CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Brian Schottenheimer said his team wasn’t physical enough. Trevon Diggs said the defense lacks an identity. Rico Dowdle said it pretty matter-of-factly about his former team: “They wasn’t buckled up.”
On Sunday afternoon at Bank of America Stadium, the Cowboys suffered a crushing 30-27 defeat to the Panthers. It’s hard to accept a three-point loss as “crushing,” but when you hear what came from the locker room and the podium — and what’s on the stat sheet — you begin to understand a few things.
The Cowboys’ defense is regressing, and it doesn’t appear the players have confidence in defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus’ scheme.
“Yeah, it’s very frustrating,” Diggs said. “It’s all these points [allowed], the receivers are running wide open down the field. Too many busted coverages. It’s a lot. I feel like we’re all over the place and we really don’t have no identity.”
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That was from the locker room.
At the podium, coach Brian Schottenheimer offered the following:
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“They controlled the game on both sides and got to give them credit for that,” he said. “We knew they were a physical football team and we weren’t surprised by that. They were able to run it and we weren’t. And this is a game where you got to win the line of scrimmage and we didn’t win the line of scrimmage today and I told the team. That’s disappointing.”
Guard Tyler Smith agreed with Schottenheimer when informed about the lack of needed physicality.
“I think we could have been better physically,” Smith said. “I think we didn’t run the ball the way we wanted to and I see that as a challenge to us to see who we want to be. I think that’s important. We have to be efficient in runs and we have to stay ahead of the sticks and that’s something we didn’t do good enough today.”
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Now, for the stats.
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Dowdle, coming off a career-high 206 rushing yards where he was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week, is a candidate again for the award.
Dowdle rushed for 183 yards on 30 carries. He also caught four passes for 56 yards with a touchdown. As an offense, the Panthers rushed for 216 yards, which comes to 5.7 yards per carry.
Panthers quarterback Bryce Young completed 17 of 25 passes for just 199 yards, but he connected on three touchdown passes, all to open receivers — Dowdle in the flat and two scores for rookie Tetairoa McMillan.
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The Cowboys’ defense allowed 410 yards of offense and, with the game on the line, couldn’t get their opponent off the field. The Panthers finished the game with a 15-play, 71-yard drive that took 6:07 off the clock.
Backup cornerback Kaiir Elam was penalized for pass interference on a key third-and-7 from the Panthers’ 17 with 5:22 to go. On a key fourth-and-4 from the Cowboys’ 40, corner DaRon Bland played off, allowing space for receiver Hunter Renfrow to get into the route and catch a 7-yard pass for the first down.
On the next play, Dowdle gained nine yards and the Cowboys called a timeout with 1:52 left. Schottenheimer said the Cowboys talked about letting the Panthers score without resistance so they could get the ball back. After Trevor Etienne picked up 11 yards, sliding to the Cowboys 12, all there was time for was to watch the kicker.
Rookie Ryan Fitzgerald made a game-winning 33-yarder as time expired to seal it. Maybe this result shouldn’t come as a surprise.
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The Cowboys just didn’t look comfortable with their defense. It appears Dallas practiced working in more man-to-man coverage leading into the game, but elected to play more zone than was expected against the Panthers.
It leads to many questions about whether the players believe in the defensive scheme.
“That’s the bigger question, I would think so, I would hope so, we’re six games in,” Schottenheimer said. “Yeah, I would think so, we plugged one hole in the passing game a couple of weeks ago, certainly we’ve shown the ability to run the football, we’ve shown the ability to stop the run. But there’s a consistency that’s not showing up and we got to be better and that starts with me.”
Schottenheimer believes he’s got the right personnel and man (Eberflus) for the job.
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“Yeah, no question about it,” he said. “We got to coach better, got to play better.”
Do the players believe?
“Me personally, I think it’s an easier way of doing things and simpler things that we can do to get better production and better execution out of the players, especially the guys that we got,” Diggs said.
Quarterback Dak Prescott threw three touchdown passes and receiver George Pickens caught nine for 168 yards. But the Cowboys rushed for a season-low 31 yards.
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Dreadful.
“I agree,” Smith said on the lack of physical play. “The physicality wasn’t there. Rico had a great game today, he was running the ball hard. They won on that battle today.”
Out of reach: See photos as Cowboys’ loss to Panthers goes down to the wire 50 imagesView GalleryRelated StoriesRead More’They wasn’t buckled up’: Ex-Cowboy Rico Dowdle gets the last laugh against former teamDowdle ran through the Cowboys’ defense early and often to the tune of over 200 total yards.The Cowboys’ offense has to be near-perfect to win. Against the Panthers, it wasn’tThe offense had a chance to take control of the game in the fourth quarter but went three-and-out.Advertisement
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