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# The 2025 Cowboys Fielded One of the Worst Pass Defenses of the EPA Era — and the Deep Ball Broke Them
- URL: https://www.statsdigest.com/cowboys-historic-deep-ball-collapse-2025/
- Published: 2026-07-24T03:55:37.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-24T03:55:37.000Z
- Description: The 2025 Cowboys pass defense allowed the NFL's 4th-worst EPA/play since 1999, undone by a historic collapse on deep balls. See the full data breakdown.
- Author: Bill Seifert
- Tags: Cowboys, EPA, pass defense, 2025 NFL, deep ball defense, NFL analytics

"The Cowboys defense was bad in 2025" is a take everyone already has. The number worth staring at is more specific: Dallas allowed **+0.167 defensive EPA/play**, the **4th-worst mark by any NFL defense since 1999** — a 27-season window that covers roughly 850 team-seasons.

And the failure had a shape. This wasn't a broad, evenly-distributed collapse. It was one very specific thing going catastrophically wrong.

## Table of Contents

1. The headline: 4th-worst since 1999
2. Where the damage happened: the deep ball
3. The worst deep-ball completion rate
4. The eleven bombs
5. What it added up to

## 1\. The headline: 4th-worst since 1999

Only three defenses in the entire EPA era (1999–2025) surrendered more expected points per play than the 2025 Cowboys:

| Rank  | Team    | Season   | Def EPA/play | Pass EPA/play allowed |
| ----- | ------- | -------- | ------------ | --------------------- |
| 1     | DET     | 2020     | +0.204       | +0.300                |
| 2     | DET     | 2008     | +0.179       | +0.274                |
| 3     | HOU     | 2020     | +0.170       | +0.242                |
| **4** | **DAL** | **2025** | **+0.167**   | **+0.221**            |
| 5     | CAR     | 2024     | +0.160       | +0.159                |
| 6     | LV      | 2018     | +0.157       | +0.226                |
| 7     | NYJ     | 2025     | +0.147       | +0.253                |

Within 2025, the Cowboys' pass defense was the second-worst in the NFL by EPA/play allowed through the air (+0.221), trailing only the Jets (+0.253) and comfortably ahead of the third-worst Commanders (+0.201). On the ground Dallas allowed +0.095 EPA/play, which is bad but nothing like historic — it's the passing game that put this defense in the record book.

## 2\. Where the damage happened: the deep ball

The `pass_defense_depth` table breaks pass EPA into behind-the-line, short, intermediate, and deep (20+ air yards). Here's Dallas in 2025:

| Depth tier     | Plays  | EPA/play allowed | Comp %    |
| -------------- | ------ | ---------------- | --------- |
| Behind LOS     | 102    | −0.017           | 79.4%     |
| Short          | 284    | +0.240           | 75.0%     |
| Intermediate   | 102    | +0.538           | 55.9%     |
| **Deep (20+)** | **66** | **+1.018**       | **45.5%** |

Every bucket except behind-the-line ranged from mediocre to awful. But **1.02 EPA per play** on deep throws was the **3rd-worst mark in the NFL in 2025**, behind only Minnesota (1.08) and Pittsburgh (1.08).

## 3\. The worst deep-ball completion rate

The most striking single number in this whole exercise is the year-over-year jump in deep completion percentage against Dallas:

| Season   | Deep targets | Deep comp % | Deep EPA/play | Deep INTs |
| -------- | ------------ | ----------- | ------------- | --------- |
| 2024     | 70           | 31.4%       | +0.470        | 6         |
| **2025** | **66**       | **45.5%**   | **+1.018**    | **2**     |

The volume of deep shots taken barely moved — 70 to 66\. What moved was the hit rate. Opposing quarterbacks completed **45.5% of their 20+ air-yard throws** against Dallas, up from **31.4%** the year before, while the Cowboys' deep-ball interception total fell from six to two.

That 45.5% is the highest mark against a Cowboys defense in any season the pass\_defense\_depth table records (back to 2011 for Dallas specifically). The nearest comparison in the last 15 years is 2020 at 45.9% — but that Dallas team faced 61 deep targets and gave up 0.68 EPA/play on them, a full third of a point less per play than 2025.

In other words: opponents didn't try to attack Dallas deep more often. They just connected far more often when they did, and every completion did more damage.

## 4\. The eleven bombs

Dallas allowed **11 touchdowns on passes traveling 20+ yards in the air** in 2025 — the second-most in the NFL, one behind Chicago (12), and ahead of San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Atlanta (all 8–9).

The biggest individual deep-ball games against Dallas, by receiving yards on 20+ air-yard throws:

| Receiver          | Team | Deep targets | Deep rec | Deep yards | Deep TDs |
| ----------------- | ---- | ------------ | -------- | ---------- | -------- |
| Wan'Dale Robinson | NYG  | 4            | 3        | 107        | 1        |
| Malik Nabers      | NYG  | 6            | 3        | 105        | 2        |
| Luther Burden     | CHI  | 2            | 2        | 94         | 1        |
| Quentin Johnston  | LAC  | 3            | 2        | 73         | 1        |
| Jalen Nailor      | MIN  | 2            | 2        | 43         | 1        |

The Giants — a two-win offense in most weeks — put up 212 deep receiving yards and three touchdowns across their meetings, mostly on Nabers and Robinson. 

## 5\. What it added up to

Dallas finished **7–9–1**, scoring **471 points** and allowing **511**. The offense was fine — 471 points is a top-10ish scoring output.

Historically bad defenses usually get remembered as a whole-unit failure — "they couldn't stop anyone." The 2025 Cowboys were different.