Blogging The Boys
Brian Schottenheimer is already making the offense look more modern.
Micah Parsons was the two-ton elephant in the room going into Thursday night, but all eyes were glued to how Brian Schottenheimer would fare in his first game as an NFL head coach. While the Dallas Cowboys came up short in a 24-20 dogfight, it’s not to be very high on Schottenheimer.
For starters, Schottenheimer had his team ready to play. The Cowboys outmatched the Eagles’ physicality for large stretches after preaching all offseason that they would be a physical side. Beyond that, Dallas was extremely discipline. Their four penalties were the fewest they’ve had in a Week 1 game since 2015, per ESPN’s Todd Archer.
As if that wasn’t enough, Schottenheimer passed the play-calling test with flying colors after Cowboys fans had to endure Mike McCarthy’s bland and outdated offense the last five years.
Brian Schottenheimer is already a better play-caller than former Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy
According to Next Gen Stats (via ESPN analyst Mina Kimes), the Cowboys used motion at the snap on 42 percent (!) of the plays against the Eagles. That would’ve ranked fourth in the NFL last season. Just three teams leaned on motion at the snap less than Dallas under McCarthy last season. Ladies and gentleman, the Cowboys finally have a modernized offense.
Kavontae Turpin in particular was used in motion on 53.8 percent of his snaps, including nine in motion at the snap, per Next Gen Stats. That nearly doubled his motion rate under McCarthy in 2024.
Turpin was only targeted twice and received two carries, but putting him in motion allowed Schottenheimer to pick up on how the Eagles were deploying Cooper Dejean and Vic Fangio’s other chess pieces.
The overall play-calling and scheme design was night and day compared to last season. While new offensive coordinator Klayton Adams and offensive line coach Conor Riley deserve some flowers as well, Schottenheimer deserves the most credit for standing on business.
Back in his introductory press conference, Schottenheimer vowed to make the offense “multiple” and said he was a big believer in shifts and motion. It’s one thing to say that publicly to sell a vision. It’s another to implement it and do it successfully against a really good defense.
Even though Dallas isn’t playing today, pay attention to this during the Week 1 slate.
Early kickoff: New York Giants at Washington Commanders
This is an obvious place to start for so many reasons. By the end of week one, the entire NFC East will have seen how they fared against one of their closest rivals. The Cowboys came up four points short against...
