The Dallas Cowboys beat the Indianapolis Colts 27-23, but a Cowboys legend still wasn’t happy. At 4-5, the team let games get closer than they should have, courtesy of the same mistakes under Brian Schottenheimer handling of the team. He believes that habit is hurting the team’s confidence.

“Jimmy Johnson always said there are only a couple of things that can kill you in a game, and it starts off being disciplined,” former WR James Washington said on the Cowboys Country Football. “When you’re not a disciplined team, penalties occur. The offense was cracking, and every time they got a big run, every time they got loose—holding, 15 yards back; pushing off—how you get three pass interferences on offense? Never see that consistently.

“It was more penalties than I’ve ever seen. And this is over years, though. The reason why the Cowboys have had a tough time—it’s not that they’re not getting yards. It’s the penalties that are killing them. Costly, killing drives, killing momentum, and killing the spirit on the sideline.”

The Cowboys were flagged 14 times for 153 yards, their worst penalty game of the season. Along with the three pass interference calls, there were also four accepted holding penalties. Through nine games, the Cowboys have 42 accepted penalties against them, tied for second-most in the league.

“We pointed it out,” Schottenheimer said. “Sloppy. Not good enough. I think there were two pre-snap, which is a positive. We’ve been averaging about seven penalties a game, so we were twice the average. Not good enough at all. We showed all the different penalties from the PIs to the holdings.”

There was a silly penalty that could have easily been avoided. After the Dallas Cowboys forced a fumble in the fourth quarter, linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, who was inactive for the matchup, joined in to celebrate the play on the field. Dallas was fined a prompt 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct. Schottenheimer noted it was “totally unacceptable,” and he had spoken with the veteran linebacker about it.

Overshown has been in Dallas for three seasons now.

The concern isn’t limited to the coaching staff either. Quarterback Dak Prescott called the penalties “purely unacceptable,” a sign that the locker room sees the problem too.

Team owner Jerry Jones, for his part, tried to put the game in context.

“The mistakes, the penalties that we made the other day, those are atypical, in that we’re averaging about seven penalties a game up until then, and of course we had some snaps,” Jones explained. “That’s what we erased off the board when we got those penalties and brought them back.”

He also pointed out that the offense deserves some credit.

“Now the offensive stats include the makeup that we made of those yards that were erased by those penalties,” Jones added. “It’s not even counting the penalty yardage of 150 yards. So we did some good things offensively, but we’ve got to put it all together against this San Francisco team.”

Unfortunately for Jones and the Cowboys, fans don’t see it as a consolation. The offense has also been called out, and so has Schottenheimer’s playcalling. This is not the “Greatest Offense There Is” that quarterback Dak Prescott had praised. The passing offense is doing okay at 256.9 yards per game, sixth-best in the league. But the rushing yards average is only 103.6 yards per game, less than even the New York Jets.

Schottenheimer is on the hot seat, despite Jones claiming he’s not too keen on making a change. Jim Rome thought if Schottenheimer doesn’t improve, he might get a tough call.

“If he’s an elite play caller, as he insists that he is, something we still have not seen from him, then he’s going to want to start showing that ASAP, like stat,” he said on his show. “Because the way we’re headed, even though Jerruh (Jerry Jones) probably won’t do it in-season, because Jerruh has always said that one time I did it in season was a big mistake and I regret it. If Schotty doesn’t get right soon, Schotty is going to get sawed off, long before we see any of this alleged elite play calling.”

With the 49ers coming in Week 10, Dallas has little time to fix it. Everyone involved is talking about cleaning it up, but whether that translates into fewer flags will decide how the Cowboys’ next few games go.

The post “Killing the Spirit”: Cowboys Legend Rips Brian Schottenheimer’s Team for Repeated Mistakes After Nearly Losing to Colts appeared first on EssentiallySports. Add EssentiallySports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.