‘Every Play Matters’: Steve Mariucci Recalls San Francisco 49ers Film Session As Brian Schottenheimer, Dallas Cowboys Regroup From Arizona Cardinals Collapse
FRISCO, Texas — Former San Francisco 49ers coach Steve Mariucci once ran a film session for his entire roster after a late fumble cost San Francisco a game. He brought it up Sunday morning on NFL Network while discussing Dallas Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer, and he said the Cowboys can still win the NFC East.
Mariucci made the comments on “NFL GameDay Morning” before Dallas’ noon CT kickoff against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. A week earlier, the Cowboys blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead in a 33-30 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals at AT&T Stadium. That tied the largest blown fourth-quarter lead in franchise history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, as The Associated Press reported.
Dallas led 14-3 at halftime and 24-10 with 14:20 left in regulation. Arizona scored 30 points after halftime and won on a 42-yard field goal by Chad Ryland with 2:53 left in overtime.
Coaches handle a loss like that one in different ways, in Mariucci’s experience.
“When you have a tough loss like that, blowing a big lead at the end, there’s a lot of things,” Mariucci said. “Some show how mad you are and all that kind of thing. Some coaches will bury the tape. Some will just say to the team, ‘Don’t blink. Just keep going.’ Some will practice on Monday or do wind sprints like they do in high school.”
On the night of the Arizona loss, former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said during NBC’s “Football Night in America” that he did not see a player or a unit in Dallas that wanted to take over the end of the game.
“I saw a bunch of blinkers,” Tomlin said. “And what I mean by that, I say, if you’re a blinker, cut your eyelids off. What I mean is, you gotta relish the thick moments. You gotta wanna make the play, as an individual and as a unit within a team. And watching the end of that game, I didn’t see individuals or particular units that wanted to grab the bull by the horns and win the game.”
“Certainly their defense, we can spend a lot of time talking about that two-minute drive and things of that nature, but their offense had a short field when they had an unsuccessful onside kick at the end of regulation, and then they went three-and-out in overtime,” Tomlin continued. “And so I see a team that doesn’t have anybody that wants to be the unit to secure victory. They’re blinkers. They’ve got to cut their eyelids off.”
Steve Mariucci Walks Through San Francisco 49ers Film Session After Late Fumble
Mariucci spent four seasons as the Green Bay Packers’ quarterbacks coach and one as California’s head coach before San Francisco hired him in 1997. The 49ers went 13-3 that first year and reached the NFC Championship Game. In six seasons there, he went 57-39 in the regular season. San Francisco won the NFC West twice under him and made the playoffs four times.
He went 15-28 with the Detroit Lions, who fired him during his third season in 2005. NFL Network hired him in July 2006.
In San Francisco, a young player fumbled at the end of one game before the 49ers could kick a field goal to win it. Mariucci said some of the players complained about it afterward.
“I took the whole team and I had the clicker,” Mariucci explained. “And I said, ‘All right, we’re going to look at this because everybody on this team is accountable. There’s 150 plays in a football game, offense, defense, and special teams. Every play matters.’”
“And I was showing them, ‘Here’s a dropped pass by a great player,’” Mariucci continued. “‘Here’s a, here’s a missed block or a missed tackle by this guy. Here’s a bad throw by the quarterback. We missed that one. You don’t miss that throw. Here’s a, here’s a missed assignment.’ And I took the best guys and I showed where they could have been better on that play. Might have been first quarter, third quarter. It doesn’t matter.”
“But every play matters in a close game, and it doesn’t necessarily come down to the one last play where you remember it, right?” Mariucci added. “So I just wanted to make the whole team look themselves in the mirror and say every play matters. I matter. I can’t mess up ever, and I’ve got to be accountable to each other and to myself. And so I kind of spread it out a little bit.”
With 4 seconds left in the first half against Arizona, Brandon Aubrey missed a 61-yard field goal wide right. Schottenheimer thought the Cowboys could have picked up a few more yards before using their last timeout.
