CHARLOTTE, NC — Another disappointing road loss by the Dallas Cowboys straps them to a 2-3-1 season through the first six weeks of the 2025 season, following a letdown against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium. And it appears the defense is still not figured out to this point, forcing Dak Prescott and George Pickens to try and save the day.
They nearly did, but career-best outing of 168 receiving yards on nine receptions with a touchdown by Pickens couldn't outpace the 239 yards from scrimmage with a touchdown racked up by former Cowboys' running back Rico Dowdle, or the two touchdowns by rookie first-round pick Tetairoa McMillan en route to a 30-27 defeat.
"That locker room's hurt — I'm hurt," said head coach Brian Schottenheimer. "Why? Because we let an opportunity slip, another championship opportunity, and it's frustrating as hell. But you don't point fingers, you know? You look at the film, and we're gonna see it.
"It's gonna jump off the film, the things that we didn't do well, and we'll get them fixed. And I don't worry about this team starting to point fingers in any way, shape, or form."
In all, it needed to be a flawless game by the offense, but it wasn't.
The usually stout running game, in stark contrast to the Panthers', could not get going and, as a result, Javonte Williams was held to his lowest tally of the season in both total rushing yards (29) and yards per carry (2.2), and by massive margins over his usual averages, effectively struggling in the trenches on both sides of the ball when factoring in Dowdle's impact.
Even Schottenheimer himself called out the lost war waged in the trenches on Sunday.
The offense also suffered another round of third-down struggles, converting on just five of 12 attempts, and had several chances in or near the red zone that didn't produce a touchdown on each trip deep into enemy territory. It turned into a back-and-forth affair between the two teams as the fight wore on, and it felt as if the last team with the ball would leave as the victor.
"I don't ever go out there thinking, 'Let's punt the ball or, after a first down, we're good,'" said Prescott. "If we don't score, the last thing I'm doing is being frustrated at the defense. Like, that's my problem — our problem, somebody on offense or something that we didn't do better. You guys know me. I'm a look-in-the-mirror type guy before I ever would think about pointing a finger, so I've got to be accountable to, you know, there's plays.
"There were two or three plays I can think of off the top of my head ... I'm thinking, 'Hey, if I throw it there, if I do this, what does that drive turn into? And what's the next play? What's the next third down?' You gotta look at yourself and fix that first."
In the end, the Panthers possessed the ball for the final six minutes and seven seconds of regulation in a 27-27 contest, booting the winning 33-yard field goal to seal Dallas' fate, the Cowboys having a chance to force them into needing a touchdown on what would turn out to be Dallas' final drive, but they instead moved in the wrong direction and were forced to punt; and never got the ball back afterwards.
Frustrating?
"Of course," said Schottenheimer. "Yeah, you'd be crazy if you [weren't]. Our standard, I mean, I stand up in front of you guys all the time to talk about building a world championship football team, and we weren't that today."
That doesn't mean Schottenheimer believes the sky is falling on defense or either side of the ball, however. With 11 games left to play and being just one game below .500, he's more focused on figuring out what's going wrong consistently.
"I'm not gonna sit here and say, 'Oh, this is so bad.' I mean, but of course, you know we work hard, and we can coach hard, and these guys practice hard, and we work in pads, but we gotta do better. I guarantee you there's gonna be things that show up with us [on film] not playing with great hand placement, little fundamentals, and that's where we'll start."
With the Washington Commanders on deck, their next chance to gain some ground in the NFC East, there's no time to spare in correcting the many things that went wrong in Charlotte.
"We'll make sure the effort's where it needs to be, but, of course we're frustrated," said Schottenheimer. "That doesn't mean the work stops. It means you just have to man up."
