- 2 days ago
Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer joined Shan, RJ, and Bobby ahead of their game against Philadelphia. Schotty discussed fixing team mistakes, run defense improvements, George Pickens, and more.
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00:00good morning coach how are you morning guys how we doing pretty well doing great coach you know
00:06we uh earlier this week uh after the chargers game justin herbert was standing up at the podium
00:12and he was getting asked about some of their struggles and had said hey you know if i knew
00:17what the problem was i wouldn't be up here you know telling you guys have no clue he's like we're
00:21still trying to figure out what the problems are where you guys are at right now two and four after
00:24these two losses do you feel like y'all are working to identify the problems are you working
00:29on identifying the solutions to problems that you already understand well it's both i think you
00:34always got to start with okay identifying where we are what are the problems we have well we have to
00:39protect the ball better on offense you know we we can't turn it over we have to get more turnovers
00:44or minus four in the turnover battle and that's never a good recipe when you look at around the
00:49league historically you got to be better with the ball uh second thing we have to improve is obviously
00:53the the line of scrimmage and the run game on offense that's uh that's a problem that we're
00:58working very hard to solve and fix and that's part of it and then obviously on third down defense
01:04we have to do a better job of getting off the field so i think it starts with identifying the
01:09problem but to identify the problem and not have a solution or something you're working to is a
01:15mistake coach we know you're always gonna work at it uh but when do you say all right we've identified
01:21we're working to solve it but we we just don't have we don't have the talent we don't have the
01:27answers within to do it well again i don't believe in that philosophy at all i think you always have
01:34to solve problems you always have to work at it uh does it mean it's going to happen overnight no
01:38uh does it mean that there's things you got to do and adjust and continue to tweak and
01:42sometimes it's the it's the second or third time that you address an issue that you get it fixed but
01:47at the end of the day we're aware that there's issues that we're dealing with and we're working
01:51really hard to solve them and uh our expectation is we get a lot of those issues that we have
01:56fixed
01:56on monday night in philly shoddy what's something that maybe you guys identified in the first couple
02:01weeks that you're like okay that's a problem or that's an issue that you feel like hey even in the
02:06last few weeks in these losses i feel like that's getting where it needs to be or okay that was
02:11corrected we're we're you know doing well in that area time on task now yeah i think the run game
02:17defensively uh has gotten better uh i think you know you look at a couple of things we've done
02:21over the last couple weeks uh has gotten better uh again never uh a uh a finished product if you
02:28will we're playing a very very good uh running team especially with uh expectations of saquon
02:33barkley be back but that's the first thing that jumps out at me is the run defense i thought
02:37getting played very physical last week up front i think you felt a couple of our elite players up
02:42front quinn and williams kenny clark uh play to that standard uh you know tito doesn't get talked
02:48about enough as the type of player he is uh inside in the running game so that's the first thing
02:52that
02:52jumps out at me was uh the run defense early on wasn't great but we've really you know worked
02:57hard to get it fixed shoddy you mentioned over over the week that uh you were pretty pissed off
03:02and that players were and that you know these guys are needing a win that you liked it when players
03:07you know played with that anger um is there a fine line between playing angry and then letting
03:14that anger become undisciplined no absolutely i think you know being pissed off and angry is part
03:20of uh when you're struggling uh it's part of being a competitor uh you know your competitive spirit's
03:26going to drive you to uh be pissed off and to do the work during the week but when you're
03:30out there
03:31playing and coaching the game you gotta you gotta play it and you gotta play it one play at a
03:35time and
03:36and not let one play lead to another i think you know a couple weeks ago you know we had
03:39a few uh
03:40you know guys that were trying so hard because they wanted to fix it and again they weren't doing
03:45necessarily their job to the best of their ability they were trying to make a play and those are the
03:49things you have to guard against is that where you coach to the person rather than to the team
03:54like on those sort of things where you go all right you know for instance where sean gary said
03:58i feel like i'm playing really well and i'm excited about where i'm playing i'm feeling optimistic
04:03um is that where you instead just gotta go okay that guy maybe needs a little bit of an edge
04:06to
04:07him that week this guy needs this button push but this guy over here he needs a pat on the
04:11back for
04:11the improvements we've seen is that where you're just kind of tailoring things to individuals
04:15yeah i mean everything you do coaching wise is is it starts in the team room we're always going to
04:20address uh the things we're doing well the things we need to do better uh i know a couple weeks
04:25ago
04:25when uh the case i was talking about i addressed it in front of the team but then of course
04:30i went to
04:30the individuals uh that were doing uh that uh you know doing that and trying too hard man they were
04:37just you know they want to win so bad they want to help their teammates so i went and had
04:41those
04:41individual conversations but that's what coaching is right it's connecting with the person and meeting
04:45them on their level and making sure they understand what you're saying because in a team meeting at
04:50times you know you're talking to you know whatever 70 something guys but to get the point driven home to
