Brian Schottenheimer says the Dallas Cowboys’ problems are not about how hard they play. “It’s not an effort issue. It’s an execution issue that starts with me as the head coach,” he said on Wednesday, three days after the 3-5 Cowboys lost 33-30 in overtime to the Arizona Cardinals. “I’m responsible for everything that happens here.”
Dallas visits the 2-6 Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, November 8, at 1:00 p.m. ET, which is 8:00 p.m. in Cairo. Schottenheimer also gave an injury update, explained why Dallas has used less pre-snap motion, and spoke about the anniversary of Marshawn Kneeland’s death.
“It’s not an effort issue”
Asked whether he feels his team played harder than the opponent and how he would measure that, Schottenheimer pointed to the film. “I think at the end of the day, you got to look out there and you watch the film, and when you see the film, it’s not an effort issue. It’s not an effort issue. It’s an execution issue that starts with me as the head coach,” he said. “Our execution has to get cleaner, and that comes down to execution.” He said Dallas has to be able to finish the games “we’ve unfortunately let slip away from us.”
His message to the team after Sunday was about consistency. Offensively, he said, “I feel like we could have put that game away with the offense late, and we didn’t.” On the whole, he said, the focus is “cleaning up the execution as a whole.”
George Pickens: “that starts with me as the play caller”
Asked how Dallas can get George Pickens more involved, especially early, Schottenheimer said the plan is to move him around. “These are the conversations we have daily,” he said. “He’s such a big part of what we’re doing as a football team and as an offense, to get him involved.” Pickens caught two passes for 48 yards against Arizona, including a 37-yarder. Schottenheimer said you can see his playmaking “on the long touchdown or the big play, I guess it got called back, because we’re holding,” and that he is “really proud of him, how he’s banged up and he’s playing through it.”
With CeeDee Lamb also having “incredible” numbers, Schottenheimer said the targets will be spread out when a team has two receivers like that. “George is the guy that we’re focused on, knowing we got to get [him] going more and better, and that starts with me as the play caller,” he said. Lamb caught seven passes for 58 yards on Sunday.
Why there is less pre-snap motion
A reporter noted that Dallas was 11th in the league in motion last season and is 30th this year. Schottenheimer said the plays are still in the plan. “We certainly have them in,” he said. “We believe in moving and shifting and motioning and things like that.” He gave two reasons for the drop: in a couple of games the Cowboys had to play from behind, so “you’re not going to move because you’re trying to speed up the game,” and sometimes motion can muddy what the offense is trying to show. “But make no mistake about it,” he said, “we do believe in shifts and motions.”
Big plays and penalties
Asked why the Cowboys have fewer big plays than last year, Schottenheimer said some never show up in the box score. “The ones that don’t go into the books are the PIs,” he said, pointing to pass interference penalties drawn by Pickens and Ryan Flournoy. “We hit George, he gets called back for a penalty.” Even so, he said, “we’re not to the standard that we’re capable of, and those are answers that we’re looking for.”
Balance and Dak Prescott
Asked whether Dallas could make an offensive “philosophical shift” after the conservative plan against Arizona, Schottenheimer said no. “At the end of the day, complementary football is how you win in this league. I’m never gonna apologize for trying to be balanced,” he said. “Dak Prescott’s an MVP-caliber player. We’ve got weapons, we’ve got good running backs. But at the end of the day, balance is real in football.” Prescott was 19 of 29 for 195 yards with a touchdown pass and a rushing touchdown against the Cardinals and was sacked four times.
Schottenheimer said the way to find that balance each week is “execution,” and “looking at the play calls” and “the way we’re practicing.” On the offensive line, he called the pressure Dallas has allowed “inconsistent, to say the least,” and said that in games where the Cowboys have had to throw a lot, “it’s hard to drop back and throw it that many times and keep the quarterback perfectly clean.”
Defense: tempo, the flats and a rebuild
On the defense, Schottenheimer said Dallas had Arizona’s offense in check early. He said the defense lost its footing “when they brought in Gardner, and they kind of went up-tempo on us.” “So having simple plans for that, when people want to go tempo on us, some teams have done that to us,” he said. “They want to make us make a call and kind of see what we’re doing.” Gardner Minshew II came in for Jacoby Brissett and went 17 of 23 for 188 yards and three touchdowns.
On teams throwing to the flats, he said there are tells to read from the running back’s alignment, and one call last week “was a man-to-man call. We were just playing a little bit too deep, and he got out there.” He said the answer is “solutions that we’ve already talked about as a staff, not in here.” Asked whether the rebuilt defense is developing more slowly than expected, he said, “We’re certainly not playing to the standard,” but said what “does give us hope is the type of young men that are in that room.” He added: “Make no mistake about it, we are not performing well enough as a football team, and not just defensively.”
Injuries and the pass rush
Schottenheimer said Caleb Downs and P.J. Locke are still in the concussion protocol, and that defensive end Malachi Lawrence is “gonna probably be a few weeks.” With both safeties out, he said the Cowboys could elevate players from the practice squad, and that “there’s some guys that have experience playing both nickel and safety that we can move around.” He said James Houston “did a great job last game for us” and that Dallas has “good flexibility” in its pass-rush room.
Remembering Marshawn Kneeland
Friday is the first anniversary of the death of Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland. Asked how the week has been and whether the team will do something on Sunday, Schottenheimer said the plans will stay private. “What we do to honor him and his legacy will probably stay between us,” he said. “But there’s not a day that doesn’t go by that we don’t miss him. Obviously the grief is real. The pain is real.” He said there are “a number of things here in the facility that honor him in different ways that are in areas that only the players” see.
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