“No one is happy with the way we performed [against the Broncos],” Schottenheimer said. “It’s not acceptable. It’s not good enough. I would say both the staff and the players are aware that the standard was not met, so now what do you do? Be solution-oriented.
“The solutions are making adjustments to scheme, changes to personnel — giving this guy a little bit more playing time and all that. Those things will play themselves out.”
Some of the issues are personnel problems, with a lack of talent up front to consistently win one-on-one. Some are players missing tackles or getting out of their lanes. Others are schematic problems, with game plans that don’t put players in a position to succeed.
Schottenheimer added that some of the planned changes likely won’t be installed until the club’s Week 10 bye, following a Monday night tilt against the Arizona Cardinals.
“I just say that because we’ve got Arizona before the bye and, really, bigger changes to our style will happen over the bye week,” he said. “That’s when we get a chance to say, ‘OK, now we’re looking back at nine games. What were those issues and did we get them corrected?’
“No? Well, now we need to do this and we need to do that.”
Sitting at 3-4-1, the Cowboys desperately need a win against the 2-5 Cardinals, or any bye-week changes could be too late to change their fortunes in 2025.