Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer supports defensive coordinator after loss
The Dallas Cowboys lost to the Carolina Panthers 30-27 on Sunday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Here’s everything Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer said to the media after the loss:
On the run defense
“I want to look at it. They controlled the game on both sides and you gotta give them credit for that. We knew they were a physical football team. We weren’t surprised by that. But they were able to run it and we weren’t. And this is a game where you gotta win the line of scrimmage and we didn’t win the line of scrimmage today. I told the team that. It’s disappointing. But you’ve got to give them a lot of credit. They ran hard. They blocked well and we have to be better. And we’ll look at it and we’ll get it fixed.”
On if the team has the right personnel for this defense
“Yeah, absolutely. No question about it. We gotta coach better. We gotta play better. The physicality of it all. We’re a physical football team. We didn’t show it today. Give them credit. And we have to be better. And it’s not just thdefense. It was the offense. Yeah, we threw the ball all over the yard and that was great. But at the end of the day, we want to balanced, and we weren’t able to do that today. We got to look at that as an offensive staff and see what they did stop the run.”
On if it’s demoralizing as a play-caller to have to be perfect on offense
“I don’t look at it that way. You’re just playing the game. And our defense made some big stops in the fourth quarter. We weren’t able to punch the ball in. and when they stop them, we got to capitalize. We got to the fourth quarter, which is what we always say. We say you can’t win the game in the first, second and third. We got to the fourth quarter and had a chance to win. They outscored us 10-3. And we gotta be able to score touchdowns down in the red zone, and we didn’t do that.”
On the three-and-out drive in the fourth quarter
“Well, the first one was a screen and they sniffed it out. The phasing wasn’t very good so they were able to get the corner. The other ones weren’t screens. They were checkdowns. This team does a good job of batting the ball and they did that, but they played very passive when they got ahead of the sticks. They played pretty passive on second and third downs, so they forced us to check it down. They took it away.”
On if the Cowboys thought about letting the Panthers score at the end to get the ball back
“Uhhh, we did. We talked about a lot of different things. It’s one of those things, I don’t want to get too much into game strategy. We were talking about a lot of different things there. We felt like we didn’t do enough to give ourselves a chance to win. There was a chance. We had a good block on there at the end. We thought maybe we’d have a chance to get the block. Again, give them credit. They made the plays today when they had to and that’s why they have the victory.”
On if players believe in the defensive scheme
“That’s a bigger question. I would think so. I would hope so. What are we six games in? Is that right? Six games in? Yeah, I would think so. You know, we plugged one hole in the passing game a couple weeks ago, right. Certainly, we’ve shown the ability to run the football. We’ve shown the ability to stop the run. But there’s a consistency that’s not showing up. We gotta be better. And it starts with me. It starts with the coaching staff to put these guys in the right position. But again give Carolina credit. They were the more physical team today. We knew it was going to be a physical game. I’m man enough to stand up here in front of you guys and say that. I don’t like it. I don’t like saying it to our team. But when you turn on the film, that’s what you’re going to see.”
On why he believes defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus can turn it around
“Matt’s a great coach. I mean Matt’s a great coach. He’s been around. Everywhere he’s ever been, he’s had good defenses. It’s not just Matt by himself. You know Matt’s trying. Players are trying. It’s not a lack of effort. This is not that. It’s again, we have to be able to play more complementary defense. And early in the season we were getting hurt throwing the football. This game we got hurt running the football. We were not surprised. We need to tackle better. Our gap control is not very good right now. That’s the big thing I’d say right now. Our gap control is not where it needs to be. We’re not fitting gaps right. Shoot, I think first half it seemed like there was almost probably 75-80% of their runs the guy was 4 or 5 yards before we had contact on him. That’s not good enough. We know that. And we’re going to address it.”
On the fourth down where cornerback DaRon Bland played off the receiver
“Yeah, we feel good. We had DaRon in that situation one-on-one. Bryce made a good throw down and away to Hunter. They moved the sticks. A play in the game, of course, but not the only play in the game.”
On the problems with the Cowboys’ run game
“Penetration. There wasn’t a lot of clean windows. The run game’s got to start like they did. You get movement at the point of attack and that’s what opens up movements when the linebackers flow, and then you cut back off of that. We didn’t get much movement. It’s a big powerful group. I think it was kind of pretty consistent throughout that they played with lower hats. They got more stalemates than they got movement.”
On if they have gotten frustrated with the defense
“Absolutely not. We cheer for our defensive guys. Our defensive guys cheer for our offensive guys. Again, people want to talk about the culture and the connection piece. That’s where it comes in. It comes in for moments like this. That locker room is hurting. I’m hurting. Why? Because we let an opportunity slip to win another championship opportunity, and it’s frustrating as hell. But you don’t point fingers. You look at the film. We’re going to see it. It’s going to jump off the film at us, the things that we didn’t do well. We’ll get them fixed. I don’t worry about this team starting to point fingers in any way, shape or form.”
On George Pickens’ touchdown
“Unbelievable. Again, when we got GP, everybody wanted to talk about him and his story and his background and that stuff. That guy has been truly a pleasure to coach, and you talk about a talented young man who loves to play the game of football. But he and Dak, you guys see a little bit of it and then you have to leave, it sucks. I’m not changing it. They work nonstop and they talk nonstop. That’s the relationship that you love to see, because it’s two talented players working together. As a coach, that’s what you want.”
On Pickens playing with a lot of joy
“He loves football. I would put him up against anybody in this league about how much he loves football. He doesn’t always love Wednesdays and Thursdays, but he works his ass off on the practice field. He loves being on the grass. I love the energy and juice he brings to our football team. It is infectious. I would never say receivers are unstoppable, but damn, he’s pretty good.”
On if it’s frustrating for the team to be so up and down
“Of course. It’d be crazy if you didn’t. Our standard, I step up in front of you guys all the time and talk about building a world championship football team, and we weren’t that today. But again, I’m not going to sit here and say, ‘Oh, this is so bad.’ Of course. We work hard, and we coach hard, and these guys practice hard. We work in pads, but we got to do better. And I can guarantee you, there are going to be things that show up with us not playing with great hand placement and fundamentals, and that’s where we’ll start to make sure the effort is where it needs to be. Of course we’re frustrated. It doesn’t mean the work stops. It means you have to man up. It’s what we signed up for. We signed up to do this, and ... there’s no better job than this in the world.”
This story was originally published October 12, 2025 at 6:24 PM.
