Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer is not worried about wide receiver George Pickens’s drops.
Pickens had two uncharacteristic drops in the Cowboys’ 28–20 Week 1 loss to the New York Giants.
Schottenheimer said at his press conference Wednesday that he did not speak to Pickens after the game because he has complete faith that he will correct the issue over the rest of the season.
“I [wouldn’t] say anything to George,” Schottenheimer said. “George will be just fine. He’s going to usually catch that ball going down the sideline, and probably pull through it, then jump over people and spin and then jump into the end zone. So I don’t worry about George.”
Pickens also told reporters that the drops were not a major issue and just a one-off incident.
Pickens had two costly drops in the first half. With just over 2 minutes to play in the first quarter, on 3rd and 4 from the Dallas 43, quarterback Dak Prescott fired a pass to Pickens over the middle, which would have been a first down. Pickens went to the ground, but the ball went through his hands; he grabbed his helmet in disbelief afterward.
In the second quarter just before halftime, Prescott floated a ball to him down the sideline. Pickens had a step on Giants cornerback Greg Newsome II and the pass landed in his breadbasket, but the ball again went through his hands and dropped to the turf.
Pickens said there was nothing different or better he needed to do next week.
“I would definitely say just the same thing,” he said. “It’s football, so you’re going to have some here, you’re going to have some there. But you definitely want to limit those, just to make the big plays ‘cause that’s what I know what I’m capable of. But football’s football.”
Schottenheimer said that the team as a whole made a series of mistakes, all of which are fixable.
“Communication is fixable,” he said. “Pad level is fixable. Contain is fixable. Better play calls [are] fixable, talking about me. Not turning the ball over, that’s fixable. They’re all fixable. Again, it’s one game we played poorly, but [I’m] really excited to get back out there and play another championship opportunity.”
Pickens said that other than the drops, he thought he played well and showcased his ability on the field.
“Definitely the releases, I’d probably say the releases,” Pickens said when asked what stood out most about his game on the film. “Really everything. I felt like I was open on most of the stuff. Honestly, just making the play, you’ve got to finish it. You can run a beautiful route, [but] you’ve still got to finish the catch.”
Of course, Pickens never got the chance to redeem himself in the second half, as he pointed out: the Cowboys only had two possessions in the half. Schottenheimer said he probably would have gotten another opportunity if the offense had more time with the ball.
“You never know how the game’s going to unfold,” Schottenheimer said. “I didn’t anticipate us going three-and-out the first drive. But anytime I can get a ball to George and [fellow wideout] CeeDee [Lamb], I’d like to do that. It’d be good. It’s a big [play] sheet with a lot of their numbers on there. So it’d be great if we could maybe push the game to five quarters and we could have a few more opps to get them the ball. But at the end of the day, you never know. You’ve just got to adjust. And so, that’s what we did. We adjusted in the second half. And like I said, I really, really, really would have loved to have seen if we would have got the ball back, what would have transpired.”
