‘Simple Calls’: Brian Schottenheimer Wants Dallas Cowboys Defense Ready For Tempo After Gardner Minshew II Comeback

FRISCO, Texas — Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Wednesday that the defense needs simple calls it can get in quickly when opponents go up-tempo, after the Arizona Cardinals sped things up on Dallas once Gardner Minshew II entered Sunday’s game.

Arizona coach Mike LaFleur replaced Jacoby Brissett with Minshew with 1:35 left in the third quarter and the Dallas Cowboys ahead 17-3. Brissett was 10-of-23 for 119 yards, 0 touchdowns, and 1 interception, and he was sacked four times. Minshew finished 17-of-23 for 188 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions, and Arizona won 33-30 in overtime.

Schottenheimer’s conversations with defensive coordinator Christian Parker this week started with what went right early.

“Really good conversations. When we look at what we were able to do in terms of early in that game, we felt really good that we neutralized what they did well. The rookie runner that they have that I think is a really good player, we neutralized him. We got after Jacoby,” Schottenheimer said. “It’s being able to do that for four quarters.”

“And, again, when we got off our flow was when they brought in Gardner and they kind of went up tempo on us,” Schottenheimer continued. “So having simple plans for that when people want to go tempo on us. Some teams have done that to us. They want to make us make a call and kind of see what we’re doing. And so got to have simple calls that get in there quick and let these guys go execute and communicate.”

Nickel is the grouping Dallas is most comfortable staying in against tempo, because it can play almost any coverage or front from it.

“A lot of times you just stay in the personnel group and you’re in, so we can play nickel to almost anything,” Schottenheimer explained. “Teams are doing a good job of substituting from 12 to 13 to 10 to 11, but we’re probably most comfortable in nickel because we can play almost any type of scheme that we have, coverage or front structure in that grouping.”

Shemar James, Quinnen Williams Point To Momentum And The Call

Linebacker Shemar James said the Cardinals opened with the same game plan, and the momentum turned after two big runs.

“I believe it was the same game plan starting off, but after they got those two big runs, you can just feel the momentum, like switch at that point. And at that point, the playbook was kind of open then,” James said. “They start taking more shots down the field, guys start catching balls more and they just started executing. So when they started executing, we didn’t, and that’s the turnover you get.”

Tyler Allgeier ran 63 yards for a touchdown on Minshew’s second snap and 52 yards on the first play of Arizona’s next drive. Allgeier finished with 147 rushing yards on 11 carries.

Against tempo, defensive tackle Quinnen Williams kept it to the call itself.

“I think the biggest thing is just focusing on the call and execute the call and just kind of do your job to the best of your ability,” Williams said.

Brian Schottenheimer Says Backs’ Alignment Tips Off Flat Routes

The flats will keep getting tested, in Schottenheimer’s view. He said the running back’s alignment gives some of it away, and the Cowboys need to recognize and communicate those tells better.

“A couple things. One, there’s tells that you can see from the backs based on their alignment, the width of the back and his alignment based off of the tackle, where he sets off the tackle. Is he inside on the inside leg of the tackle? Is he squared up? Is he outside?” Schottenheimer said. “So there’s some indicators there that we need to be better at recognizing, communicating. We have terms for those. That’s one.”

“And again, when you talk about it, it’s been different calls. One of the calls last week was a man to man call. We were just playing a little bit too deep and he got out there,” Schottenheimer added. “But it’s certainly an area that teams are going to continue to attack. And we need to remedy that with some of the solutions that we’ve already talked about as a staff, not in here, to clean it up.”

Allgeier caught 5 passes for 44 yards Sunday, including a 5-yard touchdown from Minshew. Dallas visits the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday at noon CT on FOX.