“Brandon doesn’t care. No, he doesn’t care,” Schottenheimer said. “We had a mechanism where we’re trying to get as close as we can and get down and call the timeout. I thought there was a little bit more there. I thought we could have got a few more yards. We had a little two-play package. But we trust Brandon to make those.”
On the opening drive of the third quarter, a 35-yard catch by George Pickens was wiped out by an offensive holding penalty. That 15-play drive ended in a 31-yard Aubrey field goal for a 17-3 lead.
Late in the fourth quarter, a roughing-the-passer penalty on Rashan Gary erased a third-down incompletion. Two snaps later, Gardner Minshew II hit Trey McBride for a 14-yard touchdown with 2:11 left. Dallas recovered the onside kick that followed and took over at the Arizona 20. The Cowboys lost 3 yards on three plays, including a 6-yard sack of Dak Prescott, and settled for a 41-yard field goal and a 30-24 lead.
Prescott wished the offense had been more aggressive on that possession.
“Maybe the drive after the onside kick,” Prescott said. “Just that drive in general. Wanting to be aggressive, understanding. Now knowing what was going to come afterwards, right? That 6 points wasn’t enough. And that would probably be the main moment, yeah.”
Arizona had no timeouts left and needed 80 yards. Minshew found Michael Wilson for a 13-yard touchdown with 6 seconds remaining. Ryland’s extra point went wide left, and the game went to overtime tied 30-30.
Two of Prescott’s throws to CeeDee Lamb were batted at the line, one on third down before Aubrey’s 35-yard field goal with 3:54 left and one in overtime. Dallas went three-and-out on its only overtime possession, and Prescott was sacked for a 7-yard loss on third down.
“A couple tipped passes. You guys saw that,” Schottenheimer explained. “They did a nice job with the line of scrimmage. We had CeeDee coming open on a little choice route underneath. And then same thing, we’re trying to throw a little out route, and they did a nice job with their interior tipping the ball. We’ve got to keep their hands down.”
“But we get the ball back with a chance to go and put the ball game away,” Schottenheimer noted. “In four minutes, we have to do that.”
Prescott finished 19-of-29 for 195 yards, 1 touchdown, and 0 interceptions, and Arizona sacked him 4 times.
Brian Schottenheimer, Dallas Cowboys Still Chasing New York Giants In NFC East
Schottenheimer said after the loss that the Cowboys have to learn to finish in all three phases.
“I’m going to always own my part of this as a head football coach,” Schottenheimer said. “It starts with me. And there are certainly things that I need to do better. But as a football team in all three phases, I can point out three, four, five, six plays right off the top of my head. I’m not going to. And so a lot of football left.”
Backing Schottenheimer up falls on the players, in Prescott’s view.
“It’s all of us. It’s all of us. Don’t put the blame on one person. Simple as that,” Prescott explained. “I think that’s weak. I think that’s cowardly. This game is about all, as I said, all 11 that touch the field and every person that has a part in it, coaches and support staff. And it’s never just one person’s fault.”
The Cowboys have not won consecutive games this season. Under Schottenheimer, they have had a winning record after just one of 25 weeks, The Associated Press reported. Dallas beat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-21 on Monday Night Football six days before the Arizona game.
Dallas entered Sunday at 3-5, second in the NFC East behind the 4-2-1 New York Giants. Mariucci did not put the problems on one group.
“I don’t know what he’s going to do because they got a lot of work to do on this team,” Mariucci said. “Blame the coaches, blame the players, blame the personnel department, whatever that is. They got a lot of issues, but they can still win the division. They can still win the division.”
The Cowboys are 2-1 in division games. The Washington Commanders are 2-4-1, and the Eagles are 2-6 after six straight losses. The Giants visit Philadelphia on Sunday.
After Sunday’s game in Indianapolis, the Cowboys return to AT&T Stadium to host the 49ers on Nov. 15.
