Cowboys Coach Makes Feelings Clear On Brazil Travel Schedule

FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys play the Baltimore Ravens in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, fly home overnight, play at the Houston Texans on Oct. 4, and host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers four days after that. Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Thursday at The Star that the stretch requires mental toughness.

Dallas lands back in the United States early Monday morning. The Tampa Bay game is a Thursday night game at AT&T Stadium, with kickoff at 7:15 p.m. CT on Prime Video.

“I know what you’re asking,” Schottenheimer said. “I’d be a hypocrite if I said I think it’s a tough task, but we’re up to it. And mentally tough, we need to be. This is a long season. And I can’t be a win the day type guy and be angry about it. But in reality, it’s a long trip, come home, Houston, short week.”

“But we’re going to win today,” Schottenheimer continued. “And then we’re going to go down there. We’re going to win Friday, Saturday and play a really good team and hopefully win that. But you got to stay in the moment. But it does require mental toughness. And the schedule is a schedule. And we will play anybody, anytime, anywhere, but it’s a unique schedule for sure.”

Houston is 0-2 after home losses of 36-31 and 20-6 and plays at Indianapolis on Sunday. Kickoff at Reliant Stadium on Oct. 4 is noon CT on FOX. The Texans beat Dallas 34-10 in the teams’ last meeting, on Nov. 18, 2024.

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Friday’s practice in Rio and a trip to Maracanã Stadium on Saturday are both part of the week, Schottenheimer said. The Cowboys installed first- and second-down plays on Tuesday.

“The biggest thing for us was we wanted to treat it like a short week from a game plan standpoint,” Schottenheimer explained. “We wanted to leave here today having the game plan done. So there’s challenges in that. You have to work ahead, a lot of long nights. So we just did our red zone meetings, a little bit of two minutes discussions. And so we’ll go out, we’ll throw a normal Friday practice, and then the guys will have a break to go home and get some of the stuff that they need. And then we’ll all meet back here and we’ll go to the airport together.”

“The biggest challenge we have is, I think, over these next couple days, it’s what, Thursday? So Friday, Saturday, you have two more full days where you’ve got to keep these guys up to speed with the scheme,” Schottenheimer detailed. “First and second down review is critical. I mean, we put that in on Tuesday. And you’ve got to do the third down review. And so we’re going to be busy, and this is a business trip. And the meetings and the walkthroughs and the practice that we’ll have tomorrow, the trip to the stadium on Saturday, those are all critical parts to what we’re doing. So we go into the game feeling prepared, feel really good about the plan right now. It’s keeping these guys focused on the things that went in earlier in the week.”

Rio is two hours ahead of Dallas. Injured players who are not making the trip stay behind in Frisco to work with the training staff, Schottenheimer said Wednesday.

“Well, I have bad news for someone in the room,” Schottenheimer said. “Tommy [Yarrish] did not get a lay-down seat. I tried. I really did. I tried, but unfortunately, other than maybe you can have mine. But I do think most of the guys have lay-down seats. It’s a big, big plane. It’s important.”

“We’ve talked a lot about it,” Schottenheimer continued. “We’re going to get on the plane, probably take off 7:30, 8 o’clock, which is already 10 o’clock Rio time. We’re going to fly through the night. We’ve thought of everything, our team, the compression pants and shirts and things that you wear. It’s going to be a dark plane. We’ll feed them a little bit, but we need them to rest. And then when we get there, we’re going to get them moving pretty quick and get out to a meeting and then a practice and try to get acclimated as best we can.”

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Sunday’s game is the Cowboys’ first international game since 2014 and the first regular-season NFL game in Rio. Schottenheimer said Wednesday that players would sleep, not work, on the flight home.

“We’ve talked a lot about it,” Schottenheimer said. “It sounds like we’re going to get back at some time around 8, 8:30 in the morning, Monday morning, get through customs. We’ll have everybody ride back from the airport here. What all the experts say is the best thing you can do is stay awake.”

“So we’ll come right in as a coaching staff and we’ll work and we’ll get a pretty heavy day,” Schottenheimer added. “But at some point, I’m going to get the guys out of here, dinner time-ish or whatever, let them go home. Talking about the coaches, of course. The players will be off for Monday, Tuesday. But we got a game coming up against another really good opponent, and we’ll get them home hopefully around dinner time, let them get some rest, and then we’ll be back at it Tuesday morning around 6, 6:30.”

Kickoff Sunday at Maracanã Stadium is 3:25 p.m. CT on CBS, which is 5:25 p.m. local time. Dallas is the designated home team.