A defense featuring many starters (Nwosu, JReed, Mafe, Michael Jackson, and Devin Bush along with rotational players looked eerily similar to what they looked like last season, while getting carved up by a Dallas squad who played no starters.
If you're not concerned about this after recent history, I don't know what to tell you.
I find your takeaway from the first two drives to be interesting. Yes, I found the run defense on Dallas's first drive to be concerning, as you say. But too small a sample size to worry that much. Throughout the game, I didn't see a wide-spread schematic failure that would prompt a concern about the run defense.
On the second drive that resulted in a Dallas TD, most of the failures came on pass plays. Generally, there was enough pressure on the QB, with the failures coming on the back end. But then, we were playing without Woolen, Diggs, Witherspoon and Wagner in coverage, so it wasn't that surprising. Again, it was one drive.
Two three-and-outs by the defense would give you a false sense of security, and unfortunately, the TD drive is giving you a sense of panic. The reality is somewhere in the middle. I suspect that if you went back and looked at the tape, you would feel a lot better.
