ARLINGTON, Texas — Dallas Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Thursday night that he will look at everything, including his staff, during the 10 days before the team’s next game, after a 24-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers dropped Dallas to 2-3. The Cowboys do not play again until they visit the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, Oct. 18.
Schottenheimer said the Cowboys will make decisions over the weekend that they believe give them the best chance to play well against Green Bay.
“I’m going to look at everything. I’ll spend countless hours trying to figure it out and getting a chance to step back, look at these five games and see where we need to improve,” Schottenheimer said.
Tampa Bay ran for 241 yards, held the ball for 39:21, and did not commit a turnover. Dallas turned it over three times and ran 13 times for 50 yards.
Brian Schottenheimer Says Cowboys Will ‘Look At Everything’
Schottenheimer will spend countless hours on the evaluation. The questions he fielded Thursday included whether game management or play-calling duties could change.
“I think we evaluate everything, but at the end of the day, we’re five games in, disappointed in the way we performed this evening as a football team, and that’s just going to be one part of the process,” Schottenheimer explained. “We’re going to look at all five games and get a chance to slow down our process and look at every detail and see where we need to improve.”
Dallas has not won consecutive games this season and has not been above .500. The Cowboys have alternated results over their last three games, losing to the Baltimore Ravens in Rio de Janeiro and beating the Houston Texans 34-30 on Oct. 4 before Thursday’s loss.
“That’s the key, you said it. We got to stack wins. And like I said, this weekend’s going to be a process, and we’re going to go through the process. We’re going to figure it out. We’re going to put on the tape. We’re going to watch the tape. We’re going to look at stats. We’re going to look at everything,” Schottenheimer said. “We’re going to make some decisions that we believe will give us the best chance to pick back up and play well next week.”
“We’re five games in. Didn’t plan on being two and three. Disappointed by that for sure. But we’re just getting started,” Schottenheimer continued. “There’s a lot of football left, but we gotta play better. We know that.”
Thursday’s game was Dallas’ third in a stretch that took the team to Brazil and Houston. Schottenheimer said he would never make excuses, and that the Cowboys would always be about shared accountability.
“I think you’ve got to give Tampa Bay some credit. And we, of course, didn’t play well enough. And I think it’s more about that. I’m never going to make excuses. Never going to,” Schottenheimer said. “But at the end of the day, we lined up and played, and we didn’t play or coach well enough tonight.”
Cowboys See 10-Day Break As Chance To Reset
Cornerback Shavon Revel said the Cowboys prepared for Tampa Bay in the three days they had and were not supposed to lose.
“I mean, man, it was man, we’re really beating ourselves. We talk a lot about attention to detail, and I feel like we haven’t applied that to the game yet quite yet. We have our few plays here and there, but we’ve got to be consistent with it,” Revel said. “So you can’t just blame the coaches and the calls, but we’ve still got to do our job and execute it.”
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones rejected the idea that fatigue played a role, saying the players are in superhuman condition and take their preparation seriously.
Receiver George Pickens, who caught 9 passes for 130 yards Thursday, said the wear and tear affected the team “kind of, but not really,” and that the 10-day break comes at the right time.
“Most definitely. I feel like for a lot of people that’s going to definitely help. It’s kind of like what you said, you kind of get in a nuance and a minutia of just kind of going and doing the three game stretch and you’re kind of used to it,” Pickens said. “So I feel like it’ll definitely help a lot of guys.”
Dak Prescott Plans To Bring Offensive Ideas To Brian Schottenheimer
Dak Prescott plans to talk with Schottenheimer about the offensive plan before the coaching staff finishes its evaluations. He said he does not expect to be fully part of the staff’s conversations, but that he will hear their debrief.
“There may be some things that I feel like, honestly, I’ll go have a conversation now with Schotty and get ahead of it on what I think that my ideas could offer, how they could help, and they’re not monumental changes, and I don’t even think they’re changes,” Prescott said. “There’s things that we do that I think we can increase the volume of, and is that the answer? We’ll see. But I’ll give my ideas.”
This is the second season in Schottenheimer’s offense, and Prescott said Dallas has to make in-game adjustments faster. Dallas scored on its opening drive Thursday, then punted on its next three possessions after Tampa Bay held the ball for 10:58 on its first drive.
“We’ve got to be able to make adjustments faster. And it’s something that I feel like we’ve done. Whether it had been last week in Houston and just in the past, this is year two in our offense, so it’s not like we haven’t made those adjustments faster and got things done,” Prescott explained. “But it’s hard to say, oh, we just weren’t ourselves tonight. I don’t know if that’s enough to say. We weren’t executing well enough tonight. We weren’t communicating quite well enough tonight.”
Prescott plans to rest and get away from the game for part of the break before returning to watch games Sunday and turning the page Monday.
“I hope it’s great for each and every one of us. I know I’ll give myself some rest and get away from the game for a little bit. Just having two young girls that, when you’re [spending] time with them, they don’t give a damn about anything, any of this, and just the time,” Prescott said. “And I’m thankful for that. It allows me to be present. It allows me to actually get my mind off of the game and I think that’ll be beneficial for me this weekend.”
Kickoff at Lambeau Field is set for 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC. Dallas then plays at the Philadelphia Eagles on Oct. 26.
