“He did an outstanding job (in Indianapolis),” Eberflus said. “I know how smart he is. Going against him, he’s a heck of a guy that can design the runs, really create angles, mismatches, wide holes before contact. (Creating) yards before contact — he’s great at doing that. And he’s got all the schemes. He’s got the gap schemes and the zone schemes and really understands principles of defense to take advantage of angles.”
Eberflus added that the simplicity of what Adams does makes him so effective, which especially helps in a game like the Cowboys played last Sunday, when four offensive line starters were out and Dallas still ran for 180 yards and a touchdown on 29 carries.
“He doesn’t ask the players to do a bunch of things,” Eberflus said. “He asks them to do the same things over and over again. But the way he dresses it up, that makes it hard for the defense.”
Adams, 42, played center at Boise State until he graduated in 2004. He then worked as a college coach for the next 14 years, making stops at Western Washington, Sacramento State, San Jose State and Colorado. His focus was on the offensive line and tight ends. His first NFL opportunity came with the Colts in 2019 as an assistant offensive line coach before eventually coaching their tight ends.
Adams seems hesitant to take too much credit for Dallas’ run-game turnaround. The same could be said of the way the Cowboys were able to overcome all of their injury issues last Sunday in New Jersey.
“I feel the same way coming out of it that I did going into it,” he said. “This is the National Football League, and when you’re asked to do something, it’s an opportunity. So you need to go in and do a good job. Kudos to those guys for going in and taking advantage of their opportunity. Kudos to Schotty for calling a really good game kinda based on what he knew going into it, not that we had to change very much. Also, I think you always give a lot of credit to the quarterback because when he’s on the field, you got a shot.”