{"id":39330,"date":"2025-12-09T11:41:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T11:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39330"},"modified":"2025-12-09T11:41:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T11:41:32","slug":"breaking-cowboys-unable-to-identify-why-exactly-theyve-struggled-to-score-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39330","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING : Cowboys unable to identify why exactly they\u2019ve struggled to score early"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Standing in the visiting team interview room at Ford Field last Thursday night, Brian Schottenheimer was asked about the Dallas Cowboys\u2019 recent slow starts.<\/p>\n

They fell behind 21-0 before coming back to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21, on Nov. 23. Four days later, they trailed 7-0 and then 14-7 before coming back to defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 31-28.<\/p>\n

Last Thursday, the Cowboys trailed 3-0, 10-3 and then 20-9 at halftime before making a late push that ultimately fell short in a 44-30 loss to the Lions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fair question,\u201d Schottenheimer responded. \u201cI think that\u2019s what we\u2019ll look at these next couple days because I feel like that was the case obviously against Philadelphia. Spot them 21 and then Kansas City we were down 7-0. We weren\u2019t very good on offense in the first quarter, first half (at Detroit). They had a few things that challenged us that I thought we made some adjustments to, but certainly the pass rush was a factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having had three days to look over that game, Schottenheimer provided an update Monday, but nothing exact about what he found.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve looked at some different things,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are a few things with the openers that we\u2019ve talked about. We\u2019re big into deferring. Why? Well, we like to get the ball in the second half, that extra possession in the second half, I think it\u2019s been good to us at times. It really comes back to the fact that the execution has not been at the level that we need it to be. We can score in a hurry and we\u2019ve played well, but there\u2019s not one thing where we\u2019re like, \u2018Man, if we do this, we\u2019ll start faster.’\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Cowboys\u2019 13 games this season, their opponents have scored first 10 times. The three when Dallas grabbed the early lead were Week 1 at Philadelphia (a 24-20 loss), Week 7 against Washington (44-22 win) and Week 8 at Denver (44-24 loss).<\/p>\n

The Cowboys are the third-highest scoring team in the NFL at 29.3 points per game. But they are averaging only 3.8 points per game in the first quarter, tied for 23rd in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Their production is significantly better in the second quarter, during which they lead the league at 11.7 points per game.<\/p>\n

\n

Cowboys: Scoring by quarter<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
QUARTER<\/th>\nPOINTS<\/th>\nNFL RANK<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
First<\/td>\n3.8<\/td>\n23rd<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Second<\/td>\n11.7<\/td>\n1st<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Third<\/td>\n6.1<\/td>\n7th<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fourth<\/td>\n7.3<\/td>\ntie-10th<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The biggest first-quarter surprise is that there hasn\u2019t been a single touchdown scored by star wide receiver George Pickens or No. 1 tight end Jake Ferguson. Those two have combined for 15 touchdowns this season.<\/p>\n

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is having one of the best seasons of his 10-year career. He has 12 second-quarter touchdown passes and six in each of the third and fourth quarters. But only two in the first quarter. Dallas only has two other first-quarter touchdowns, both short-yardage runs.<\/p>\n

\n

First-quarter TDs<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
WEEK<\/th>\nOPPONENT<\/th>\nTOUCHDOWN<\/th>\nRESULT<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
1<\/td>\n\n
\n

at Eagles<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n

Javonte Williams 1-yard run<\/td>\nLoss<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\n\n
\n

Commanders<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n

Javonte Williams 2-yard run<\/span><\/td>\nWin<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n\n
\n

Commanders<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n

CeeDee Lamb 74-yard reception<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
13<\/td>\n\n
\n

Chiefs<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n

CeeDee Lamb 15-yard reception<\/span><\/td>\nWin<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

As Schottenheimer pointed out, the Cowboys do prefer to have the ball to start the second half. If they win the toss, they defer. But they\u2019ve had the ball first in seven of their 13 games, so it\u2019s not like they aren\u2019t getting the opportunities to get an early lead.<\/p>\n

The slow starts were a storyline entering Thursday night. Lamb and others talked about it in the days leading up to the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just gotta be ourselves, man,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can\u2019t get behind the eight ball. We can\u2019t turn over the ball, and the goal for us is to take away (the ball) and not give any (turnovers). So, we do that, I feel like we put ourselves in the best position to win. We haven\u2019t done that yet, but I do feel like we can get back on that road.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cowboys didn\u2019t turn the ball over in the first quarter against the Lions, but they managed only a field goal on an eight-play drive and then a three-and-out. They went on to lose the turnover battle 3-0.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you don\u2019t play clean ball in the first half and you stay in second-and-long and third-and-long, it\u2019s going to be difficult to win football games,\u201d left guard Tyler Smith said. \u201cI feel like the opportunities we did have to score early on, we kind of put ourselves further back than we needed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of what exactly the Cowboys plan to do to fix the issue, there\u2019s too much firepower on that side of the ball for them not to be putting up more points early in games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Cowboys\u2019 13 games this season, their opponents have scored first 10 times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-39330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallas-cowboys"],"yoast_head":"\nBREAKING : Cowboys unable to identify why exactly they\u2019ve struggled to score early - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39330\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING : Cowboys unable to identify why exactly they\u2019ve struggled to score early - 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