In week two, the Dallas Cowboys had many firsts. Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer got his first win as an NFL head coach, and the Cowboys were able to notch their first win of the 2025 season.
After an impressive start to his head coaching career in the Cowboys week one loss, Schottenheimer had another impressive outing as a head coach and play-caller in the team’s week two victory against the New York Giants. Let’s dive into it.
Play-Calling
There were quite a few complaints about the Cowboys play-calling after the game. One of the major complaints were a few too many first down runs. A criticism often leveled at Mike McCarthy and Jason Garrett was their issues with being too predictable on first down and starting drives in a negative fashion with unsuccessful rush attempts. While there may have a few too many first-down runs on Sunday, the Cowboys early down success rate on the ground was positive, per RBSDM.com.
One thing we have to remember in this game is the Cowboys offensive line was overmatched by the New York Giants defensive line in this matchup. The Cowboys offensive line had struggles pass protecting for most of the game and given the weakness at tackle, the running game was an important aspect in keeping them in the game. From a route-design and run blocking standpoint, the design of the offense was impressive. The Cowboys tried to run a lot of bootleg stuff early to stall the Giants’ edge rushers to no avail, but they did a nice job of using play-action and motions to stall some of the upfield pressure from New York edge rushers. For a team that was having trouble blocking the Giants’ defensive front, the Cowboys still put up positive results from a counting number and advanced metric standpoint.
In week two, the Cowboys ranked eighth in EPA/play, 12th in success rate, ninth in rush EPA, and 12th in dropback EPA. Despite the struggles to block the Giants defensive line, Schottenheimer did a nice job of staying aggressive with his play-calling while not taking unnecessary risks in a close game. Through two weeks, Dak Prescott is playing at an MVP level and Schottenheimer’s design is opening up a lot of the success in the Cowboys offense early on.
Game Management
Similar to week one, there were not a ton of major moments where game management came into effect. On the Cowboys first drive of the game, the Cowboys went for it on fourth down and were called for delay of game on a delayed quarterback sneak. While there were some complaints about the way the Cowboys offense went about it, the idea of “lulling” the Giants defense to sleep after attempting to get them to jump offsides with hard counts early in the play-cock was wothwhile. Dak Prescott picked up the first down on the last second sneak attempt, but the officials rule the play clock had hit zero before the ball was snapped. Schottenheimer may get some heat for not using a timeout, but that failed due to poor execution from Prescott and a quick flag from the officials, but the design of the play was a smart one.
The only other major moments in this game were the drive before halftime and the last two end of game field goal attempts. The one before half was more on Prescott formaking a poor decision in throwing the out-route to Jake Ferguson eating up the remaining clock, failing to get a field goal attempt off before the end of the first half. The Cowboys played the end of game field goal attempts a bit too conservative in my mind, with rush attempts to pickup needed yardage, but they did work out thanks to some great running from running back Javonte Williams.
Grade
B+
At the end of the day, Schottenheimer had a better overall day in week one as a play-caller, but with the cards stacked against him with the Giants’ defensive line, he again put his value on display. In recent years, we have seen this offensive coaching staff crumble when they play a team with a dynamic defensive front.
In 2023, with Dak Prescott playing at a MVP level, the Cowboys offense put up 10 against the 49ers, 20 against the Chargers, 23 against the Eagles, 10 against the Bills, 20 against the Dolphins, and 20 against the Lions. For one of the better defensive lines in football, scoring 40 points is impressive, and shows that this offensive coaching staff is not scared of the challenge.
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