FRISCO, Texas — Three New York Giants plays that beat the Dallas Cowboys defense in the season opener came against three different defensive calls, Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Wednesday at The Star. The New York Giants won 28-20 on Sunday night at MetLife Stadium.
Dallas was making its defensive calls against New York, Schottenheimer said, but it was not making them every time.
“You address it first and foremost. It was surprising to us that we didn’t communicate very well,” Schottenheimer said. “Spent quite a bit of time yesterday in the team meeting just going back through the keys to communication. First part is being decisive and loud. Second part, that’s the person that’s giving it, and then the receiving is where we were off on a few things. Calls were being made. They have to be louder. They have to be more decisive, but they have to be received.”
“And to co-sign that, you see us, we signal all the time based on different things, so you can’t hear what they’re saying on the film,” Schottenheimer continued. “So there should be hand signals that show information being received, and we need to be better, and it wasn’t good enough. But we emphasized it, we talked about it, and they understand.”
Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart completed 23-of-29 passes for 230 yards, 3 touchdowns, and no interceptions. New York ran for 165 yards on 37 carries and converted 9 of 11 third downs. Tight end Isaiah Likely caught 8 passes for 78 yards and 2 touchdowns, and the Giants scored touchdowns on all four of their trips inside the Dallas 20.
Motion, shifts, and movement are at an all-time high in the NFL right now.
“There’s a lot of moving parts,” Schottenheimer explained. “The way the National Football League is right now is we’re this way on offense. You’re trying to change the picture. You’re trying to make things look different. You’re trying to make people have to adjust on the run. Motion, shifts, movements are at an all-time high in this level. So if you don’t communicate when the numbers change and the picture changes, then you’re going to put yourself at a disadvantage, and that’s what we did to ourselves the other night.”
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DeMarvion Overshown wore the green dot in the opener and handled the defensive calls. He played 51 defensive snaps before leaving with a hamstring strain with 12:04 left in the fourth quarter.
One breakdown Sunday came when a player assumed a call based on how Dallas has handled it before, and another player never communicated it, Schottenheimer said.
“I’m not going to put it [on] one position. That’s not fair,” Schottenheimer said. “The ball gets thrown outside, the singleton outside, and there’s not a linebacker or somebody there, and everyone assumes it’s the linebackers. It’s not just the linebackers, okay? So let me be very clear about that. Again, we have rules based off of splits and changes and number counts and things like that that are complicated. And so there was one time where a player assumed that it was going to be something because that’s how we’ve done it some, but it was not communicated from another player. And so therefore, that player has the trump card.”
“There’s a lot that goes into it. And I’m chalking it up to the fact that it was our first game,” Schottenheimer added. “And again, like I said, we were making calls, we just weren’t making them all the time, and then receiving them all the time. And so that’s why you saw some of the things where it looked like they got us on three different plays, those were actually three different calls, three different defensive calls. And so that’s us not being on the same page. And defense, team defense, is about all 11 guys being on the same page. I mean, I’ve never been around any good defense. If you don’t have all 11 guys on the same page, it’s usually not going to be very good.”
Sunday was the first game with Christian Parker calling the Dallas defense. The Cowboys hired Parker as defensive coordinator in January after allowing 511 points in 2025, the most in the NFL. In August, Schottenheimer said the Dallas defense had been a little too complicated early last season.
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Communication is fixable, Schottenheimer said, and so are pad level, contain, and a better play call.
“You want me to say it again? I mean, disappointed. Yeah. I mean, we were disappointed,” Schottenheimer said. “But am I sitting here saying we’re going to communicate poorly this week? No. We’re going to communicate better this week. And so did I see it coming? No, absolutely not. Do I think some of it was, like I said, guys getting caught, not sharing enough information or being loud enough and things like that? Absolutely.”
“But in terms of did I sleep last night because I’m worried about communication? No. I will be very surprised if we don’t communicate at a much higher level in this game,” Schottenheimer detailed. “But, again, there will be challenges to it, because we are playing at home with the noise and the fans cheering their heads off.”
Dallas did not take an overly complicated plan into New York, Schottenheimer said.
“We’re aware for all contingency. I hope it’s really loud. Our fans are listening. I know they give us a huge advantage,” Schottenheimer said. “So crowd noise is a big thing. It becomes a lot of nonverbal. I mean, that’s real. So I think it’s more of that than simplifying.”
“I don’t think [we] went into the last game with an overly complicated plan,” Schottenheimer noted. “I just think at the end of the day, it was not our best day of operating and executing across the board. But in terms of simplifying, I don’t think that’s necessary.”
The Washington Commanders lost 24-22 at the Philadelphia Eagles in their opener, and Jalen Hurts was sacked three times by Washington. Dallas swept Washington last season, winning 44-22 in Arlington in October and 30-23 on Christmas Day. Both teams are 0-1. Kickoff Sunday at AT&T Stadium is 3:25 p.m. CT on FOX.
