ARLINGTON, Texas — The New Orleans Saints ran 18 times for 119 yards in the first half on Friday night and scored two touchdowns on the ground, both of them outside the tackles. Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said the Dallas Cowboys did not set the edge.
“Give them credit. Kellen and his staff do a nice job. It’s a lot of misdirection, motions, and things like that,” Schottenheimer said. “We didn’t set edges very well. We just didn’t get the edges set early in the game, so they got the ball outside in the perimeter a couple times. One of the first touchdowns was the same play they ran early in the game, and our eyes were bad. In the first half, we were kind of reacting to everything.”
Barion Brown ran 12 yards around left end on the game’s first snap from scrimmage. Later in the first quarter, from the Dallas 7, he scored around right end. Spencer Rattler ran 8 yards around right end for the second touchdown with 2:01 left in the half. Audric Estimé set that one up with a 33-yard run to the Dallas 8, the longest play New Orleans had all night.
“But no, I’ll ride with those guys. I don’t know if they want me over there,” Schottenheimer said. “Maybe I’m the problem, but I’ll ride with those guys every day of the week.”
Christian Parker’s First In-Game Corrections
Christian Parker is in his first season as the Cowboys defensive coordinator. Dallas held out Von Miller, Rashan Gary, and Donovan Ezeiruaku, along with both starting defensive tackles. Marist Liufau, who started at outside linebacker, was hurt at 3:56 of the first quarter and did not return.
“I hope it means that we have some pretty cool depth pieces. I think that’s part of it,” Schottenheimer said. “But I think it was good for CP to have to make some corrections and adjustments and things like that. Like, let’s do that now. Let’s not wait until we’re in the Meadowlands on Sunday night and the shit hits the fan and all of a sudden you’re having to solve problems.”
New Orleans ran 14 times for 50 yards in the second half, an average of 3.6. The Saints scored once more on the ground, on an 11-yard Zamir White run up the middle at 9:41 of the third quarter, then went three-and-out on their next possession after Sam Williams sacked Zach Wilson for 7 yards.
“I think we did settle in, and I thought they made some nice adjustments, and we settled the front down a little bit,” Schottenheimer said. “We did a better job moving some of the fronts to close gaps in the running game because they were moving us pretty good early on. Again, weren’t as deep, so we didn’t have as many guys to rotate through like we would on a normal game.”
Where The Yards Went
Estimé carried 4 times for 46 yards. Kendre Miller carried 9 times for 42. A third back added 33 yards on 9 carries. White ran 4 times for 23 yards and the touchdown.
New Orleans finished with 169 rushing yards on 32 carries, 5.3 per attempt, and scored all 3 of its touchdowns on the ground. The Saints reached the red zone four times and scored on three, and they converted both goal-to-go trips. Eleven of their 23 first downs came on the ground.
Dallas ran 26 times for 91 yards and did not score on the ground.
The Cowboys open at the New York Giants on Sept. 13. Kickoff is 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC.
