{"id":399109,"date":"2025-09-05T05:04:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T05:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/399109\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T05:04:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T05:04:18","slug":"grading-brian-schottenheimers-debut-cowboys-coach-fares-well-vs-eagles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/399109\/","title":{"rendered":"Grading Brian Schottenheimer’s debut: Cowboys coach fares well vs. Eagles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brian Schottenheimer faced a tough test in his Dallas Cowboys<\/a> coaching debut. He had to take his team on the road to play the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> to open the 2025 NFL season.<\/p>\n

Not only that, but Schottenheimer’s squad had traded its best defensive player, Micah Parsons<\/a>, just one week before the contest. They would be breaking in a new rotation on the edge as a result, while trying to incorporate the newly acquired Kenny Clark<\/a> into their defensive line rotation.<\/p>\n

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Ultimately, Schottenheimer could not lead his squad to a win. The Eagles<\/a> earned a 24-20 victory during which both offenses performed well in the first half but sputtered after an hour-long lightning delay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite the defeat, Schottenheimer comported himself well and inspired some hope among Cowboys fans that the squad could be better in 2025 than many prognosticated.<\/p>\n

Here’s a breakdown of how Schottenheimer fared in his debut, along with a grade for his first game in charge of the Cowboys.<\/p>\n

1 \/ 7<\/p>\n

Cowboys vs. Eagles: NFC East rivals open 2025 season in NFL’s Kickoff Game<\/p>\n

Fireworks are seen prior to the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n

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1 \/ 7<\/p>\n

Cowboys vs. Eagles: NFC East rivals open 2025 season in NFL’s Kickoff Game<\/p>\n

Fireworks are seen prior to the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n

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2 \/ 7<\/p>\n

Cowboys vs. Eagles: NFC East rivals open 2025 season in NFL’s Kickoff Game<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl 59 championship banner is revealed prior to the 2025 NFL Kickoff Game.<\/p>\n

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3 \/ 7<\/p>\n

Cowboys vs. Eagles: NFC East rivals open 2025 season in NFL’s Kickoff Game<\/p>\n

Former Philadelphia Eagles player Jason Kelce looks on prior to the game at Lincoln Financial Field.<\/p>\n

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4 \/ 7<\/p>\n

Cowboys vs. Eagles: NFC East rivals open 2025 season in NFL’s Kickoff Game<\/p>\n

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott looks on during warmups.<\/p>\n

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5 \/ 7<\/p>\n

Cowboys vs. Eagles: NFC East rivals open 2025 season in NFL’s Kickoff Game<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean looks on in the tunnel prior to the 2025 NFL season opener against the Dallas Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field.<\/p>\n

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6 \/ 7<\/p>\n

Cowboys vs. Eagles: NFC East rivals open 2025 season in NFL’s Kickoff Game<\/p>\n

Lincoln Financial Field during warmups before the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n

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7 \/ 7<\/p>\n

Cowboys vs. Eagles: NFC East rivals open 2025 season in NFL’s Kickoff Game<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley looks on during warmups prior to the 2025 NFL season opener against the Dallas Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field.<\/p>\n

Grading Brian Schottenheimer’s Cowboys coaching debutCowboys offense breakdown<\/p>\n

Many expected the Cowboys would be blown out in their first game under Schottenheimer. That proved not to be the case, largely because of a strong showing from Dallas’ offense.<\/p>\n

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Schottenheimer’s offense performed well against a depleted Eagles defense that was replacing several starters and saw Jalen Carter ejected<\/a> after one play for spitting at Dak Prescott<\/a>. The first-year coach deserves credit for calling a good game, as he effectively mixed up running and passing plays and tried to keep Philadelphia’s young defense off-balance.<\/p>\n

Thanks to this approach, the Cowboys were able to establish the running game better than expected despite dressing just two backs for the game. Jaydon Blue<\/a> was a healthy scratch for the game, so Javonte Williams was treated as a workhorse. The fifth-year veteran performed well, generating 54 rushing yards and the first two Cowboys touchdowns on 15 carries.<\/p>\n

