DeMarcus Ware: Cowboys defenders playing together in Eberflus' system

For the better part of ten weeks, the Cowboys defense was one of the worst in football, whether viewed through a statistical lens or just, well, using your eyeballs. Most fans and a good many analysts were ready to run first-year coordinator Matt Eberflus out of town in Dallas, despite team owner Jerry Jones and head coach Brian Schottenheimer voicing confidence in the 55-year-old.

The past two weeks, however, have seen a dramatic turnaround on that side of the ball in the team's wins over Las Vegas and Philadelphia that has largely quieted the critics.

One legendary Cowboys defender believes that's not an anomaly. It's Eberflus's unit finally clicking.

"You can see it's a 'team' type of defense," said Hall of Famer DeMarcus Ware in a one-on-one conversation this week. "If you play together, you win together."

Ware sat down with Cowboys Wire to talk about his Thanksgiving Day plans which will take him to AT&T Stadium with Crown Royal. He'll be tailgating with fans ahead of the team's kickoff versus the Kansas City Chiefs and accepting canned food donations that will go directly to the North Texas Food Bank this holiday season.

Ware certainly knows what he's looking for from an Eberflus defense. Eberflus was the linebackers coach for Ware's final three years in Dallas, and the franchise's all-time sacks leader says he can see what he thinks is Eberflus's best quality starting to shine through in this year's unit.

"Passion. He's probably one of the most passionate coaches I got to play with. But he was always a conduit to being able to bring the best out of players," Ware explained. "He puts players in the position to make plays. And it's on the players."

But the seven-time Pro Bowler acknowledges that not all players are cut out to succeed in an Eberflus system, particularly when it comes to what he remembers as long, detailed playcalls with multiple assignments buried within the often-extended verbiage.

"His defensive plays are like offensive plays," Ware recalled. "So guys are like, 'Okay, what do I need to do?' But when you have young guys that just can't get it yet, it's hard for them because it requires a lot of communication. Like, a lot of communication. If you get out there and you're uncomfortable with talking, you're going to fail, because you've got to know what the next guy's doing. ... They're capable of doing it, but you've got to stick with exactly the play-call. And you can't do your own thing, because when one guy misses, that hole is huge."

A rotating cast of characters in the Cowboys' 2025 defense probably hasn't helped shorten that learning curve, but it may help explain the team's insistence on sticking with seasoned veterans like Kenneth Murray and Jack Sanborn through the early part of the season. (And one cannot help but wonder if Micah Parsons's tendency to move around and freelance would have been just too much of an X-factor in such a disciplined scheme.)

The recent onboarding of several dominant forces (Quinnen Williams and DeMarvion Overshown among them) finally puts the defensive roster closer to where the staff has wanted it to be all along. And even though Ware believes Eberflus's defense may still be "a couple more good players ... ones that are just really, really impactful" away from being truly elite, the difference on the field over just the past two weeks is obvious.

The magic ingredient may have been a healthy dose of patience.

"They're starting to get on the same page. They're starting to pick it up," Ware said. "And I'm like, 'I played in this defense. I played for Matt.' I know how he is and if you can just get the concept, he dials it in. And so to see that [against the Eagles] for four quarters, I was like, 'All right, this is the defense that we the fans need to see.'"

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This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: DeMarcus Ware: Cowboys defenders playing together in Eberflus' system