The Dallas Cowboys’ highly anticipated season opener turned into a defensive nightmare against the New York Giants.
Cowboys Nation now realizes that all the talk about a revamped defense may have been nothing more than hype.
There was no consistent pass rush, the defense allowed wide open receivers across the field. It also struggled to stop a physical Giants ground game. Christian Parker’s defense also showed communication issues that led to big plays and points, while the Cowboys committed multiple defensive offside penalties against New York.
But head coach Brian Schottenheimer did not blame the new defensive coordinator after his first NFL game as a DC. Instead, the second-year head coach pointed the finger at the “young players” on the roster when discussing the Cowboys’ Week 1 loss.
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Brian Schottenheimer puts Cowboys young players on notice
After the 28-20 loss that clearly exposed Cowboys’ actual defensive progress, Schottenheimer said that the main issue is young players and they need to learn things quickly.
“You know, one of the things, not excuse guys, we did not, we did not play well,” coach Schottenheimer said. “But you got young players and a young player closes in, Jackson Dart boots and gets outside. We don’t push three different times to the (expletive) flat route. Excuse my language. You know, like, you know, those are, those are going to happen and we have to coach the young players better, but when you play young players, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s part of the deal and they need to learn quickly,”
This is exactly what the head coach said after the loss. I purposefully did not remove the repetitive words, etc., because I want to show you how nervous the coach was talking about the loss. He did not expect that at all, as the Cowboys were in a different mood coming into the game, especially with Dak Prescott’s outstanding record against the Giants in the regular season.
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But I don’t want to evaluate Dak Prescott here. The main motive behind writing this article was to actually evaluate who those “young players” Coach Schottenheimer talked about are, whether they are the only and main problem the Cowboys have, and whether solving this problem would actually be enough for them to win the Super Bowl this year.
Evaluating which Cowboys young players Brian Schottenheimer may have blamed for the loss
Among the young offensive players who took the field against the Giants, Tyler Booker at 22 years old played all 52 offensive snaps (100%). Cooper Beebe at 25 years old also played all 52 offensive snaps (100%). Ryan Flournoy at 26 years old played 38 offensive snaps (73%) and ran 25 routes (69%).
Brevyn Spann-Ford at 26 years old played 12 offensive snaps (23%) and ran eight routes (22%). Luke Schoonmaker at 28 years old played 10 offensive snaps (19%) and ran five routes (14%). Hunter Luepke at 26 years old played 13 offensive snaps (25%) and ran eight routes (22%). Emari Demercado at 27 years old played four offensive snaps (8%).
Well, star rookie WR, Camden Brown, was inactive and did not play against the Giants. Meanwhile, DeMarvion Overshown suffered a hamstring injury and Malik Hooker suffered an arm injury during the game.
Among the young defensive players, Caleb Downs at 21 years old played 61 defensive snaps and four special teams snaps, finishing with 8 tackles, one sack, and one forced fumble. DaRon Bland at 27 years old played all 69 defensive snaps (100%). Donovan Ezeiruaku at 22 years old played 11 defensive snaps.
Are these the young Cowboys players Schottenheimer was referring to? If players with two, three or four years of NFL experience are still not performing at their highest level, the question becomes even more glaring. How is a Giants sophomore quarternack, Jaxson Dart, already making an impact against America’s Team while also finding a way to troll the Cowboys after the game?
Well, the next game could give us the answer. Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer does not necessarily have to explain why if the Cowboys lose again against the Washington Commanders on September 20. Another loss would make the answer much clearer than any explanation could.
