Mailbag: Reason for reduced penalties?

(Editor's Note: Time to check the mail! The DallasCowboys.com staff writers answer your questions here in 'Mailbag' presented by Miller Lite.)

One positive from the Eagles game was the improvement in pre-snap penalties. The false starts on the offense and offsides on the defense did not occur during this game, which is a vast improvement from previous years. Did you notice anything in training camp they specifically worked on to reduce these penalties? – Joe Pufka/Altoona, PA

Nick: I don't know if you actually go into training camp working on reducing penalties. I think you work on being consistent with your play-calls, with your offense and defense personnel. The more continuity you get at training camp - hearing the same calls, hearing the formations - those are the things you need to cut down some of the pre-snap penalties.

Thursday night, they had one pre-snap on defense and Schottenheimer said it was more of a problem from the coaching staff. Overall, I just think the penalties that you "work on" is really more about the understanding of your offense and that lets you think less and just go play.

Again, it's just one game. I don't know if you can say the penalties have been fixed. It's going to be something that we monitor over time. But when you see the Eagles getting called for a several penalties for over 100 yards, I do give the Cowboys players credit for not getting caught up in the emotions of that. Still, it's one game but it was a good start for the penalties.

Kurt: Yes indeed, one of the positives that came out of the season opener was Dallas only being charged with four penalties: two for unnecessary roughness and one each for offensive holding and too many men on the field.

Now, four penalties isn't all that rare, considering there were four games last season when the Cowboys were only flagged four times. But they were also penalized 10 times or more in five outings during the 2024 campaign. In fact, over the five-year Mike McCarthy era, the team had four or fewer penalties in 17 contests. The number of outings with 10 or more flags in a game? An equal 17 times.

Of the two specific penalties you mentioned, the Cowboys averaged 0.29 defensive offsides called per game in 2024, which tied for the 12th highest total in the NFL. But as far as false starts on the offense, Dallas averaged 1.71 per game, tying for the highest mark in the league.

Interestingly enough, there was just one game last season when the Cowboys had neither a false start nor a defensive offsides penalty called against them – Nov. 10 against Philadelphia. Go figure.

Whether Brian Schottenheimer is doing anything differently in practice to combat the issue is hard to say. McCarthy obviously preached the importance of avoiding penalties, but maybe the new regime is making accountability a bigger priority. Or maybe Schottenheimer's focus on 11-on-11 drills, the speed and pace of practices and more game-like conditions is helping negate some of those pre-snap infractions. It certainly can't hurt.

Of course, the Cowboys have only played one game. Next week, with a different officiating crew, it could be a flag-fest. But you have to like what we've seen so far, right? Let's hope it continues.