Cowboys Postgame Quotes (Week Two)

Head Coach Mike McCarthy

On the efficiency of the offense and the playmaking on defense…
“I think at the start of the week, you’re playing an uncommon opponent. It’s a group that we’ve had the chance to watch through the whole offseason. Just had a tremendous amount of respect for their defense, obviously they went through a quarterback change. We felt going into [the game] we were needing to control the ball with efficiency and the guys did a great job executing the plan. I think we were plus-20, 20 minutes time of possession at halftime. The score was 18-10 and I think our defense just opened it up clearly with the four takeaways. Plus-four, took care of the ball. We had a lot going on with our offensive line. That’s complimentary football, that was the outlook going in and our players did an excellent job.”

On taking the ball at the start of the game and not deferring…
“It’s just like anything. A coin toss is a decision that is part of the game management and how you feel the offense lines up against their defense and vice versa. We just really wanted to get going with that. That first drive, we put a lot of work into the start of the game. We just wanted to try and get out of front.”

On allowing 10 points and having 10 sacks so far this season as a defense…
“We’re off to an outstanding start. The pressure and the takeaways are at an incredible level after two games. This group has taken it up a notch clearly from last year. I think from top to bottom, not only our veteran players but our younger players are really contributing. It’s awesome to see them flying around and staying the course. The second half was super impressive.”

On the carries for Tony Pollard…
“Tony was going to touch the ball, that was the plan coming in. Definitely wanted to get Rico (Dowdle) some. Tried to spread it around, we had the package in there with Deuce (Vaughn), we got him some touches. This was going to be a heavy lifting day for Tony and he carried it.”

On Ceedee Lamb and if he was moved around to avoid matchups against Sauce Gardner…
“Well, I mean we really look at it from our side of it. If you go back to training camp and even last year, we were moving Ceedee around. You know with Brandin’s (Cooks) injury and not playing today, we were expecting some more double, cover on Ceedee, cause he’s been seeing that of late. Moving him around is frankly just part of our offense.”

On two games with no interceptions for Dak Prescott so far…
“We’ve had time to look at the past, learn from it. This is a new year, every week is a new challenge. This was a huge challenge for us, we had a lot of moving parts on our offensive line. Just really proud of the young players. To go in there and keep it going in a four-minute mode type of offense. He’s took some hits out there, which we knew was going to be a part of this game. I thought he played with really good patience, and that’s what you got to do against a defense of that caliber.”

On the amount of field goals in the redzone…
“I was really proud of the offensive line just with all the changes and so forth. I could’ve been better, first and goal on the six-yard line. The first call, they actually lined up, with Hunter (Luepke) being new and so forth. There was definitely an alignment that we weren’t expecting. But yeah, we definitely want to punch those in.”

On any updates on Zack Martin and Chuma Edoga…
“I haven’t been to the training room yet. Feel good about Zack, but I really don’t have more information.”

On Brandon Aubrey…
“Yeah definitely, you need to give him these kicks too, that’s a part of it. We all know where we want to go and we don’t want to be lining up for those kicks, when its on the line and we haven’t given him those opportunities. I’ve always been pretty aggressive, go back to my history of having a young first year starter at kicker. It’s important to give him his chances.”

On Sharrif Floyd…
“Sharrif was sent to the hospital. That’s really all the information that I have. We were being very cautious with what happened. I feel pretty good about the information we’ve been getting. That’s all I can tell you right now.”

On Micah Parsons…
“He was a wrecking crew today. I was on the other side of it all through camp. I think Dan’s (Quinn) doing an excellent job moving him around. He had some opportunities here over center today. He’s an elite player, just feed off his energy and his production.”

