Cowboys look to replicate home success on the road vs. Panthers, cut down on penalties away from AT&T Stadium

Cowboys look to replicate home success on the road vs. Panthers, cut down on penalties away from AT&T Stadium

FRISCO, Texas — “There’s no place like home,” is a quote said by Dorothy as she returns to Kansas in the 1939 classic movie, “The Wizard of Oz.” The phrase also directly applies to the Dallas Cowboys’ 2023 season. They routed the New York Giants, 49-17, in Week 10 to extend the NFL’s longest active home winning streak to 12, and Dallas has won its four home games this season by a combined score of 160-50.

Like Dorothy in the movie, the Cowboys need to make a quick stop on the road in Week 11 against the Carolina Panthers, a path that hasn’t been so golden or even yellow to begin the season, before returning home. Dallas is 2-3 on the road in 2023, and it has allowed its opponents to score first in four of its five road contests. 

Cowboys by location this season

HOME ROAD

*Top five in NFL
** Worst in NFL

Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy didn’t have to travel far distances too often as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers from 2006-18, as all of the Packers’ division rivals were in states bordering Wisconsin. That is not the case with Dallas, as all three of its NFC East division rivals — the Giants, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Commanders — are on the East Coast, just like the Panthers, its Week 11 opponent.

McCarthy and his players dove into detail about a few schedule and logistical changes they made to help jumpstart their current home winning streak, like wrapping up all meetings by Saturday at lunch and allowing players to sleep in their own beds. McCarthy refused to divulge his adjustment process for road games this time around, declaring it “top secret.”

“We’re a football team that travels a lot, so our time traveling is high,” McCarthy said Wednesday. “It definitely took me to my second year to get a hold of that. Obviously we go west and east, so it’s clearly different. I think we’ve changed some little things here that are definitely helpful for everybody. I’m really look at the stretch coming up from a scheduling administrative standpoint. …

Last year down the stretch, I felt like we could’ve done some things better. Hopefully, it give our guys a little better time to prepare. I didn’t like how we played at Tennessee (a 27-13 Week 17 win in which they committed three turnovers) or at Washington (a 26-6 loss in Week 18) last year.

I looked real hard at that four-week segment there, and I’ve already started making adjustments that are in place in the last three weeks. We can’t talk about it because it’s top secret. … We’re trying to pay it forward.”

One area of emphasis McCarthy was willing to divulge is the need to curtail their road penalty woes. Dallas averages nine penalties a game away from AT&T Stadium, the most in the NFL by a team when it goes on the road this season. His suggested solution for the issues is to start warming up earlier, so the team can start warmer and faster and not fall behind early like it has in all of its away games except its season-opening, 40-0 win at the Giants in Week 1 on “Sunday Night Football.” 

“Statistically, the first one is the penalties,” McCarthy said Thursday. “Penalties on the road compared to home are way too high. Road environments, it’s a different challenge, especially at the beginning of the game when the crowd is the loudest.

We’re obviously expecting a lot of Cowboys fans there on Sunday. I think the other thing I’ve tried to really emphasize is taking care of the football. It’s a different setting, different environment. Just maybe get out there a little earlier pregame to make sure you’re set to go.”

While some may be quick to blame McCarthy and his staff for the team’s discipline issues on the road, Dallas players said it’s not on the staff. 

“Mistakes aren’t coaching, penalties aren’t coaching,” safety Jayron Kearse said Wednesday. “They’re not playing the game. It just comes down to us doing our job, us understanding in those tough and gritty moments, that’s where you have to be at your most complete when it comes to your mindset and your discipline.

You just try to capture the same feeling that you have whenever you’re at AT&T (Stadium), on the road,” Kearse said. “Whatever it is that you do for a home game, you want to do those same things for an away game.

You just want to try to capture the same feeling, so that when you go out there, we can go out there and dominate the same way we do in AT&T.”

One potential answer to the penalty issues is to use a regular snap count like they’re at home because there are many road games where the number of Cowboys fans are close to the same as the host team’s supporters. Other than that, they just need to play better, simple as that. 

“Obviously, we’ve been really, really good at home and you want to take anything out of that that we can,” Dak Prescott said Thursday when asked how to fix the road woes. “But at the end of the day, it goes to our preparation, the way we’re preparing for the week. Guys have done a great job thus far. Got a great schedule by Mike.

Guys coming in engaged, excited, loving their job. You can tell it’s all over guys’ faces. It’s in the way that they practice and just continuing trying to build. Honestly, I’m the same process all the way through home or away. I guess the only difference in my process is really where I’m laying my head to be honest with you.”