FRISCO — After five weeks, Dallas Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer and his offensive coaches are in their bags.
How else can you explain the success of this Cowboys offense, right now?
In Sunday’s 37-22 win over the winless Jets, Schottenheimer’s team maintained control of the game with ease, considering what was missing.
“No man, listen, you know me, I call it to try and get guys involved,” Schottenheimer said Monday afternoon. “But the players are the ones that make the magic happen and the staff has done a great job of getting our guys prepared to go with whatever we got.”
Cowboys
The offense didn’t have four starting offensive linemen and had its best one, Tyler Smith, on the sidelines, only to be used in an emergency as he nurses a right knee injury.
Without receivers CeeDee Lamb and KaVontae Turpin the Jets defense was determined to take out George Pickens. Schottenheimer got reserve Ryan Flournoy involved in the offense quickly. The first offensive play of the game had Flournoy on a jet sweep that went for zero yards.
When his day was complete, he had career highs in catches (6), yards (114) and targets (9).
“I thought Flo played great yesterday,” Schottenheimer said.
And while the Jets were using corner Sauce Gardner on Pickens on 25 of 28 pass routes, quarterback Dak Prescott found him anyway. After a nice little hand battle during the route, Prescott connected with Pickens for a 43-yard touchdown pass.
Putting up numbers
A look at some key offensive statistics for the Cowboys offense:
PlayerStatistical categoryNFL rankTotalDak PrescottPassing completions1st139Passing attempts1st195Passing yards2nd1,356Passing first downsT-1st68Javonte WilliamsRushing yards3rd447TouchdownsT-2nd5Jake FergusonCatches2nd41George PickensTD receptionsT-2nd5
Of course, you can’t forget how the coaches worked without four starters along the offensive line. In the game, five backups played, which included the six snaps from Trevor Keegan at guard.
“There’s not many teams in the league that can put four guys who don’t start into the game and feel confident about goingand winning a game, especially on the road against one of the most premier interior defensive lineman (Quinnen Williams) and some good rushers as well,” Prescott said. “So, credit from the front office of getting these guys, but just asimportant, these guys don’t see themselves as backups, as they shouldn’t.”
Javonte Williams rushed for a career-high 135 yards with a rushing and receiving touchdown. He busted through for a 66-yard run near the end of the half that set up a Prescott TD pass to Jake Ferguson. The physical nature in which the line plays with matches Williams’ play style. He also picked up two yards after breaking free from a potential tackle for loss on another run.
“I’ve been saying it all week, I trust those guys,” Williams said of the offensive line. “Even though they’re backups, they’re NFL players. And no matter who’s in the game, we’re going to run our plays and do what we have to do.”
And how can one forget about Prescott.
He threw four touchdown passes on 29 attempts. On the season, he’s first in the NFL in completions (139), attempts (195), second in yards (1,356), tied for third in touchdowns (10) and tied for fifth in completion percentage (71.3).
Everything is working for this Cowboys team offensively and you can thank Schottenheimer, his offensive coordinator Klayton Adams and the other offensive coaches for it.
The chemistry Schottenheimer and Prescott are having has produced the No. 1 offense in the NFL with 2,033 yards and the fifth-best yards per play average (6.1) and the sixth-most rushing yards (672).
It’s a strong start considering the Cowboys have missed starters at left tackle, center, both guards, No. 1 wide out, backup running back and key receiver in the first five weeks of the season.
This is an offense averaging 30.2 points per game, fourth in the NFL with a play caller who last performed that task in 2020.
Schottenheimer is clearly doing everything right, and even holding himself to high standards when things go awry. But on the playcall to Pickens, leading to a touchdown, Schottenheimer was well, in his bag.
“It’s just taking accountability and then, he called the touchdown to GP,” Prescott said. “Then goes, “Hey, I’m back in my bag.” And I go, “Yeah, you are.” Just incredible the way he approaches this game each and every day. And when you get to Sundays or whatever the game day is, he talks about playing free and playing coaching and being loose, and he’s the epitome of that. If you want to see somebody who’s enjoying the moment, it’s Schotty.”
Cowboys reinforcements are on the way. How quickly will they arrive, though?Dallas Cowboys rookie Shemar James delivered when thrust into a larger role vs. Jets
Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.