QB Dak Prescott

On his efficiency so far in the season…
“Yeah, I mean, pretty efficient. Coach (McCarthy) set out a goal of 20 completions and obviously we hit that. The run game did a great job. We’ve got to score more. We’ve got to get more touchdowns rather than field goals. But, at the end of the day, this league is about getting the job done, winning the game, and being complementary of your defense. I think we did that. As you said, [we were] very efficient in ways but we left a lot out there. That’s the standard of this offense and the standard of this team. We expect to score touchdowns on every drive so when you don’t do that you still haven’t hit your goal. Yeah, [there’s] a lot we can do better but overall, a very efficient team win that I’m proud of. It’s hard to win in this league.”

On Coach Mike McCarthy’s decision to not defer the opening kickoff and get the offense on the field to start the game today:                                                                                                                                             “We got a good game plan. You feel good about the first 15 or so, the work that we put into it. You want to get the ball in your hands with the explosive guys that we’ve got on offense and the confidence that we have. All the work that we’ve put into this, I think that’s a result of going out there knowing that we’ll go get seven points and we’d be successful in our first drive and allow the defense to play with a lead. Back-to-back weeks now, you see when we get a couple score lead, how tough it is on the other team by making them one dimensional and then our guys can go hunt as the pass rushers. It just sets up the way that exactly how we want to play. So, it’s just fitting.”

On how he defines complementary football…
“Winning. It’s simple. Winning.”

On how he has gone through two games with no interceptions to start the year and if he did anything in particular in the offseason to get to that point…
“What about the year before that? Or, what about the year before that? Well, you know last year is last year. It’s something I’ve left. [With] the interceptions, I guess when you lead the league, it’ll never go away. But, as I stated last year, every one of them has their story but that’s not where my mind is. That’s not something that I think about. I’m just being candid; I don’t really care about the questions about them at this point. I know how efficient this offense is. I know the work that I have put into this game, the work that we put in as a unit, and that’s not even a thought process. I’m going out there just trying to complete the ball and get the ball to these guys, the playmakers that we have, and get it to them in space to let them do their thing. I’m still going to take some shots. I’m still going to not shy away from the confidence that I have and the work that we’ve put in on some one-on-one’s and get these guys opportunities. But I don’t even think about that at this point.”

On how/when he views Micah Parsons from his point of view on the sideline..
“Yeah, I look up from time to time. I’m not surprised. That’s credit to the way that they’ve got that guy and the rest of the defense prepares, practice, approach to the game, and who they are nonstop, honestly on and off the field just around the facility. Those guys have confidence that exudes and is contagious. It comes from the work that they’ve put in. I don’t even have to be watching to know what exactly what he’s doing, the pressure that he’s causing, whether he’s getting a sack, or somebody else is getting a sack, or if the backend guys are getting turnovers. I went against these guys for all of spring and into training camp and it was not easy. So, it’s just awesome to see the fruits of the labor coming in and against another team for those guys.”

On if the two Tight End touchdowns today were a part of the game plan or more of taking what is given to you…
“I think it was just taking what they were giving us. You go back and look at last week, we didn’t shy away from throwing it to them even with the ball being wet and it being a tough day to handle the ball. They were still getting the opportunities. I don’t know if they had more or less tonight, but that’s just kind of the way the gameplan goes. [We] spread it out. I’m looking for the matchups. I’m taking what the defense gives me. They just made those plays tonight that they didn’t last week. [It’s a] young group, but a group that is very, very confident in themselves. I’m very confident in them. They’re only going to do that. There really should have been a third [touchdown]. I missed Ferg (Jake Ferguson) on another one down in the red zone coming out of the second half. That’s their standard and they’ll continue to play like they did this week for the rest of the season, rather than last season.”

On how he feels that the change to the West Coast offense under the new play calling duties of Head Coach Mike McCarthy has gone in the first two games of the season…
“Great. Honestly, great. I haven’t looked at the film, but I think if you go back and watch the film, you’ll see that my footwork is tied in to exactly what the receivers [is]. Whether it’s going to number one, whether it’s a hip getting to number two, or whether, hell, I scrambled on the third down because my feet told me to do so. That’s a credit to him (Coach McCarthy). I mean, taking the plays that we’ve been great at over the years and mixing it with the principles of the West Coast [offense] to get the Texas Coast [offense]. It’s been awesome. It really has. It’s been awesome. It’s easier for me to train in that sense and listen to my feet. Practice, practice, practice pays off when you get into the game because it’s almost a rhythm it’s almost a dance. So, it’s been great.”

