Head coach Brian Schottenheimer of the Dallas Cowboys
Getty
The Dallas Cowboys are 2-4 entering the Monday night battle against the Eagles on the road in Week 7, and while it is impossible to put up too many hypotheticals around a team that managed a loss in Week 5 to a winless Tampa Bay team, coach Brian Schottenheimer is already facing what many consider a must-win–not just for the Cowboys’ teetering playoff hopes, but for his very career as an NFL head coach.
Indeed, much has gone wrong for the Cowboys to date, but in the first four weeks, the team’s vaunted offense was enough to rescue the floundering defense in two of four games (and nearly in a third). In the last two weeks, it’s been the offense that has been thrown out of gear thanks to an inability to rub the ball or to handle blitz packages. For an offensive mind like Schottenheimer, there’s no excuse for that.
If the Cowboys can’t bounce back against a battered Eagles team, this season will be put on life support. So will Schottenheimer’s career.
Cowboys in a Must-Win Situation Already
That’s the view from former Cowboys defensive end Marcus Spears, who played eight seasons for Dallas and is now an NFL analyst. Spears, appearing on “The Rich Eisen Show,” said Schottenheimer could be fired if this game does not go the Cowboys’ way.
“I think tonight will either get Brian Schottenheimer fired after this season or he will continue to try to impress the res to the way,” Spears said. “We just went on a list of things that’s gone wrong in Philadelphia. We watched Dallas be incompetent in Tampa Bay, we watched them go to Green Bay and get snuffed out—especially the offense hasn’t looked good.
“And that’s Brian Schottenheimer’s area of expertise. You look at a team that should have been right in a division … preseason-wise we looked at this as, this was supposed to one of those teams vying for a playoff run and doing it.”
NFL on ESPN·
Brian Schottenheimer Just 9-13-1 So Far
It was Cowboys owner Jerry Jones who hired Schottenheimer to replace Mike McCarthy 22 months ago, after conducting a limited search and focusing in on Schottenheimer, who had never been a head coach before and who had not garnered interest from other teams in such a role. If this falls apart, that’s where the blame will land.
“We knew they had some things on defense, and they had to get better,” Spears said. “But nobody had in the cards this offense looking as bad as it has over the last two weeks. I think Brian Schottenheimer, this is a line of demarcation for him.
“Jerry has no one to blame but himself. Because you took a chance on a coach that hasn’t been a head coach in this league before. And all you have is what you have. Seven wins last year.”
And two wins, so far this year. That’s got to change.
Enter Heavy's 2026 Pro Football Pick'em contest
Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including "Fun City," "Before Wrigley became Wrigley," and "Facing Michael Jordan." More about Sean Deveney