FRISCO, Texas — For all of the rightful talk surrounding the defensive collapse by the Dallas Cowboys against the New Orleans Saints, the offense struggled to find pay dirt to keep the game in hand as the quarters rolled along. Dak Prescott and Co. were able to improve their third-down conversion rate over the Week 1 win against the Cleveland Browns, but the red zone woes helped cost them points.
Having got off to a hot start himself in the season opener, Brandin Cooks was unable to find a groove against the Saints, another key to the struggles overall, but he's seen the highest of the highs in the NFL and the lowest of the lows — always persevering forward.
And that's his message to the locker room, particularly the young players, this week.
"The mindset is, obviously, how do you prepare and react to unscouted looks, right?" said Cooks as he and the Cowboys prepare to take on a very talented Baltimore Ravens' defense. "[It's] September football, and that's just about how fast can you get to your fundamentals and everything that you worked on at camp, and just trusting the process we did.
"... Yeah, we lost, but getting back to work is what it's really about. Don't panic. If you really say you trust your process, then trust the foundation and the culture that you built. Come back here, do and be who you are."
That doesn't mean Cooks is allowing himself to forget the lessons that have to be learned from being embarrassed at home, though. Quite the contrary, as he embraces them but disallows them to impact where he goes mentally in the days and weeks that follow.
"It should be a little more intense, because you come off a loss, but don't try to start making stuff up," he said. "Just get back to the drawing board and do what you do best, and go out there the next game and give it your all."
With so much on the line for the Cowboys, but also only heading into the third game of a 17-game regular season and, if they play their cards correctly, several more games in the postseason, Cooks says everyone should pace themselves for the good and the bad.
That is considering an NFL season is chock full of both.
"I think the biggest thing is always staying even keel throughout the season," he said. "Win or lose, and at the end of the day, tuning out the noise. You win one week and you're the greatest and when you don't, well, we all know. So really sticking to the task at hand and staying even keel no matter what's going on because it's a long season.
"If you go with the rollercoaster, if you go with the ups and downs, all you're doing is just going to exhaust yourself mentally."
Another big test awaits the Cowboys this coming Sunday, and at home [again], no less, and Cooks will approach it the same way he approaches every game, regardless of what took place in the game prior.
Not up, not down, but even.