On his perspective to share with younger teammates about continuing the team’s current rhythm…
“We can go to Arizona and get win No. 3. That’s what we’re focusing on. We know what we can get to and we know who we are. It’s about attacking each and every day our preparation. We’re not going to get any further than Arizona. I think that’s how we continue this rhythm.”

On his thoughts about Tony Pollard this season…
“That guy is a true professional and has just been waiting for this opportunity to do exactly what he’s doing. He’s an every down back, very productive back. He has the speed and can be powerful whenever he needs to. He’s a pass protector. You name it, Tony can do it. It awesome just to be able to see him get this role and be able to step up and take advantage of it. I want to give him all the credit in the world, but it’s no surprise. I’ve known the guy since he was a rookie. The way that he came in and approached the game, approaches the study, and the way that he takes care of his body, it’s obvious why he’s doing what he’s doing. I can guarantee he’s going to continue doing that. Just him being the man that he is.”

On how he personally defines the team motto…
“For me, it’s staying in the moment. Anyone who know me knows that I am going to give you everything I have in that moment. I don’t want to say that’s its easy for me to do, but that’s the way I’ve trained myself and that way that I was brought up. Not getting too far ahead or looking back in the past. Just being exactly where my feet are. When its gametime, I’m going to give these guys everything that I have being the leader that I am. In practice, I hold them to the same standard that we all have as a team and continue to compete. Iron sharpens iron every day that we touch that practice field. I make sure that the young guys understand that when your number is called, you’ve got the be ready. For me personally, it’s about living in the moment and capturing everything at that time.”

On translating today’s game when playing a similar team like San Francisco…
“It’s similar for sure. I understand that’s where their [the Jets] head coach came from. You can put defenses and schemes into categories and into a family tree. There’s a lot of similarities. A defense that’s very good and believes in their personnel over scheme defense. The difference in San Fran is that they believe in their players. They believe they can get home with four. They believe in the backend guys being able to cover. There will be a lot of things that we can look back at this game and hopefully use for the gameplan. It just gives us confidence moving forward in general. Versus those guys or versus anyone, it’s a hell of a defense that we just played.”

On his evaluation of the team currently compared to a full and healthy roster…
“It’s the NFL. You have to stay in the moment, stay right where we are. It’s a tough game and that shows when you mention that guys that aren’t playing. It’s tough to stay healthy and we understand that right now. But right now, it about just making sure that everyone understands their role. Not one role is bigger than another. Just continue to grow. At the end of the day, we’ve had two great wins. When you play for this team and for the NFL, you’re only as good as your last game in that sense, so we have to make sure that we move forward. That we go out there to Arizona and get another great win similar to these last two. We’ve outscored opponents 70-10, but there has been a lot of possessions where we settled for field goals that we wanted to get touchdowns. There’s a lot of errors that we can improve.”

On how he can utilize CeeDee Lamb’s versatility to get favorable matchups against opponents…
“It goes back into preparation and the game plan. Credit to the coaches and the plans they put together understanding that we’re going to be able to attack them and get our players in favorable positions. I don’t know if there’s going to be a game where I don’t think CeeDee isn’t the favorable matchup. Credit to the Jets and No. 1. I honestly was trying to throw the ball on a play that was almost picked off but it went the other way. Credit to him, but I think CeeDee is the one of the best in the game and he’s only going to continue to get better and show that week in and week out.”

WR CeeDee Lamb

On if he was surprised that the Jets didn’t have anybody travel with him…
“I don’t know, I mean if they did have somebody travelling with me, I’d be tired. I do a lot of motion. Whatever their D coordinator decides, we’ll be happy.”

