ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 Brian Schottenheimer has three consecutive victories over Super Bowl-winning coaches in his first year in charge of the Dallas Cowboys after 25 years as an NFL assistant.<\/p>\n
The first winning streak of the season for Dallas has coincided with the club\u2019s return following the death by an apparent suicide of defensive end Marshawn Kneeland during the open week.<\/p>\n
Star quarterback Dak Prescott said after a 31-28 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs \u2014 four days after the Cowboys beat last season\u2019s other Super Bowl team, defending champion and NFC East rival Philadelphia \u2014 that those three wins in just 11 days were no coincidence. Dallas had to wait almost two weeks to play while processing the loss of Kneeland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just credit him for being the same, being consistent and it\u2019s something that he talks about, but to actually watch him be consistent and be the same man through the adversity and now through some success, right?\u201d Prescott said. \u201cHe\u2019s a hell of a leader. He\u2019s the right guy for the job. I know you all see clips of the emotions and guys follow him, but that\u2019s just throughout the day. If you were in every team meeting, you would understand that\u2019s who Schotty is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The run that has the Cowboys (6-5-1) over .500 for the first time this year and has kept them in the playoff conversation started with a 33-16 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders and coach Pete Carroll, who won a title with Seattle.<\/p>\n
Dallas rallied from a 21-point deficit in the 24-21 victory over Nick Sirianni\u2019s Eagles. The Cowboys, who visit Detroit on Thursday next week, had another poor start against three-time Super Bowl winner Andy Reid when Prescott was intercepted on his second throw of the game and Patrick Mahomes needed just two passes to give the Chiefs a 7-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Owner and general manager Jerry Jones drew plenty of criticism for what was considered a less-than-inspiring hire when he decided to move on from Mike McCarthy and ended up picking Schottenheimer, who had been the offensive coordinator without play-calling duties for McCarthy\u2019s final two seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cBetter than I could have hoped for,\u201d Jones, who was holding a turkey leg in his meeting with reporters after the Thanksgiving Day victory, said when asked about that decision. \u201cThis team is seeing him really as a head coach evolve as a part of their play. And, boy, that\u2019s really good stuff to build on. I\u2019m seeing great, great tangible things that this team can use next week and in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before he had to figure out how to navigate the big emotional swings of an in-season death of a player, Schottenheimer spoke freely and unapologetically of feeling the presence of his late father, Marty Schottenheimer, a 200-game winner as an NFL head coach.<\/p>\n
When the Cowboys lost at Carolina \u2014 a little less than a month before Kneeland died \u2014 Schottenheimer\u2019s aunt and uncle gave him one of his dad\u2019s playing cards. \u201cNo. 57. Boston Patriots,\u201d Schottenheimer said.<\/p>\n
The coach said he has carried the card in pocket the past couple of games, even had to get a staff member to retrieve it before the win over the Eagles because he forgot it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen times are a little bit difficult, I talk to him and now I can feel his presence with me holding that football card,\u201d Schottenheimer said. \u201cIt just reminds me, I want to make him proud. I think he\u2019s a legendary football coach, but like I said, he was an incredible and better person and father and leader of men.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schottenheimer is having to lead in ways he couldn\u2019t have imagined in his head-coaching debut.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s working<\/p>\n
Prescott had his fourth 300-yard game against the Chiefs, tops in the NFL. He bounced back from the early interception to finish 27 of 39 for 320 yards with two touchdowns and recorded his seventh 100-plus passer rating at 100.4.<\/p>\n
What needs help<\/p>\n
The Cowboys have been fortunate the past two games that fumbles at critical moments didn\u2019t hurt them. KaVontae Turpin had one of those fumbles against the Eagles, then bailed out George Pickens against the Chiefs by scrambling to recover Pickens\u2019 fumble inside the Kansas City 10-yard line in the fourth quarter. Without Brandon Aubrey\u2019s field goal on the next play, Dallas would have ended up tied at 28-all when the Chiefs scored their subsequent touchdown.<\/p>\n
Stock up<\/p>\n
Lamb answered a drop-filled game against the Eagles with Dallas\u2019 first touchdown catch before finishing with team highs of seven catches for 112 yards. Lamb and Pickens have at least 75 yards receiving apiece in four of the past six games.<\/p>\n
Stock down<\/p>\n
RB Jaylon Blue has blown a good opportunity to be the backup as a rookie after Miles Sanders\u2019 season-ending knee injury early. He was a healthy scratch again for the Kansas City game, when Malik Davis had a 43-yard touchdown run. Davis was added to the practice squad during the season and is the firm No. 2 behind Javonte Williams.<\/p>\n
Injuries<\/p>\n
Jones said Friday he expects CB Trevon Diggs to return against the Lions. The 2021 All-Pro hasn\u2019t played since sustaining a concussion in an accident at home Oct. 16. He has also been dealing with a knee issue.<\/p>\n
Key number<\/p>\n
35.1% \u2014 The Cowboys\u2019 third-down percentage on defense in three games since acquiring star DT Quinnen Williams. That would be in the top five in the league for the entire season in a category Dallas has ranked last most of the year.<\/p>\n
Next steps<\/p>\n
The Lions ended a six-game losing streak against Dallas with a 49-7 victory at AT&T Stadium last season. It was the worst home loss of the Jones era. He bought the team in 1989.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/p>\n
Schuyler Dixon, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 Brian Schottenheimer has three consecutive victories over Super Bowl-winning coaches in his first year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-313092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}