FRISCO, Texas — A mental mistake sends Christian Parker back to his own call sheet. The Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator said Thursday that the staff asked whether it put too much on players for a road opener. Dallas hosts the Washington Commanders in the home opener Sunday. Kickoff at AT&T Stadium is 3:25 p.m. CT on FOX.
Parker sorts an error three ways before he does anything with it.
“I think the first thing you look at when it comes to errors is, is it a mental mistake? Is it a technique error? Is it an NFL player on NFL player? Those happen too,” Parker said. “I think that when they are reflective of our mental capacity and execution, then you look at, do we have in too much? Were we asking too much of the guys in game one on the road game and all those type of things? So all those things have been looked over.”
Dallas allowed 394 yards and lost 28-20 at the New York Giants in Parker’s first game calling plays. Jaxson Dart was 23-of-29 for 230 yards and 3 touchdowns, and New York held the ball for 36:40.
What came back from the players, Parker said, was that the errors were their own to fix.
“To a man, as we were watching the film, guys were like, no, these are fixable mistakes. This is what they did. It’s what we did,” Parker explained. “Losing leverage, eyes in the wrong place, block destruction, all those type of things. Those are things that we can handle internally.”
Christian Parker On Getting Players A Call They Can Play
The menu is the coordinator’s problem, Parker said, not the execution alone.
“I think just our overall execution. I think that’s what you desire. Game one, unscouted looks, all the things. You want to worry about what you can do. The opponent is in the room,” Parker said. “So your execution, how you’re communicating, that starts there. Your alignment, your assignment, your technique. Are we checking all those boxes? We didn’t check all those boxes on every play.”
Dallas did not perform situationally, Parker said, and he named where: third down, the red zone, and the two-minute drive at the end of the first half.
“I do think that the main thing was our aggression to the football and our awareness of some things formationally and situationally,” Parker said. “We did not perform well situationally, the third down numbers, the red zone numbers, the two-minute drive at the end of the half. But I do think that the intent was there. Now we have to clean up the execution and just making sure that we have the right menu to execute.”
What Changed This Week
The practice week was rebuilt around communication, with formation adjust periods and both silent and verbal work.
“Just retooling some of our walkthroughs, formation adjust periods, verbal and nonverbal type of situations. Some you talk, some you don’t,” Parker said. “Obviously us playing at home is going to have another layer to it with the crowd noise. So being able to signal and make eye contact and confirm, getting out there, me making the calls earlier so we have a chance to do that, personnel changes, all the things.”
Self-scout came before the opponent, Parker said.
“More importantly than when you’re game planning for an opponent, you’ve got to game plan yourself. Self-scout is critical. We’ve been in that process,” Parker said.
Dallas is without linebacker DeMarvion Overshown and safety Malik Hooker, both expected to miss a week or two.