On how big the win was with two wins now and scoring over 30 points…
“It was always big. Week in and week out we’re trying to collect. 1-0. Having that mindset for the season, playing together and dominate.”

On if they were able to show some of the things they couldn’t do in the rain in Week 1…
“No. We just let loose. Every week it’s something different.”

On what was the moment like when he took the big hit today…
“Man I’ve taken a lot of hits in my career and throughout playing football so I’m kind of prepared for that. That’s what comes with playing in the slot. If you’re not tough, it’s going to be hard for you to play good.”

On if he feels like Coach McCarthy is scheming the offense for him like he did with Jordy Nelson earlier in his coaching career…
“Absolutely. He’s done a great job of moving me around, putting me in different spots, motioning me, kind of keeping the defense guessing. You can’t really guess where I’m going to be. I can run all day and all around the field so kind of just giving that accessibility to Mike (McCarthy).”

On what the message the Cowboys are sending to other teams…
“We’re here to dominate. We’re not necessarily here to play around. We understand what’s at stake, week in and week out. We’re constantly preparing ourselves to be the best team that we can on offense, defense, and special teams. Every week we come out here, we want to be better than last week.”

On how it felt to unlock the passing game more…
“It always feels amazing, I’m a receiver. Last week we had a rainy game. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to throw it as much, but it felt good to get in a rhythm and kind of toss the ball around a little bit.”

On Jalen Tolbert’s performance…
“JT is growing every week. I told him, man I’m with you. If you mess up, mess up going 100%. Just him having that clear mind and being able to play fast, JT can be special.”

On not turning the ball over yet this season…
“Why did you jinx that? We’re playing Cowboy football. Trying to get the ball out quick. The shots will be there when we get them. Not necessarily chasing the big plays but they’re going to be there. We’ve got a whole game, maybe three hours of football so be patient.”

TE Jake Ferguson

On biggest schematic difference from this year to last year in the Cowboys’ offense…
“It’s pretty similar. I think we’ve got a new mindset coming in. Like I said a new connection and a new approach to the offense. There are some similarities but at the same time it’s just how you approach it and how do you want to run it. Knowing certain timing, knowing when to be open, how to be open. Knowing what block, what hole that the running back is looking at even if it’s called a certain way, he might cut it back to a certain hole.”

On how satisfying that both touchdowns were to the tight ends today…
“It’s always great having another opportunity. I think Coach Wells did a great job prepping us this week and also getting in our heads and saying flush that week. I believe in you guys, I’ve got your guys’ back. And that’s what he did. This whole week he backed us up and said these guys are going to be good. We’re going to go home, we’re going to have a good game, we’re going to catch the ball and I think that’s what we did today. That’s a lot of credit to him to believing is us as a unit and me personally dropping those two balls last week. I’m not going to lie, I did get in my head for probably the night after that game. For him calling me and talking to me, getting me out of that hole and getting me ready for the week to come was really good to hear.”

On the offense putting up 30 points and dominating despite not getting into the end zone more…
“Yeah definitely some things we want to clean up this week. Clean them up tomorrow then we move on to Arizona. There’s always stuff you see and want to get better at and I think that’s what we’re going to do tomorrow.”

On the identity of the offense…
“I think it’s definitely something to build on. A great start to the season. A great Week 2 but there’s always room for improvement.”

OL Zack Martin

On playing to the identity that Coach McCarthy wants…
“Yeah I think we’re off to a good start. There’s plenty of stuff obviously to clean up when we look at this tape. There definitely will be. Like you said we have to finish in the red zone better but efficiency on first and second down is something we’ve talked a lot about. Being in those manageable third downs to convert, I thought we did that tonight. When you get a lead and let that defense start rushing, they’re tough to stop.”

