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FRISCO, Texas — Dallas Cowboys rookie safety Caleb Downs said Wednesday that getting on the same page will be the defense’s job against the San Francisco 49ers’ pre-snap motion. Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said walkthroughs may matter more than meetings this week.
Downs played all 64 defensive snaps in Sunday’s 27-23 win over the Indianapolis Colts, finishing with a sack and his first career interception on the Colts’ final possession.
Downs spoke at his locker Wednesday, where the 49ers’ motion came up.
“They do a really good job with their offensive scheme, and being able to be on the same page as the defense is a huge thing,” Downs said. “Our job as defenders is to get on the same page and then go play fast with that. So that’s what we’re going to do, and that’s what we’re going to execute.”
Brian Schottenheimer Moves Prep Into The Skillet
Schottenheimer met with reporters before practice Wednesday at The Star.
“It’s critical,” Schottenheimer said. “I think they’re third. But yeah, it’s a big part of what they do, and they’re trying to create seams and get you to make mistakes. And so we’ve got some tools in our calls that we can do that make it a little simpler. But they’re going to challenge us, and we’ll have to get those reps and really work through those, doing a bunch of different walkthroughs.”
“This is one of the weeks where you have to go out on the practice field or the skillet, as we call it, upstairs,” Schottenheimer continued. “And sometimes the little walkthroughs or the talkthroughs are more important than the meetings because you got to kind of see how the angles and the looks change.”
Dallas’ own use of motion at Indianapolis came up in a separate question.
“I think it was good,” Schottenheimer explained. “I think it was important, especially with some of the moving parts that we had. We had some guys coming in. I think a couple of them were maybe because guys were lined up incorrectly, so they had a little shift on their own.”
“But it’s something we love to do, something we want to do, and this will be a game of two teams that want to have some motion and movements,” Schottenheimer continued.
P.J. Locke Out And Malik Hooker Excused At Safety
Safety P.J. Locke suffered his second concussion in as many weeks against the Colts and has been ruled out for Sunday. Safety Malik Hooker was excused from practice Wednesday for a personal matter. Safety Jalen Thompson has missed seven games with a hamstring injury and remains out.
Schottenheimer addressed the run of injuries at safety in a later answer.
“It’s been tough, especially when you’re a shell-based team that wants to use a good bit of disguise and change your looks around a little bit,” Schottenheimer said. “It’s been very difficult, but the depth and the guys that have stepped in have done a really good job for the most part. But it’s certainly been difficult.”
The Cowboys (4-5) host the 49ers (7-1) on Sunday at AT&T Stadium. Kickoff is set for 3:25 p.m. CT on Fox.
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