An underwhelming season reached new lows Thursday night when the Dallas Cowboys (6-7) were bested by the Chicago Bears (7-6) 31-24 at Soldier Field.

For the second straight week, the Cowboys put together an uninspiring performance after scoring a touchdown on their first possession of the game.

The defense made Mitch Trubisky look like Aaron Rodgers as he finished 23 of 31 for 244 yards, three touchdowns and an interception to go with 10 carries for 63 yards and another touchdown.

The offense wasn’t much better, as five different possessions ended with a three-and-out. Dak Prescott’s box score doesn’t look bad at first glance – 27 of 49 for 334 yards and a TD – but a good portion of that came after Dallas was already down by three scores. It also ignores how Prescott’s accuracy issues limited the offense, especially in the first half.

To top things off, the Cowboys again were vastly outplayed on special teams, again bringing into question why they haven’t made some sort of change there. Brett Maher missed another field goal, which turned out to be important when Dallas was trying to come back late in the game, had a kickoff that went out of bounds and two incredibly unimpressive onside kicks (if that’s what you can even call the first attempt).

Dallas’ special teams woes continually put the offense and defense in sub-optimal situations. Coming into the game, the Cowboys’ average starting field possession was the worst in the NFL, according to Football Outsiders. That continued Thursday, as the Bears had five possessions start after a Cowboys kickoff (four if you don’t count the onside kick recovery with eight seconds left in the game), only one of which started inside their own 30-yard line. The Cowboys, on the other hand, had six possessions start after a Bears kickoff, only one of which DIDN’T start inside their own 30.

It’s honestly impressive how the Cowboys can simultaneously be in the NFC East lead but also look hopeless on the field.

In any event, let’s dive into a few things we learned (or that were reaffirmed) Thursday night.

Dallas’ defense is bad and the scheme isn’t helping

In three of the last four weeks, the Cowboys have allowed teams led by Jeff Driskel, Josh Allen and Mitch Trubisky to score 25-plus points, which begs the question of what Tom Brady could have done if the game environment wasn’t akin to a monsoon.

The Cowboys defense was comically bad against the Bears, as their effectiveness was cratered by poor tackling and discipline alongside a bland defensive scheme where adjustments are few and far between.

The front-seven was gashed repeatedly on the run, as Chicago picked up 151 yards on 34 carries. DeMarcus Lawrence and the rest of the Cowboys defensive line failed to dominate an offensive line that has struggled mightily for long stretches this season while the linebackers failed to be consistent tacklers.

Moreover, the Cowboys made some critical situational mistakes. Namely, two offsides penalties on third downs (one by DeMarcus Lawrence and another on Michael Bennett) enabled Chicago to extend drives that led to touchdowns.

On top of that, the scheme doesn’t take much pressure off an underperforming unit. The Cowboys’ defense is built off simplicity so that the players have to think less and can thus play faster.

From a coverage standpoint, the Cowboys play a ton of Cover 3, and by design they want to take away the deep ball and funnel passes underneath, which is illustrated by the fact the Dallas’ defense came into Thursday 25th in average depth of target (7.6). This works well when you have a fast defense filled with reliable tacklers. Dallas’ defense is certainly fast and filled with athletes but, as has become readily apparent this season, are terrible tacklers. Therefore, when offenses throw the ball underneath, short completions turn into moderate-to-big gains because of Dallas being inept in the tackling department.

Mitch Trubisky's passing chart vs DAL. Ate DAL up within 10 yards of the LOS. pic.twitter.com/MpgOdDsWpx — John Owning (@JohnOwning) December 6, 2019

Trubisky ate the Cowboys alive within 10 yards in the short-to-intermediate passing game, as he only had one incompletion on passes targeted within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage and went 4 of 11 on passes beyond 10 yards.

These short passes, especially screens, were made more productive by the myriad of missed tackles by the Cowboys defense, as their missed tackles enabled Chicago to gobble up yards after the catch.

On top of that, Dallas allowed Chicago to create too many easy completions underneath by giving receivers too much cushion by alignment, something that has become a common occurrence for the Cowboys defense this year.

Yet despite these issues creeping up consistently in the last few weeks, the defense hasn’t made significant changes, relying on the players to simply improve rather than putting them in a better position to make plays.

