Xavier Woods Explains - And Admits - Cowboys 'Lack Of Effort'

With An Honesty That Does Him No Favors, Xavier Woods Explains Away His Dallas Cowboys' Defensive 'Lack Of Effort'

FRISCO - There are probably times when an NFL player, for his own good, should just feed the media answers by rote.

Dallas Cowboys safety Xavier Woods Is about to experience one of those times.

“I mean, on certain plays, some guys, me included, there may be a lack (of effort),'' Woods said in a Wednesday conference call with the DFW media. "But overall, the effort is there.

But ... is it?

"I mean, we’re in the NFL,'' Woods continued to try to explain. "You don’t expect guys (going) full-speed for 70 plays. That’s not possible."

What Woods is revealing here is an unfortunate truth of not just football life, but life in general. Nobody - not you, Dear Reader, and not me - "goes full-speed'' in every single thing they do in every waking hour of every single day.

But ... he shouldn't have said it.

The Cowboys are 1-3 and coming under scrutiny for defensive performances that add up to them having allowed the most points in the league (36.5 points per game) through four games, and over 42 points per in the last three games, and records for futility on that side of the ball that offset every record QB Dak Prescott is setting on the offensive side.

DeMarcus Lawrence admitted a lack of effort contributed to a Week 4 loss to the Browns in which Dallas was bludgeoned, 49-38. Coach Mike McCarthy tried to argue his way out of that concept with the media, insisting, "We don’t have an effort issue. You’ve got to be really careful when you start challenging professional athletes about effort, especially from a distance.''

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READ MORE: McCarthy Defends Cowboys' Effort, Coaching and Scheme

But Lawrence didn't call his team "soft'' "from a distance''; he has a front-row seat to it. And now Woods is echoing the same - but unlike Lawrence, who chastised his team for it, Xavier is explaining it away with a logic that is better left unsaid.

To some degree, Woods deserves credit for an odd truth - and for his willingness to accept blame for the losing.

"Take that medicine like a man,'' he said. "Like a professional. We know we messed up. But you come in, take that medicine, and you get better from it."

Besides "medicine,'' what is the solution?

"It's on everyone'' to solve it, Woods said. "Everyone. Coaches, players, we got to be on one page. They install it, but as players, we're out there on that field, we're the ones playing and at the end of the day, we're going to be the ones held accountable because we're the ones out there playing.''

"Out there playing'' ... but not always at full-speed.