LOS ANGELES – The Cowboys wrapped up their joint practice with the Los Angeles Rams on Tuesday afternoon, and Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer was happy with what he saw from his team.
"Really good work," Schottenheimer said. "Chippy at times between two very competitive football teams. Love the work, we'll go back and see the film. I know Justin Barron had a great day. Overall, I was very pleased with the work."
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was also pleased with some things, but knows that Dallas can clean some things up on the offense.
"First time going against another jersey, another team, I thought it was good," Prescott said. "Is it quite where we want it to be? No, not necessarily. But started off hitting the runs, some things were physical, it's hard to tell exactly what a gain is when guys aren't going to the ground. But then as it developed, getting into the red zone, even the two minute… ultimately felt good about it."
Schottenheimer was not solely with the offense, as he split time between both fields that the Cowboys and Rams worked on. He allowed his coordinators, Klayton Adams on offense and Christian Parker on defense, to call plays as he observed.
"I wanted to see these guys, all of them compete," Schottenheimer said. "I wanted to see us play fourth down defense, I wanted to see us play third down offense, I wanted to see us in the red zone, I want to see us in red zone defense. So I let the coordinators call it. Klayton [Adams] I thought did a really good job of spreading the ball around."
Dallas’ defense made a lot of noise on their side of the field as they've been doing all training camp, with LB Justin Barron tallying three interceptions and newly-extended defensive tackle Quinnen Williams causing disruption in the middle.
"We're a different defense, you guys know that," Schottenheimer said. "You can look at us on paper and see we're a different defense. Having practice against us every day, the mentality and the mindset of the defense is different. I think that's great…"
"I thought it was a battle. They had their plays, we had our plays, it's what a joint practice should look like."
Prescott of course didn't get to see the Cowboys' defense, but he certainly heard them.
"I'm looking forward to watching it," Prescott said. "I know I heard the cheers and the hollering, I could tell that was our guys. Obviously they've been doing it to us throughout camp and getting after it, so it's cool to see that energy, that identity continued. I know they're pumped about it, but I know they're not satisfied with what they've done. They're going to go back same as we are and look at it, be hard on ourselves, and see where we can get better."
Offensively, despite being vanilla in what plays were being called, Schottenheimer believed there were positives to take away.
"We're pretty talented," Schottenheimer said. "I thought we spread the ball around pretty well. They're a very good coverage unit, there's a lot of similarities with what they do defensively to what we do. I thought we spread the ball around pretty good. I thought George [Pickens] had a really good day. Overall, I was pleased with the way we moved the line of scrimmage."
As far as Pickens' performance goes, Prescott expects no less from his Pro Bowl wide receiver.
"George is being George," Prescott said. "That's what I expect from him, that's what he expects from himself. There's still probably a ball or two that we want to correct one thing or another, make it a completion. I had the one interception throwing it to George there which can get cleaned up very simply. It's what I expect from George. He just does great things and today was another showing of that."
Last year, one of the Cowboys' biggest struggles on offense was finding the end zone in the redzone. On Tuesday against the Rams, Prescott threw four touchdowns in the redzone period, two to CeeDee Lamb, one to Kavontae Turpin and another Brevyn Spann-Ford. That was a positive sign.
"I think that was probably the stronger drill or the stronger period of the day for us, and so that's good," Prescott said. "Obviously coming off of the struggles at the end of last year, it's good to see. Even though we've got things in our back pocket that we're not going pull out just yet, so most definitely."
Once practice was over, the Rams walked back to their locker room while the Cowboys remained on the field at did their post practice conditioning as they have at the end of every practice thus far at training camp, which was not instructed by Brian Schottenheimer.
"That was not my decision," Schottenheimer said. "That was led by the players. I was over there saying goodbye to a few of the coaches and the guys that I have relationships with, and I was alerted by our strength staff that the guys wanted to run 20s. I think it shows you that they've bought into the fact that conditioning's gonna make a difference for this football team in the 2026 season."
Prescott said that linebacker DeMarvion Overshown came over and asked him if the team wanted to run together.
"D-Mo came up to me and asked me, 'Coach said it's on us, do you want to run?' I'm like, 'Yeah, if y'all want to run. I didn't see y'all's field and what it was doing, but I know we've got it in us over here,'" Prescott said. "So it was just like a normal practice, let's go and get our runs in and get better."
With their joint practice against the Rams in the books, the Cowboys will now prepare for their first preseason game on Saturday against the Seattle Seahawks. Dallas will hold another joint practice with the New Orleans Saints on Tuesday, August 18. The Rams and Cowboys will meet during the regular season in Week 15 at Sofi Stadium in Inglewood.
