{"id":207451,"date":"2025-09-07T11:13:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T11:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/207451\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T11:13:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T11:13:12","slug":"dallas-cowboys-news-brian-schottenheimer-receives-praise-for-eagles-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/207451\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys news: Brian Schottenheimer receives praise for Eagles game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Football is a game of numbers, but a 24-20 final score doesn\u2019t tell the entire story of Thursday night\u2019s regular-season opener for the Cowboys<\/a>. Nor does CeeDee Lamb\u2019s career-worst four dropped passes. Not even the 0-1 start in Brian Schottenheimer\u2019s inaugural year is the number that matters most, especially with 94% of the season still to play.<\/p>\n

Dallas will be searching for things to build on, and a deeper dive into the box score provides plenty: both positives to reinforce as well as opportunities for growth. While the team can look to Dak Prescott\u2019s mostly-clean uniform, Javonte Williams\u2019s touchdown two-fer, and some uncharacteristic red-zone success as Week 1 bright spots, there\u2019s still concern for the defense\u2019s well-documented Achilles\u2019 heel and some snap distribution disparities that could stand to be evened out.<\/p>\n

Time of possession, penalty counts, and big-play prevention: they\u2019re all stats that are trending in the right direction for the Cowboys, even if it\u2019s been just one game.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look inside some of the other numbers that help put the first game of 2025 season into a different perspective.<\/p>\n

0: Sacks taken by Dak Prescott<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Dallas offensive line, revamped in the offseason with rookie Tyler Booker taking over for retired perennial All-Pro Zack Martin, kept Prescott mostly clean. The final stat sheet shows zero sacks for the vaunted Eagles D-line and only one QB hit on the night.Looking for a free mini puzzle? Play the USA TODAY Quick Cross now.<\/a><\/p>\n

But Prescott deserves a significant amount of the credit for that; he used his legs (and that rehabbed hamstring) to buy time in the pocket and get himself out of a lot of trouble. Philly logged 13 pressures, and while Prescott recorded just three yards on his lone rushing attempt, he completed 75% of his passes thrown while under enemy fire.<\/p>\n

1: Plays of 20+ yards allowed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year, the Cowboys defense was gashed for 52 plays of more 20 yards over the course of the season, an average of three per game. Against the defending Super Bowl champs Thursday, though, they allowed just one.<\/p>\n

Hard to fault new Cowboys cornerback Kaiir Elam for Jahan Dotson\u2019s 51-yard pickup late in the second quarter; it came on a picture-perfect bucket drop where the former first-rounder was providing step-for-step coverage. Dallas was concerned about their CB corps coming in; they\u2019ll only get better as Trevon Diggs ramps back up and reinforcements Caelen Carson, Josh Butler, and Shavon Revel Jr. arrive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Football is a game of numbers, but a 24-20 final score doesn\u2019t tell the entire story of Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":207452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,56894,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-207451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys-news","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115162723511550115","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}