04:56the individual i think is really the magic in coaching brian schottenheimer with us every friday
05:01here on sean and rj 105.3 the fan uh coach george pickens is always a big talking point yesterday
05:06you
05:06talked about him in the run game um for the twitter scouts and video analysts uh people always say
05:14well george is maybe not coming off the line that hard he's not running his routes you know at a
05:19hundred
05:19percent does george have like a style that is kind of different from others what do you say to that
05:25when people are questioning how hard he's going while running a route because he does have kind
05:30of a tricky style sometimes it feels like while producing monster games even yeah i think you know
05:36again i talked about gp last night look one of my favorite players of all time the way he plays
05:40the
05:41game uh he's obviously incredible talent i think the big thing we're on you know gp about is you know
05:46being as consistent in the run and the pass and coming off the line scrimmage but you mentioned it i
05:51mean
05:51uh the one thing about george is when he runs certain routes they don't necessarily look like
05:56the way that they're drawn in a in the playbook tyler lockett was that way i've been around some
06:01guys i'm going way back andre rising was that way um there's a number of guys that again their style
06:08and some of the things that they do uh is a little bit unique um we tell the young guys
06:12all the time
06:13you can't do that you're not allowed to do that but george's style is a little bit different but
06:17at the end of the day uh you know part of us getting this thing you know going the back
06:22the
06:22direction we want which is again winning in philadelphia is all of us doing our jobs and gp
06:27understands that coach give me a football education here if you can like we see you we see as fans
06:32like
06:32other players on other teams we know they're the top guy like jsn's in seattle we know he's you know
06:38being bracketed covered up they still find a way to force him the ball uh it seems that at times
06:44that's not happening with george is that an offensive design thing is that a decision dak
06:48makes that to put the ball in harm's harm's way how does that work no i think each team's different
06:54you know again i'm not i don't know seattle's roster well enough to speak to them but i think
06:58it goes more to uh if uh george pickens is doubled and cd lamb is one-on-one uh we
07:05have a choice
07:05and again not that we're not going to throw the ball into double coverage with george we've certainly
07:09done that multiple times but um when you've got two elite guys like that uh which not many teams
07:15do in the league you you you have a choice and i think that's where you see us say okay
07:20if you guys
07:20want to double him we're going to go there if you guys want to double cd we'll go to george
07:24and so
07:24that's the benefit of having two great guys and uh again i don't know the personnel well enough in
07:29seattle who they've got complimenting him i know cooper cups there and uh really you know a couple other
07:33great pieces but uh that's that's the way that the way we believe is there uh any reason to be
07:39alarmed over pickens and guyton being listed as limited yesterday no i thought both guys did a
07:44really good job on practice again this is a point in the season where guys are a little bit banged
07:48up
07:48but uh both guys i thought you know did a nice job with the things we asked them asked them
07:52to do
07:52coach have you given consideration or thought on turning over play calling to clayton to maybe take
07:59some more off your plate no absolutely not shoddy you know uh we talked about the last two weeks
08:05dak has had a little bit of trouble with the blitz or the passing game in general has maybe had
08:10some
08:10issues with the blitz when you went back and watched the tampa game and then went back and
08:14watched the green bay game did you look at that and say these were the same issues or were the
08:19struggles with the blitz for different reasons and different applications yeah different reasons you
08:24know the tricky thing about you know the blitz is obviously we gave them too many opportunities to
08:28to you know blitz us um you know you get you get down and it turns into basically the last
08:3410
08:34minutes of the game uh in green bay and really a lot of the fourth quarter you're playing catch up
08:39and
08:39uh again aggressive teams trying to get the ball out of your hand but it was different things and
08:43we're clearly better than that from a coaching standpoint we're better than that from an execution
08:48standpoint and again i think you know what gives me confidence is i know that we've we've been good
08:53against the blitz but uh two weeks in a row certainly makes you stop take a good look at it
08:58and
08:58that's certainly something that we've done uh over the over the week and uh uh putting together a
09:03good plan uh against the good again uh physical defense talented uh this week in philly coach how
09:09much more involved was mike petten this week uh you know versus last out coming off the game you know
09:15doing uh all the charting and stuff that he was doing during the game how much more involved was he
09:19this week uh it's about it's it's about the same i think there's more of a comfort level though yeah
09:24i mean
09:24you're you know first in first couple days you're kind of getting organized getting settled you're
09:28getting caught up but uh i would say the comfort level with with mike has been good this week he's
09:32uh been more involved in meetings i think that's a great thing and uh i think he's beginning to
09:37figure out the the best flow for him to have the impact in in all three phases coach yesterday you
09:43said
09:43yeah i get the criticism comes with the territory and you know much of it some of it is deserved
09:48what do
09:49you think is maybe while you're shutting out the noise what do you think is maybe an overblown thing
09:55that maybe uh there's an overreaction to where you're like all right i know that this is coming
09:59along i know that this can get you know corrected and quick uh fixed quickly sorry yeah i think at
10:06the end of the day i think i have incredible confidence in our offense i think uh again you
