2026 Season | Week 3 | Gameday Chatter Thread | Ravens @ Cowboys (Rio) | 09/27/2026

[Texas Ace]

I haven't read back through the thread to see how everyone feels, but here is my take after sleeping on it.

The defense played well enough to win. The offense played well enough to win. The STs at least didn't lose us the game. This loss, and probably more to come down the road, lays solely at the feet of Schottenheimer. From the horrific play calling (we were killing them with the run and abandoned it at the 1 fucking yard line) to the peewee league level of clock management at the end. There is absolutely no blame to be placed on the players. They played hard, which was very nice to see. The want-to is there. And, to be clear, I am not blaming the coaching staff for this. I am blaming one person. The HC.

I was still holding out hope that Shotty would develop into a good head coach, but I am officially done with him now. I hope he is gone this offseason. The players showed they have the talent and the drive to win, but it's impossible to win if your HC doesn't squib kick the kickoff with 7 seconds left or allows the DC to play soft defense to allow a 30 yard completion or doesn't coach the players to not tackle the fucking guy immediately if he does catch that ball.

My rant is over and those are my two cents. We will never win shit with this guy as our HC. He needs to be gone.

I largely agree with that and I think Schotty is the biggest culprit for the loss, but our awful ST coach with the constant knuckle ball shit and our young and inexperienced DC played big roles in that loss as well.

The only one of the three that deserves SOME slack is Parker because he's young and inexperienced.

But both Schotty and the wino have been in the league long enough to at least posses some level of common sense or fundamental understanding that enables you to recognize what's happening in the moment and adjust accordingly.

But it's like @Simpleton said and this is where I agree with him about the Garrett comparisons -- when you lack even the most basic conceptual understanding of game management even though you've been in the sport for so long? That means you're a lost cause because those types NEVER get better.

They simply do not get it and never will.

 

[Simpleton]

I do think it will be much better. The problem now is injuries.

But to me it was always about just making progress to competent this year, then maybe actually being above average to pretty good next year.

Nobody on defense is out for the year or even very long though, Hooker, Locke, Durant, Overshown and presumably Thompson will all be back sometime in the next few weeks. It's debatable whether or not we even need Overshown back, but obviously we need the secondary to start getting back to health.

If Schottenheimer can't figure out how to keep the team afloat for a few games against a light schedule the next three weeks, then it's even more of an argument for what I've been saying about him.

 

[Texas Ace]

Dude. 10 fucking years. I am down on the BS (meant both ways) as anyone, but Garrett set us back an entire decade.

I'm not so sure that Schotty wouldn't do the same given the same 10 year leash.

 

[Simpleton]

I largely agree with that and I think Schotty is the biggest culprit for the loss, but or awful ST coach with the constant knuckle ball shit and our young and inexperienced DC played big roles in that loss as well.

The only one of the three that deserves SOME slack is Parker because he's young and inexperienced.

But both Schotty and the wino have been in the league long enough to at least some level of common sense or fundamental understanding that enables you to recognize what's happening in the moment and adjust accordingly.

But it's like @Simpleton said and this is where I agree with him about the Garrett comparisons -- when you lack even the most basic conceptual understanding of game management even though you've been in the sport for so long? That means you're a lost cause because those types NEVER get better.

They simply do not get it and never will.

Yesterday had everything we saw in the peak Garrett years, short of literally icing your own kicker.

You had amateur end of half/game clock management, both at the end of the 1st half and the last drive.

You had the HC/playcaller going pass happy for no good reason after the run game was dominating (first offensive drive, cost us 4 points, and arguably even on the last offensive drive where we didn't run it once from the 2).

You had a braindead game management decision to kick the ball through the end zone with 7 seconds left that makes absolutely no sense in any context whatsoever and was probably the number one reason we lost the game.

Then of course you had your steady diet of penalties and so forth, but that's normal around here, but I haven't seen such a bumbling HC since the early days of Garrett when he was still calling plays.

 

[Texas Ace]

I actually feel better about the team today. Yeah they fucked it up ten ways to Sunday yesterday, but they look like they're much better this year than last year.

I can't remember the last time I was proud of the players after I loss, but I really admired how they battled yesterday.

They had numerous opportunities to become demoralized in that game but they never did.

They hung in there and hung in there and fought their way back to what should have been one of the best regular season wins around here in a long time.

That 96 yard drive to take the lead? That was some impressive shit.

So as long as this dogshit staff can manage to not let everything completely fall apart in the next few weeks, I think this team possesses the resiliency and talent to still end up with a winning record when it's all said and done.

Lose to Houston though? This season is a wrap.

 

[Texas Ace]

During the week I said we'll be in good shape if we end up splitting Baltimore/Houston and if the defense looks halfway competent against the Ravens.

They definitely looked halfway competent despite all the secondary injuries, and there's a pretty good chance they beat Houston, but I didn't expect to see one of the most incompetent coaching performances since about 2013 Jason Garrett icing his own kicker.