On Tony Pollard running the full load…
“It was great. Him and Rico came in and ran it extremely hard. I think our run game this year, we’re throwing different things at them. We’re not running the same plays over and over and I think Coach McCarthy has done a great job mixing up the runs in terms of different schemes that we haven’t run as much in the past and they’re good for us. It’s fun kind of mixing it up in the run game.”

On coming out of the game…
“Yeah I mean if it was a tight game, I would’ve stayed in.”

On what rate for the offense for sustainability of drives…
“Yeah I mean I think we were efficient today. Obviously, I’ve said this a few times, but we’ve got to finish better in the red zone a few times. Be efficient on first and second down and that helped us convert on third downs to convert.”

On how difficult it is going against Micah Parsons…
“It’s a tall task for anyone. No matter who it is. When you’re one on one with that guy it’s pretty hard to stop. He’s got pretty much every rush in the book that you have to be ready for. All those guys on defense, we see it every day in practice but if you let those guys go and rush, it’s pretty tough to stop.”

CB Stephon Gilmore

On the overall effort from the defense…
“It was good. A lot of players made plays. We knew they were going to come out and try to establish the run. We shut the run down and made them throw the ball. We were able to get sacks and make plays on the ball.”

On the lopsided time of possession and the defense not being on the field so much…
“It’s a team game. We have to lean on each other no matter what game it is. Every game is going to be different. But the end goal is to come out with a win.”

On Micah Parson’s play in two games…
“I mean he’s special. Like I’ve told you all before, I’ve never seen nothing like it. We’ve got a lot of depth up there. Those guys get after the quarterback pretty good.”

DE/LB Micah Parsons

On finishing games…
“Yeah, it just means that you’re improving. Everything, those little things you talk about; finishing games. Closing them out. Smothering people. Not giving them that hope and dream that they can come back in this game. That’s the type of things you want to see. Not the constant repetition. That means your not learning. I’m very happy with where we’re at right now.”

On holding penalties against you…
“It’s worse because that means you’re not getting to where you really want to be. You know, that’s part of the game. I’ve
just got to find ways to get off of them and still finish the plays.”

On running with the ball on the fumble recovery…
“I definitely think I’ve still got my running back skills. It’s a little rusty. I want to be more fluent in my cuts backs and my
jukes, but we’ll take it how we get it.”

CB Trevon Diggs

Your takeaway on the game today…
“I feel like defense got better; offense got better. It’s all about getting better. Going back to the film and seeing what we
can do better, seeing what we need to work on. Hopefully we get in on Monday and look over the tape and see how we
can improve.”

On how much fun this is with the success you’re having…
“It’s really fun. We’ve just got to keep executing, keep putting our foot on the gas and just stay right here. Don’t get too
high, don’t get too low and just stay focused on one game at a time.”

On the Garrett Wilson touchdown and bouncing back…
“Yeah, very good player. I’ve got tremendous respect for him. Bouncing back from that, just knowing what we’re capable
of, what we can do. If we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot nobody can beat us.”

DE Demarcus Lawrence

On the difference of the two half’s…
“We just knew coming out of halftime that we didn’t get any turnovers and that’s not who we are. So we definitely made it
our mission to go out there and get more.”

On what’s the ceiling for this defense…
“Yeah, we just feel like we’ve been here before. It’s not something to get excited about. We know who we are, we just feel
like the world is just starting to figure out who we are. Just keep watching.”

On if giving up a touchdown upset the defense…
“Hell yeah, hell yeah. On some cheap sh*t like that too. You know it’s all good, we take it with a grain of salt. We’ve got to
learn from it and get better. If you don’t have these types of incidents or plays at the beginning of the season, they can
come back and bite you in the butt at the end of the road. Just glad we got a little bit in and we can see what we can get
better from.”

On the pregame talk of how good the Jets defense is and the comparisons…
“You just witnessed the best defense in the world. We don’t care about nobody else. They got to come back to our
energy, and nobody can do that. Appreciate y’all.”