FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys wanted to take Nico Collins out of Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans. Collins caught 7 passes for 118 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 34-30 Dallas win, and Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer did not soften it Monday at The Star.
“Well, I don’t mind being a jerk. I mean, that doesn’t bother me. I try to be honest. I try to point out the facts. Third-down defense, outstanding. Run defense, excellent. A bunch of three-and-outs and four-and-outs,” Schottenheimer said. “You point those things out, but we also talked this morning about the plan to win. We gave up too many explosives. We wanted to take Nico Collins out of the game. Well, we did a piss-poor job of doing that.”
“So, look, when you lose, it’s painful and it hurts. When you win, you celebrate,” Schottenheimer continued. “So I think you find the positives, which is always going to be positive, because you want to celebrate those things.”
Brian Schottenheimer Says Cowboys Did ‘Piss-Poor Job’ On Nico Collins
Collins was back from a hamstring injury that cost him two games. He caught a 45-yard pass on Houston’s first snap and a 7-yard touchdown to finish that drive. C.J. Stroud completed 21 of 31 passes for 347 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions, a 126.7 passer rating.
Houston ran for 62 yards on 19 carries. It was the first time this season Dallas held an opponent under 100 rushing yards, according to DallasCowboys.com. The Texans went 3-of-10 on third down, and the Cowboys forced consecutive three-and-outs in the second quarter.
Stroud looked comfortable in the first half, in Schottenheimer’s view, and the rush got better in the second. He wants the coverage tighter and the pressure earlier.
“Well, I think in the second half the pass rush was better. In the first half he looked pretty comfortable. We still need to do a better job of affecting the passer. Quarterbacks are being too efficient against us. I think every quarterback has been over a 130 rating,” Schottenheimer explained. “That’s certainly not what we want to be. It’s not what we’re going to be, but it starts up front, starts with some of the stickier coverages.”
“At the end of the day, I do think you saw guys making him uncomfortable. I wish it would have happened earlier in the game, but he still hurt us with too many explosives,” Schottenheimer added. “Again, that’s all of us tied together.”
Cowboys Pass Rush Finally Breaks Through Against C.J. Stroud
Rashan Gary had his first sack as a Cowboy in the second quarter, a 1-yard loss on third-and-4 that forced a punt. Quinnen Williams sacked Stroud for an 11-yard loss on third-and-3 early in the fourth quarter and finished with 2 tackles for loss. They were Dallas’ first sacks since Week 1.
Scoring 30 points a game is not how Schottenheimer wants to win. The defense is getting better, he said, and the areas it needs to fix are obvious.
“Yeah, I think at the end of the day, when you look at the numbers, we’re comfortable playing how we’ve got to play. I think our defense is getting better. I don’t want to have to score 30 points every game to win. That’s real,” Schottenheimer said. “But again, I do think that we’re pointing out all the things that we’ve done well. Certainly, the areas that we need to improve are pretty obvious. You guys have asked me about a lot of those things, and we’re working very, very hard, even through a short week, to correct those things and make those things better.”
“But if we’ve got to score 35 or whatever it takes to win, then we’ll do that, because at some point they’re going to bail us out and we’re going to win a game 10-7 at some point,” Schottenheimer continued.
Rashan Gary Says Cowboys Needed Game-Closing Stop On Tape
Houston got the ball back with 40 seconds left after CeeDee Lamb’s go-ahead touchdown. On the final snap, Malik Hooker knocked down Stroud’s Hail Mary.
Hooker led Dallas with 7 tackles and had the team’s only 2 passes defensed. He fractured his forearm in Week 1, was not placed on injured reserve, and returned after missing two games.
“Malik Hooker, I can’t say enough good things about him,” Schottenheimer said Monday. “What he did coming back and playing that quickly after the fracture was incredible.”
A week earlier in Rio de Janeiro, the Baltimore Ravens drove for a 56-yard field goal as time expired. Gary wanted a game-closing stop on tape.
“Yeah, very important, very important. We got to get that on tape. We got to get that feel out of the defense, what it takes to win,” Gary said. “So, like Schotty said, man, we’re pushing for consistency. And consistency pushes us to win. So that’s the main thing.”
Every player in that unit believes he could close out a game, according to Gary, and all 11 carried that mindset into the last drive.
“It was early in the season, but like I said, it felt good to put that on tape, felt good to have that inside physically, just to understand that we’re able to win in those types of situations. It’s the type of unit that we want games like that,” Gary explained. “If it gets to that time and the defense has to go close it out, we believe everybody in this unit could close out the game.”
“And I feel like going to the last drive, everybody had that mindset of, if we got to win, then I’ll do it personally. And having all 11 guys have that type of mindset, man, is unbeatable,” Gary continued. “But one thing we have to do is be consistent, and that’s key. We got to keep on building off this feeling that we have right now.”
Gary Sees Cowboys Defense Building Better Understanding
Dallas understood Houston’s perimeter run game and play action better this week than in any week so far, as Gary saw it. Once the Cowboys got ahead, the pass rushers took over.
“From week one to week four, we’ve just been getting better. All phases, I’m talking about communication, flying around. This week, I feel like this is the best that we understood how the offense wanted to take this perimeter run game, from that try to run downhill schemes, and then from that, play action,” Gary said. “And we knew once we got up on them a little bit, it was going to turn into a passing game. And that’s when playmakers like Quinnen, Von, myself, Easy, KC were able to put the game away.”
Stroud can get his playmakers the ball if he has time. Gary’s answer was to frustrate him and run offensive linemen into his face.
“It felt good. It felt good, especially with a quarterback like that, his stature, who’s able to give his playmakers the ball as long as you give him time,” Gary said. “So basically frustrating him, putting offensive linemen in his face, hitting him, running by him, bumping him, things like that, just things to get him off his game because he’s the general of the offense, and without him, they really can’t go far.”
Dallas and Houston were in the same must-win spot. The defense is still trying to put together a complete game in all three phases.
“I really can’t say what was truly riding on this game, but just mindset as a team. Us and the Houston Texans were in the same boat. Must win. And that’s basically how we’ve been, offensively, defensively, and special-team-wise, man,” Gary said. “We’re still pushing and fighting to put together that perfect game and play complementary ball, all three phases. But one thing that we have been getting better at is just communicating with high energy and just making sure that we lean into our brotherhood when we do get into some tough situations.”
Caleb Downs Taking Bigger Role In Depleted Cowboys Secondary
Linebacker Von Miller said the linebacker pressure was not something the defense talked about during the week. He pointed to rookies Caleb Downs and Malachi Lawrence.
“Man, we needed a win. We had to be 2-2. They had to be 0-4. We just came to H-Town to do what we needed to do. One play at a time,” Miller said. “We got guys flying around. Caleb Downs, Malachi Lawrence. Let’s go.”
Downs will start at safety against Tampa Bay and play some nickel, Schottenheimer said Monday. Dallas has been forced into some situations because it is beat up in the secondary.
“Yeah, well, again, right now, because we’re beat up, we’re kind of forced into some situations. But Caleb’s a really good football player wherever you put him,” Schottenheimer said. “This week, again, we’ll move him around some, but you’ll see him probably play a little bit of nickel. The starting point will be safety.”
Dallas is 2-2 and hosts the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday, Oct. 8, at AT&T Stadium, with kickoff at 7:15 p.m. CT on Prime Video.
