Cowboys Roundtable Discussion: Arizona Loss, Cowboys Defense, Head Coaching

Every week, we gather to discuss the latest news about the Dallas Cowboys and seek our writer’s perspective on each headline. Welcome back to the roundtable. This week we have Jorge Guajardo, Dyllan Rivers, Tom Ryle and Sean Martin. 

Who deserves the majority of the blame for the collapse against Arizona?

Mike – Brian Schottenheimer, and for me, it’s not even a debate. Christian Parker’s defense deserves criticism for the collapse, but Schottenheimer’s play-calling, poor game management and complete inability to close out games are becoming impossible to defend.

What makes it worse is the complete lack of logic behind his rushing decisions. Dallas had been averaging 5.6 yards per carry running left compared with just 2.0 yards running right, yet on Javonte Williams’ 24 carries, only eight went to the left. How do you identify such an obvious advantage and then fail to exploit it?

The frustrating part is that Denver had already handed Dallas a blueprint just one week earlier. Sean Payton exploited Arizona’s aggressive defense with a beautifully designed screen pass to the left (yes to the left), allowing RJ Harvey to race 52 yards for a touchdown. That was a perfect example of using creativity to get a running back into space. Schottenheimer had that evidence staring him in the face, yet showed little of the same imagination.

For me, Schottenheimer’s biggest weakness is his conservatism when Dallas gets ahead. Instead of attacking opponents and putting games beyond reach, he becomes predictable, cautious and far too concerned with protecting a lead. 

Jorge – The person really at fault is Jerry Jones. He’s run this franchise somewhat like a despot running a small island nation with precious resources. Subsequently, a festering culture of losing has smoldered for decades, and losses like Sunday are commonplace, frankly.

Even so, Schottenheimer is the guy with the headset on that players ultimately call coach, and his tenure in Dallas has been poor. It’s hard being a coach in Dallas given the circumstances with the Joneses, but man, just look at everybody that leaves this place once they land on stable ground. Sunday’s game was just another example of two wrongs not making a right with the dull duo of JJ and Schotty.

Sean – Not to sound like a broken record, but we all might end up doing so thanks to not being able to look away from the obvious, but this one is on Schottenheimer to me. We went from Mike McCarthy is the right hire because he wants to work with Dak Prescott, and at the time Kellen Moore, to McCarthy gets to bring in his own OC and that being Schottenheimer, to Schotty is the man in charge and now can’t figure out how to get a first down with Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and George Pickens. Hell, the head man can’t even figure out how to get all three of these players on the field at the same time in this latest loss. It’s horror show stuff. 

Schottenheimer got the ultimate do-over card in year one when we all accepted the Eberflus defense was bad enough to not be able to fairly evaluate anything else, just to be as bad at calling an offense as Eberflus was at calling a defense in year two with the same personnel. Horror. Show.

Tom – Not much to add, although I would add that the culture seems to be a real issue. This team just seems to have no real fight in it, and certainly does not seem to be working together. Now we have the Cowboys being treated as a laughingstock after blowing that game, and that is not going to help the morale. Maybe that falls back on the head coach, but you’d hope that some of the players would be trying to do something themselves to change the attitude.

Dyllan – Players need to play. Coaches need to coach. Neither party involved did much of either in the second half. Coach Schottenheimer’s game management has proven to be abysmal this season, rearing its ugly head once again against Arizona. Players began missing tackles and committing drive-continuing penalties. Everything went from near perfect in the first half to a cataclysmic nightmare in the second. When that happens, the blame falls at the feet of every person involved.

Tyler Allgeier finished with 147 rushing yards. Is the problem poor tackling, blown assignments, or simply a lack of physicality from Dallas?

Mike – It’s all three, but for me, the biggest problem is poor defensive discipline and a complete lack of physicality. Players were losing their assignments, failing to maintain gap discipline, taking poor angles, and missing tackles. But what frustrates me most is how easily Arizona bullied Dallas at the line of scrimmage. There was no aggression, no accountability and very little resistance once Allgeier reached the second level. When it’s all three you have to look at Christian Parker to take responsibility for all this, and he’s sitting firmly on the hot seat already.

Jorge – All of the above. Tackling has been an issue all year, and the lack of physicality has been a staple of the Dallas Cowboys defense even when they were recently good. Both go hand in hand; the same goes for the assignments. Christian Parker is failing as a DC, and the same issues have bubbled up all year. When you mix all three shortcomings into defensive performance, you get exactly what you saw on Sunday. The fact that the Cowboys defense isn’t okay at any of these three things is an indictment of Parker. 

