Cowboys' George Pickens brushes off Brian Schottenheimer's critique, says team needs to improve

Schottenheimer challenged Pro Bowl WR George Pickens on his effort in the run game, Pickens talked about the team. FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys (2-4) are in a rut offensively. After their last two primetime losses against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (24-16) and the Green Bay Packers (23-13) in Weeks 5 and 6, the Cowboys have now scored fewer than 20 points in consecutive Dak Prescott starts for the first time since 2019, Jason Garrett's last year as the team's head coach. One of the issues plaguing current Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer's offense is Dallas' 31st-ranked rushing offense (76.0 rushing yards per game). The Cowboys have run the football on a league-low 32.5% of their plays, and on Thursday, Schottenheimer criticized Pro Bowl wide receiver George Pickens for his effort as run blocker and how hard he runs when Dallas is trying to run the ball.

Dallas' head coach and offensive play-caller feels it is harder to succeed in selling the run to set up play-action passes, with Pickens showing what Schottenheimer perceives as effort that needs improvement on run plays. After practice on Friday, Pickens chose to deflect from directly addressing his head coach's comments and to focus on what the entire Cowboys offense needs to do to fix their lagging run game. His 1,429 receiving yards in