EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Christian Parker called plays in a live game for the first time Sunday night, and the New York Giants converted 9 of 11 third downs, went 4-for-4 in the red zone, and held the ball for 36:40 in a 28-20 win at MetLife Stadium.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer was asked what he tells a coordinator after a debut like that.
“Don’t flinch. I mean, you can’t flinch in this league. You’re going to get humbled at times. It happens. He’ll learn from it. We’ll learn from it. He’s going to be hardest on himself anyways,” Schottenheimer said. “But at the end of the day, when you look at the numbers, I mean, they were 4-for-4 in the red zone. They were 9-for-11 with a kneel down on third down. It’s just not good enough. And so we’ve got to figure out why. And we’ve got to do it in a hurry.”
The Dallas starters did not play in the preseason. The Cowboys allowed more points than any team in the NFL last season and rebuilt the unit around Quinnen Williams, Von Miller, Cobie Durant, and rookie Caleb Downs.
Brian Schottenheimer Says This Was Not The Practice Defense
Asked what would stop anyone from watching the film and concluding the defense is a carryover from last season, Schottenheimer pointed to August.
“Every day we went against them in practice, the defense that we saw in practice was not what we saw tonight,” Schottenheimer said. “But the offense wasn’t the offense that we saw in practice. We just didn’t perform very well. And that starts with me as the head coach, then it goes to our coaches, but our players.”
New York gained 394 yards, ran 68 plays to Dallas’ 52, and punted once. Jaxson Dart completed 23-of-29 passes for 230 yards and 3 touchdowns for a 134.2 passer rating.
The Contain Problem With Jaxson Dart
Dart carried 11 times for 54 yards, including a 22-yard run around left end on the opening drive and a 16-yard run in the second quarter. He ran on three of the first four plays of New York’s fourth-quarter touchdown drive.
Schottenheimer was asked whether Dallas simply has to live with mistakes from young players.
“Well, you don’t want to live with that many mistakes. They’re going to make mistakes. We know that,” Schottenheimer said. “But to give up contain on an athletic quarterback like that, like Jaxson, that shouldn’t happen the multiple times that it did. It was not a play style thing. They were playing hard. But there’s a discipline element to what we have to get done starting tomorrow when we watch the film with the coaches. And there’s a way to play, and we did not play to that tonight.”
He said inexperience was a factor without offering it as an excuse.
“One of the things, not an excuse, guys, we did not play well. But you got young players,” Schottenheimer said. “Those are going to happen, and we have to coach the young players better. But when you play young players, it’s part of the deal. And they need to learn quickly.”
The Pass Rush
Dallas sacked Dart twice and hit him 6 times. Donovan Ezeiruaku and defensive tackle James Bullard split one. Downs had the other on a second-quarter blitz.
“He’s an athletic guy. We did not get enough pressure on him,” Schottenheimer said. “He looked pretty comfortable back there. And, again, I thought we had some good shots on the ball, but the pass rush does have to be better for sure.”
Miller was signed this offseason after a year in Washington and entered the night with 138.5 career sacks. Asked whether Miller played as many snaps as he wanted, Schottenheimer said he would have to check.
“This was a situation where they didn’t really want to get in a situation, and we didn’t force them in any situation where they had to drop back and throw the ball and we could hunt,” Schottenheimer said. “It was more we were having to set edges and try to fill gaps and things like that.”
Dallas hosts the Washington Commanders on Sunday at AT&T Stadium. Kickoff is 3:25 p.m. CT on FOX.