Sean – I would include being out of position within the poor tackling category if I had to choose one of your buckets here, so tackling for me. Guys are expecting the first line of defense to make plays that they aren’t, which leads to the second level missing tackles, and then the third. There’s no swarming to the ball or visible effort to care about getting the guy with the ball on the ground before at least a positive gain every time.

Tom – I heard someone during the SNF postgame talk about how none of the units on defense were really unified. They just seem to be playing the game in isolation, with no teamwork. The three levels of the defense have to support one another, and that is just not happening.

Dyllan – Pre-snap alignment hurt them at times. Throwing shoulders instead of wrapping up occurred more than once. It looked like nobody wanted to take the bull by the horns in the second half and say, “enough is enough.” It’s troubling to see that against what’s supposed to be an inferior team.

What does Brian Schottenheimer need to change about his late-game management to be trusted to close out games when the Cowboys are ahead?

Mike – Right now, I simply don’t trust Brian Schottenheimer to close out games when Dallas has a lead. He needs to understand that protecting a lead doesn’t mean abandoning what made the offense successful. Keep attacking defensive weaknesses and trust your playmakers. His clock management and play selection all need serious improvement. Good coaches know when to be aggressive and when to manage a game. Schottenheimer currently seems to confuse managing a lead with playing not to lose. 

Jorge – I hate to sound cliché, but he needs to coach to win the dang game. Too often he coaches not to lose, only to lose in the most enfeebling ways possible. Trust your playmakers, cut them loose, put your line in a position to succeed, give the defense different looks. He gets really cute with his play calls, overthinks the hell out of everything and worst of all, just shows no urgency whatsoever.

He is the worst possible coach for this team with the DNA it has; he’s way too laid back, and it shows. Constantly taking opportunities, moments and plays for granted, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a coach so disinterested in winning and trying to get better. With that said, he has to give up playcalling, and he absolutely cannot be trusted to close out games.

Sean – Again, like we’ve basically been saying for two years now, get the ball to your best players. Not to be a prisoner of the moment, but at this point it feels like the lasting legacy of CeeDee Lamb in his prime years being wasted right now are going to be the endless replays of him throwing his hands up because he can’t get the ball. There’s no threat to catch the ball out of the backfield.

George Pickens made one big play on a simple route he should be running 10, 20, 30 times a game, but did it one time instead. After this loss was done and dusted, I watched the Rams run a four minute drill to end the game with a rushing first down and the ball in their hands against the Chargers. Let your best players decide games, this head coach has no ability to do that right now.

Tom – Don’t forget the obvious collapse of the defense once Gardner Minshew came in. It’s almost like they were only ready to play Jacoby Brissett, and had no plan for a change. After some impressive stands in the first half, it was back to missed tackles and people out of position. Just one stop in the fourth quarter, and Dallas would have gotten a win. But they seemed helpless to even slow Minshew and company down.

Dyllan – Brian Schottenheimer seems to lack a style. From my vantage point, we are seeing too much shooting from the hip. The end-of-half and late game errors continue to pile up. So much so that it’s almost impossible to be this bad in these situations as consistently as they are. I’m not sure what can tangibly be done to fix that other than perhaps Brian Schottenheimer giving up play calling duties to focus more on the totality of the game.

RAPID FIRE 

Who scores first for Dallas?

Jorge – Cee Dee Lamb

Sean – Feel like I’m probably batting “0-for” on these, but Javonte Williams

Tom – Dak, with his feet

Dyllan – George Pickens

Javonte Williams rushing yards, Over/under – 79.5?

Jorge – Under

Sean – Under

Tom – Under

Dyllan – Over

Jonathan Taylor rushing yards against Dallas, Over/under – 89.5?

Jorge – Over

Sean – If he’s on the team, over

Tom – Unless an entirely different defense shows up, over

Dyllan – Over because the defense is untrustworthy

Cowboys defensive sacks, Over/under – 2.5?

Jorge – Just over

Sean – Under

Tom – Under

Dyllan – Over. They’ve been getting after QBs a bit more consistently

Cowboys total offensive yards, Over/under 319.5?

Jorge – Under

Sean – Under

Tom – Over

Dyllan – Over

Josh Downs receptions vs. Caleb Downs, Over/Under – 1.5

Jorge – Over

Sean – Under

Tom – Over

Dyllan – If Caleb plays, over.