Brian Schottenheimer’s postgame explanation of defensive struggles falls painfully short after Dallas Cowboys loss
The Dallas Cowboys head coach addressed his team’s struggles on defense against the New York Giants, which were even worse than those from 2025.
In the aftermath of the Dallas Cowboys’ Week 1 loss to the New York Giants, everywhere you look, you find a more damning stat of the Cowboys’ defensive performance.
The league’s worst EPA/drive of Week 1, worse than almost all of their 2025 games, two pressures in 20 four-man rush snaps, and more. And reading those stats comes as no surprise for those who watched the game. The Cowboys defense was outclassed in every way.
So what went wrong? Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer tried to explain on Sunday night. I’m not sure it’s a satisfactory one.
Schottenheimer’s explanation for defensive struggles falls short
Schottenheimer was asked postgame about the Cowboys being unable to get off the field ont third down.
“We were turning guys free in the flat,” Schottenheimer told reporters postgame. “One of the things—not an excuse, guys—we did not play well, but you’ve got young players, and a young player closes. And Jaxson Dart, boots and gets outside. We don’t push three different times to the (expletive) flat route, excuse my language. Those are going to happen, and we have to coach the young players better. But when you play young players, it’s part of the deal, and they need to learn quickly.”
It’s a group of young players indeed, but there are many veterans in it, too. The Cowboys started DeMarvion Overshown and Dee Winters at linebacker, two players in Year 4 of their careers. They traded for Rashan Gary at EDGE and added Von Miller to complement second-year player Donovan Ezeiruaku and first-round rookie Malachi Lawrence.
At cornerback, the Cowboys returned DaRon Bland (who has been starting since 2021) and Cobie Durant (who started 39 games for the L.A. Rams). At safety, Jalen Thompson and Malik Hooker do not lack experience.
Sure, there are young players and that was a big part of the problem. The Cowboys’ third-round rookie Jaishawn Barham, for instance, was beaten in those spammed flat routes Schottenheimer mentioned. But it explains a tiny piece of the disaster that occurred on Sunday night.
Cowboys HC is not making excuses, though
To be fair to Schottenheimer, he’s not making excuses. Young players and all, he knows Sunday was unnaceptable.
They’re going to make mistakes, we know that,” Schottenheimer said. “But to give up contained on an athletic quarterback like that, like Jaxson, that shouldn’t happen the multiple times that it did. It was not a play-style thing. They were playing hard, but there’s a discipline element to what we have to get done starting tomorrow when we watch the
film with the coaches. And there’s a way to play, and we did not play to that tonight.”
He admitted postgame the Giants were the most physical team and the one with the better gameplan.
“They had a really good game plan, and again, we didn’t make enough adjustments,” Schottenheimer added. “We’ve got to understand how to play quarter-flat when you free-release or check-swing it back out of the backfield, and we didn’t do that. And so those are things that we have to take a hard look at and figure out why, because it happened multiple times, and we will.”
He also understands Cowboys DC Christian Parker, who might be able to gain the benefit of the doubt with this being his first game calling plays for an NFL defense, has to find a solution ASAP.
“(Parker) is going to be hardest on himself anyways, he and the defensive staff,” Schottenheimer said. “But at the end of the day, when you look at the numbers, they were four-forfour in the red zone. They were 9-for-11 with a kneel-down on third down. It’s just not good enough. And so we’ve got to figure out why, and we’ve got to do it in a hurry because we’ve got a good football team, another division opponent, coming into AT&T on Sunday.”
So what now?
Hopefully the Cowboys find solutions quickly. Some areas where they might include discipline and playing assignment-sound football. Parker might rebound from his “Welcome to the NFL” moment.
What remains a serious concern is the talent. Do the Cowboys have what it takes to rush with four and/or survive in coverage when they blitz? Do they have enough at linebacker to fix the glaring issues from Week 1?
Coaching and scheme is easier to fix than a poorly build roster. Time will tell if the Cowboys have the horsepower to turn this around. As Schottenheimer indicated, it’s not a lot of time, though.
