Brian Schottenheimer: We’re Finding Our Stride | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Brian Schottenheimer: We’re Finding Our Stride | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Watkins, Dallas Morning News. Uh, after seven weeks, you guys been so up and down. Can you figure out why you haven’t been able to string together some wins like you want to? Yeah, I mean, I think again, yeah, I use the word consistency a lot. You know, I think uh it’s early season football in some regards. It’s new staff on defense in some regards. It’s some new pieces on offense. Uh, not an excuse. some of the injuries, some of the things that we’ve had to deal with. Um, but I do think yesterday was one of our more complimentary days of of team football. Um, you know, from the offense moving the football, scoring points, the big two-minute drive at the end of the first half was huge. Uh, the defense doing a good job stopping the run, controlling, you know, Jaden and affecting him. Uh, the kicking game, I think, you know, we made all of our kicks. I think we pinned him down inside the 20 four times. I think two punts and two kickoffs and um you know overall I just I I felt like you know hopefully we’re finding our stride and uh like I said uh no one cares where we are today. That doesn’t matter. What matters is where we’re going to be in uh January. Did you reiterate that to your team that hey let’s just not worry about the standings because you did move up in the standings and that kind of thing. Yeah we just talk I talked to the team about two things. Number one fundamentals. Um, I think, you know, I said it, a very wise old coach with bottle glasses used to talk about, uh, you have to focus on fundamentals more in in late October, November, December because most teams don’t. And so I talked to those guys about that. I think that’ll help us clean up some of the penalties. Too many penalties yesterday. You know, 12 called, 11 accepted. And honestly, I was complaining a lot to the officials, but we actually most of them were welld deserved. And uh uh I do like the fact that they were combative, but we need to cut that number in half. And the way you do that is really to focus on um you know, the fundamentals. And so that’s something we’re going to do. The other thing I talked about was the perspective. You know, keep everything in perspective. The world didn’t end when we lost to Carolina. You know, you start a new week. And so, um we got the win. We played good and you know now we’re on to on to Denver. They actually took my word for it. They actually wanted to come watch you guys work. Everybody wave. Wave to the crowds. There you go. Hey, I Hey, I said it. They did it. Yeah, they did it. Yeah. They really want to be in here, but we don’t have the room for them. So, Clarence Hill DLS Cowboys. A couple housekeeping things. Oh, I love Let’s do it. Diggs. Uh, is he out of protocol? In protocol? What’s the plan here? Yeah, he’s still in protocol. Yeah, still in protocol. We did see him today. Jim and our doctors did see him today and they sent him home. So, he’s still in protocol. Uh, two other things. Uh, Demo put Tminus 21 on his Twitter account. Is he announcing something for us here? Yeah, the plan. Yeah, the plan is good news. Um, uh, I’ll start with, uh, you know, we’re going to be bringing Mango Active. Um, uh, BB will open his window. Uh, expect him to be out there Wednesday. Uh, Revel, uh, going to open his window. And then, uh, number number zero will be out there running around on, uh, Wednesday. So, again, don’t, uh, don’t predict they’re all playing, but again, we’re excited to get those guys back. And, um, they’ve worked so hard, man. And I just I’m really, you know, both Demo and Von and, you know, really all the guys have worked so hard to get back that I’m excited to to get them out there and but we’ll be smart and we’ll ramp them up and see how they do. I’m sure you’ve been in personnel meetings. Does what you guys did yesterday to return these guys make you more inclined and less inclined to do something before the trade deadline to help this team out? Uh, well, we’ll always look at everything. We know that. I mean, I think Jerry and Stephen and uh Will, I mean, they’re always open for business and um you know, this time of year, you kind of let those guys focus on it because we’re so busy game planning and all that stuff. Uh but I am very pleased with the way our guys played yesterday and not pleased with the with the, you know, consistency that we performed with, but um you know, I really feel like, you know, it was a a very good game. Uh, I said last night, I’ll say it again, there were things we need to clean up. I think offensively, our pass protection was not the standard. You know, Dak took too many hits last night, uh, for different reasons and different breakdowns and all that. Uh, defensively, we have to make people kick field goals in the red zone. You have to do that. I mean, um, this the league is a high-scoring league right now. We have to do that. And, uh, it starts with us stopping the run in the red zone and then getting off the field on third down. And you know, really on special teams, the thing we kind of talked about was, you know, we have