Schottenheimer’s willingness to lean on Williams and, to a lesser extent, Miles Sanders<\/a> helped put Prescott in position to succeed. They schemed up downfield targets for CeeDee Lamb<\/a> and George Pickens<\/a> while attacking the Eagles’ defense on all levels.<\/p>\n

That allowed the Cowboys offense to score on its first four possessions before sputtering after halftime thanks to a combination of the lightning delay and some key drops by their top wide-outs.<\/p>\n

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Cowboys defense breakdown<\/p>\n

While Schottenheimer’s offense performed well, his defense struggled throughout the evening. The Eagles scored on their first four possessions and Dallas’ defense was unable to stop Jalen Hurts.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys’ game plan against Hurts left a lot to be desired. The team frequently lost containment against the stellar scrambler and chose not to spy the mobile quarterback. As a result, Hurts was a big threat with his legs, running for 62 yards while ripping off several chunk plays and scoring twice on the ground.<\/p>\n

And critically, Hurts ran for four yards on a third-and-1 quarterback draw on Philadelphia’s final drive to seal the game.<\/p>\n

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In fairness to Schottenheimer and defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, they were playing behind the 8-ball after losing Parsons just a week before their season opener. And the unit did a great job of slowing down A.J. Brown<\/a>, who had just one catch, which came on Philadelphia’s final drive.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Dallas’ approach to stopping Hurts and Saquon Barkley<\/a> before the lightning delay left a lot to be desired. That will drag down Schottenheimer’s debut grade a bit.<\/p>\n

Schottenheimer’s game management<\/p>\n

Considering Schottenheimer’s status as a first-time coach, his game management was solid. He managed the clock well and got his offense into a nice rhythm, on which it should build heading into its second game.<\/p>\n

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Notably, Schottenheimer managed Dallas’ 1-minue drill at the end of the first half well. It momentarily appeared he might have a timeout snafu, but it was the result of an officiating error, which was corrected. Schottenheimer’s planning helped allow Brandon Aubrey<\/a> to get into field goal range in the 1-minute drill and cut Dallas’ halftime deficit to just one point.<\/p>\n

And on the Cowboys’ final drive, Schottenheimer opted to go for it on a fourth-and-3 near midfield with two minutes left in the game. Dallas failed to convert. Prescott slightly overthrew Lamb when he had a step on the Eagles defender.<\/p>\n

Still, Schottenheimer’s decision to go for it was sound. Punting and relying on his defense would have carried more risk given how it had performed for the first three quarters of the game.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, it was hard to find many errors in Schottenheimer’s approach. From benching Blue to trusting Williams, he seemed to pass in roster management. He also kept the Cowboys composed even after the early-game spitting incident between Carter and Prescott, for which he deserves credit.<\/p>\n

Brian Schottenheimer’s debut grade: B<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Grading Brian Schottenheimer’s Cowboys coaching debut<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian Schottenheimer faced a tough test in his Dallas Cowboys coaching debut. He had to take his team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[137718,137717,137705,137714,27734,27739,89027,102137,137712,137709,137711,137713,137715,137707,137716,27744,115632,137708,137706,137710,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-399109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-a-j-brown","9":"tag-brandon-aubrey","10":"tag-brian-schottenheimer","11":"tag-ceedee-lamb","12":"tag-dak-prescott","13":"tag-dallas-cowboys","14":"tag-debut","15":"tag-george-pickens","16":"tag-jalen-carter","17":"tag-jalen-hurts","18":"tag-javonte-williams","19":"tag-jaydon-blue","20":"tag-kenny-clark","21":"tag-micah-parsons","22":"tag-miles-sanders","23":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","24":"tag-saquon-barkley","25":"tag-schottenheimer","26":"tag-the-cowboys","27":"tag-the-eagles","28":"tag-united-states","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115149948348217397","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}