Here’s what Jason Garrett said after the Dallas Cowboys win over the New York Giants
Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett won his fifth season-opening game with Sunday’s 35-17 win over the New York Giants.
That’s second all-time in Cowboys’ history behind Tom Landry’s 22 season-opening wins.
After the game he offered his thoughts on Dak Prescott’s big day, Jason Witten’s return, Kellen Moore and Ezekiel Elliott’s performance:
On offensive and defensive performances tonight:
Yeah, I thought we did some good things in this game. We didn’t get off to a great start in the game. Our first drive we bogged down a little bit. They had a big play in the running game to go down and score and go up 7-0. But I thought after that we settled into the game a little bit and did a good job mixing the run and the pass offensively. We made a lot of plays in the passing game. A lot of guys got involved, different guys scored touchdowns. It was pretty efficient, it was pretty explosive throughout. Defensively a couple of times, their runner, as a big-time player, got out on us a little bit. They did make some plays. The second to last drive of the game on defense was not what we were looking for obviously. You’re in that situation where you’re trying to milk the clock and get through the game, but you just still want to play with the same identity that you play with all the time. That was disappointing but we did a good job that last drive, taking the ball away.
On Dak Prescott’s accuracy and how it has improved
I really do believe accuracy is something that you can improve upon over the course of you career. I think some of that comes from working technically, whether it’s your foot work or your delivery, all of that. But some of it just comes from playing in games and being in those situations — being able to get back in a fundamentally sound position over and over again when you’re under duress. I thought he did that tonight, really throughout the ball game. Protection was outstanding and it was just a good mix. We got different guys involved. He was seeing the defense well, throwing it to the right guys and he had command of the offense.
On Michael Gallup’s performance:
Michael made a lot of big plays. It seemed like every time it went to him, good things happened. That goes back to Dak reading the coverage and understanding the play versus the coverage and throwing to the right guy. He threw it decisively and Michael did a good job. He really won on all three levels of the defense. You saw him catch quick stuff, intermediate stuff and he made big plays down the field.
On how it feels to have Michael Gallup, Amari Cooper and Randall Cobb as offensive weapons:
Each of those guys came up big in this game. When Dak went to them, they came through. I thought Randall Cobb did a really good job. He made a big third down catch early to get us started. The catch and run he made down in the red zone was a big play for us. Amari continues to show that he can win on a lot of different routes against a lot of different people. He’s just a really good football player. He looked healthy. He hadn’t practiced a ton last week but he looked like he came back and was himself. He and Dak were on the same page. Each of those guys – and you throw the tight ends in the mix, and our desire to run the football — we can attack defenses a lot of different ways.
On Ezekiel Elliott’s performance:
I thought Zeke did a good job. Obviously, he missed a lot of time in training camp and practiced just three days this past week so we wanted to be mindful of how many reps we gave him in the game. I thought we did a pretty good job of that. He ended up being in in a couple of longer drives in the first-half so I think he got up over 35 snaps in the game. But, it seemed like he handled it well. It looked like he ran the way Zeke runs. I know over time when he practices a little bit more and gets a little more game experience, he’ll get more comfortable. But, he’s a really good football player and it’s good to have him back.
On where the team is after this game compared to where he wanted them to be:
You want to start off getting a win, there’s no question about that. That’s something we point towards. This is the game we’ve been focused on. We haven’t been focused on any other game up to this point. So, it feels good to register the win, but you go back tomorrow and you clean things up. There’s a ton to clean up from an execution standpoint in all three phases of our team. Certainly, there’s some good stuff to build on but we have a long way to go. Our players go about it the right way, so we try to coach them hard, correct the mistakes and move forward.
On if the team’s identity has changed with new offensive coordinator and new offensive personnel:
We certainly want to have an identity where we’re a physical football team. It starts with our guys up front. We have a physical runner and that’s where it starts for our team. I want to be physical on the offensive and defensive lines and we want to be physical throughout. That’s a big part of our team identity and certainly our offensive identity. Then you want to attack different ways. You want to get the ball to different people. You want to use different formations. You want to move around a little bit and really play downhill with the defense. We’re a work in progress in all phases of our team. I thought it was a good start today.
