The Cowboys got humbled at Soldier Field. A 17-point loss to the Bears left Dallas reeling and Brian Schottenheimer refusing to hide behind excuses. “We just didn’t play well,” he said bluntly after the game. “This can be a humbling business. If you don’t take care of business, you’re not going to win.”
That was the thread through his postgame comments. Accountability! Schottenheimer pointed to the two killers.
Big plays allowed on defense and turnovers on offense. “It’s a bad formula,” he said. “We have to stop giving up big plays. We have to protect the football.” The breakdowns were everywhere. Trevon Diggs slipped on a flea flicker. A defender jumped a route and got beat over the top. Chicago turned those mistakes into touchdowns while Dallas kept stalling. “That can’t happen,” Schottenheimer repeated.
Even their QB Dak Prescott admitted that they failed to play at their best. His frustration was visible. This wasn’t just a loss, it was another wasted offensive performance. “Six of those were field goals,” he pointed out, shaking his head. “Not acceptable. Not to our standard. Not anywhere what we believe in and what we’re capable of doing.” That was the moment the game got away.
The Cowboys had a chance to cut it back to 10 late and threw a red-zone pick instead. Prescott didn’t dodge the blame. “That’s unacceptable,” he said flatly. And then came the inevitable question, losing CeeDee Lamb.
Dak didn’t deny how much it hurt. “Obviously, you lose a player like CeeDee, it hurts and it’s hard to substitute that,” he said. “Maybe it made their game plan a lot easier from their standpoint to double George, cloud George, what they did early. He was still able to make some plays. But it’s tough. It’s tough to win a game when you lose a player like CeeDee.”