FRISCO — Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer has made it clear that his expectations for his first head coaching job are high. He plans on winning. He plans on winning so much that he’s already planning on how he’ll handle losing his assistants to other teams.
It would make sense then that his standard for the physicality of his team would be high, too.
The Cowboys, at least on Saturday, missed that mark.
“I talked to the guys about it this morning,” Schottenheimer said on Monday. “I said, ‘At the end of the day, when one of your main four pillars you believe in is physicality, I thought the physical nature that we played with was not good enough. It was inconsistent. Does that mean we weren’t physical at all? No. There were some guys that were very physical … but as a football team as a whole, we weren’t physical enough. And that’s coaches and players and all of us together.”
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Which is why Schottenheimer made a declaration prior to this week’s two open practices.
“At the end of the day,” Schottenheimer declared, “I want these next two practices to be ass-kickers.”
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones alluded to that hope, as well. He spoke to the fans inside the Ford Center at The Star during Tuesday night’s open practice and mentioned — in between one fan’s call for him to sign Micah Parsons — that it would be a hard, fully-padded practice for his team.
He said, “They’re really going to be busting their you know what to impress” the fans in attendance.
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What followed was a physical practice for preseason standards. There’s a limit to how physical teams can be in practice. They aren’t supposed to bring players to the ground. When they do, coaches will immediately spring onto the field and wave their hands up to signal to players and onlookers that players are supposed to stay on their feet.
A physical hit, for practice terms, is more of a physical thud. Immediately, there were signs of those. Two of the most physical guys on the team, tight end Jake Ferguson and safety Donovan Wilson, collided on a play-action rollout on the first play of 11-on-11. Wilson had an aggressive run fit on the next play for what would’ve been a tackle for loss. Safety Malik Hooker had a forced fumble on rookie Rivaldo Fairweather and a recovery for what would’ve been a defensive touchdown.
Perhaps the physical highlight of the day came when rookie tight end Tyler Neville knocked over defensive end James Houston seconds before linebacker Damone Clark knocked over Neville in the open field, sparking a pushing match between Neville and Clark.
There wasn’t a question about the Cowboys’ physicality against each other. There is a question about whether that would be indicative of physicality against other teams, however.
Schottenheimer’s hope for physicality, like any pillar, was built early. He promised training camp would be that way on the first day of practice. He reinforced that pillar often.
The Cowboys showed some potential to be physical, too. Their defenders would punch at ballcarriers on every play before the pads went on. They had three fights in three days of camp. Eventually, Schottenheimer even ended a practice early and had his team run when a punch was thrown by rookie offensive tackle Ajani Cornelius.
When the Cowboys had to go against other teams, however, that physicality was tested — unsuccessfully, too. Anecdotally speaking, the Los Angeles Rams won the physicality battle in their joint practice in Oxnard. Days later, it appeared they won it again in the preseason opener. Schottenheimer mentioned that the team’s pad level was too high and that they needed to improve tackling.
Tackling improved against the Ravens in a 31-13 loss on Saturday, but the overall physicality didn’t.
Tuesday’s practice was a good step in a physical direction. Whether they can elevate it to Schottenheimer’s liking by the time they head to Philadelphia for the season opener remains to be seen.
Schottenheimer believes it’s possible, however.
“We don’t look at [the Ravens game] and say, ‘Oh, hey, this is just a preseason game. It doesn’t matter,’” Schottenheimer said. “I’ve never said that, I would never say that. It does matter. Every time we get a chance to go out and compete, you compete to win.”
And every time they go out, Schottenheimer wants them to be physical, too. That’s his standard.
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