to let turp get loose. And it’s a lot easier than just saying, “Hey, Turp, go do it.” You know, you got to sustain blocks and do things like that. And that goes back to my message to them about fundamentals. Brian Todd here with ESPN. The defensive changes that were in place yesterday, is that something continues to go forward or is that a week? Did you view that as a week to week? Yeah, each week’s different. Um, you know, hey, let’s let’s be honest. We played good defense yesterday. Um they had a few guys out. I don’t feel bad for them. Um we’ve had a lot of guys out, but um we’re not sitting here saying, “Hey, we’re we’re ready.” I mean, we’re we’re we’re we’re it. We’re not saying we’re it right now in any phase, but we’re going to keep working hard and we put together a great plan. The guys executed that plan. The guys practiced well. Um it showed up throughout the week and man, the communication, I I just can’t say enough about that, Todd. I mean, just the way our guys communicated and um with some different pieces in there. Maris Bell did a really good job. I was really proud of him. Uh Shamar James um Kine was awesome. I mean, it’s so good to see him kind of take control and that was great. Um and then uh you know, Donovan Ezrau, I mean, I just think he’s a rising star. John, by the way, Todd’s the only one says hi. You guys ever notice that? He says hi, Todd. No, it’s too late. Thank you. I appreciate that. You know, he says hi. You don’t have to say hi. John with the athletic. Uh you mentioned Kenneth Murray and he was just talking a little while ago about getting the defense together, the guys together are kind of on their own last week and getting going over the calls and putting in that extra time to make sure everybody was on the same page. When you hear that as a coach, what what do you think? Yeah, I actually just I I just heard that in my in my prep for you guys. Uh it gets me jacked, man. It gets me excited. You know, when we went out and got K9, you know, one of the things we loved about him was the leadership and the passion for how he plays the game. I was not aware of that. Um, but you saw a defense that was connected. That was kind of his word. And, uh, I could not agree with it more. I mean, the play style, running the football, uh, the passion, I gave some love to the two young guns, uh, Shamar and and Easy on their, you know, first sacks for both of them. the passion and the juice that they bring is amazing. And and I will say this, man, I I just, you know, we thrive on juice and energy as a coaching staff, as a as a as a football team. And I can’t say enough about the fans, man. And that environment was awesome. Um they they they matched our intensity that we love to play with and our guys fed off of it. And um it uh it was really cool to see. And then for you as an offensive play caller, you obviously had an idea of what the offense could be when you made the move for for George Pickkins. But like a game like yesterday when you’re calling that offense and you have George and CD and Turpin and Ferguson and Javvante, like just what is that like? The fun. I mean, it really is. It’s fun. Uh because you can call plays and um you like one of my favorite plays was a little check down. We were actually hot. We got beat inside on something and uh Dak dumped it off the turp out there in this little swing pass and you know he spins out of it and goes for 15 yards. You just see the speed and explosiveness. Um the throw in two-minute from um Dak to GP was incredible on their sidelines which kind of got the two-minute drive at the end of the half jump started. Um 88 is really good at football. I mean we should keep him. He’s really good. And um but uh again what I enjoy is I enjoy watching these guys play the game the right way with passion, having fun. You know, I challenged them. I I I did in in in a serious way. I said, you know, look, I I I don’t personally have an SP, but the Seattle Seahawks when I was a coordinator had an ESP for the best celebrations. So, but to watch these guys have fun and celebrate with each other, man, like that as a coach, that’s what makes you um fulfilled because you see them playing the game together and loving it. Um when the love for your brother is more important than love for your own stats, that’s what uh gets you excited. And real quick on that, uh thinking of celebrations, Jay gave you that ball and then you gave it to Dez. Did you ever get it back? Dez did catch it. He did. Uh, I had no idea. Literally, it’s one of those deals where you like blacked out. Like, he gave me the ball and the emotion of it all, I don’t even know why I did it, but I did. And then Dak said to me, I think I told you guys this. Dax said to me, he goes, “You know, you threw that ball to Dez Bryant.” I said, “No, I threw it in the stands.” Obviously, my arm’s not as strong as it once was because I couldn’t even get it into the into the stands. Uh, but uh, we say we’re getting it back. Now, I saw Dez after the game. if I didn’t get it back. So, Dez, I’d like to have it back. Fergie gave it to me, you know, out of love. So, uh, but yeah, it’s one of those deals where, you know, you get caught up in the emotion of a game, man, and you I was like, I