10:11know uh have not played well the last two weeks we understand a lot of the reasons why i've addressed
10:16a
10:16lot of the reasons why but again we haven't changed who we are we're still a good uh uh explosive
10:21offense with weapons we can hurt you a lot of different ways uh certainly uh have not lost the
10:27ability to call plays i'm an elite play caller in this league and uh i think that that can it
10:31can
10:31turn around quickly shoddy when you know obviously you're going up against philadelphia here this is
10:35kind of a a homecoming game of sorts for christian parker uh given where he had been and worked
10:40with fangio the last couple years does this game have a any sort of a feeling for you guys of
10:46like
10:46hey let's go back let's let's win this homecoming for christian parker and and how much maybe are you
10:51leaning on him this week to get some of his insights into a guy who's an elite chess player
10:56so to speak and vic fangio well i think you know i spent more time talking with christian over the
11:01offseason about vic and you know vic is gonna do what he's gonna do he's got a great plan he's
11:06a he's
11:06elite play caller uh in this league uh so i think you know that's the big part of but no
11:11in terms of
11:12going into philadelphia this isn't about christian parker or anybody else that's that's spent time
11:17in philly it's about us playing well and finding a way to beat a division opponent well you talked
11:21about uh vic fangio being an elite play caller in general how much are the differences in terms of
11:27play-to-play calling variation on the defensive side versus the offensive side is it like you're
11:32you're reaching into a much deeper bag on offense and then on the defensive side you're working
11:36more from like structured concepts yeah i think defensively you know the main thing is they do
11:42what they they have to react to us you know we pick the the personnel grouping we pick the formation
11:47we
11:47pick the motion we pick the shift we pick the run the pass we pick the screen we pick all
11:52those
11:53different things how we want to deploy our pieces and then their job is to they make a call and
11:58then
11:58they have to react and that's why the communication on defense is so important because they're reacting to
12:03what we're doing whereas we have an idea of okay this is the the three-step concept that we've come
12:08up with we anticipate they're going to do something but then again they've got reaction and rules based
12:13off splits and uh formations and tight end in line or where's the back all those things and they have
12:19to react to us coach one thing uh choppy and i've always tried to stay away from not bob because
12:24he
12:24knows more ball than us is uh route concepts and you know playbooks uh you know we we go to
12:32the tree
12:32and turn left that's what we did yeah that's that's right good good play still works uh but you have
12:38people saying oh it's it's uh they're not running complex routes it's it's it's stop routes it's curl
12:43routes it's it's not dynamic it's not complex what do you say to that well i think again at the
12:50end of
12:50the day uh when you're not performing well there's going to be a lot of room for criticism and people
12:55to say those things but again uh i i feel very very strongly that our concepts that we have they
13:01work uh there's no question that they work uh and uh we just have to go out there and uh
13:06execute
13:06them better and cleaner but uh again you're you the the big thing for me is we've got great players
13:11uh we've got a great quarterback and uh that's what gives me great confidence the way these guys are
13:15working uh to get it fixed i thought i heard you this week say terrence steel was playing well you
13:21guys acquired broderick jones for a reason has terrence is is the distance between the two the same
13:28at the beginning of the year as terrence's play distance himself or is broderick closer uh with right
13:34tackle reps well broderick's again getting better i do think you see that we're using him a little
13:38bit more even in our jumbo package so again you know he's been here you know a number of weeks
13:43and his understanding of what we're doing is is is really good uh and i think you can see that
13:48uh
13:49the growth with broderick is he's doing a great job but at the same time uh is important for us
13:54to try
13:54to go out there and again have you know have this starting five working together getting tyler smith
14:00back against tampa bay was a good thing for us and uh we're excited to watch these five guys continue
14:04to play and grow together last one you don't have to answer but i heard you reference your pops the
14:09other day have you taken any moment just to sit back and say all right what would what would dad
14:15say right now in this moment obviously every coach goes through turmoil and ups and downs you grew up
14:20with it have you taken a moment what and what do you think marty would say uh at this time
14:26when the
14:26bullets are flying uh well i mean he definitely would uh have some uh choice words for me uh he
14:33would
14:33say he would literally say block out the noise keep your head down and go back to work and and
14:38and find
14:38solutions that's what he was uh again to be in this position and to understand that and to see it
14:44from that lens as a as a child uh when i was a coach's kid to now as the coach
14:49it's uh it's wise
14:50wisdom because again you can be an idiot one week and then if you win a game you could be
14:55a genius and
14:56uh that's why you just keep doing it and that's why this is the greatest sport in the world now
14:59he was
15:00very emotional so with that it's like my dad like he i think of him as sensitive because he will
15:05drop a
15:05tear on you but he was still good with blocking out all the noise and criticism
15:11oh yeah no he was he was amazing again he was uh again he did it for such a long
15:16time but yeah he
15:17was great and uh the passion and the compassion uh two different words there is what made him a great
15:23coach and uh but he was definitely able to block out the noise coach thanks a lot for the time
15:27we
15:27appreciate it go get a monday night all right appreciate you guys
15:30appreciate it
15:30You