Everything coach Brian Schottenheimer said after Dallas Cowboys’ win over Giants
The Dallas Cowboys beat the New York Giants 40-37 in overtime in their home opener on Sunday at AT&T Stadium.
Here’s everything Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer said to the media after his first career win as an NFL head coach:
On his emotions after getting his first win
“I was really good coming off the field. And then when Dak presented me, he and Jerry presented me with the game ball, that was pretty special for me. Cool way to win your first game. You know, you’ll remember it forever, but the words that Dak and the players said to me after the game is why it’s so special. It’s, I expect, the first of many, but I’ll remember this one forever because of the fight in these guys. The way they didn’t quit. They just kept believing.
“You know, we always say, give yourself a chance in the fourth quarter. I guess we had to go a little longer tonight, but we found a way to do it. And very, very special. But so proud of those young men. You talk about pro football and the ups and downs and the high, lows, and giving up big bombs, and then you got to go back out there, and some of the situational stuff we did was just incredible. What can I say about Brandon Aubrey? I mean, just, you know, four field goals. 51,44, 64, would have been good from 70. And then the walk off, a 46-yard kick. But yeah, so proud of those young men, the hard work that they’ve done. This is about them, this isn’t about me. It’s about them, and I’m just so blessed to be their head coach.”
On seeing his family when he walked off the field
“Yeah, so my family was up in the box. I was blowing them a kiss. I was talking to my dad as well. And how about this? My mom, on Friday afternoon, went to the airport, fell in the airport, broke her arm. So Mom, I love you. I know you’re watching. I know you’re proud, but kind of stinks she wasn’t here for it. But I know she took one for the team. She said, Hey, I’ll be all right, I’ll take my meds and be ready to go.”
On if his mom not being at the game gave him any bad juju
“Well, we had a lot of things this week. I mean, I don’t know how deep you guys want to go. I had my dogs got bit by snakes. That was a big vet bill, shout out to wherever we went. They got, not one, but two got bit by snakes. And then my mom calls me on Friday afternoon when I’m leaving the office, and from the ER, she’s got her hand in traction from a compression fracture, so I figured something had to flip into good because this has been a crazy week. But man, I just again, I’m such a blessed man, my family, but those guys in the locker room, that is my family too, and I love those guys and I’m so proud of them. (Follow-up checking further on his mother) My mom is 82, she’ll be 82 in September here in a couple weeks, in a week. She’s lucky. Yeah, she’s lucky. But Mom, I love you. I know you’re watching, I love you.”
On the defense allowing the big plays late
“Yeah, again, I want to look at it before I make a bunch of comments. I’ll obviously have much more comments tomorrow when we visit. But you know, I’ll say this, Malik Nabers is a hell of a player. He really is, he’s a great player. But again, we had two guys there some and we weren’t deep enough, and you got to be deep enough and we got to communicate. One time, it’s a guy should overlap, and other times the safety should be deeper. And we knew where they were going to come into this game and try to get Malik Nabers the ball. He’s a special player. He was hot last week that he didn’t get it, so we weren’t surprised by that, but we have to be better. At the end of the day, we made enough plays as a football team to win this game in the final minutes. And again, I think that's what the story should be. We got a chance to fix things, and we need to fix things. And whether we win or we lose, we’re going to fix things. And tomorrow's meeting will be a long one. There’s going to be a lot of things to fix on both sides of the ball, special teams and certainly coaching.”
On if it’s comforting to have Brandon Aubrey
“He’s incredible, man. I mean, he really is. He’s incredible and just unshakable. We see it every day from him. But I mean, those big kicks, man, and you guys have a better vantage point than I do. I kind of can tell whether they’re going in or not, but I think most of them are right dead down the center. The operation was great too. I mean, just the protection part was great. The snap, the hold. But yes, what a weapon.”
On what was being said on the sideline after the late New York Giants touchdowns
“Believe, man, you got to believe. I mean, you have to believe. There’s going to be those plays. And there was a lot of those plays today. But when you’ve got veteran players like Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Terence Steele. On defense, Jack Sanborn, Kenneth Murray, when you have those guys, man, they just keep playing. And again, the defense got the big turnover late, which gave us a chance to win. Obviously, you guys all know the overtime rules. What was it, three minutes or something, when they took the ball back over? So, they gave us some time where we could be kind of very selective and patient in the field goal range. But you know, these guys are confident, and they should be confident. We’re a good football team.
