<\/p>\n
Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer watches as his team warms up before an NFL football game against the Houston Texans at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026.<\/p>\n
Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
HOUSTON \u2014 Only the week before in Rio, in a last-second loss<\/a> so stunning it got the head coach a call-out from the owner on his radio show, the Cowboys left the Ravens seven seconds to do as they would.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Sunday at Reliant Stadium, they left the Texans 40 seconds, practically a lifetime in comparison.\u00a0<\/p>\n What could go wrong, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Oh, say, a Hail Mary from C.J. Stroud that somehow passed through Malik Hooker\u2019s mitts in the end zone, then trickled through a host of players to the turf, thus preserving a 34-30 come-from-behind win<\/a> before 77,217, a fair portion of whom appeared to be patrons of the visitors.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dak Prescott said they appreciated the lift they got from fans in silver and blue. The Texans’ 13 penalties helped, too. Probably goes without saying there\u2019s a reason the hosts are now 0-4.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Cowboys, meanwhile, are 2-2, same as the Eagles, both a game back of the Giants in the East. A loss to the Texans wouldn\u2019t necessarily have ended their playoff aspirations, but it seems safe to say they would have taken a serious dent.\u00a0<\/p>\n What we\u2019ve learned about the Cowboys a quarter of the way through the schedule is that, win or lose, they seem bent on doing things the hard way, the head coach in particular.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brian Schottenheimer\u2019s decision-making process and communication skills came into question last week by the media as well as Jerry Jones after the botched ending in Rio<\/a>, where his quarterback somehow got the idea that it was better to go for the tie than the win. Time management in the waning minutes was a point of discussion, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Frankly, as a chaotic game Sunday wound to its wild finish, it was almost impossible not to feel a sense of deja vu, and not just because there was only a point\u2019s difference between the final scores.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, yeah,\u201d Dak said. \u201cThe nerves are there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The similarity wasn\u2019t nearly as apparent to his head coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRio doesn\u2019t define us as a football team, as a coaching staff,\u201d Schottenheimer said. \u201cI think I\u2019m very upfront and honest about that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cRio had nothing to do with this game. This game stood by itself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In the win column, yes.\u00a0<\/p>\n But as a vote of confidence in the head coach?\u00a0<\/p>\n Consider the final minute of the first half: Down a touchdown, he elected to try a 65-yard field goal even after the Texans had already foiled a 62-yard attempt by Brandon Aubrey<\/a>, the second blocked kick\u00a0Schottenheimer\u2019s special teams had given up in successive weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The better part of valor suggested punting with 30 seconds left in the half, thus pinning the Texans deep in their own territory and preserving a one-score deficit. Instead, the Cowboys gave the Texans excellent field position and time to kick a field goal to put them up by 10 at the half.<\/p>\n Schottenheimer didn\u2019t even flinch when I brought it up.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have our yard lines that we are aiming to get to,\u201d he said, referencing Aubrey\u2019s range, \u201cand we were over it by a yard or two. And, like I said, we felt very comfortable that Brandon would make that kick.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd, to that point in the game, you know, I have no question that if for some reason he missed it, that we had plenty of time to fight back. But you\u2019re always going to trust your players in those situations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Of course, trusting your players is a good thing, especially if said player is Aubrey. But there\u2019s also such a thing as putting your players in a position to succeed and avoiding unnecessary risks. A coach\u2019s job is to determine the difference between the possible and the practical.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n As it turned out, the Cowboys had time to come back because Christian Parker\u2019s defense finally made a few stops<\/a> after a full afternoon of DaRon Bland chasing Nico Collins all around the field. He probably chased him home. They also came in just under the wire because the Greatest Offense There Is\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Dak\u2019s description, not mine\u00a0\u2014 did its thing in the second half.\u00a0CeeDee Lamb<\/a>, who caught 17 passes for 189 yards, and George Pickens, who is great even when he just catches two for 75, were too much even for the Texans’ talented defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the Cowboys also were lucky that a couple of Dak\u2019s tipped throws somehow ended up in his teammates’ hands and not the opponents’. The Texans’ 13 penalties for 90 yards were also a gift that kept them from running away with the game early.\u00a0<\/p>\n You can\u2019t always trust your players to do the right thing. Not these Cowboys. Not when the Texans’ go-ahead touchdown with 2:23 left came after they faced a third-and-19 that became a third-and-14 because of an offsides, then a first down because of a hook-and-lateral.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Bad things happen to these Cowboys, is the lesson learned, so it\u2019s up to the head coach to keep them from hurting themselves. Unfortunately, the head coach is occasionally the problem. They got away with it Sunday. Somewhere down the line, they may not be as fortunate.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer watches as his team warms up before an NFL football game against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2353,102,104,103,93042],"class_list":["post-456577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-commentary","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-dallas-cowboys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n