Ryan Clark states Brian Schottenheimer gets 'no moral victories' in start of Dallas Cowboys tenure

The Dallas Cowboys are going to have a difficult schedule in their first season under Brian Schottenheimer. A good start will mean a lot, so that they can withstand the grind that is the back half of the schedule.

Get Up reacted to Dallas’ schedule for next season this morning in light of the league schedule release last night. Dan Graziano started the segment by saying the Cowboys might not be happy by the holiday season with the teams they’ll be playing, and the travel schedule involved with that, from around Thanksgiving through Christmas.

“It’s not (an overreaction),” said Graziano. “Cowboys have a Week 10 bye, which is nice, but then, after that, they play a Monday Night game. Then they have a short week game against Philly, an even shorter week game against the Chiefs. They got a short week game on Christmas at Washington. The travel schedule and the rest schedule for the Cowboys in the second half of their season is extremely challenging, regardless of opponents. And, by the way, those are some pretty good-looking opponents.”

Comparing the front nine to the back eight for Dallas, post-bye is going to be more difficult for the Cowboys. They’ll play six of the top eight teams from last season, with three of those making the conference championships and two playing in Super Bowl LIX. They’ll face Kansas City on Thanksgiving, at Detroit, Minnesota, and Los Angeles as well as divisional games against Philadelphia, at Washington on Christmas Day, and at New York in the finale. Those two holiday games also means a pair of four-day turnarounds.

Because of that, Ryan Clark thinks those first nine games pre-bye are very important for the Cowboys. Every win they can tally early on could keep them ahead of the eight-ball.

“I mean, it means the Cowboys need to start this season playing extremely well. They need to start at a high level. They need to start by winning football games. There will be no moral victories for Schotty and this team early on in the season,” said Clark. “If they don’t start early and if they are not winning early, we know how the cycle of what the voices outside of this building will say and the pressure that could be on this team.”

“If this team is .500, like Graziano said, after the bye week, it’s going to be extremely difficult to win some of those games not having rest, playing against good football teams, and that travel schedule,” Clark said. “You have to have some momentum headed into that.”

That said, the start isn’t easy for Dallas by any means. They’ll open against the defending champions on the road in the league’s first game against Philadelphia before playing New York, at Chicago, and against Green Bay. Damien Woody predicted a .500 start, which, considering all things, isn’t so bad.

“I’m going to say 2-2. I’m going to say 2-2. Which, you know, listen. That’d be pretty good,” said Woody. “Like RC said, they’ve got to get out of the gates quick because, that back half? Phew. Boy, it could be troublesome.”

Dallas always expects the best and, even with a new coach, will do so again after missing the playoffs last season. If they want to get back in, though, a strong start looks to be even more important with what’s to come over that final stretch for the Cowboys.