For Dallas Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer, it might have been a good time to have a long weekend following Thursday’s embarrassing 24-16 loss the the Buccaneers in Week 5. It gave him plenty of time to weigh what was consistently going wrong with this team, especially with his defense and new coordinator Christian Parker, the 34-year-old who’d gained a very good reputation as defensive backs coach with the Eagles and Broncos, and as a Packers assistant before that. On Monday, Schottenheimer revealed one of the solutions: Mike Pettine, the former Browns head coach with eight years experience as an NFL defensive coordinator.
Pettine, whose title will be, senior defensive assistant, will be brought in as a consultant, similar, according to Schottenheimer, to what the Cowboys have offensively with Ken Dorsey. Schottenheimer said the team had weighed two potential candidates to serve as a defensive veteran coaches in consultancy positions this offseason, but added that they, “just didn’t work out.”
Cowboys Will Benefit From Mike Pettine’s Experience
Schottenheimer explained the reasoning for the Cowboys move.
He said: “He’s gonna be here in a role to support everything that CP is leading and guiding, and really excited. They worked together in Green Bay, and this is something that CP and I had talked about when we first hired him … We weren’t going to just add someone who didn’t make sense.
I think Pet’s experience not only in football, but his experience in this system, what we do, his understanding of the 3-4 family, he has an understanding of some of our players, Kenny Clark, Rashan Gary, he was the coordinator was CP was (in Green Bay), so I think it is just a great fit and a guy who certainly brings a bunch of experience to the entire staff, myself included.
Defense Has Been Frustrating
The Cowboys, to be fair, have dealt with a number of difficult injury issues in the secondary this season, and that has surely sapped some of the productivity of this defense. But even given that, this has been an especially bad unit. The Cowboys are 31st in yards allowed, and 32nd in rushing yards allowed, as they continue to get gashed up the middle by running backs and on the edges by dual-threat quarterbacks.
The Cowboys are the No. 31 defense in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus.
Schottenheimer said there are other solutions the team has been working on to improve the defense. Pettine is one.
More form the coach: “There’s a lot of solutions that we have come up with this weekend. Long three days, it is what you should do when you’re not coaching or playing to the standard you expect. Really excited for Pet joining us and he will get right to work.”
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