Brian Schottenheimer gets honest about Week 1 loss to Giants

DraftKings Sportsbook shows that the Dallas Cowboys entered Sunday night's game at the rival New York Giants as three-point betting favorites. Casual fans watching the contest likely wouldn't have guessed that to be the case, as the Giants bullied the Cowboys throughout the evening en route to earning a 28-20 win. 

Following his club's Week 1 loss, Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer opened up about the disappointing start to a season that carries Super Bowl aspirations. 

Cowboys didn't play to their "standard" at Giants

"I thought overall we were really, as a football team, we were pretty poor," Schottenheimer explained, per Tommy Yarrish of the Cowboys' website. "Just give [first-year Giants head coach John Harbaugh] and his team a bunch of credit. They were the more physical team tonight. That's certainly not our standard. That's certainly not how we see our identity playing."

Much has been said and written about the moves that Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones made to bolster his team's defense. ESPN stats show that the Dallas defense surrendered 165 yards rushing on 37 carries against the Giants, and New York quarterback Jaxson Dart went 23-of-29 passing for 230 yards and three touchdowns on Sunday evening. 

According to Todd Archer of ESPN, the Giants converted 9-of-10 third-down chances that didn't occur on a kneel-down in the game's closing seconds. 

"We did not get enough pressure on him," Schottenheimer said about Dart. "He looked pretty comfortable back there. I thought we had some good shots on the ball, but the pass rush does have to be better, for sure."

Brian Schottenheimer wants Cowboys looking at the big picture after loss

Previously, Schottenheimer made it known he liked that his players spent portions of the summer openly talking about how winning the Super Bowl is the team's ultimate goal for this season. In fairness to Schottenheimer and Co., what is supposed to be a high-powered offense will likely have more than two meaningful possessions in the second half of Dallas' Week 2 home game versus the 0-1 Washington Commanders on Sept. 20. 

"...this one feels pretty bad just because at the end of the day, we just didn't perform the way we're capable of playing," Schottenheimer added during his postgame comments. "We didn't play defense the way we're capable of playing. We didn't play offense in the first half the way we're capable of playing. ... But we're not going to panic. This is a long season, and we know we're not going to go undefeated. That's real, but that's not the biggest issue we have."

As of Monday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Cowboys as 4.5-point home favorites over the Commanders. Schottenheimer's team could enter full-panic mode if Dallas falls to 0-2 on the season this coming weekend.