That alone tells me there's no way this team can do anything except stumble to some sort of 10-7 playoff berth and maybe luck into winning a first round game if they get lucky with the opponent, so what's even the point?

That's exactly how I feel about them today.

Encouraged by the players, but ultimately feel like it's kinda pointless because I know we aren't going anywhere with this staff at the helm.

 

[Genghis Khan]

They definitely looked halfway competent despite all the secondary injuries,

Many of us said we'd feel good about our chances if the defense could get to average. They looked pretty average yesterday which is a big positive.

Yes the coach looked very below average yesterday but this is the first time I remember thinking that so I won't bury him based on one game.

 

[Stars]

Why can't they try the knuckleball kick towards the middle of the field? I know nothing about kicking a football but is it just bad technique that it always goes towards the sidelines? Luck? Aubrey fucking up? ST coach? Someone tell me what is happening with that, because allowing two drives to start at the 40 on a kickoff is terrible.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

I think people are forgetting just how ridiculous a hire Schottenheimer was. I gave it a bit of time just because you might as well see how it goes, but it was one of the worst hires in the league in the last 10-20 years in terms of a guy that nobody else would even consider.

He would have been lucky to be a position coach somewhere if we didn't hire him. An OC at best.

 

[Genghis Khan]

I can't remember the last time I was proud of the players after I loss, but I really admired how they battled yesterday.

They had numerous opportunities to become demoralized in that game but they never did.

A lot of people forget that that's part of coaching also, to get the team prepared to play, and motivated to win throughout, and not get demoralized in the middle of a game if things start going south.

 

[Genghis Khan]

By the way our next 6 games are very winnable.

 

[Texas Ace]

Why can't they try the knuckleball kick towards the middle of the field? I know nothing about kicking a football but is it just bad technique that it always goes towards the sidelines? Luck? Aubrey fucking up? ST coach? Someone tell me what is happening with that, because allowing two drives to start at the 40 on a kickoff is terrible.

My guess is that a big part of what makes that knuckleball thing work is that it ultimately lands in an area of the field that makes the return man have to sprint on over to try and field it in a hurry.

In theory, I don't have a problem with this. But once that ball went out the ONE time? I would not have asked him to do it again after that, especially given the conditions of the field.

I can't say it enough -- the amateurish display of coaching we saw across the board yesterday was just unacceptable.

 

[Texas Ace]

A lot of people forget that that's part of coaching also, to get the team prepared to play, and motivated to win throughout, and not get demoralized in the middle of a game if things start going south.

I get that, but he was so bad at everything else yesterday to the point that he cost us the game.

It doesn't do us any good for the team to look prepared or be resilient if the same guy doing that is also the same guy repeatedly shooting them in the foot.

 

[Stars]

That game was the living embodiment of whiplash, I felt so encouraged by some of the good plays our defense made especially dealing with basically all of our DBs being gone. I want to think we have a chance to be good, but then I'm reminded of some of the bonehead coaching and management issues we're dealing with. Oh well, I'm still trying to come away from this as encouraged.

 

[Texas Ace]

By the way our next 6 games are very winnable.

I agree, but they CANNOT lose to Houston.

You lose to an 0-3 team after such a heartbreaking loss to the Ravens? The season is over and I think we're gonna freefall ala 2010 under Wade.

And this Houston game will be another test of their mettle because not only are they coming off a crushing loss, they're facing a team that was considered by many to be a SB contender on the road, who are fighting for their lives next weekend, and in front of a fanbase that hates them just as much if not more than any other fanbase in all of football.

It's going to take balls to win that game next Sunday.

 

[Texas Ace]

Sheesh.... You know it's bad when the team's own journalists are saying it's bad.

 

[Texas Ace]

 

[Texas Ace]

Yet another indictment of Schotty as both a HC and an OC.

WTF is the insistence on getting this average player the football so much, especially on plays that call for quick, agile players when Ferguson is anything BUT that?

You've got dynamic players in Lamb, Pickens, and even Turpin for those sorts of things. But yet we're constantly designing plays for Ferguson that NEVER go anywhere......and that's what makes it worse!

They always fail but this dumbass keeps insisting on it.

 

[Simpleton]

Many of us said we'd feel good about our chances if the defense could get to average. They looked pretty average yesterday which is a big positive.

Yes the coach looked very below average yesterday but this is the first time I remember thinking that so I won't bury him based on one game.

That's fair, but it was so bad that I just can't overlook it, too reminiscent of the amateur shit we saw out of Garrett in the early days when he clearly couldn't handle calling plays and managing games.

Then the decision to tell Aubrey to kick it through the back of the end zone just took it up another notch.

 

[dpf1123]

The NFL didn't do us any favors with this early schedule. Open on the road, again. Home for one game. Fly 10 hours to Brazil for a "home" game. Get back with a short week on the road. And follow that up with another short week Thursday night game.