OXNARD, Calif. (AP) — When the Dallas Cowboys wouldn’t stop fighting, coach Brian Schottenheimer made them run.
During a noticeably fraught practice in what has been an aggressive training camp, Schottenheimer stepped in Wednesday after a heated red-zone drill led to the third fight of the day. The new coach pulled the team together for a lengthy and expletive-filled speech before sending players back out to start running sideline to sideline.
Following the punishing sprints, Schottenheimer brought the team back together for a second address before he ended practice early.
“Basically, we just have to understand that Dallas isn’t on the schedule, so we’re nobody’s enemies,” offensive lineman Nate Thomas said. “We have to make sure that we’re taking care of each other, but also getting the good work in because we have some guys down right now, and we have to understand that we need these reps. So we can’t go out here and start fighting each other just because somebody did a little extra pushing or whatever the case may be.”
Schottenheimer, a first-time head coach, has tried to balance competing aims during camp. He wants physical, high-energy sessions that will allow the offensive and defensive fronts to develop after the Cowboys struggled in both areas last season. At the same time, Schottenheimer is stressing accountability, an area wide receiver CeeDee Lamb said the team has lacked at times in the past.
“It’s been a while, but I feel like that was really necessary,” Lamb said after being asked about the last time he had been part of a practice where the whole team had been punished that way. “I honestly like what he’s doing because we need discipline. We need to be able to go through that line. I’m saying we need to have that, that availability towards the team and then that aggressiveness at the same time, to be able to be as mad and fight between the whistles, and then as soon as the (play is) done, like, we going to line it up again.”
The Cowboys were 29th in the NFL penalties committed and 28th in giveaways last season, when they went 7-10 under then-coach Mike McCarthy.
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