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

[Simpleton]

By the way our next 6 games are very winnable.

This is why I said just get to 2-2 and I think we're in great shape, we could easily end up 6-4 at that point given the schedule, maybe even 7-3, but I don't think Schottenheimer will be able to navigate enough decision points for us to win 4-5 games in a row after what I saw yesterday.

 

[Simpleton]

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.

2026 Training Camp Thread...

"Saw 2 shovel passes to TE's in the red zone, I already know I'm going to hate those calls in real games when they inevitably fuck them up with sloppy execution"

 

[Chocolate Lab]

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.

Terrible, actually. Scheduling shouldn't even be allowed to be that bad. A Thursday game ten days after a game in Brazil is a joke.

But it all goes back to this international game garbage. If not for that it would be fine.

 

[Texas Ace]

2026 Training Camp Thread...

"Saw 2 shovel passes to TE's in the red zone, I already know I'm going to hate those calls in real games when they inevitably fuck them up with sloppy execution"

There's just no excuse for this level of incompetence.

Again, what about those plays with those specific players would make a half decent offensive coach think to himself "this could work"???

Our most athletic TE is Spannford but not for him am I calling that play because those plays are most effective when the guy on the receiving end is fast, quick, agile, twitchy, etc.

NONE of our TE's fit that description, so I'm struggling to understand how anyone could think this is something we not only need to have in our playbook, but also run multiple times throughout the season despite the fact that it NEVER works.

 

[Texas Ace]

Speaking of TEs, on a team run the right way, Spannford would be TE1 because he's clearly demonstrated that he's the best TE we have.

But because we gave that awful contract to Ferguson just to spite Micah, he's going to remain the starter for AT LEAST the rest of this season.

It's amazing how the guys that get in the way are the ones that never get hurt.

 

[Texas Ace]

You know, Parker was really one of the worst options we could have gone with given the dynamics of this staff and team.

To be fair, I'm not saying Parker is an awful DC because it's way too early to know that. He's only 3 games into his career as a coordinator.

But given how much inexperience we were already dealing with at the HC level, and the fact that our defense had so many new faces with a significant number of them being young and inexperienced themselves, what we needed was someone proven and reliable.

I don't think it's a stretch to say that through 3 weeks of the 2026 NFL season, the Cowboys have the worst coaching staff across the board in the league.

 

[Simpleton]

There's just no excuse for this level of incompetence.

Again, what about those plays with those specific players would make a half decent offensive coach think to himself "this could work"???

Our most athletic TE is Spannford but not for him am I calling that play because those plays are most effective when the guy on the receiving end is fast, quick, agile, twitchy, etc.

NONE of our TE's fit that description, so I'm struggling to understand how anyone could think this is something we not only need to have in our playbook, but also run multiple times throughout the season despite the fact that it NEVER works.

What amuses me is that we can all see it coming a mile away with how dysfunctional this team has been over the years.

You could feel it building yesterday from passing it twice on 2nd/3rd and goal on the 1 after running it down their throats on the first drive, fucking up the end of half situation, the 4th down attempts, the shovel pass from the 25 f'ing yard line on 1st and 10, and then of course the ending.

You could feel when moments were getting too big for Garrett and he was kind of just watching things happen instead of controlling the situation, and that's exactly how this moron was yesterday.

 

[Texas Ace]

What amuses me is that we can all see it coming a mile away with how dysfunctional this team has been over the years.

You could feel it building yesterday from passing it twice on 2nd/3rd and goal on the 1 after running it down their throats on the first drive, fucking up the end of half situation, the 4th down attempts, the shovel pass from the 25 f'ing yard line on 1st and 10, and then of course the ending.

You could feel when moments were getting too big for Garrett and he was kind of just watching things happen instead of controlling the situation, and that's exactly how this moron was yesterday.

Yup, and that's why I agree with your comparisons to Garrett because there were just so many similarities to how Garrett looked and coached in his worst moments.

 

[Genghis Khan]

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.

It was bad coaching yesterday no question, but regarding Garrett I was out on him back when he was an interim still in 2010 even though most other people were loving him because he finished 5-3 (with a backup QB) with a team that was 1-7 prior to him taking over.

That's all well and good but I could tell Garrett wasn't a good coach when we saw the product he allowed to take the field against Arizona. They were running a backup QB also and one that didn't belong in the league at all. Meanwhile we had Kitna, who was at least competent. We should have taken them pretty easily, and yet we looked completely unprepared and unmotivated and Arizona boatraced us. That was inexcusable coaching to have the team completely unprepared against a doormat opponent.

I haven't seen that from Schottenheimer yet, and he got 7 wins out of a team last year that fielded one of the worst defenses of all time (granted with all time talent on offense).

I'm not going to defend the job Schottenheimer did yesterday but I'm not bailing yet either. He's not Garrett.

 

[Genghis Khan]

This is why I said just get to 2-2 and I think we're in great shape, we could easily end up 6-4 at that point given the schedule, maybe even 7-3, but I don't think Schottenheimer will be able to navigate enough decision points for us to win 4-5 games in a row after what I saw yesterday.

I think we'll know a lot after the midway point of the season. I kind of expect we'll be in pretty good shape.

