The Dallas Cowboys are trying to start their second win streak of the Brian Schottenheimer era. The first and only one also included a short week of preparation: last November’s three-game win streak against Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and Kansas City.
Head coach Brian Schottenheimer said there are no excuses despite the short week coming after a trip to Brazil or facing another winless team in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“We look forward to it. Play another really good football team that just hasn’t found a way to get a victory yet. Just like Houston, you know, and a coach that I respect tremendously in Todd Bowles, he and his staff, and so this will be another dogfight,” Schottenheimer said. “They have talented players at every level. Whether you go Vita Vea, Tristan Wirfs, and start naming receivers that are elite, all-pro type players, and (Bucky) Irving, the running back, a special player, very, very talented team. And again, one that’s very, very dangerous. Yeah. Parity in the National Football League is exactly where the league wants it to be.”
The Bucs (0-4) are without starting quarterback Baker Mayfield, but the Cowboys defense is not taking rookie Jalon Daniels lightly.
“Any Sunday, don’t matter. The opponent, you know, everybody gotta come for 60 minutes and bring their best game. As y’all seen, if y’all watched the games last night, watching the Lions and Panthers, man, it don’t matter the name,” defensive lineman Rashan Gary said.
His defensive teammates echoed that sentiment.
“We desperate, I mean, we 2-2,” defensive lineman Kenny Clark said. “I’m not overlooking nobody.”
Gary’s postgame excitement in the tunnel to the locker room went viral on social media. Gary said it’s about seeing the defense make a stop in the final minute of the game, something they failed to do in Week 3.
“You know, being able to put away, you know, a game last minute, being able to, you know, cause a couple of pressures to, you know, make CJ (Stroud), you know, throw the ball faster than what he wanted to, and just trying to be effective when my number’s called,” Gary said. “It’s always a good feeling to win in this league. You know, right now, we turned to, you know, we got a dub now; we got, you know, try to find some momentum and keep going.”
Schottenheimer also saw improvements on defense, even though they gave up 30 points and Stroud was very effective in the first half, leading the Texans to 16 points and a double-digit first-half lead.
“I try to point out, you know, the facts. Third down defense: outstanding. Run defense: excellent. A bunch of 3 or 4 and outs. You know, you point those things out. But, you know, we also talked about this morning, you know, about the plan to win. You know, we gave up too many explosives. And, you know, we wanted to take Nico Collins out of the game. Well, we did a piss poor job of doing that,” Schottenheimer said. “Look, when you lose, it’s, you know, painful. It hurts. When you win, you celebrate. So, I think, you know, you find the positives, which is always going to be positive because you want to celebrate those things. And, you know, plus, we were in a hurry. We had to get Shemar (James) out of there.”
James’ wife was in labor, so he rode home on Jerry Jones’ plane instead of with the team.
“There’s no one more excited in that locker room right now than George Pickens,” Schottenheimer said to reporters, answering a question about the wide receiver before reminding himself: “Well, maybe. Shemar James’ wife is in labor, and he’ll be flying home with the Joneses. And that’s pretty cool. So, praying for an easy delivery, and God is good.”
It makes for an eventful Sunday for James, who made two tackles for the Cowboys’ defense on a day when it did just enough to hold off a Texans team in desperation mode.
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Gary said it’s been a week-by-week process under new defensive coordinator Christian Parker.
“Just going through week one all the way to week four, I feel like we’ve just been growing,” Gary said. “The tape tells everything… I feel like we’re 3 or 4 plays away, but the only thing that’s going to get us to where we need to be is just being consistent, and like I said, we found a way to win as a defense. You know, when they put us on the field, we got to continue to find ways throughout the season to get us off the field and get the offense back the ball as many times as you can.”
Gary compared the Cowboys’ offense to the Golden State Warriors of the NBA and Stephen Curry, who won four championships between 2016 and 2022.
Clark said the defense will be fine if they can limit big plays and create a few more turnovers.
“It’s a lot of times that we had chances on the ball that we got to, take advantage of, you know, punches and getting interceptions and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, we gotta just keep chasing that consistency,” Clark said. “I think the ball is coming out. I mean, last last week we didn’t have enough attempts at the ball, but, you know, I feel like, just, you know, grand scheme of things, the ball has been getting out. We got to do a good job, you know, getting the ball in, you know, getting the turnover.”
Schottenheimer hopes new corner Joey Porter, Jr., is able to build off his contributions on Sunday.
“Great start to his career here in Dallas. And you know you could tell he was very comfortable with the plays we put him in on. And there wasn’t a lot of communication on the sidelines. And he did his job. He communicated well. And, not bad for a guy that’s been here about 48 hours before we asked him to go play a game.” Schottenheimer said. “I think the instincts show up. You know, some guys know how to play the game. It certainly helps when you’re a veteran or more of a veteran. The communication between him and the safeties, I thought, was really, really good. Malik Hooker, I can’t say enough good things about him; what he did coming back and playing, you know, that quickly after the fracture was incredible. And I thought you saw a very confident player in Joey Porter Jr., and that’s what we knew we were getting.”
Schottenheimer was unsure how much more Porter would play after another short week of practice.
The Cowboys’ secondary remains shorthanded. Cornerback Cobie Durant, an offseason acquisition, is out with a hamstring strain. Durant did not play Sunday, and Schottenheimer doubted he would return by Thursday.
Safeties Jalen Thompson (hamstring) and P.J. Locke (plantar fascia) remain on injured reserve.
Rookie Caleb Downs will continue to play safety and nickel corner for the time being.
“Right now, because we’re beat up, we’re, you know, kind of forced into some situations. But, you know, Caleb’s a really good football player wherever we put him. But, you know, this week again, we’ll move more around some,” Schottenheimer said.
Schottenheimer said the offense does not feel added pressure to carry the defense through its struggles.
“When you look at the numbers, you know, we’re comfortable playing how we got to play. I think our defense is getting better. I don’t want to have to score 30 points every game to win. That’s real. But again, I do think that we’re pointing out all the things that we’ve done well. Certainly, the areas that we need to improve are pretty obvious,” Schottenheimer said. “We’re working very, very hard, even through a short week, to correct those things and make those things better. But, you know, if we got to score 35 or whatever it takes to win and we’ll do that because at some point they’re going to bail us out and they’re going to we’re going to win a game 10-7 at some point.”
Schottenheimer said he’d rather struggle in the first half than the second, “because usually when the second half looks like that you find ways to win. If you flip the order and the first half is one way and the second half is not good, usually you come up short.”
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