did. They’re like, yeah. I was like, okay, take your word for it. Nick Harris, fourstar telegram with Rebel. I’m sure it’s been an interesting process for him. Frustrating at times. How have you seen him be able to kind of embrace this process and be ready for uh when his name is? Yeah, it is a challenge, Nick. It really is. And, you know, there’s a lot of emotions that go through it. But I mean, these guys lay in their beds at night and they think about, man, you when’s it going to happen and all those things and um you know, there’s there’s tears and there’s fears and there’s all kinds of things like that. But you’ve just seen it over the last couple weeks working with Britt, you’ve seen the confidence in the change of direction in the thing that he’s doing, which now makes us very comfortable opening um you know, his window and letting him go out there and play football, what which he loves to do. And uh again, it’ll be mostly scout team stuff probably this week and let him run around and chase, you know, chase CD and George and those guys around and see how he does. And he’s going to make mistakes. But um I’m pretty pretty sure that uh he’s really really good at football, too. So, uh, but, uh, again, like I said, I can’t, even as a coach, you don’t understand what these guys have to go through when you’re injured and you have to come back from the injury and all those things and the mental toughness that it takes to, you know, overcome those things and just proud of him. As a coach and evaluator too, how excited are you to see what his onfield product will look like for the first time? He was playing really well before the injury. You guys got him in the third round. Just what’s kind of the excitement around that? Yeah, again I think you know the the size and the athleticism um jumped off the film in college. Um I think that uh again he has the traits that we love uh in corners. They have length, they have competitive spirit, things like that. They’ve got change of direction, the ability to play manto man. Um, and uh, again, I’m not going to put, you know, I don’t I don’t want to go too far over the top in my praise for Von. Um, because it’s going to be a little bit of a process, but I’m excited to get him out there on the grass running around and chasing around some pretty good uh, receivers. Hey, Babe Blberg, 1053, The Fan, Cowboys Radio Network. Um, you guys had scored 16 points in the first six games in the first quarter. You had 17 yesterday. Was that a point of emphasis uh throughout the week and continuing? I mean, you got going early. Yeah. Well, we actually uh one of the reasons why, you know, we talk about having a strategy and a plan and one of the reasons we actually received was well, number one, we felt good about the plan, but we also wanted to be able to control the decision with the sun. You know, that’s something we’ve always talked about. That’s what the satellite imaging told us to do. Um but uh again I think you know there’s a confidence in our offense and what we can do and um George I think leads the league right now and yards uh gained because of pass interference penalties and people still continue to play them one-on-one and we still continue to throw the ball up to them and so usually good things are going to happen but um I think you know it’s it’s got a lot to do with the execution and the players and we hit the openers and um they kind of know them but You know, each week’s different and it’s going to be a hell of a challenge. It’s, you know, I’m just getting into my beginning prep for Denver, but wow, what a great defense. And the job Vance Joseph’s done with that crew over the last couple years is really impressive. Garrett Garrett Hodell, CBS Sports. Hey, Brian. Um, with Dearbian over showing, this is the second. That’s awesome. Give him a question. Give him an extra question. Clarence waits for the walk off for him to say hi. The second time you’ve seen Debbie over Sean work his way back. one of these knee injuries. What difference or what have you seen from him this time around? You know, I think just the how much he’s been around flu and how he sits right in the front of the meetings. You know, as I’ve been sitting in the meetings, he sits right in front and uh he’s got sunglasses on which is kind of cool. I can’t pull that off. I’d try, but um you know, he’s sitting up front. He’s he’s intent like you hear him wanting to answer all the questions when they’re asking other guys. You see him kind of mouthing the answer. I I just think it’s the understanding of, you know, he knows the physical part is going to take care of itself, but mentally and understanding the system and the calls and close left and rock logs and all the different things that we do and the checks we have to make versus certain formations, man, he’s all into that. So, I think as you mature as a player, you understand that it’s not just the movement skills and the ability to tackle and run guys down. It’s the it’s the mental side of it. It’s a chess match. And uh I think um as he’s gotten older and wiser, I think he’s really attacking the playbook. Speaking of defensive meetings, uh Jerry Jones credited you for being in the defensive meeting room a lot for how the