{"id":334971,"date":"2025-10-27T00:51:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T00:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/334971\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T00:51:33","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T00:51:33","slug":"the-cowboys-defense-is-so-bad-it-takes-punting-off-the-table-for-brian-schottenheimer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/334971\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cowboys\u2019 defense is so bad, it takes punting off the table for Brian Schottenheimer"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was Brian Schottenheimer<\/a>\u2019s worst day as an NFL head coach, not surprising since the last Cowboys coach to beat the Denver Broncos was Barry Switzer. But it wasn\u2019t his worst so much because his play-calling got cute at the goal line early Sunday or because Dak Prescott threw two interceptions or because the team had a horrific start with pre-snap penalties \u2014 an old curse of Mike McCarthy teams \u2014 or even because the final result of 44-24<\/a> was the most one-sided loss this season for Dallas.<\/p>\n

Those things were bad enough, but they weren\u2019t his real mistake. That came in the third quarter when he chose to punt on fourth-and-6 at the Dallas 44-yard line. An inexcusable decision \u2026 if you happen to coach the 2025 Cowboys.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

Now, 10 years ago every coach in the league would have punted. It was the third quarter and Dallas trailed by 13. You don\u2019t want to give the game away before you have to. OK, maybe Bill Belichick would have gone for it against Indianapolis, but everyone else would have punted. In today\u2019s game, maybe a third of the league goes for it there. But if you\u2019re the head coach in Dallas, you absolutely have no choice.<\/p>\n

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A punt merely means the deficit will be 20 points the next time Dak Prescott takes the field. Might as well make that quick and fail going for it (you also might succeed) rather than punt and force Denver to take more time off the clock before scoring. A team that was not built for success on defense even before Micah Parsons was traded has zero chance with the current roster. The evidence is everywhere. <\/p>\n

The 44 points Sunday afternoon were the most scored by the Broncos this year. Earlier this season, Cowboys fans were treated to 37 by the New York Giants (most this year), 40 by Green Bay (most this year), 31 by the Chicago Bears (most this year) and 30 by Carolina (most this year, tied with another 30 against Atlanta).<\/p>\n

The Dallas defense is the gift that keeps on giving. You want to blame this on a rookie cornerback named Trikweze Bridges, who was either interfering with or getting beaten by Broncos receivers all afternoon, go ahead. Actually, for a rookie, you feel like Bridges should have been a little more prepared than he was, even if he was a seventh-round pick taken by the Chargers before landing in Dallas. He\u2019s 25. He played 60 games over six seasons at Oregon and Florida. He practiced against Bo Nix with the Ducks for two years. Maybe that\u2019s how he got that first-drive interception before everything unraveled.<\/p>\n

You want to throw something at your big screen every time the cameras show Matt Eberflus<\/a>? Go ahead (make sure it\u2019s soft). It\u2019s not like he has applied a magic touch to a defense that is every bit as bad as it was a year ago during the time that Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence (both now gone) were injured. <\/p>\n

But I think you know where the blame really goes. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones even joked before the game that the team might be seeking defensive help at the trade deadline, \u201cbut not a pass rusher.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t want to carry the blame for that one. But Dallas\u2019 defensive problems go well beyond not having Parsons, although any kind of difference-making pass rusher would certainly slow the bleeding a bit. Denver was able to spread its big plays around, even getting three touchdowns from rookie running back RJ Harvey.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a diehard Big 12 fan, you might know Harvey scored 25 touchdowns for UCF last year including three each against champion Arizona State, TCU and Arizona. That\u2019s what attracted the Broncos and Sean Payton to a 5-foot-8 running back in the second round. With his size he might seem more like a third-day pick, but the Broncos certainly liked what they saw Sunday \u2014an early 40-yard touchdown on the simplest of toss plays.<\/p>\n

Harvey had two touchdowns (both receiving) in Denver\u2019s first seven games. A game with the Cowboys gets you knocking on the door with the league leaders.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no real reason to think any of this is going to change. For Dallas to win, the Cowboys have to score 30 points just to get into the conversation. That\u2019s why Schottenheimer needs to write himself a note.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo more midfield punts. Our defense isn\u2019t coming to the rescue.\u201d<\/p>\n

X: @TimCowlishaw<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was Brian Schottenheimer\u2019s worst day as an NFL head coach, not surprising since the last Cowboys coach…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":334972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,29841,11890,7311,1596,8998,1232,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-334971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-brian-schottenheimer","10":"tag-commentary","11":"tag-cowboys","12":"tag-dallas","13":"tag-dallas-cowboys","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115443393069485433","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334971","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=334971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}