Cowboys’ Brian Schottenheimer delivers stern bottom line on red zone struggles

It’s a full-on battle for the Dallas Cowboys left tackle spot. And they’re waiting for rookie Caleb Downs to find his perfect role. Also, head coach Brian Schottenheimer delivered a stern warning about the red zone woes, according to a post on X by Clarence Hill Jr.

“We are too good to be kicking the field goals we were kicking. We have to score touchdowns,” Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said. The Cowboys were 16th in red zone TD percentage last year.

The Cowboys didn’t have problems putting points on the board last year, averaging 27.7 per game. But they need more consistency when they get inside the 20.

What’s going wrong when the Cowboys get close?

One concern has been pre-snap issues, according to a post on X by Abby Jones.

“I don’t know if it’s just maybe being young or performance anxiety, but like we had more self-inflicted wounds in the red zone than we did in some other areas. If you have a negative yardage run on the 1-yard line, that’s a lot different than a negative yard on the 50.”

With receivers like CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens on the field, the Cowboys shouldn’t have trouble getting into the end zone. However, tighter areas do give the defense a chance to be more aggressive.

Sometimes, it’s as simple as putting things together that have been worked on incessantly in practice, according to dallascowboys.com.

“Scoring in the red zone, or struggling to do so, is such a tricky one for me,” Tommy Yarrish wrote. “I remember when I was covering (the University of) Texas, there was a season where they couldn’t get a touchdown from inside the 20 seemingly at all. Every time Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was asked about it, he answered with it was an execution problem. I really do think that’s sometimes just what it is. And sometimes it just kind of tends to linger around teams for a while.”

The post Cowboys’ Brian Schottenheimer delivers stern bottom line on red zone struggles appeared first on ClutchPoints.