A jubilant Brian Schottenheimer proved he has locker room unity after defeating the New York Giants on Sunday, September 14 as the Dallas Cowboys‘ head coach inspires an unusual reaction from Jerry Jones.
Dallas ran out 40-37 winners at the AT&T Stadium as Dak Prescott and his boys managed to shrug off the challenge of an electric Russell Wilson, who posted 450 passing yards and three touchdowns on 41 attempts.
The 36-year-old veteran also managed to rush for 23 yards on three carries and allowed just one interception as the Super Bowl champion rolled back the years to his heyday, for New York.
Yet it wasn’t enough to stop Schottenheimer and the Cowboys as Brandon Aubrey‘s overtime field goal with the clock hitting zero allowed Dallas to defeat their NFC East rivals and claim their first win of the season, and of Brian’s tenure.
So there was a party-like atmosphere in the locker room after Dallas scored 10 points in the last 52 seconds of the game to force overtime, capped by the head coach reading out the box score of the game.
Every man who added a point had their name and play called out and they were greeted by cheers from the professional athletes, and their 82-year-old owner as Jones got involved too just weeks after revealing his battle against cancer.
The moment was a genuine display of unity and exactly what the team needed following a rough 2023 that saw them slump to third in the NFC East, have Mike McCarthy fired as head coach and then the whole Micah Parsons contract saga over the NFL offseason.
Cowboys turn their attention to Super Bowl run
Now the crowd, the organization and the players can begin to look forwards as the likes of Prescott, Ceedee Lamb, George Pickens and Trevon Diggs can turn their attentions to the ultimate goal: winning the Super Bowl.
That’s an accomplishment that has evaded Jones and his franchise since 1996 when they triumphed 27-17 over the Pittsburgh Steelers, and it’s been a very long and enduring wait.
America’s Team last appeared in the Super Bowl in that 1996 campaign, marking a barren run of almost 30 years without making it to the final game of the season. They have also failed to make the NFC Championship Game since that year too.
For Schottenheimer, who previously served as the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator, that’s still a tall order to achieve, especially with the NFC East containing the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders too.
But if they keep putting up 40 points per game then they are going to be a very tough team to stop, and they’ll go again in Week 3 against the Chicago Bears on Sunday, September 21.
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