‘The Standard Is Not Being Met’: Brian Schottenheimer Points To Consistency After Dallas Cowboys Blow Lead To Arizona Cardinals
FRISCO, Texas — Dallas Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Monday the standard is not being met, a day after Dallas blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead in a 33-30 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Schottenheimer kept coming back to one word, consistency, as he reviewed the film.
The Cowboys led 14-3 at halftime and 24-10 with 14:20 left. Arizona finished with 30 second-half points, and Dallas fell to 3-5. Schottenheimer called it a tale of two halves.
“We look at every opponent, every game we play, and we try to find the same thing, good, better, how. That’s what we identified,” Schottenheimer said. “Were there things we did good? I thought this game was a tale of two halves. First half we played well, 14-3 lead, coming out of halftime, but we weren’t able to finish the game. So I always have the real conversation with those guys, and the word I keep coming up with as I look at it is consistency.”
Brian Schottenheimer On Dallas Cowboys’ Run Game Drop-Off
A week after a 38-21 win at Philadelphia, Dallas ran 39 times for 93 yards against Arizona, and Javonte Williams had 56 yards on 24 carries. Schottenheimer said that swing is the clearest example of the inconsistency and that he has things to fix himself, starting with finishing games.
“I think I’m going to go back to the word consistency. You can’t go into Philadelphia and run the ball for 202 yards and then come out and rush for 2.2 yards per carry,” Schottenheimer explained. “There’s certainly a lot of things that we as a football team can do better. Didn’t think we did a great job tackling and then there’s certainly things that I can do better in all facets. Number one being find a way to finish the game and give us a chance.”
Arizona won the line of scrimmage with its pad level, in Schottenheimer’s view. He gave the Cardinals credit for it.
“Yeah, I give Arizona a lot of credit. Tommy, I thought they played well,” Schottenheimer said. “They played with really good pad level, and they won a lot of blocks. And, again, it’s something that we did an awesome job of last week, and we didn’t do as good a job this week as we needed to. But I’ll give them some credit.”
Schottenheimer Responds To Von Miller, Mike Tomlin
After the game, Von Miller compared coaching to parenting, saying players don’t always reflect what their coaches teach. Schottenheimer said everyone in the building is in it together.
“… in a lot of different ways. But at the end of the day, as I look at this, we’re all in this thing together,” Schottenheimer said. “And we understand we need to play better. We need to win games. The standard is not being met now, and we need to get better.”
Former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said he didn’t see a player or unit that wanted to take over the game. Schottenheimer disagreed, and he said the losses haven’t split the locker room.
“Yeah, I do. I think Mike sees what he sees,” Schottenheimer said. “I saw a group that played hard, but we didn’t make the plays we needed to make down the stretch.”
“I don’t worry about that with this group,” Schottenheimer added. “This is a group of pros, high-character individuals, high-character men that believe in one another and what we’re doing.”
Dallas visits the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, Nov. 8, at Lucas Oil Stadium. Kickoff is set for noon CT on FOX.
