FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys were back at The Star in Frisco on Monday after suffering a nail-biting loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday evening at Lincoln Financial Field.
There were positives and negatives to take away on both sides of the ball after the loss, as defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and special teams coordinator John Fassel all took the podium on Monday to discuss the game.
Here are the highlights from those availabilities.
Takeaways and Third Down
Dan Quinn took the podium first and opened by saying that even though his defense did perform well against one of the NFL's top offenses, his unit failed to capitalize in two critical areas of the game.
"If you had asked me prior to the game to give me two takeaways or two keys to winning, I'd have said we have to get the ball back for the offense, create a few takeaways and win on third down," Quinn said. "And if you asked me now the two things why we didn't win the game, I'd say we didn't create any takeaways and we didn't win third down. Not delivering on those is the tough part."
The Dallas defense had zero takeaways for only the second time this season – with both games being losses – and allowed the Philadelphia offense to convert on 7 of its 14 third down attempts.
Another Big Day for CeeDee
For the second week in a row, CeeDee Lamb set his career high for receiving yards in a game as the fourth-year playmaker accounted for 191 receiving yards in Philadelphia. In Schottenheimer's perspective, it's a testament to the extra effort he's put in since his frustration after the loss to San Francisco.
"It's a credit to CeeDee, first and foremost," Schottenheimer said. "Since he came out of his frustration [against San Francisco], he's put the work in on the practice field and he's worked with a different intentionality and tenacity in practice. It's been awesome to see. The timing with Dak has been awesome. We try to move him around and put him in different spots. You'll see him isolated, in the slot, out of the backfield. That speaks to his football IQ."
Lamb's big day put him in the top five of NFL receiving yards leaders going into Monday Night Football.
Turpin's Tenacity
It feels like KaVontae Turpin's time is coming, and that notion took an extra step on Sunday on a big kick return following Philadelphia's opening drive touchdown. The big return to the Dallas 47 helped set up the offense's first touchdown drive to tie the game.
"He just sees it really good," Fassel said. "He caught it and ran off one of our blockers. He's got a really good knack for seeing it. He's got fantastic vision and it's not something you can coach, unfortunately."
Fassel also spoke to his vision being improved in his second season now that he has more reps under his belt.
Steele's Rough Day
Following week nine's loss to the Eagles, starting right tackle Terence Steele is leading all Cowboys offensive linemen with 28 pressures allowed, including 12 allowed on Sunday. Although his play has been up-and-down following his ACL injury last season, there is still confidence in his ability to bounce back from Schottenheimer.
"Terence knows he can play better and I know he will play better," Schottenheimer said. "If you watch the game, he had some really great sets. It's not that he needs help. Total confidence in Terence. We have zero doubts in Terence, it's just keeping working on his fundamentals and his punch. He gives a lot of guys fits. He'll bounce back this week and be ready to roll on Sunday."
In looking at the rest of the starting offensive linemen, Tyler Smith has allowed four pressures, Tyron Smith has allowed five, Tyler Biadasz has allowed 14 and Zack Martin has allowed 13. Rotational depth piece Chuma Edoga has allowed 11 pressures.
No More Jinx
John Fassel has been careful to talk about Brandon Aubrey's record-chase of starting a career with 19 or more consecutive field goal makes, but now with the record in the bag, Fassel was able to crack a joke on his record-setting rookie kicker.
"He really had a great day, the way he felt," he said. "The big one was the 51-yarder. We can talk about the record now that he got it."
