From a distance, this seems a perfect time for the Cowboys' defense to start working on that 32nd ranking in takeaways. After all, isn't that what facing backup quarterbacks is all about?

The last three quarterbacks the 4-9 Cowboys are scheduled to face -- the Jets' Ryan Fitzpatrick, Buffalo's Tyrod Taylor and Washington's Kirk Cousins -- were all slated for backup roles just a few months ago. For a variety of reasons ranging from locker-room sucker punches to Matt Cassel's inadequacy (sound familiar?), all three have started all season and, in fact, have thrived.

If the Cowboys pick off Fitzpatrick Saturday night, it will qualify as a genuine surprise. He was prone to interceptions early this season (seven in the first five games) but has thrown none in the last three games, all Jets victories. Likewise, Taylor has been picked off just five times all season for Buffalo. And Cousins has been much like Fitzpatrick with eight interceptions in the first six games and just three in the last seven (including none in Dallas' recent 19-16 win).

For the Dallas defense, these games represent an opportunity to resolve the discussion -- or at least tilt it one way or another -- as to whether this is a good unit. Or even a decent one.

It's truly baffling how good this defense can look for stretches while producing so little in the manner of impact plays.

With Tony Romo out most of the season, the offense has sagged badly. But the defense has frequently kept the Cowboys in games, at least until some kind of fourth quarter meltdown allows opponents to score that untimely final touchdown.

With DeMarcus Lawrence and Greg Hardy providing pressure, the Cowboys are at least solid at the end positions. Sean Lee has been outstanding this season and Rolando McClain has at times reprised his performance from 2014, so the team isn't hurting at linebacker, either.

"Arguably, these last three or four ballgames, we've lined up with as good a front seven as we've put on the field in many years,'' owner Jerry Jones said after the Green Bay game.

He wasn't saying that to brag so much as to wonder aloud how this team and this defense hasn't managed to produce better results.

If at least a handful of these players are really good, how can this team be so incapable of producing fumble recoveries (just two this season and one was actually by the punt coverage unit against Washington's DeSean Jackson)? And what do we make of cornerbacks who have now gone 536 passes without an interception? How is such a thing even possible?

If I'm allowed to shift into old man "get off my lawn" mode for a moment, when I started covering this team Everson Walls played cornerback. Do you think he ever went 536 passes without an interception in his Cowboys career? I can assure you he did not.

In his rookie year, his longest streak without an interception was four games. In strike-shortened 1982, his second season, he never went back-to-back games without picking one off.

Was that a different era with quarterbacks throwing riskier passes? OK, I'll give you that one. But we're talking one player. In today's game, the Cowboys are in the nickel defense more than half the time so that gives them three cornerbacks on most downs.

Yet Orlando Scandrick's interception of a Jay Cutler pass in Chicago last Dec. 4 remains the most recent by a Cowboys cornerback.

Brandon Carr, nearing the end of a financially rewarding four-year run here, last intercepted a pass on Thanksgiving Day. Against Oakland. In 2013.

Somehow in 2014 Rod Marinelli's defense produced 31 turnovers. We've talked a lot about how this team misses DeMarco Murray and a little about how it misses return man Dwayne Harris. Have we ignored Bruce Carter? Could this team have used his five interceptions again this season? How much difference might those plays have made for a team trailing the rest of the division by two games?

Three games almost destined to mean nothing in the standings could still teach us something about this defense and provide this organization at least a clue of where to place its focus in the draft and free-agency.

But perhaps these opposing quarterbacks are further removed from backup style play than what the Cowboys have been operating with most of the season. If so, then this defense is likely to keep looking like a 4-win defense.

Twitter: @TimCowlishaw.