defense played on Sunday. Do you plan on being a regular um participant in those meetings going forward or was last week your involvement just kind of a one-off? No. And again, I appreciate Jerry saying that. I mean, I went in there in support of those guys and and wanting to ask questions and share my insight in how I would attack them. Um, I will continue to do that. I think it’s part of my job as the head coach. And I was in there today. I’m not just going to go in there, you know, when times are tough. I’m going to go in there when we come off a good game. And uh, but, you know, look, that defense, those players, Matt, his staff, they deserve the credit, not me. Joe, Joe from News. Ryan, you kind of alluded to the DPIs for George Pickins so far. Do you as a coach kind of I know he’s an expanded router here, but do you kind of coordinate say, “Hey, we’re going to have him on a vertical and that’ll be our fail safe because if they give us man coverage, usually it ends up being pretty good.” Um, I wouldn’t say that’s our that’s our the only thing we do because I will say, and I said it last week, you know, I think moving them around has paid big dividends for us. We had a big third down conversion the game where you saw us. We started kind of in a formation of the boundary where we had three guys on the boundary. We motioned him over across to try to get the matchup that we wanted and he he had a huge conversion on third down in the red zone leading to the Ferguson touchdown and not the two-minute but in the second half. Um, we just know that we’ve got some guys if you do want to isolate them one-on-one, Sid’s pretty damn good too on go balls and 50/50 balls and uh you have Turp running down the middle and um so I I really think the answer to the question is we’re comfortable that we can hurt people when we play well and we execute and we block and run and all those things. Um that we’re we match up well verse most people. obviously playing at elevation. Um Brandon Aubryy’s we’ve almost been waiting for the record almost to happen to you expand his zone a little bit now that you’re in elevation this week. Let’s see how he practices. I mean I don’t know you know the guy might not be very good. I don’t know. I mean you know I think he’s probably pretty good and um you know look like I said I showed to the the team today the 61 yard field goal and what amazes me and I’m not a kicking expert. Uh what amazes me is the ease of just the way the operation goes. And I also said this and and he you know he he backed me up on it. It’s not just him. You know it’s why we went out and resigned Trent and Banger but the protection unit. I mean you look at block kicks in this league right now are the craze in the National Football League. You know you see more people attacking A gaps and big bodies and they’re tipping balls and um you know none of that stuff happens without you know solid protection and solid timing and things like that. So, um it it really is a team deal and uh altitude might make it a little interesting though. No, NBC5. Um Mingo said he’s excited to play cuz he’s not played with Dak yet. Um what does he need to do to be active in this game and obviously got now Mingo here receiver? Yeah. Again, I think last week was a great step for him. I really do. I think he uh he practiced well. It was very close. We almost, you know, uh, did it last week, but we felt like, you know, give him these next couple days and, um, just again, the consistency of it, you know, we’re a very deep receiver room, you know, and we’re getting deep. And so, he’s got to show the ability to go in and and make plays and get that timing down with Dak. And there’s also a special teams element to it. You know, one guy I’m going to continue to rave about is Ryan Florenoy. I mean, Ryan Florenoy right now is playing well for us on offense, but he’s excellent on special teams. Another guy that to talk about Brevin Spawn Ford. I think you know he leads the the team in tackles on special teams. So I told Flu, you know, you got all these offensive guys making plays. Maybe we go with 25 or 26 on offense this week, you know, and um but you know, Jonathan had a good week of practice last week. He needs to do that again this week and the timing and stuff will come with that. And the NBA season gets going tomorrow. I know you’re sports historian there. Who’s the greatest basketball player of all time? Michael Jordan. He know you know Michael. Yeah, that was my guy. Correct. And not the guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy. I don’t really know Michael but that that was my guy like the posters on the wall. Yeah you had them all. Wow. Good. That was it. Peter. Oh you just call me Peter Ducey. Damn. Mike Ducy. Hey, he’s out. Hey, he’s out. I get it. He’s called me He’s called me Ryan before. Famous dude. Yeah, he Yeah. There’s more than one. Mikey talks. Hi, Mike. You were asked off the top about the up and down nature of this season. You’re clearly a pretty emotional guy. How did you learn to harness that and not get too caught up in one end or the other of this thing? You know, I think I just trust the process. You know, I really do. I think I’ve learned that um along the way. I think, you know, I am