Reading The Rooms: Cowboys’ Week 1 Grades

So it’s still far too early to say if the loss is a bad omen or not.

The biggest noticeable difference between this year’s team and the 2024 edition is that this team came out ready to play.

They also came out ready to hit. On both sides of the ball.

Schottenheimer individually gets an A-.

His offensive coordinator, Klayton Adams, also draws an A- grade.

The Cowboys’ offense was far from predictable. Something that could not be said when Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy helmed the team.

Dallas had plenty of pre-snap motion and, in the early going, stuck with the run game and held the lead on three different occasions in the first half.

One big complaint is that they went away from the run in the second half, throwing 18 passes against just nine runs.

On the defensive side, Matt Eberflus’ defense couldn’t stop a lady bug in the first half. To his credit, after the weather delay, he made some adjustments.

But he had to dial up the blitz to get any pressure on Jalen Hurts.

He’ll need to get his front four to step up their game going forward.

Eberflus gets a B- grade. That drags the coaches overall grade down.

QUARTERBACK: A-

Yeah, I know. Everyone and his brother was saying Prescott was the second coming of Tom Brady after the game.

Yes, he had a good game.

Yes, he looked good after missing nine games last year.

No, he isn’t the second coming of Brady. Let’s get real here.

Prescott was 21-for-34 for 188 yards. While he didn’t throw an interception, he also didn’t throw a touchdown pass either.

He threw two medicine balls to his tight ends that nearly got both Jake Ferguson and Brevyn Spann-Ford killed though.

He could have had three picks and probably should have had one at the very least. He has a defensive back with hands of stone to thank for not having that one pick.

Prescott did make a touchdown-saving tackle after Miles Sanders’ fumble that kept the Cowboys close.

But he needs to stop throwing the “Hero Passes” downfield when all he needs is a first down to sustain drives.

RUNNING BACKS: C

Javonte Williams had an A+ game. In addition to powering in a pair of one-yard touchdown runs, his other 13 carries went for 52 yards.

That’s a nice 4.0 yards per carry average.

He also had two receptions for 10 yards to solidify his status as RB1.

Sanders, on the other hand, gets a solid F grade. He had a 49-yard run and then had four yards on his other three carries.

He was run down from behind on the big gain at that.

Sanders should have scored on the play. He made matters worse by fumbling the ball away two carries later.

Instead of going up 27-24 late in the third quarter, the Cowboys were left playing catch-up for the rest of the game.

RECEIVERS: C

CeeDee Lamb had a solid seven catches for 110 yards. He was credited with four drops on his other six targets.

To be fair, the last drop was a tough play to make.

But, he got both hands on the ball, and he’s paid to make those catches.

George Pickens’ Cowboys debut was a meh. Pickens had three catches for 30 yards.

He also played the “Ole” card when asked to block.

Except for the one time he decided to try to remove Reed Blankenship’s helmet, with his head still inside, and drew a costly penalty.

KaVontae Turpin had two catches for 18 yards and Jake Furgeson added five more for 23 yards.

Overall, a forgettable effort by the entire unit.

OFFENSIVE LINE: A+

This unit did not give up a sack. They opened up some holes in the Eagles defensive front too.

Although not having to account for Jalen Carter clearly made their task much easier. Score another point in Prescott’s favor.

They still got the job done.

Tyler Smith drew the only penalty of the game on this unit. He was flagged for holding.

It was a good penalty to take as he’d clearly been beaten and saved Prescott from getting crushed with the take-down.

That really was the only blemish of the night.

DEFENSIVE LINE: C

Marshawn Kneeland got the lone sack of the game, about five minutes into the third quarter. Kenny Clark and Solomon Thomas, five tackles each, did a good job clogging up the middle to contain Saquon Barkley.

But the edge rushers put very little pressure on Hurts, allowing him to escape the pocket for positive rushing yards far too often.

That needs to be cleaned up.

LINEBACKERS: C

This unit really needs DeMarvion Overshown back, and soon. They also need to let Marist Liufau see the field more often.

He was the best linebacker when out there.

He also had the fewest snaps of this unit on Thursday.

DEFENSIVE BACKS: A

Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland did a great job containing both DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown. Jahan Dotson and Dallas Goedert did most of the damage against this unit.

Diggs and Bland need some help out there.

SPECIAL TEAMS: A+

Brandon Aubrey was as automatic as you’d expect. He connected on field goals of 41 and 53 yards and converted both extra points.

Aubrey was solid with his kickoffs too.

Bryan Anger had two punts for an average of 43.5 yards and neither was returned.

Turpin had four kickoff returns for 81 yards while Jalen Tolbert had one for 20. The Eagles made sure Turpin did not touch the ball on any of their three punts.