{"id":1003060,"date":"2026-09-17T07:21:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T07:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1003060\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T07:21:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T07:21:17","slug":"how-dallas-cowboys-are-fixing-week-1-communication-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1003060\/","title":{"rendered":"How Dallas Cowboys Are Fixing Week 1 Communication Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

FRISCO, Texas \u2014 Four Dallas Cowboys<\/a> players and Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Wednesday at The Star that the communication problems from the season opener are fixable.<\/p>\n

The New York Giants<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou address it first and foremost. It was surprising to us that we didn\u2019t communicate very well,\u201d Schottenheimer said. \u201cSpent 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\u2019s the person that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to co-sign that, you see us, we signal all the time based on different things, so you can\u2019t hear what they\u2019re saying on the film,\u201d Schottenheimer continued. \u201cSo there should be hand signals that show information being received, and we need to be better, and it wasn\u2019t good enough. But we emphasized it, we talked about it, and they understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defensive tackle Quinnen Williams<\/a> said the fix on third down is executing what defensive coordinator Christian Parker calls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to put it [on] one position. That\u2019s not fair. The ball gets thrown outside, the singleton outside, and there\u2019s not a linebacker or somebody there, and everyone assumes it\u2019s the linebackers. It\u2019s not just the linebackers, okay? So let me be very clear about that,\u201d Schottenheimer explained. \u201cAgain, 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\u2019s how we\u2019ve done it some, but it was not communicated from another player. And so therefore, that player has the trump card.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot that goes into it. And I\u2019m chalking it up to the fact that it was our first game,\u201d Schottenheimer added. \u201cAnd again, like I said, we were making calls, we just weren\u2019t making them all the time, and then receiving them all the time. And so that\u2019s 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\u2019s us not being on the same page. And defense, team defense, is about all 11 guys being on the same page. I mean, I\u2019ve never been around any good defense. If you don\u2019t have all 11 guys on the same page, it\u2019s usually not going to be very good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donovan Ezeiruaku, P.J. Locke Say Dallas Cowboys Will Keep Working On It<\/p>\n

Outside linebacker Donovan Ezeiruaku<\/a> said communication is two-way and runs across the whole defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, it\u2019s more so just, like as a whole, communication is two-way. It\u2019s giving and receiving,\u201d Ezeiruaku said. \u201cSo it\u2019s as a whole, not necessarily just like within our groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not a hard fix in my opinion. I think that\u2019s the biggest thing for us is getting that win under our belt, getting that consistency and just continue to build on that,\u201d Ezeiruaku explained.<\/p>\n

Safety P.J. Locke<\/a> said communication never stops needing work.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me tell you, so communication is, it\u2019s an ongoing thing. It doesn\u2019t just stop. Like, you just don\u2019t just get good at it, and like, you got to keep improving, and that\u2019s something we\u2019re going to continue to harp on,\u201d Locke said. \u201cAnd again, we probably wouldn\u2019t be having this conversation if we came out with a W.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper Beebe, Brian Schottenheimer Expect Better Communication At AT&T Stadium<\/p>\n

On offense, the conversation happens on the sideline. Center Cooper Beebe<\/a> said the coaches ask the linemen what to run each time they come off the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I mean, it\u2019s every time, especially in game, every time we come off the sideline. And what I appreciate is they\u2019ll ask us, hey, what do you think? What should we run? Like, what do you think? What are your guys\u2019 thoughts?\u201d Beebe said. \u201cSo there\u2019s definitely a lot of back and forth, and especially in a game like this, that\u2019s something you\u2019re going to need.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI mean, he\u2019s a rookie. I mean, he\u2019s taking a lot of things in himself. As always, we have multiple guys that can do it,\u201d Schottenheimer said. \u201cAll 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\u2019re looking at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of Sunday\u2019s problems came from players getting caught without sharing enough information or being loud enough, Schottenheimer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want me to say it again? I mean, disappointed. Yeah. I mean, we were disappointed,\u201d Schottenheimer said. \u201cBut am I sitting here saying we\u2019re going to communicate poorly this week? No. We\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in terms of did I sleep last night because I\u2019m worried about communication? No. I will be very surprised if we don\u2019t communicate at a much higher level in this game,\u201d Schottenheimer detailed. \u201cBut, again, there will be challenges to it, because we are playing at home with the noise and the fans cheering their heads off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dallas did not take an overly complicated plan into New York, Schottenheimer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re aware for all contingency. I hope it\u2019s really loud. Our fans are listening. I know they give us a huge advantage,\u201d Schottenheimer said. \u201cSo crowd noise is a big thing. It becomes a lot of nonverbal. I mean, that\u2019s real. So I think it\u2019s more of that than simplifying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think [we] went into the last game with an overly complicated plan,\u201d Schottenheimer noted. \u201cI 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\u2019t think that\u2019s necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Washington Commanders<\/a> visit AT&T Stadium on Sunday. Kickoff is 3:25 p.m. CT on FOX.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRISCO, Texas \u2014 Four Dallas Cowboys players and Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Wednesday at The Star that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1003061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,2461,7,6],"class_list":["post-1003060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas-cowboys","tag-cowboys","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallascowboys","tag-football","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117285177501830836","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1003061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}