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If you're a Cowboys fan, you don't care whether Tony Romo and Terrell Owens really had a meeting or didn't have a meeting to discuss the offense last Sunday.

What you're really wondering is when 11 guys on defense are going to get together to discuss what they're doing.

Or not doing.

After any defeat, there is much chatter about what went wrong. All that needs to be said about the offense is that Romo can do better than his interception-a-game thing and that it's time for Owens to get his first 100-yard game of the season and that Jason Garrett needs to remember to get Felix Jones on the field and Marion Barber into the 20-carry range.

All of that can be done. The Cowboys at 3-1 have gained more yards than any other team in the league except high-flying Denver. With Romo and all of his weapons, offense is not an issue.

But as the Cowboys move into the easiest quarter of their schedule – Bengals, at Cardinals, at Rams, Bucs – we still don't know what this defense is capable of. The off-season moves to shore up each unit, to create more pressure and to construct one of the deepest secondaries in the NFL – none of that is showing up.

You watch the Ravens play Pittsburgh on Monday night. That's a defense.

You watch the Eagles play anybody other than the Cowboys on a Monday night. That's a defense.

The Cowboys?

They rank 11th in yards allowed per game at 314.2. That's in spite of getting to play Cleveland when the Browns were at their absolute worst.

The Cowboys also rank 18th in points allowed per game at 22.2. That's ridiculous.

Basically, in yards allowed, they are a little better than Cincinnati. In points allowed, they are a little worse than Cincinnati.

And the Bengals' defense is a Mike Zimmer work in progress that nobody is going to confuse with an elite unit.

You'd think a secondary with first-round picks in Terence Newman, Adam Jones and Mike Jenkins and high-dollar free agents in Anthony Henry and Ken Hamlin could be dominant. The Cowboys' next interception will be their first.

Despite years of focusing on the defense in the draft and free agency, Bill Parcells couldn't produce a consistent defense and Wade Phillips hasn't done so, either.

At some point, you recognize that it's not about coaching and start looking at the players.

Whether the Cowboys are facing a wounded Carson Palmer or his backup, Ryan Fitzpatrick, this is a game in which the defense needs to make a first-half statement that it's not going to let a winless team think about pulling an upset in Texas Stadium.

The Bengals nearly did that in Giants Stadium two weeks ago, going to overtime against the Super Bowl champions. If Palmer's elbow is better than it would appear to be – he didn't play last week or throw much this week – then the Cincinnati offense could be a concern.

After what we saw from the Cowboys' defense in the first month, just about any NFL offense has the potential to be a concern.

A unit that's not generating turnovers and not getting opposing offenses off the field in a timely manner is not a championship defense.

If the Cowboys truly have those capabilities, their defense needs to start playing like one.

There's no time to waste. The Cowboys' December schedule includes at the Steelers, the Giants and Ravens here and at the Eagles. A team that has a nasty habit of wearing down needs to give itself some room for a mistake at season's end.

This next quarter is the part of the schedule when the Cowboys have to assert themselves. If the defense can't play significantly better, it isn't going to happen.