Cowboys defensive philosophy FAIL, explained in two plays:
1st play: Falcons 2nd TD drive at start of 2nd half. On 3rd down and goal from the 3, Cowboys decide to rush 3 guys and cover with 8. You only have just a small portion of the field to cover with it being the 3 yd line and the end zone being 10 yards in depth. Falcons run 5 people into pattern, meaning we have limited area to cover with EIGHT damn guys, and yet the Falcon WR is WIDE OPEN in the back of the endzone instantly. It wasn't like Ryan stood there forever, or ran around left and right waiting for someone to come open. The guy was WIDE OPEN immediately, with EIGHT GUYS to cover 5.
2nd play: Later in game Cowboys are double covering Julie Jones in a slant route inside. Good coverage by outside guy and Scandrick is inside. When they show the replay Scandrick is literally facing the receiver with his back to the QB, the ENTIRE TIME. Had he ever looked around (if Scandrick could catch it, which he probably wouldn't have anyway because he has hands of stone, but I digress) it's probably an easy pick 6
Both these plays are universal examples of what is wrong with the defensive philosophy and are plays that on a week to week basis you can find examples of quite often.