Cowboys hope ‘battle tests’ now can pay off later

Patrik Walker

DallasCowboys.com Staff Writer

FRISCO, Texas — Battered and bruised, both physically and in the realm of pride, the Dallas Cowboys are entering their bye week at the perfect time. They’ve won three games on the road, the most recent being a gritty win to overcome all manner of adversity against the Steelers in Pittsburgh, but they’ve also lost three at home, with the blowout loss to the Detroit Lions technically serving as the fourth consecutive humbling at AT&T Stadium.

They’ve been outscored to tune of 53-119, very near a historical worst in points allowed at home through the first three games of an NFL season, and have shown both a refusal to die and an unwillingness to live in a span of only seven days.

All of this plays into who the Cowboys are currently, but with 11 regular season games remaining to right the ship, it’s at least possible that the early-season adversity might pay itself forward as the season rolls along — as stated by offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer.

“We’re getting battle tested, and that’s the thing,” he said of the six-game body of work. “One of the things that’s happening right now is we’re being battle tested. We are. We’re finding out a lot about ourselves and our grit.

“It’s not just the young players that we’re talking about — it’s all the players. We’d like to get that stuff now, so that when the games get bigger and bigger, and on a bigger stage, you feel equipped to handle it.”

Being ravaged by injury as of late is one reason for the struggles, but not the excuse, considering there were issues (e.g., red zone offense, run defense) that present themselves before the injury bug sunk its fangs into the roster over the past couple of weeks.

It has, however, created opportunities for role players to get a lot of reps they may otherwise not have received, helping to forge them for the winter to come.

There’s good to be gleaned from the first six games, but there’s far more bad and, sitting at .500, you are indeed what your record says you are. The next couple of weeks will give the Cowboys an opportunity to gut check themselves to prevent other teams from having to do it for them as the calendar turns its pages.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a bad time for a bye week,” said head coach Mike McCarthy. “I just think the fact that this game is challenging. It’s a 17-game season, so I get it. When a schedule comes out, you look at how it lines up. But, just based on where we are, as far as injuries and things like that, I think it’s, it’s a good time for a bye.”

And, on the other side of that bye, they will say hello to another big test — a familiar one, no less — when they travel to meet the 49ers in Santa Clara.

“We have studies that we do, a big project that we’ll do with our players when they get back,” McCarthy added. “So that’s all about continuing education and really just staying on top of it. I think we need to do better. We got work to do, obviously.”

Three tests passed, but none were aced. Three tests failed, and not many showed up, mentally, to take the last one.

And now it’s time for midterms.