To say the Dallas Cowboys disappointed in their 28-20 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday night would be a comprehensive understatement.
There is plenty of blame to go around, but for a lot of folks, it starts and ends with Brian Schottenheimer, who conceded after the game that his team "got humbled."
"This is a humbling business," Schottenheimer said, via DallasCowboys.com. "And we got humbled tonight. That's what I told the guys. We lost mile one of a 17-mile marathon, and we have to be better. We will be better. And the only way to do that is to get back to work."
No lies detected, and that's the problem.
How is a team coming off a 7-9-1 season even in a position to get humbled by a division rival, with the entire country watching, in its first opportunity to back up all the offseason hype? That is a really poor reflection on the head coach, and Schottenheimer ultimately dug himself a deeper hole by admitting the Giants humbled his team.
It's embarrassing the Cowboys were in a position to be 'humbled' by the Giants
The glass-half-full takeaway is that the Cowboys needed this. They needed to be grounded after an offseason spent preaching how improved they were on defense, how the offense would be even more potent in Year 2 under Schottenheimer and Klayton Adams, and leaning into Super Bowl expectations.
Maybe the Giants gave them a reality check before that complacency could sink the season.
This team hasn't accomplished a thing. And yet, it clearly thought it could waltz into MetLife Stadium, hang 40 points on New York, and walk out with an easy win. Maybe that would've worked against last year's Giants. Not against a John-Harbaugh-led operation.
That's on the head coach.
Schottenheimer coached scared. Again. He set the tone for the game by punting on 4th-and-inches on the game's opening drive. How much money do the Cowboys have tied up in their offense? And you don't have the guts to pick up a half-yard? The mosquitoes flying around in the nosebleeds could have called Dallas' bluff on the hard count.
Part of the goal from the Cowboys' first possession should have been to take the crowd out of the game. The decision to punt had the exact opposite effect on an already unhinged MetLife Stadium.
Brian Schottenheimer fed right into John Harbaugh's game plan
The first game of the John Harbaugh era. The 25th anniversary of 9/11. Sunday Night Football. Giants-Cowboys. The crowd was always going to be at a fever pitch. Schottenheimer's decision made an already difficult environment even harder for his team.
Credit to Giants fans for invigorating their squad, but New York had more energy from the opening kick. It's easy to live with getting outplayed. Outexecuted. That's going to happen over a 17-game season. The least you expect from a team is to have some fire in its belly. A desire to pummel the opposition.
And when did the Cowboys did show emotion, it was in all of the wrong places.
DeMarvion Overshown was flagged for unnecessary roughness after hitting Jaxson Dart out of bounds. Jaishawn Barham is lucky he didn't get a penalty for suplexing a Giants running back.
The worst of the bunch came from Javonte Williams, one of the more buttoned-up players on the team. Williams was flagged for taunting while scoring a touchdown with Dallas trailing in the fourth quarter. It cost his team a point in a pivotal late-game situation when the Cowboys had zero margin for error.
Those aren’t exactly signs of the disciplined culture Schottenheimer has preached. Quite the opposite, actually. And its' all part of the humbling the Giants handed down. They dominated Dallas at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, but they were also the more disciplined team.
Maybe this was the butt-kicking that the Cowboys needed, but these no-shows are what ultimately stained an otherwise successful Mike McCarthy era in Dallas. A couple more, and Jerry and Stephen Jones may start asking themselves if Schottenheimer is the right guy for the job.
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