With a chance to land a massive upset against the Philadelphia Eagles in the regular season opener, the Dallas Cowboys fell just shy of their mission, leaving Lincoln Financial Field with a narrow 24-20 loss that also saw them push the defending champs to the limit and with a chance late in the game to potentially mount a comeback win.
There are no moral victories, as head coach Brian Schottenheimer hammered home in his press conference following the loss, but it's also true the Cowboys looked very competitive — in ways they haven't in the past, e.g., run defense.
And with back-to-back division foes to start the season, they'll need to quickly reload for Week 2.
"The rule I abide by is the Midnight Rule — that's a Marty Schottenheimer rule," said Brian Schottenheimer on Monday. "We didn't get done playing until after midnight [in Philly], but his thing was you have until midnight to feel sorry for yourself or be excited. Once midnight hits, at 12:01 [a.m.], you move on to the next opponent because it'll be another great team coming in."
That team, this week, is the New York Giants, and they boast their own fair share of talent.
For though the Giants are still working to figure out things at quarterback between rookie Jaxson Dart and someone Schottenheimer knows exceedingly well, namely Russell Wilson, what's already known about Big Blue is just how destructive their defensive line can be — if allowed — meaning no opponent can be overlooked, regardless of their own internal challenges.
"The league is exactly where they wanna be: very good football teams and very close games," Schottenheimer added. "The parity is real. I believe that is important. This one carries over a bit because I do believe the league mandates you give the guys a couple days off, so we had to touch on today, but we don't shy away from having hard conversations or celebrating big wins.
"The process is always the same."
One of the biggest keys to nearly escaping The Linc with a victory was just how physical the Cowboys were in the trenches, the offensive line allowing no sacks on All-Pro quarterback Dak Prescott while the defensive line held all-world running back Saquon Barkley to just 60 rushing yards on 18 attempts and the Eagles' offense to zero points in the second half.
That, along with the absence of the usual rash of penalties suffered by the Cowboys, sets a strong foundation for which Schottenheimer can build upon going forward.
"We're a very confident group," he said. "We're confident in the guys we have in that locker room. I do think the physicality jumps off, but I'll also speak to the discipline. Going into that environment, it was loud, as it should be on opening night, NFL regular season 2025; and our guys played disciplined. We had the one presnap penalty which was on us as coaches — 12 men on the field — and when you have that type of discipline and you play with that type of physical standard of football, and you carry that into not being yourselves.
"We didn't beat ourselves much. We didn't have a lot of self-inflicted wounds. We had the one turnover that cost us, certainly, but the first thing that jumps out is physicality."
It's that very same physicality that will give them a chance to win every one of their games if the consistency of it remains the same over the remainder of the season, and doing away with self-inflicted wounds would add to the recipe for likely success.
The league is all about taking lessons learned from the previous week and avoiding the same mistakes, be it a penalty or a dropped pass, and Schottenheimer feels the Cowboys will do exactly that going into their home opener in a few days.
