The Dallas Cowboys know life without CeeDee Lamb, and now rookie guard Tyler Booker, won’t be easy, but head coach Brian Schottenheimer insists they still have plenty of ways to attack.
“Guys have to step up, that’s a big part of it,” Schottenheimer said. “We are very fortunate to have a guy like GP (George Pickens). I think you saw Turp (KaVontae Turpin) step up and make some plays. Jake Ferguson had an awesome game. But look, injuries are unfortunately a big part of this business and it’s hard to replace a guy like CeeDee. But guys got to step up and do that and again, it gives us a week to do it.”
Schottenheimer pointed out that this is the second straight week Dallas has had to adjust on the fly after an in-game injury.
“The week before it was Turp, you know when Turp went out, you had to move some of your personnels and stuff around and had to do that again yesterday with CeeDee. We still got plenty of ammunition to go do what we gotta do.”
And while Lamb went down taking a handoff out of the backfield, Schottenheimer dismissed the idea of second-guessing that play call.
“No, absolutely not,” he said. “You call passes and runs for people and try to get them the ball and it’s unfortunate, we’re still going to call quarterback runs with Dak at times and you hate to see it happen, but no. No second thoughts.”
If the Cowboys can find answers on offense, they’ll also need them on defense, where the bigger questions linger. Dallas has been gashed by explosive plays through three weeks, something Schottenheimer admitted simply isn’t good enough.
“We’re not giving up 16-, 17-, 18-yard explosives. We’re giving up 35 and 40 and 45 and at the end of the day, that’s not good enough, man,” he said. “We talked through things. We’re changing up things. Not going to get into what those things are to improve it and make it better from the way we meet, from the way we’re game planning, all that stuff. But you know, the players are not the only ones that have to be better. I have to be better, Flus (DC Matt Eberflus) has to be better, Klayton (OC Klayton Adams) has to be better, Nick (STC Nick Sorenson) has to be better for us to go where we want to go.”
Accountability was a key theme in Monday’s meetings. Schottenheimer praised cornerback Trevon Diggs for immediately owning a mistake that led to a touchdown, and said the staff is putting the entire defense in one room to address communication lapses.
“If there is at times a lapse in communication, then how do you foster that? Well, you foster it by having all of the guys in a room together,” he said. “That’s nothing revolutionary. It doesn’t automatically solve the problem. It still has to carry over to the field. The standard is not the standard, and therefore we will make changes. Some will be scheme. Some might even be personnel. We’ll see. We expect to play better against a really good opponent coming in here Sunday night.”
