FRISCO – After eight games, the Cowboys have presented themselves as a mediocre team with the confidence it can solve its problems.
How?
Coach Brian Schottenheimer said Monday it starts with the people in the building from the players to the coaches. And that everyone has to hold each other accountable. Stephen Jones, the team co-owner, told The Fan (105.3 FM), changes must come to fix things and that starts with the front office.
Schottenheimer also said personnel and scheme changes must occur to solve things.
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“A lot of things, quite honestly, a lot of things,” he said of changes without getting into specifics. “You can’t come off a game like yesterday and not expect there to be changes. It was clearly our most incomplete game that we played as a football team, really all three phases.”
The Cowboys are 3-4-1 and haven’t won consecutive games all season. In a strange twist, the Cowboys haven’t lost consecutive games either, which explains their season after two months: Up and down.
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Schottenheimer’s group is 1-3 on the road and has a defense that’s allowed the second-most points (250) and yards (3,082) in the NFL.
Offensively, the Cowboys are fantastic. They average six yards per play (third in the NFL) and produced 3,073 yards (second in the NFL).
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Sunday afternoon, that offense was throttled by the Broncos’ defense in a 44-24 loss.
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Dak Prescott threw two interceptions. Tight end Jake Ferguson, fifth in the league in catches, finished with zero. The running attack, a bright spot this season, averaged 3.5 yards.
Prescott himself was hit eight times and sacked twice by Broncos defenders.
On the other side, Broncos quarterback Bo Nix was hit just once.
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Schottenheimer and Prescott had to answer questions about why the team didn’t attack more with star corner Patrick Surtain off the field with injuries. It’s fair to say that Kris Abrams-Draine, who replaced Surtain, was an easy mark.
“Definitely noticed that,” Prescott said. “It’s a lot that goes into that. You have two elite guys out at receiver. I honestly don’t really care who’s guarding them. No disrespect to the guys out there, even Surtain II. So, I mean, it’s not like, ‘Oh he’s out there I need to attack this other guy.’ I was just fine attacking [No.] 21 [Broncos CB Riley Moss], but the opportunities, we didn’t make them when they presented themselves and they did a better job.”
Abrams-Draine had played just one snap on defense, coming in Week 2, before taking over for Surtain six plays into Sunday’s loss.
But this is more about just one game. The majority of the season has encountered defensive issues, particularly in pass rush and pass coverage, two areas that are intertwined.
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Sunday, the Cowboys played with backup safeties and during the game moved a corner to safety. The front seven was relatively healthy, as it’s been this season, and the production continues to be inconsistent.
How can you fix that?
“No. 1, there’s always reason to change,” Schottenheimer said. “And there will be changes. I can promise you that. I can share you that. Like I said we’ve already had some of those meetings and we’ve talked about those changes. You know, we’re in the mode right now of we’ve got kind of a one-game season, and I just say that because we’ve got Arizona before the bye.”
Arizona is Monday night.
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Quarterback Kyler Murray, the Allen high grad, is 7-0 at AT&T Stadium. That’s no losses in high school. College. Pros.
It’s easy to pick the Cardinals. However, this season has been irregular, given the current state of the Cowboys and the lack of immediate answers to fix the problems.
“We’re all grown, we all understand what’s going on,” wide receiver CeeDee Lamb said. “But we’re definitely positive throughout the locker room. I’d rather over communicate than under, and being one of the leaders I should be the one just having us have that sense of urgency and understanding throughout the team. So, as for us, man we have to go back to the drawing board. We have a game on Monday night.”
Following the loss to the Broncos, Schottenheimer asked his team if anyone thought they’d played well to raise their hand.
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Nobody did.
On Monday, after watching the game tape, Schottenheimer asked the question again.
“Not really,” he said if anybody raised their hands. “I don’t think anybody coached well, either.”
The changes that Schottenheimer is promising will tell plenty in the coming weeks.
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