Last week, the Cowboys wondered whether new Patriots Ezekiel Elliott or Will Grier would reveal secrets about them. This week, Trey Lance is in the hot seat. So come on, spill it.
Lance is one of the newest Cowboys, with owner Jerry Jones trading for the one-time 49ers starting quarterback back in late August. Now, the Cowboys are headed to Levy Stadium in San Fran for a Sunday night date against Lance’s old team.
“Trey knows a little bit about what they’re doing,” Dallas offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer told reporters earlier this week “The cool thing is, like I said, the [Cowboys] know them well, I know them well from being in Seattle, Trey knows them well. Like last week, it’s kind of in good fun and humor. We all use pieces that we have in place, but we don’t go too far into it.
“We can know exactly what they’re going to do, because they don’t do too much, and they’re still really, really tough to go against just because they’re so talented,” Schottenheimer said. “We’ll definitely talk to Trey. He knows a lot of the pieces going against them in practice, but it doesn’t always help, as we learned yesterday.”
It’s unclear if Elliott and Grier, both former Cowboys, provided good intel to Bill Belichick and his staff. It didn’t matter. Dallas overwhelmed the Patriots, 38-3. The coaching staff also changed up some of its hand signals.
For this game, the Cowboys already have an idea on what might happen with the 49ers. After all, San Fran ended their seasons in each of the past two years. They know the team well. Plus, Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn once employed 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, back when both were with the Falcons. And, Dallas already received a possible dose of some early San Francisco when the Cowboys faced off against the Jets and head coach Robert Saleh. After all, Saleh used to be on Shanahan’s staff.
“We can know exactly what they’re going to do, because they don’t do too much, and they’re still really, really tough to go against because they’re so talented,” Schottenheimer said. “The cool thing with San Francisco is, the play styles never change, no matter who the coordinator is. … It’s a lot like our defensive play style and how we try to play offensively. It’s physical and up-tempo, and they run and they hit, and that’s way more important than the scheme they run.”
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