FRISCO, Texas — Four Dallas Cowboys players and Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Wednesday at The Star that the communication problems from the season opener are fixable.

The New York Giants beat Dallas 28-20 on Sunday night, converting 9 of 11 third downs and running for 165 yards on 37 carries. Dallas was making its defensive calls against New York, Schottenheimer said, but not every time.

“You address it first and foremost. It was surprising to us that we didn’t communicate very well,” Schottenheimer said. “Spent quite a bit of time yesterday in the team meeting just going back through the keys to communication. First part is being decisive and loud. Second part, that’s the person that’s giving it, and then the receiving is where we were off on a few things. Calls were being made. They have to be louder. They have to be more decisive, but they have to be received.”

“And to co-sign that, you see us, we signal all the time based on different things, so you can’t hear what they’re saying on the film,” Schottenheimer continued. “So there should be hand signals that show information being received, and we need to be better, and it wasn’t good enough. But we emphasized it, we talked about it, and they understand.”

Defensive tackle Quinnen Williams said the fix on third down is executing what defensive coordinator Christian Parker calls.

“I think the biggest thing, like I said, executing the communication. We gotta execute the play that CP call and we gotta communicate and make sure all 11 on the same page and go,” Williams said.

One breakdown Sunday came when a player assumed a call based on how Dallas has handled it before, and another player never communicated it, Schottenheimer said.

“I’m not going to put it [on] one position. That’s not fair. The ball gets thrown outside, the singleton outside, and there’s not a linebacker or somebody there, and everyone assumes it’s the linebackers. It’s not just the linebackers, okay? So let me be very clear about that,” Schottenheimer explained. “Again, we have rules based off of splits and changes and number counts and things like that that are complicated. And so there was one time where a player assumed that it was going to be something because that’s how we’ve done it some, but it was not communicated from another player. And so therefore, that player has the trump card.”

“There’s a lot that goes into it. And I’m chalking it up to the fact that it was our first game,” Schottenheimer added. “And again, like I said, we were making calls, we just weren’t making them all the time, and then receiving them all the time. And so that’s why you saw some of the things where it looked like they got us on three different plays, those were actually three different calls, three different defensive calls. And so that’s us not being on the same page. And defense, team defense, is about all 11 guys being on the same page. I mean, I’ve never been around any good defense. If you don’t have all 11 guys on the same page, it’s usually not going to be very good.”

Donovan Ezeiruaku, P.J. Locke Say Dallas Cowboys Will Keep Working On It

Outside linebacker Donovan Ezeiruaku said communication is two-way and runs across the whole defense.

“No, it’s more so just, like as a whole, communication is two-way. It’s giving and receiving,” Ezeiruaku said. “So it’s as a whole, not necessarily just like within our groups.”

A lack of talent was never the problem, Ezeiruaku said, and the fix is making sure the player next to you knows what you are doing.

“That’s not a hard fix in my opinion. I think that’s the biggest thing for us is getting that win under our belt, getting that consistency and just continue to build on that,” Ezeiruaku explained.

Safety P.J. Locke said communication never stops needing work.

“Let me tell you, so communication is, it’s an ongoing thing. It doesn’t just stop. Like, you just don’t just get good at it, and like, you got to keep improving, and that’s something we’re going to continue to harp on,” Locke said. “And again, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation if we came out with a W.”

Cooper Beebe, Brian Schottenheimer Expect Better Communication At AT&T Stadium

On offense, the conversation happens on the sideline. Center Cooper Beebe said the coaches ask the linemen what to run each time they come off the field.

“Oh, I mean, it’s every time, especially in game, every time we come off the sideline. And what I appreciate is they’ll ask us, hey, what do you think? What should we run? Like, what do you think? What are your guys’ thoughts?” Beebe said. “So there’s definitely a lot of back and forth, and especially in a game like this, that’s something you’re going to need.”

Linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, who wore the green dot and handled the defensive calls in the opener, did not practice Wednesday with a hamstring injury. Rookie Jaishawn Barham played 34 defensive snaps against New York and wore the green dot in his preseason debut in August.

“I mean, he’s a rookie. I mean, he’s taking a lot of things in himself. As always, we have multiple guys that can do it,” Schottenheimer said. “All the confidence in the world in Jaishawn. He is actually very loud when he communicates. But he would do fine in that, but we do have other things that we’re looking at.”

Some of Sunday’s problems came from players getting caught without sharing enough information or being loud enough, Schottenheimer said.

“You want me to say it again? I mean, disappointed. Yeah. I mean, we were disappointed,” Schottenheimer said. “But am I sitting here saying we’re going to communicate poorly this week? No. We’re going to communicate better this week. And so did I see it coming? No, absolutely not. Do I think some of it was, like I said, guys getting caught, not sharing enough information or being loud enough and things like that? Absolutely.”

“But in terms of did I sleep last night because I’m worried about communication? No. I will be very surprised if we don’t communicate at a much higher level in this game,” Schottenheimer detailed. “But, again, there will be challenges to it, because we are playing at home with the noise and the fans cheering their heads off.”

Dallas did not take an overly complicated plan into New York, Schottenheimer said.

“We’re aware for all contingency. I hope it’s really loud. Our fans are listening. I know they give us a huge advantage,” Schottenheimer said. “So crowd noise is a big thing. It becomes a lot of nonverbal. I mean, that’s real. So I think it’s more of that than simplifying.”

“I don’t think [we] went into the last game with an overly complicated plan,” Schottenheimer noted. “I just think at the end of the day, it was not our best day of operating and executing across the board. But in terms of simplifying, I don’t think that’s necessary.”

The Washington Commanders visit AT&T Stadium on Sunday. Kickoff is 3:25 p.m. CT on FOX.