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ARLINGTON, Texas — Greg Olsen was the Fox analyst at AT&T Stadium on Nov. 1 when the Arizona Cardinals beat the Dallas Cowboys 33-30 in overtime. Looking back on that game in an interview this week, Olsen said the Cowboys should lean more on Dak Prescott and the passing game. He also credited Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer for getting the offense under center more often and calling more play-action.
Olsen made the case to Blogging The Boys’ RJ Ochoa in an interview posted Thursday, and The Dallas Morning News published a transcript of the answer Friday. A former tight end, Olsen finished his 14-season playing career with the Seattle Seahawks in 2020, when Schottenheimer was Seattle’s offensive coordinator.
Olsen’s diagnosis of a Cowboys team with a struggling defense and a dipping offense started with the Nov. 1 game. Dallas led 17-3 late in the third quarter before Arizona running back Tyler Allgeier broke a 63-yard touchdown run.
“I don’t pretend to have all the answers,” Olsen said. “It’s very easy to sit in my position and make blanket observations when I’m not in the meeting rooms, I’m not in the training room. I don’t obviously have all the information. I think if you just go back to our most recent game that we had, the Cardinals game out in Dallas, from an impartial viewer, an incredible game, right? Unbelievable late flurry of action, goes to overtime.”
“Obviously, for Dallas fans, they walked out shell shocked, right?” Olsen said. “You go from being up, I think, 17-3 before the long touchdown by Allgeier, then next thing you know the game’s upside down. I came onto the broadcast. It was coming off the Monday night win against [Philadelphia]. They ran for 250, whatever it was. Javonte Williams had a huge game, and the narrative around them from everyone, fans, reporters, coaches, team, players, owners, whatever, was: ‘This is who we are, we need to be a run team.’”
Greg Olsen Makes The Case For Dak Prescott And The Passing Game
With CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens at receiver, Olsen told the broadcast audience that day that shrinking the game did not fit what Dallas has around Prescott. Olsen also pointed to a Dallas defense that was still searching for answers.
“I came onto the broadcast,” Olsen said, “and I said, ‘Listen, I love [Brian Schottenheimer]. I played for him. I’ve been the biggest Dak fan, and I’m not telling people how to do their job. It doesn’t make sense to me to have Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and George Pickens all together, and a defense that was struggling, a defense that was really reeling and not really having success and trying to find their way, to limit a possession game, shrink the game, run the ball more.’ As a result, lose explosive elements to your offense that just comes inevitably with giving too much of a snap share to a run game. You’re just not going to be as explosive, generally speaking.”
Jacoby Brissett started at quarterback for Arizona in that game. The interceptions, sacks, and hits that come with throwing more are a trade Olsen said he would make with Prescott.
“Arizona’s style was high completion percentage underneath passing, not going to really throw it downfield much,” Olsen said. “That had been what they were coming in with Jacoby [Brissett], and they were going to want to shrink the game and make it a limited possession game. I didn’t think shrinking the variance by lowering the opportunity for Dak Prescott to impact the game, I didn’t personally think that made a lot of sense.”
“I know he’s going to throw more picks,” Olsen said. “He’s going to have a sack. He’s going to get his arm hit. Bad things are going to happen when you throw the ball. There is downside risk to a passing game, but you cannot replace the upside return of an elite passing game, and that’s really been the engine of Dallas, not only this year but in years past when Dak’s been healthy.”
“So, my thought is,” Olsen said, “if I have a defense that’s struggling and my offense is my engine, and my best players are built to protect the passer and throw the ball, every time I don’t do that, if I’m the opposing defensive coordinator, I’m saying, ‘Thank you.’”
Olsen Credits Brian Schottenheimer For Under-Center And Play-Action Changes
Olsen is not calling for Dallas to stop running the ball. Schottenheimer has moved the offense under center more often and leaned on play-action, according to Olsen.
“So, I still think the offense is a pass offense,” Olsen said. “I’m not saying you don’t run the ball. I love getting under center more than anybody in the league. I don’t think, just because you throw the ball, you need to be in shotgun spread. So I think [Schottenheimer] did a nice job. More under center, more play pass, more play action. I am the champion of all of that. That is modern offense.”
“So to [Schottenheimer’s] credit, that completely makes sense,” Olsen said. “I still think when push comes to shove, the ball has to be in Dak’s hand. They have to, in their mind, say we’re scoring 30 points, and then every time the defense gets a stop, they get a turnover, like they did in Arizona. You can then start unraveling the game and pulling the throttle back. But I think for them to go into the game with any sort of run number, any sort of yardage number.”
“If they are leading in a lot of games because of their passing game, they will end up rushing the ball a lot in the fourth quarter because they’re winning,” Olsen said. “And I think this is a league-wide thing. I think a lot of people forget causation, correlation. Like we won because we ran for 150 yards, as opposed to we ran for 150 yards because we were winning.”
The Cowboys (4-5) host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at AT&T Stadium. Kickoff is set for 3:25 p.m. CT on Fox.
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