting toward Jackson and suddenly 252 pounds is headed through the space you just vacated. There isn't a clever answer to that. Dallas has to tackle well, stay where it's supposed to stay and make Baltimore earn its yards instead of donating them. Sometimes football really is that complicated—and that simple.

Question 5: And Then There's the Grass

There has been plenty of discussion this week about the condition of the field at Maracanã Stadium. The NFL says it expects the surface to be ready, but after heavy rain and criticism from soccer players who regularly play there, should either team be concerned? And could an unfamiliar or less-than-perfect surface change how Dallas or Baltimore approaches the game?

Jesse Worrell:

I'm less concerned about what the field looked like a week before the game than what it looks like when the teams walk onto it Sunday. The concerns weren't invented. Players who regularly use Maracanã have criticized the surface, and Dallas has been in contact with the league about it. But the NFL says it expects the field to be ready. So until we see otherwise, I'm inclined to take them at their word. But if players start slipping during warmups, it becomes something to watch immediately. Dallas has an offense built around timing and receivers changing direction. Baltimore has Lamar Jackson changing direction in ways that occasionally seem to violate the laws of physics. Neither team wants the field becoming part of the story.

Theo Marsh:

The first thing I'd watch is footing rather than appearance. A field doesn't have to look beautiful to play well. Where it becomes strategically important is if players can't plant confidently. Pass rushers need leverage. Defensive backs have to transition. Receivers need to cut. Offensive linemen need traction to generate movement. If the footing is reliable, this becomes a non-story very quickly. If it isn't, both coaching staffs will notice before we do.

Julian Vance:

I'm putting this in the category of things I'm willing to worry about when there's something to worry about. The NFL says the field will be ready. Fine. If Sunday arrives and we're watching players slide around like somebody forgot to tighten their cleats, I'll change my answer. Until then, Dallas has enough actual football problems to solve without borrowing one from the grounds crew.

Marty Gaines:

I have one requirement for a football field: the grass should remain approximately where they put it. Everything after that is negotiable. Maracanã has hosted some of the biggest sporting events on the planet. On Sunday, somebody is going to paint NFL markings across it and ask a collection of very large men to spend three hours digging it up. What could possibly go wrong? The serious answer is that footing matters, particularly with a quarterback like Jackson and a Cowboys defense already worried about containing him. But both teams have to play on the same grass. If it's good, play football. If it's slick, adjust. And if Derrick Henry comes around the corner at full speed, I wouldn't recommend standing there inspecting the turf.

Final Word

For all the unusual elements surrounding this game, the biggest questions facing Dallas are remarkably ordinary football questions. Can the Cowboys maintain awareness when Jackson escapes the pocket? Can they keep Henry from controlling the game between the tackles? Can an offense that has been overwhelmingly dependent on Prescott find a little more balance? And can a defense that has allowed 347 rushing yards in two games begin to change that story against perhaps the least convenient opponent imaginable?

Brazil provides the backdrop. Maracanã provides the stage. But once the passports are put away and the football is kicked, Dallas isn't really playing against the flight, the hotel, the time change or the grass. It's playing Baltimore.

And after two weeks of trying to figure out exactly what these Cowboys are, Sunday in Rio should tell us a little more.