‘It’s not like he’s naive’: As Cowboys hear Brian Schottenheimer criticism, they’re not content to just beat injury-riddled Eagles

PHILADELPHIA — Walking from the floodlit grass of Lincoln Financial Field back to the visiting locker room that vibrated with celebratory music, Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer revealed no expression.

Schottenheimer didn’t cheer nor smile as he walked with purpose toward the locker room. Neither would Dak Prescott minutes later, even as the quarterback who threw for three touchdowns in the Cowboys’ 38-21 win over the Philadelphia Eagles passed teammates ready for high-fives or embraces.

“I just expect that,” Prescott said of the win. “Obviously I’ve been in the league 11 years now and understanding where this team is, what we need to do, the importance.”

Prescott spoke similarly when asked if the Cowboys’ 200+ yards rushing and 200+ yards passing represented the most complete offensive game of 3-4 Dallas’ season.

“The numbers would say so, but this is one game,” Prescott said. “We’ve got to build on this so that we can continue to do this. So we’re not going to be complacent and say, ‘This is it.’ We’ve got to go get better this week and do it again next week.”

Perhaps the Cowboys leaders’ muted tones, if not outward humility, sound like a change from the “GOTI” acronym they touted during training camp for the “Greatest Offense There Is,” with Prescott and Co. also speaking openly then about their Super Bowl visions. But to Prescott and at least some others, “GOTI” was not a pronouncement that the roster had arrived at deserving the praise. It was a challenge to teammates that their roster was assembled in a way suggesting they could be the greatest ever.

Consecutive prime-time losses to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (starting undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels in place of Baker Mayfield) and the Green Bay Packers began to cloud Dallas’ upside and control of playoff hopes. Schottenheimer has led the charge in shifting his tone in at least some ways.

Sure, a 17-point road division win matters. And “absolutely” was Prescott willing to deem Monday night a must-win game. But beating a team that’s lost half a dozen offensive starters won’t be sufficient to make the type of playoff run for which the Cowboys hope. Scoring 35+ points only against the Commanders and Eagles after they’d lost Jayden Daniels (elbow) and Jalen Hurts (blood clots) respectively doesn’t warrant crowning as the offense to fear.

Consider Schottenheimer aware of the criticism some are leveling against his play-calling, game management and team organizing. Consider the Cowboys eager to prove it all wrong.

Monday night was a “definitely hungry, pissed-off version of Schotty,” Prescott said. “It’s not like he’s naive. It’s not like he hadn’t heard some noise about him and whether it’s calling the games or whatever doubt that’s been out there. But we’ve got his back. He knows that. …. 

“More importantly, it’s just about us going out there and executing on Sundays.”

Cowboys re-commit to run after they’d ‘gotten away from it a little earlier’ in consecutive losses

Against an Eagles team down Hurts, wide receiver DeVonta Smith and wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks, the Cowboys’ defense still allowed touchdowns on Philadelphia’s first two drives. Running back Saquon Barkley, battling a hamstring injury and then compensatory back injury, gashed the Cowboys for 62 yards and a touchdown on just seven carries.

So Prescott and Co. knew they needed to score early and often to spell their defensive counterparts.

On six of their first seven possessions, they did.

Dallas’ star wideouts, CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, accounted for 131 yards and three touchdowns combined. A key to their success: Dallas’ season-high 38 carries.

After 13 and 15 total rushes vs. the Bucs and Packers respectively, Dallas committed to the run game against Philadelphia.

The result: No longer were the Cowboys an offense unable to handle the blitz or balance their run-pass menu. Dallas ran six times in its first-quarter touchdown drive to set up Prescott to a spinning Lamb for the initial score.

A methodical, 14-play drive in the second quarter continued to incorporate some runs even as the explosive touchdown came courtesy a toe-dragging George Pickens 21-yard catch near the right boundary of the end zone.

Only once before the fourth quarter would a Cowboys run play exceed 15 yards. But the carries gradually wore down an Eagles defense with little room for error, demanding defenders return to the box rather than only focus on Lamb and Pickens.

Avoiding an early hole helped Dallas run the ball. But so did simply deciding to commit to running the ball.

“Not being stubborn, but saying, ‘Hey, we're going to run the ball. We're going to make this pop. We're going to make this happen one way or another,’” Prescott told Yahoo Sports after the game. “And Schotty may attest to it: I think in the past couple of weeks we might have even gotten away from it a little earlier than we wanted to. It doesn't help when you're down and you don't feel like you're necessarily stopping them. But yeah, it's a big difference when you're not down multiple scores and you can stick to it even when runs are inefficient. 

“Tonight showed that.”