The Dallas Cowboys seemed to have figured it out. Dallas had put a beatdown on division rival Philadelphia, and, all of a sudden, the defense was outplaying the Cowboys' offense, and the team was up 14-3 against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 8. The offense was a little conservative, but they’d bounce back and Dallas would head out at 4-4 to take on the Indianapolis Colts. That win would've been even more significant considering how poorly they've played versus the Cardinals.
Everything flipped with one carry in the final minute of the third quarter. Tyler Allgeier broke a 63-yard touchdown run, and may have broken Dallas' season. The defense went on to allow four straight touchdowns to backup QB Gardner Minshew II. The offense played too conservatively
to put the game away while the defense collapsed. Now the team is scrambling to answer questions with a 3-5 record, and a very winnable NFC East starting to slip through their fingers.
Is Brian Schottenheimer the right guy to be head coach? Why has his offense slipped in year two? Can it even be fixed enough to save an abysmal defense? These are the questions headed into Week 9 for the Cowboys.
What happened to the motion on offense?
The big change for Dallas in 2025 was Schottenheimer updating the offense from the stagnant Mike McCarthy style to a more up-to-date version. Last season, the Cowboys ranked 14th in motion and 17th in motion at the snap. That’s a solid starting point in Year 1 with a chance to expand the offense in Year 2 with all their starters returning. That hasn’t happened, and the falloff has been disastrous.
This season, they rank 30th in motion and 32th in motion at the snap. Schottenheimer's excuse was that they were saving time because they were trying to come back from big deficits, but the numbers tell a different story. When leading, they are 25th in motion and 31st in motion at the snap. The team lead the entire game versus the Cardinals until the final field goal in overtime, and Dallas ranked 18th in motion and 26th in motion at the snap out of 28 teams in Week 8.
Can the Cowboys fix the run game?
Another area the team has fallen off in is rushing the ball. Dallas had the same 1,200-yard rusher behind the same offensive line and the same skill-position players, but their ability to run the ball has been awful aside from their matchup with the Eagles.
On his current trajectory, Williams would finish with over 1,100 yards and 17 touchdowns, but his efficiency is much worse. They are giving him an extra attempt per game, but he is running for nearly a yard less per carry. The play-calling drop-off clearly impacts the run game, and Williams looks worn down being the only reliable running option for most of the last 25 games.
There are small things like calling a read-option play and never having the quarterback keep the ball, and larger matters like the offensive line dropping to 31st in run block win-rate. If the line can’t improve, does the run game have a chance to?
Is Schottenheimer a good enough head coach?
The Cowboys have had only one winning streak in the 25 games Schottenheimer has been head coach, even with a healthy Dak Prescott the entire time. Last season, after the passing of Marshawn Kneeland, Dallas went on a three-game winning streak, but a three-game losing streak followed it. That has been the team's record during his tenure, alternating wins with one or two losses. Schottenheimer has four wins outside the division, and none of them are against NFC opponents. That’s just not good enough considering the only team with a winning record was the 6-5 Kansas City Chiefs. They defeated the 0-4 New York Jets, the 0-3 Houston Texans, and the 2-7 Las Vegas Raiders.
Schottenheimer doesn’t have a significant win on his resume and has only a single win when the team doesn’t score 30 points.Could it be he just isn’t good enough as the leading man? If they can’t beat this Colts team that’s having a fire sale, it might be the nail in his coffin.
You can find Mike Crum on Twitter @cdpiglet or on YouTube at Across the Cowboys podcast
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Cowboys 3 burning questions for Week 9 point fingers at beleaguered HC
