(Editor’s Note: Time to check the mail! The DallasCowboys.com staff writers answer your questions here in ‘Mailbag’ presented by Miller Lite.)
I saw Brian Schottenheimer mention in one of his interviews about cutting back on turnovers, which is good because the Cowboys could improve there. But what is the plan to correct the longstanding problem with penalties that has plagued the team for as long as I can remember? The Cowboys simply will never make it back to the big game if they continue to beat themselves. – Tony Cyburt/San Antonio, TX
Nick: I’ll be honest, in all my time covering the Cowboys – and it goes back to Aikman, Emmitt, Irvin and Deion being on the team – I’ve never seemed to have a good answer when it comes to penalties.
How do they cut down penalties? Can it be coached? How to make the players more accountable? Why are they not disciplined? And it goes on and on and will continue to go on because there’s no real good answer for it.
The Cowboys had a problem last year in penalties for sure. They ranked second in penalty yards against them with 1,136. Is that why they finished 7-9-1? Well, maybe so but Denver was first with 1,174 penalty yards and finished 14-3 and were probably an injury at quarterback away from making the Super Bowl. After that, the Jags and Eagles were third and fourth in penalties and both made the playoffs. The Top 10 also includes the Bears, Patriots, Texans and Bills.
So yes, penalties can be problematic but I’ve never truly understood if it correlates to wins and losses throughout a season. Sure, a game can come down to a costly penalty or two. But overall, I think you make the playoffs or miss the playoffs because you’re either good enough or you’re not.