an emotional guy. Um I have a temper. Um I’ve got a few people that that keep me grounded. Uh I’d be lying if I said I before I walk into a team meeting or two, I’ve got a guy or two that’s like, “Are you good?” I’m good. Um, but really you just trust the process, you know, and if you if you don’t believe in the process, then what I’m selling to the players is is not real. And I do. And again, I think that at the end of the day, um, you know, we’re going to be judged in whatever it is, you know, 3 months from now, how we’re doing. I see our team getting better. I really do. I saw a big step forward for us yesterday as a football team. Uh, I’m so proud of our ability to protect the football right now. We’re four games in a row, knock on wood, of not, you know, giving it up. Um, we called it goose egg and then we’ve taken it away. We went from, actually, I said it in the presser probably week two or three, we were minus five at one point. We’re back to even in the giveaway takeaway ratio. That’s a huge part of it. Um, and so like if I would have let that change the fact that that oh man, we you know, we’re going to we turned it over four times against Chicago, I think, you know, and it’s like no takeaways for a while, like you just keep trusting the process and you keep working and you keep teaching and emphasize and then you go out and you throw good practices and at the end of the day those things pay off for you. You mentioned the sun at the stadium. If it were up to you, would you push a button and close the curtains? It’s majestic. Nicole, did you have something? Nick, these two-minute drives, what’s been working so well to score in those final two minutes? Crazy. It popped in my brain and I just I always speak with what Javvante Williams runs, man. I mean, like literally, you go back to the Jets, pop the run, you know, go back yesterday, you know, pops a big run, you know, really well blocked, the safety gun gets boxed out, he makes the guy miss. Um but again the confidence in you know the big plays we we can generate big plays in a hurry. It doesn’t take us very long sometimes to go down the field because of our talent. Um it’s way more that than my play calls. I can promise you that. Um but I mean you just look at the situation you know the touchdown to Ferg like that’s a situation that we talk about and it’s one word three words. Yeah. three words uh to Dak and he knows exactly what I’m thinking. So I don’t have to tell him, hey, call the play and say a big long um explanation of what it is. I say those three words and I’m not going to say the words, but those three words and then uh you know, he can go out and execute freely. Uh when Dak was sacked yesterday, was there a thought to just let it run out or always taking that time out right there and trying to take the shot? We’re always going to stay aggressive if we have, you know, time and downs. I believe in this group and um always will, always have, always will. Scott, Scott Dixon with the AP. Why do you think CD and George are meshing so well and I feel like that’s both on the field and off the field question? Yeah, I think there’s number one respect for one another. I think um Cidi’s at that stage of his career where he was ready for someone like George to step in and almost want to you know you know have such a close relationship and feed off of one another. I think CD realizes over the past couple years how many people have really targeted him in terms of double teams, rolling coverage, things like that. That was real as the offensive coordinator and play caller. that was very very real. And so I think that, you know, he um was all about adding a guy of GP’s talent. And then I just think, you know, from a personality standpoint, they’re both really playful. I mean, they’re both very playful. They both love football. They both love to have a good time and uh on the field. And um I just think that uh it was uh perfect timing. Is there a playful story you can share of them? Um the best one I have and and I’ve shared it with you guys so you probably won’t like it but you know the during um OTAAS’s uh it was our first red zone period and CD was on on the left and George was in the slot and um Dak hit uh George on a little like skinny post down in the red zone and um Sidi was running just a quick out on the left and he saw George catch it and he literally was like looking up to the heavens and saying thank you you know because of the way the safety had to tilt. The safety was moving to to CD which is what opened up the isolation and the look for Georgia. John Kenny Clark I know he came back but did he need an MRI or anything today? Yeah, I think he’s going to be good. Yeah, I think uh he’s going to be good. He’s tough tough as nails and I thought he did a really good job yesterday affecting the quarterback uh from a pass rush standpoint too. Uh the push that he and OSA got in the middle was was was good to see. That it good. Thank you guys.

Head coach Brian Schottenheimer speaks with media on Monday after the Cowboys’ 44-22 win over the Washington Commanders, provides updates on practice windows for DeMarvion Overshown, Shavon Revel Jr., Cooper Beebe, and more.

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