The Cowboys got the result they needed on Monday night, but Brian Schottenheimer made it clear the performance still left plenty to clean up.
Dallas rolled past the Philadelphia Eagles 38-21 in Week 7 of Monday Night Football, yet the penalty count kept piling up. The Cowboys were flagged eight times for 47 yards, and it came on the heels of a Week 6 loss to the Green Bay Packers in which they were hit with 11 penalties for 108 yards.
“The pre-snap penalties, those have to stop,” Schottenheimer said, as posted by Jon Machota on X.
“We can’t jump offsides. They did a good job with their cadence, but we’re better than that.
That’s not being very disciplined. You saw, if you jump offsides, we take you out.
Some of the other ones, when you look at them, and again, the roughing the passer, it happens. I do think that, again, at the end of the day, it was five penalties for us, none for them early in the game. But we have to be better.
I was proud of ourselves, we had eight total penalties, one in the second half and that was on purpose. So we got better in the second half with that. But you can’t have the self-inflicted wounds pre-snap.”
Schottenheimer is in his second season as Dallas’ coach, and the pressure around the team is obvious: he’s expected to get playoff football back to America’s team. He has already made it clear he won’t shy away from benching players who keep committing penalties.
The Cowboys escaped with the win against Philadelphia, but that same approach won’t always hold up if the games get tighter. Schottenheimer knows the penalty problem can’t linger much longer.
Dallas is 3-4 after the Week 7 victory and has beaten the Washington Commanders, Houston Texans and Eagles. The losses have come against the New York Giants, Baltimore Ravens, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Green Bay Packers.
The win snapped a two-game skid, and now the Cowboys turn to a matchup with the Arizona Cardinals.
Arizona comes in at 2-5 and has won just once in its last six games. The Cardinals were last on the field against the Denver Broncos, and they were blown out.
Schottenheimer will be looking for win No. 4, but he’ll need his team to clean up the flags first. If the Cowboys can get that under control, they’ll give themselves a better shot at keeping the push toward the postseason on track.
In Other News...
Eagles Loss Exposed A Defensive Line Problem Fans Will Notice
The snap counts from the Eagles Week 7 loss to the Cowboys offered a clear look at how much the defensive front was asked to carry, and how little splash came from that workload. With injuries still shaping the rotation, Philadelphia leaned heavily on its interior linemen and mixed in some role changes across the defense, while rookies and returning players added to the churn in personnel.
Jalen Carters usage stood out in particular, as he was on the field far more than usual but did not turn that volume into the disruptive night the Eagles needed. Jordan Davis was also pushed into a bigger share of the action, and the numbers pointed to a front line that was busy without being especially effective, which only deepens the concern as the defense tries to sort out who can consistently tilt a game in the middle. [Read more 🡒]
Eagles Trade Deadline Reality Just Got Hard To Ignore
A fifth straight loss has pushed Philadelphia into a trade-deadline conversation it probably did not want to be having this early, but it is now impossible to ignore. Around the league, the Eagles are being viewed as possible sellers, with attention turning to players whose contract situations make them easier to move if the front office decides the season has tilted too far in the wrong direction. Moro Ojomo, Riq Woolen, Dallas Goedert and Kelee Ringo have all been floated as names to watch, and the logic is straightforward: if the Eagles are going to retool, expiring deals are the cleanest path to future draft capital.
Hollywood Brown belongs in that same uncomfortable mix, especially after he was a healthy scratch against the Panthers. The sense is that Philadelphia is at least willing to listen on players who may not fit its long-term plan, even if that means entertaining decisions that would have seemed hard to imagine before the losing streak. What happens next will say plenty about how aggressively the Eagles want to protect the present versus cashing in pieces for the future, and that balance may not be easy to strike with the deadline closing in. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Took One Extra Shot At The Eagles After That Win
Dallas left Lincoln Financial Field with more than a win in Week 7, and the postgame mood said plenty about how the Cowboys viewed it. After snapping a two-game losing streak with a 38-21 victory over the Eagles, the visitors carried that momentum back to the locker room and into a celebration that made the rivalry feel even sharper.
Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer pointed to the teams positive energy after the game, while also stressing the need to keep the focus on Arizona next. For Philadelphia, the result already stung on the field, but the added swipe afterward only gave the loss a little more edge heading into the next round of NFC East business. [Read more 🡒]