The Dallas Cowboys lost to the Green Bay Packers, and it was nothing short of awful. Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer’s postgame comments at Lambeau Field didn’t help the cause.

Schottenheimer opened his press conference with a statement before taking questions. His message was simple to a fault.

“The effort is right, the fight is right, but mistakes are killing us,” Schottenheimer told reporters postgame. “Repeating mistakes is not what we’re about. But we have to protect the football. Five turnovers in two games.” 

I think that’s the wrong diagnosis. Schottenheimer talked about mistakes as if Dallas was in a position to win this football game and simply got in its own way with penalties and turnovers.

To be fair, mistakes are hurting the Cowboys. Dak Prescott missed a safety on the first interception against the Packers, and the second came after CeeDee Lamb slipped on the field. Two more passes should have been picked off. A flag erased one, and Green Bay failed to capitalize on the other.

But mistakes aren’t what’s derailing this offense. It’s way deeper than that. The Cowboys are getting outclassed from a strategy point of view. 

Cowboys have no answers for the blitz

The offense Schottenheimer designed and calls is not prepared for the blitz, and it is failing to evolve.

Last season, the Cowboys were great in pass protection. They had solid plans to protect the passer and pick up blitzers.

Here’s the thing about the NFL, though: You have to evolve. Opponents now have a full year of film on the Cowboys, and they’ve figured them out.

The Houston Texans didn’t lean into it much because they could rush four and still generate pressure. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, however, blitzed Dallas often, and the Cowboys had no answer. Green Bay copied the blueprint and sent pressure all day. Dallas couldn’t get blocks up front, lacked hot routes to go to, and we barely saw Prescott adjusting protections.

On one play, the Packers showed a lot of pressure without rushing everyone. Prescott was hot to his right side. Terence Steele, instead of blocking one of the two defenders in front of him, blocked no one. George Pickens ran a slant, but a defender from the other side of the field dropped into the hook zone and took him away. There was no better hot route available.

That’s a design problem. When a quarterback walks to the line of scrimmage and sees a seven-man front, he needs a plan. Who stays in to protect? If the offense is hot, meaning more rushers than blockers, where does the ball go? The Cowboys don’t seem to check into those answers at all. And when they do, defensive coordinators have a counter ready.

This isn’t the Dak Prescott we know

The worst part is that Prescott has been a very good quarterback against the blitz throughout his career. Opposing coaches have praised him for it, and so have other NFL quarterbacks, including the likes of Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.

The variable here is Schottenheimer. Right now, he’s giving us the worst version of Prescott against the blitz that we’ve seen. That’s an indictment of the play caller. Scheme wise, opposing coaches are running laps around the Cowboys. That’s bigger than losing because of mistakes. 

And it goes beyond the scheme. At the end of the first half, the Cowboys tried to mount a scoring drive with little time left. Jake Ferguson caught the ball and didn’t bring it back to the line of scrimmage, as NFL players typically do when the clock is running. An official had to grab the ball, run it to the center, and spot it. Time expired.

Time was short anyway, so I won’t make a huge deal of it. But it’s the little things, and the little things are coaching. Dallas has scored fewer than 17 points in each of its last two games. The Cowboys also had 10 days to prepare for this matchup.

You couldn’t prepare in 10 days?

Do the Cowboys have talent issues? Sure, especially on defense. Are they this bad from a talent standpoint? I really don’t think so. The coaches are falling short.

Dallas sits at 2-4 and is only in the race because the NFC East lacks a clear front-runner. The Cowboys are even still favored to win the division in the prediction markets.

Next up is the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football. And you know defensive coordinator Vic Fangio will blitz until the Cowboys prove it shouldn’t. So will the next defensive coordinator, and the one after that.

Dallas had better be ready. And Schottenheimer needs to acknowledge this is about a lot more than a few mistakes.