The Brian Schottenheimer era with the Dallas Cowboys is only one year old, and despite a season that saw plenty of bumps and bruises, there still remains a fresh sense of optimism surrounding his leadership and ability to foster a more authentic, bonded locker room. Fans are hopeful that his offensive prowess and collaborative approach with the front office will provide the winning touch.<\/p>\n
Schotty came aboard following the departure of Mike McCarthy after his contract expired after the 2024 season. Following a disappointing 7\u201310 season and a tenure laced with early playoff exits, Jerry Jones and McCarthy opted to part ways. While a contract dispute was claimed to be a dealbreaker, the front office repeatedly expressed a level of uncertainty whenever they were asked about McCarthy\u2019s future with the team. Combine that with the team\u2019s underwhelming finishes, and it just seemed that his time in Dallas had run its course.<\/p>\n
McCarthy spent last season unemployed. Maybe it was his time to reflect, watch tape, or just take some time to relax. After a year hiatus, he landed on his feet, and those feet landed in Pittsburgh. Returning to his hometown, he replaces Mike Tomlin and becomes only the fourth head coach the Steelers have employed since 1969. The other three have won Super Bowls for the Steel City.<\/p>\n
While the Steelers are hoping that streak continues as they bank on his championship experience, most Cowboys fans are mostly just relieved that he\u2019s now someone else\u2019s problem. We wish the Steelers the best of luck (not really), as they have effectively replaced a defensive ace with a man whose shrivels up anytime he enters the red zone.<\/p>\n
Having gone through the McCarthy experience, Cowboys fans have a laundry list of grievances, and this serves as a good time to remind ourselves what they were. In no particular order, here are the top 10 reasons Cowboys fans should be happy he\u2019s no longer wearing the headset in Dallas.<\/p>\n
The facade – McCarthy was a big talker, but we found out later he was a bit of an embellisher. He admittedly lied about watching \u201cevery single play\u201d of the Cowboys\u2019 2019 season because he wanted the job. He also got fans excited about his belief in analytics, only to turn around and defy them in his coaching decisions.<\/p>\n
A culture of deflection – Accountability was not his thing, as he regularly shifted blame for his in-game decisions to someone else. Whether it was the officiating, reluctance to throw the challenge flag, or justifying clock mismanagement (we\u2019ll get to that in a bit) by stating the stadium game clock \u201cwent blank,\u201d McCarthy was notorious for deflecting. Sadly, that kind of stuff trickles down, and his players were often found playing the blame game.<\/p>\n
The 12-Man Penalty Habit – The 12th man meant something different in Dallas than it does in Seattle. Under McCarthy\u2019s watch, the Cowboys were known for repeatedly having too many players on the field during crucial fourth-down situations, showing a level of organization usually seen during a grade-school fire drill.<\/p>\n
Discipline Issues – Year after year, his players couldn\u2019t get out of their own way. Whether it was young players making poor decisions to cover up deficiencies or overzealous veterans, McCarthy oversaw a team that committed 570 penalties during his five years with the Cowboys, the most in the NFL during that span.<\/p>\n
Fake punt failures – It\u2019s very puzzling, but the Cowboys were very bad at this under McCarthy. Technically, the fault lay with the special team\u2019s coach, John Fassel, but whatever agreement the two had about how they went about this was not a good one. The timing, the poor execution, the whole shebang was just terrible, and everyone watching just shook their heads in disbelief.<\/p>\n
Chronic clock mismanagement – He was notorious for burning timeouts early in the game for no excusable reason, leaving the team helpless during two-minute drills. He was also known for not using timeouts when he should, sometimes just letting the clock run and settling for a field goal when they still could have taken shots at the end zone.<\/p>\n
The static offense – Once believed to be an offensive savant, his stint with the Cowboys consisted of an outdated, conservative offensive philosophy that lacked pre-snap motion and creativity. He openly criticized Kellen Moore for \u201clighting up the scoreboard\u201d instead of his desire to \u201crun the damn ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
The embarrassing blowout – The Cowboys are no strangers to losing in the playoffs, but you\u2019d have to go back a ways to see them stomped the way they were against the Green Bay Packers in 2023. They remain the only No. 2 seed that has lost to a No. 7 seed.<\/p>\n
Offseason practice fines – It\u2019s silly that the team can\u2019t follow simple rules. Not once, but twice, the Cowboys were fined by the NFL for excessive contact during offseason drills, proving that even during practice, they can still find a way to lose.<\/p>\n
While the transition to Schottenheimer promises nothing, the Cowboys appear to be in better hands with a coach who prioritizes modern offensive practices and discipline than one who stands there dumbfounded when explaining why things didn\u2019t go according to plan. Will things work out differently for McCarthy in Pittsburgh? Maybe. But if things follow what took place in Dallas, it\u2019s only a matter of time before they bring down the steel curtain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brian Schottenheimer era with the Dallas Cowboys is only one year old, and despite a season that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,13823,2461,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-743462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-cowboys","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys-history","12":"tag-dallascowboys","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116048780722175544","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743462","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=743462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}