“Now, I think we did some stupid [expletive] tonight, I really do. And you know, lot of penalties, you know, I think they got us for 12 and them for 14. So, we got to look at that. Special team stuff is unacceptable. We’re not going to let that happen. So, we got to look at those and play with better hands. But it speaks to the type of culture we built. And again, I know some people don’t like talking about culture, but that’s what I’m all about. And I told you guys, when we had adversity, our guys would step up, and they did.”
On what flipped offensively in the second half
“I felt like we got the running game going. You know, we weren’t very pleased with the run game. We challenged them at halftime. Matter of fact, called out a couple of the guys, and Tyler Booker took exception, which is great. I love that kid, man. He just loves to play football. He loves to push people. So, when Javonte Williams had the touchdown, he came over and, with a little expletive, said, How you like that? And I was like, I like it a lot. Let’s go do it again. But again, that was a big thing. I felt like it gave us more balance to be able to run the ball, throw the ball. George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb, tremendous. I mean, just those two guys. Pass protection, you know, they got us a couple times. It’s good front. You know, we’ve talked about that front, but I really think the running game is what switched it for us.”
On it being his first win and only 199 to go to match his father
“To pass him, yeah. I’m going to enjoy this one. Midnight rule. I’ve told you guys this one. Midnight, I’m going to enjoy it. I'm going to have a couple of ‘schotty’s’ tonight. At midnight, I’m going to go to bed and wake up and then we’re on to Chicago.”
On Dak Prescott today
“Yeah, I thought he played good. Again, we’ll look at the film. I know he threw a ton of completions. We weren’t coming in thinking we were going to have to throw the ball that many times, but just the big-time throws he made. I mean, the touchdown to George Pickens late was an incredible throw. And CeeDee Lamb made an incredible play in double coverage. They were trying to double CeeDee a bunch, and for him to be able to get open and do what he did. I thought Jake Ferguson played good. I never at one moment felt like Dak was not playing well. But what I will say is that is the most confident I’ve seen him. I mean, he and I were having fun. I mean, we’re starting overtime, and I was like, ‘Hey, you have any fun, man?’ He’s like, ‘I love this.’ And he said, ‘We’re made for this.’ I said, ‘You’re damn right we are.’ So I think it’s that inner belief. I think it’s the relationship that he and I have built. And you know when you call good plays, he executes them. When I call [expletive] plays, he still executes them.”
On Dak using his legs after everything he went through last year
“Yeah, he’s the first to tell you how athletic he is. I say you’re over 30, so let’s limit it. But again, it was a hell of a play, and I didn’t know how far he was going to go, but the thing that I loved is he hasn’t forgotten how to slide. That was cool. I think I’d give him an A, maybe A-minus on the slide.”
On what he believes the team can get from getting a win this type of way
“Well, we’re going to be in this situation again. We’re going to be in a situation where we’re in overtime or we’re down, and we give up a big play to go back down. So you draw strength from that. You draw experience from that. Hey, we’ve been here before. You know, this team, we talked about it last week, we were right on the doorstep. We didn’t find a way to win last week against Philly. It’s a damn good football team we just beat. They got good players on both sides of the line of scrimmage. And I told you guys, Russell Wilson is a good deep ball thrower, and he proved that tonight. What a great competitor he is. But yeah, absolutely, man. We’ll take the good, we’ll take the bad, we’ll work on it. After action report will be full because there’s so many plays. But learning to win is important in this league, and our guys learned how to win, tonight, they found a way, and that’s what matters.”
On CeeDee Lamb bouncing back
“CeeDee Lamb was voted captain, not because he’s one of the best receivers in football. CeeDee Lamb was voted captain because of how much the players respect him and what a hard worker he is, and the way he’s become one of our best practice players. I want to say that again, CeeDee Lamb is one of our best practice players. He runs and runs and runs, and that is so important, not just for him, but for the other players to see it. I’ve not been concerned about CeeDee Lamb. I went to bed Thursday night at five or Friday morning at five, whatever it was, knowing that you don’t have to worry about 88, man. He’s gonna be out there. And what a great player. It was great to see George step up tonight as well, and Fergie and so many guys. I thought Dak did a good job when they were doubling those guys of taking the underneath completions, and I think that’s why his completion percentage was so high.”
