LAS VEGAS (AP) — And now the Cowboys play on. Somehow.
Dallas is preparing to play its first game since 24-year-old defensive end Marshawn Kneeland was found dead Nov. 6 of an apparent suicide.
The Cowboys are coming off a bye week, which has given them additional time to absorb the loss and get in the mindset of taking the field again, which they will do Monday night at Las Vegas.
Cowboys players will wear a decal honoring Kneeland on their helmets
for the remainder of the season. They also will wear a special T-shirt in warmups before facing the Raiders.
“His death is such a national awareness thing that it takes on some of that light when we think about how we go forward,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said this week on his radio show on 105.3 The Fan. "From the standpoint of the team, from the standpoint of going back to work, there's no doubt in my mind that they will do so in memory of what he was all about.
“He was very unique in his zest for life, and he was very unique in his passion for the game. Of course, the saddest thing for someone like me is the fact that he’s only 24 years old. You think about all of the time that we’re going to miss him and he’s going to be missed by the people around him. He was just getting started.”
As far as the game itself, both teams could use a victory.
The Cowboys enter with a 3-5-1 record under first-year coach Brian Schottenheimer and likely will miss the playoffs for the second year in a row.
It's even more of a struggle for the Raiders, who are 2-7 and also under a first-year coach — though Pete Carroll had enormous success in Seattle and at Southern California before he arrived in Las Vegas. They are looking at yet another year without a trip to the postseason, having made the playoffs just twice in 23 years.
Standout defensive tackle Quinnen Williams is set for his Dallas debut after the trade deadline deal that brought him from the New York Jets. The circumstances have to be jarring for the seventh-year pro given that he barely had a chance to meet any of his new teammates before news of Kneeland's death broke. They were supposed to share the defensive line room.
Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty said, however, that facing Williams will be a big challenge.
“Just another guy to be disruptive,” Jeanty said. “He's a game wrecker, so we've got to be ready for him.”
Linebacker Logan Wilson also is in line for his first game with the Cowboys after his trade from Cincinnati went through just a few hours before the Williams deal.
Both moves are an effort to improve the NFL's second-worst defense with Dallas barely hanging on to postseason hopes. The Cowboys missed the playoffs last season, ending a three-year postseason run.
Derius Swinton II gets his first chance to handle the Raiders' special teams. He became the interim coordinator when Tom McMahon was fired Nov. 7 after a series of blunders with that unit.
It's not unusual for the Raiders to make such an in-season change, but it is for Carroll.
Carroll said there won't be many noticeable differences with Swinton.
“But it’ll be a change for us in personality that I’m hoping will help us and make a difference,” Carroll said. “I’m hoping it motivates our players, too, that they realize that we need to do better. We need to avoid the big errors that have happened to us in the kicking game that have cost us potential wins and that they’ll rally behind this move. That doesn’t mean that they don’t love Tom. They do, so we’ll see how this goes.”
Schottenheimer said the only way for the team to get through the immediate aftermath of Kneeland's death is “one day at a time.” He said he wasn't sure he would be able to get through his speech in a private candlelight vigil Tuesday night, but he did.
In his first meeting with reporters, he said several times there would be many ways for players and coaches to express emotions.
“Some guys, getting out on the grass is going to be the best thing in the world for them,” Schottenheimer said. “Some guys, getting out on the grass is going to be painful, and that’s OK. And we’re going to give each other grace and time. But I do promise you this — these guys will be ready to play against the Raiders. And we will honor Marshawn with how we play, not just against the Raiders but for the rest of the season.”
Carroll is tough to beat in prime time.
He is 41-24-1 in such games, the fourth-highest win percentage (62.9) among coaches with at least 50 prime-time games.
AFC West rival Sean Payton of Denver is just above him at 63.6%. Payton moved ahead of Carroll when the Broncos beat Las Vegas 10-7 on Nov. 6.
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AP Pro Football Writer Schuyler Dixon contributed to this report.
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