Blogging The Boys
The Cowboys looked a bit lackluster on offense against the Rams, which is understandable with Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and George Pickens in street clothes – along with several other key starters.
To understand why this preseason performance means so little, you need to see the list of players who didn’t even take the field:
Offense:
-Dak Prescott
CeeDee Lamb
George Pickens
KaVontae Turpin
Jake Ferguson (Injury)
Cooper Beebe
Terence Steele
Tyler Booker
Tyler Guyton (Injury)
Javonte Williams
Jaydon Blue (Injury)
Miles Sanders
Hunter Luepke
As head coach, Brian Schottenheimer approached this opener with one priority: don’t give anything away.
His play-calling was stripped to the basics—no creative motions, no deep route combinations, no blitz disguises.
Why? Two big reasons:
Opponent scouting protection – There’s no reason to put regular-season concepts on tape for future opponents to dissect.
Player evaluation – Preseason is about finding out who can win one-on-one matchups and execute fundamentals without being hidden in complex schemes.
In short, Schottenheimer didn’t come to this game to win on the scoreboard—he came to win in preparation.
The Cowboys also hurt themselves with unnecessary penalties on Saturday night.
“We have to have discipline,” Schottenheimer said early in camp.
“We need discipline,” echoed Lamb in a separate press conference.
There are multiple variations of the act, however, and one of them bit the Cowboys in the backside time and again in their preseason bout versus the Rams — the kind that generates unnecessary penalties that kill or stall drives. And considering the struggles of quarterback Joe Milton to consistently move the offense down the field, at times when he did, those penalties became that much more damning.
And that’s why Schottenheimer, both head coach and offensive playcaller, took them personally.
“Of course,” he said on Monday. “To have six presnap penalties on the offense is awful. It’s awful. And it’s not going to be accepted. We’re not going to allow that to happen. We told guys that today: if you commit presnap penalties, which means you can’t line up the right way as an offensive lineman, and I shave my motions, we’re not going to play you.
“Why? Because why would you put yourself at a disadvantage and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to cost myself five yards here?’ The officials did a good job trying to warn us. … If we’re not a disciplined football team, that starts with me as a head coach and the coaching staff.”
What stands out most here is not only the self-accountability,...