 

[Texas Ace]

I hope Revel isn't seriously hurt but that didn't look good yesterday.

If by some chance he's ok, we really need to play Downs at S this week and just roll with the best option we have at nickel because I'd rather have a weakness in the slot than on the backend where our last line of defense is supposed to be.

Bell was responsible for so many big plays yesterday and we can't keep letting that happen.

Downs is a safety, after all, so let him be one at least until we're healthy on defense again.

 

[Simpleton]

It was bad coaching yesterday no question, but regarding Garrett I was out on him back when he was an interim still in 2010 even though most other people were loving him because he finished 5-3 (with a backup QB) with a team that was 1-7 prior to him taking over.

That's all well and good but I could tell Garrett wasn't a good coach when was saw the product he allowed to take the field against Arizona. They were running a backup QB also and one that didn't belong in the league at all. Meanwhile we had Kitna, who was at least competent. We should have taken them pretty easily, and yet we looked completely unprepared and unmotivated and Arizona boatraced us. That was inexcusable coaching to have the team completely unprepared against a doormat opponent.

I haven't seen that from Schottenheimer yet, and he got 7 wins out of a team last year that fielded one of the worst defenses of all time (granted with all time talent on offense).

I'm not going to defend the job Schottenheimer did yesterday but I'm not bailing yet either. He's not Garrett.

I think there's a third reality beyond just being a good or bad coach, and that's being a team that can compete at a high level situationally, but has no real chance at doing anything meaningful because the HC just isn't cut out for this level.

That was Garrett, we were the 1 seed in 2016 and arguably the best team in the NFC in 2014 despite getting screwed on a tiebreaker, but unless we had overwhelming talent (all-time type OL and near elite skill talent in those cases) we were usually average or worse, and even with that talent the team would come out unprepared in the biggest moments (2016 playoff vs. GB).

I think that's the absolute best case scenario with Schottenheimer right now, so if we run off 4-5 in a row I'll try to enjoy it, but in the back of my mind I'll know what the end result will be one way or the other.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Speaking of TEs, on a team run the right way, Spannford would be TE1 because he's clearly demonstrated that he's the best TE we have.

But because we gave that awful contract to Ferguson just to spite Micah, he's going to remain the starter for AT LEAST the rest of this season.

Yep, you know Jerry... Once you pay a guy, he's automatically better than before you paid him.

But I also don't think you can downplay the aspect of him being Dak's safety blanket. Don't think Dak would take kindly to removing that until and unless Hyphen has an offseason/camp to build that trust.

 

[Simpleton]

I hope Revel isn't seriously hurt but that didn't look good yesterday.

If by some chance he's ok, we really need to play Downs at S this week and just roll with the best option we have at nickel because I'd rather have a weakness in the slot than on the backend where our last line of defense is supposed to be.

Bell was responsible for so many big plays yesterday and we can't keep letting that happen.

Downs is a safety, after all, so let him be one at least until we're healthy on defense again.

I could see this if Durant comes back but we're just as depleted there as we are at safety.

If you exclude Downs we're down 2 of our top 3 CB's and 3 of our top 4 safeties, assuming Hooker and Thompson are out next week, which they may not be.

There's no good answer there, you'll either be playing PS types at CB or S.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

I hope Revel isn't seriously hurt but that didn't look good yesterday.

If by some chance he's ok, we really need to play Downs at S this week and just roll with the best option we have at nickel because I'd rather have a weakness in the slot than on the backend where our last line of defense is supposed to be.

Bell was responsible for so many big plays yesterday and we can't keep letting that happen.

Downs is a safety, after all, so let him be one at least until we're healthy on defense again.

It was hard to tell how serious any of the injuries were. I don't know if it was the humidity or travel but I think our guys were dehydrated. Kept hearing about players going back to the locker room for an IV. I guess we will just have to see and recheck when everyone is back in the states. My hope is that some of these guys in the secondary can start to come back. No one appears to be seriously hurt. And while I agree on Bell, I didn't see any real problems with Clark. I think he can play on defense and give you respectable coverage.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

If by some chance he's ok, we really need to play Downs at S this week and just roll with the best option we have at nickel because I'd rather have a weakness in the slot than on the backend where our last line of defense is supposed to be.

Bell was responsible for so many big plays yesterday and we can't keep letting that happen.

Downs is a safety, after all, so let him be one at least until we're healthy on defense again.

For sure, but they've been determined to not play him there. I guess they think they'd only create another hole at nickel, which is probably true.

 

[Texas Ace]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Steele was benched on the final few plays right?

After the Dak scramble that got us down to the 5, I don't think Steele was in on the play after that.

 

[Genghis Khan]

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

It wasn't great but unfortunately we've had a lot of those over the years. It's always something.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Steele was benched on the final few plays right?

After the Dak scramble that got us down to the 5, I don't think Steele was in on the play after that.

I had the radio on at times and I do remember Sham saying Jones was playing his first snap as a Cowboy... But it was such a chaotic, crucial time of the game, I didn't look into if Steele was hurt or what, and I don't think they mentioned it again.

 

[Genghis Khan]

Mosher hates him?

I'm starting to feel better about him.