On if he felt his heart rate elevating during the game
“I’ve always said this because I’ve been the son of a head coach and watched many games. It’s so much harder to watch because you have no control. So, like when my dad was coaching and I’m watching, I would be going crazy. And literally, I remember I was 21, it was my 21st birthday, and it was a shootout between the Broncos and the Chiefs in Denver and Joe Montana versus John Elway. I won’t bore you guys with all the details, but basically, Joe Montana hit a quick out route, a lot like the one we hit to George Pickens, it was on the other side to Willie Davis. And I remember, out of excitement, I threw a water bottle. It was a beer, but I threw a water bottle and smashed it, but I was just so caught up in the emotion. When you’re playing and coaching, you’re just zoned in. You’re just in the moment, and you’re focused and OK. What’s the situation? What’s the down? What personnel are they in? What call do I want to make? Do I have to use my timeout? I know my family right now is probably celebrating, because I know it’s so much harder for them and for our players’ families to watch, and they’re the ones on the edge of their seats along with our fans.”
On what was the target distance to get for Brandon Aubrey
“We would try it from 70-ish. We’ve seen him make those before. We always want to try to get as close as we can. But he’s always like, yeah, I’m good. And, yeah, that’s pretty cool. Dak’s always like, what’s the line to make, and I’m like, yeah, 50-ish. You know, 50-ish. He’s like, OK, that’s like, a 67-70 yard field goal. So there’s really not one, but the confidence that you see the guy kick with is just incredible.”
On Javonte Williams’ performance
“God, you know, I tell you what, man. I saw he got 97 yards. I wish he would have got three more. I’ve been the high guy on Javonte the whole time, and the way he plays this game, man. I’m just telling you, if you find a running back in the National Football League that plays harder than this guy, more physical than this guy, I’d love to see it. I’m sure there are some that are on that same level, but I don’t think there’s anybody that plays the game more physical. And I could not be more happy for that young man with what he’s had to go through, where he’s been, and it was so cool to see him break through, but he’s just getting started. I can promise you that.”
On how Javonte Williams is having success this season
“Well again, when teams know we can throw the ball to two elite receivers, we're going to get some lighter boxes, but I will say the one we got today on Miles [Sanders] touchdown room was not. That was a 5-1 defense, called a Diamond front. They had five bigs in the game, and it just goes to show you guys, we can run the ball against anybody in this league. And they did a good job, give them credit. Shane Bowen did a nice job early on. Klayton Adams, the staff, we made some really good adjustments to get the run game going. The second half had some really cool designs. But I’ve always said you’re only a physical football team if you can run the football when teams know you’re going to run it. And right now, teams know we want to run the football in the red zone, and I think that’s why we’ve done so well down there.”
On if he can share what was said when he was given the game ball?
“I’m not going to share that. You can ask Dak. If I tried to spit it out, I’d cry, and I don’t feel like crying right now”
On what about the defensive performance concerns him the most?
“No, I think again, and somebody asked me that earlier. I want to look at the film. There was definitely some coverage busts, things we’ve got to clean up. I know one time we didn’t carry the guy down the middle of the field, that was the first touchdown, that was one of the linebackers. But again, we have to be better than that. You can’t give up that many explosive passes. And a lot of those were again, either he was doubled on Malik Nabers, or we didn’t play the coverage the right way. Guy didn’t overlap, guy didn’t buzz, guy didn’t carry three. And when you do that, you open yourselves up. I thought the fans were really, really loud. Fans keep being loud. We’ll get the coverage unit fixed. Sometimes it’s hand signals. You don’t get your hand signals communicated, so one guy’s playing something, another guy’s playing something else. But I’ll speak a little bit more to it tomorrow, because it will be something we spend quite a bit of time on to make sure we make those adjustments before we get to Chicago.”
On George Pickens
“I mean, it felt great. I’m happy for him. I mean, you know people, people want to ask me about GP all the time. I love that kid, man, I really do. I love George Pickens. He’s a special young man. He loves football. He has been nothing but a pleasure for me to coach. And, wow, what a special talent.”
On if there’s any updates on KaVontae Turpin and Cooper Beebe injuries
“Yeah, again, we’ve got to get some testing done on them. I’ll have more information for you tomorrow. I know Turpin’s had some tests done, we’re waiting for some more. And then on Beebe, I haven’t had a chance to get that yet.”
On when his voice will come back
“After a few shots. So, if you guys let me leave, I’ll go have three lemons, right? Vodka, water, three lemons. But it’ll come back tomorrow. When I talk to you guys tomorrow, I’ll have grape juice. I’m a little tired right now. I didn’t even play, but I’m a little tired.”
On if Jerry Jones had told him yet that the team is signing Jadeveon Clowney
“Hey, Jerry and I talk about a lot of things. If it’s true, which I think if Jerry says it, it’s true. That’s awesome for the Cowboys.”