Dallas’ issues with scrambling quarterbacks is another issue where there’s been little adjustment to cover up a weakness. Instead of designating a player to spy on the quarterback, the Cowboys have relied on their defensive line to bottle up opposing quarterbacks, which just hasn’t been effective. Four of Trubisky’s 10 carries come on scrambles, three of which picked up a first down.

Instead of adjusting to cover up the weaknesses of their defense, the Cowboys coaching staff has remained stubborn with the way its called the defense.

Don’t get it twisted, this shouldn’t absolve the Cowboys players for their poor execution, as their play Thursday would have been poor regardless of scheme. However, the coaching staff deserves its fair share of criticism for failing to adjust.

While you can’t solely blame the coaching staff for the defense’s poor execution, the lack of discipline is a direct reflection of the coaching staff, and the lack of flexibility schematically is an even worse look.

Xavier Woods played his worst game as a pro

Sticking with the defense, Xavier Woods may have had the most disappointing performance of all.

Prior to this week, Xavier Woods’ play, especially in coverage, has been far from the problem on an underwhelming defense but that changed against Chicago, as Woods’ disappointing play harmed the defense on numerous occasions.

He was a complete liability in run support, as he continually took bad pursuit angles and missed a bevy of tackles as a result. Woods’ missed tackle on Trubisky’s 23-yard touchdown run illustrated his issues perfectly (above clip).

Not only was Woods late to trigger against the run, which made him late to fill the alley created by the zone read, but he took such a poor pursuit angle that he was completely out position when Trubisky cutback.

Trubisky wasn’t particularly quick, sudden or explosive once he cutback, but Woods’ pursuit angle put him in such a bad position that he couldn’t redirect back inside to prevent the touchdown.

One of the most important qualities in a safety, especially one that plays center field as much as Woods, is tackling ability, as safeties are often one of the last lines of defense. A missed tackle from a safety almost guarantees a big play for the offense.

Moreover, Woods failed to make up for issues defending the run in pass coverage. Woods had a crucial defensive holding penalty on third down in the third quarter, which enabled Chicago to score a touchdown just one play later.

All in all, Woods was far from the only issue on the Cowboys defense, but he was undoubtedly one of the biggest problems Thursday night.

Jamize Olawale’s roster spot would be better used elsewhere

As Dak Prescott and Jamize Olawale failed to connect on a crucial third down on account of a miscommunication, it brought back questions as to the purposes of Olawale’s spot on the Cowboys roster.

When the Cowboys traded for Olawale, there was a lot of talk about how he could provide another weapon for the Cowboys in the passing game as he’s extremely athletic for his size and can pose some matchup problems against linebackers for opposing teams in a base defense.

Even though that never came into fruition last year, Dallas still decided to re-sign Olawale to a three-year deal this offseason, giving some hope that Dallas would finally use Olawale’s talents as a receiver.

Despite giving Olawale a three-year deal worth $5.4 million, he has played in just 11% of the offense’s snaps and has yet to make any impact as a receiver whatsoever. So far this season, Olawale has gained the same amount of yards for the Cowboys offense as you have on your couch — 0. In fact, Olawale has only be targeted twice this entire season.

This means essentially all of Olawale’s impact on the Cowboys offense has come as a blocker, an area that isn’t Olawale’s strength, which is odd given that he’s a fullback but still true.

Olawale is not the type of fullback who pancakes a filling defender or dig a linebacker out of a whole; instead, Olawale must rely on body positioning and technique to turn and wall off defenders, which is exceedingly tough to do against a moving target.

For the second straight season, Dallas’ average yards per carry (coming into Thursday) has dropped when Olawale’s been on the field (3.96 this year and 2.25 last year) compared to when he’s been off the field (4.7 this year and 4.83 last year).

What’s the point of having a fullback on the roster if his presence doesn’t make a notable impact in the run game?

Even if Olawale was a good blocker at fullback, it wouldn’t make much of a difference because Olawale rarely sees the field on offense. Coming into Thursday, Olawale had only blocked on 47 of Dallas’ 330 run plays this year (14.2% of the time).

So again, why is Olawale still on the roster? If Dallas wanted a traditional fullback who wouldn’t be much of an option in the passing game, there are a myriad of better options than Olawale.

Yet, the Cowboys coaching staff stubbornly tries to fit a square peg (Olawale) in a round hole (the Cowboys offense), which just goes to show their lack of attention to detail when building the optimal 53-man roster.