INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The Cowboys’ preseason opener on Saturday night against the Los Angeles Rams was a dream come true for Brian Schottenheimer, who has waited for over 30 years for his chance to be a head coach in the NFL.
Before the game, he and owner/GM Jerry Jones shared a moment at Sofi Stadium that got Schottenheimer teary-eyed.
“I got a little bit choked up coming to the stadium, and then when Jerry and I talked a little bit, I’ll be honest, I got a little emotional,” Schottenheimer said. “It’s been a dream of mine to be in this chair.”
That said, the 31-21 loss to the Rams was not what Brian Schottenheimer wanted to see while living his dream. Nonetheless, it’s a day he’ll never forget.
“I’m very appreciative of [Jerry] and the Jones family for having me in this chair,” Schottenheimer said. “I’ve told you guys from the beginning, no one’s going to work harder than me. And we’re going to go look at this film and try to clean it up… but at the end of the day, I’ll remember this day for a long time. It’s not the result that we wanted, but for the first time out there as a head coach, that felt pretty cool.”
What Schottenheimer doesn’t want to remember is the way the Cowboys’ started the game. In the first quarter, Dallas had just one yard of total offense on six plays, all of them passing, and allowed the Rams to march down the field with 160 yards of offense and score two touchdowns.
“It’s definitely not a storybook beginning, that’s for sure,” Schottenheimer said. “We just struggled. I think it was 25 plays to six at one point, and that’s obviously not a great way to start. They converted some fourth downs and they controlled the ball.”
From there, Schottenheimer feels like his team settled into the game more than they did from the offset, but still had one too many penalties for his liking and couldn’t overcome the Rams’ lead in the second half.
“I liked the way we battled in the second half….” Schottenheimer said. “I thought Phil Mafah ran really hard, I thought that was good. I loved the defense in the first half in terms of the run stoppage, we just got to get off the field on fourth down…”
“I told the guys, ‘Hey, they competed hard, but it’s not about competing, it’s about execution.'”
Of the Cowboys’ 11 penalties on the night, the most bizarre came from CeeDee Lamb. Lamb, who did not play, was standing too far out on the sidelines during a downfield pass to Jonathan Mingo, and an official collided hard with him causing them both to fall. Lamb was assessed a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, which negated some field position that Dallas’ offense would have gotten with a pass interference penalty against the Rams on the same play.
“We got to be better with discipline. I hope the [official] is okay…” Schottenheimer said. “We have to be better than that. CeeDee knows better, we know better, but the discipline on our part, we’re fine with the combative penalties. But we don’t line up onsides, they warned us a couple times, we have to do a better job of coaching and playing.”
Maybe the most important player coming into the game was second-year quarterback Joe Milton, who is set to serve as Dak Prescott’s backup and made his debut with the Cowboys Saturday night.
It was a roller coaster of an evening, which ended with Milton completing 17 of his 29 passes for 143 yards to go along with a touchdown and an interception. On the ground, he added five carries for 22 yards. The interception came on a deep ball intended for Ryan Flournoy, but was thrown in double coverage and will serve as a learning moment for the young quarterback.
“Second and four, he’s got a check down in front of him, ultra-competitive, he’s moving left and threw it up there,” Schottenheimer said. “Now, he’s trusting [Ryan Flournoy] in that situation to try to make a play, but I think that’s one of the things that when Joe watches he’ll be like ‘Yea, I probably should’ve taken a check down.'”
While it wasn’t Milton’s best day, it’s these types of situations and moments that are so vital for him as he ramps up for his first year in Dallas.
“That’s why he needs to play,” Schottenheimer said. “I do think he settled down, I think he found his rhythm late, started using his legs a little bit better. Again, terrific talent that every rep he gets is going to help him become a great pro.”
Milton was initially set to play the entire game for the Cowboys, but left early after a Rams player hit his elbow. At the time being, it’s not an injury the team thinks is serious.
“He got hit on the elbow. It seems like initial tests are that he’ll be okay, a little bit of a bruise. We’ll get some more tests… but I think Joe’s gonna be okay.” Schottenheimer said.
From an operational standpoint, Schottenheimer said leading up to the game that they’d be playing fairly vanilla in terms of play calls and scheme. That was the case, and he handled different scenarios differently in order to practice communication with his staff, like when he decided to take a field goal before the first half ended instead of letting his offense go for it.
“I thought the communication was good,” Schottenheimer said. “We played some of these situations like a real game because I needed to work those situations with my staff and decision making and things like that, and there were other ones that we played like preseason. There was a few times we probably would have onside kicked and done things like that.”
One game is down, and the Cowboys had a number of players that didn’t play, including first-round pick Tyler Booker. While it came as a bit of a surprise for the rookie to not see the field, Schottenheimer and his staff have a plan in place, and will suit up more bodies when the team returns to AT&T Stadium to host the Ravens next week.
“There’s three games for us. We had a specific plan going into this game of who we wanted to play,” Schottenheimer said. “There’ll be some more guys that play next week, not going to tell you who. It was more about this was the rotation we wanted to get this week.”
