Tag: 2024 season week 12

Cowboys’ KaVontae Turpin named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week

From @ToddBrock24f7: Turpin’s 360-degree spin move versus the Commanders set up an electrifying kick-return score and cemented his first win of the weekly award.

KaVaontae Turpin just picked up a shiny new piece of hardware. Maybe it will go on the shelf right next to the commercial-grade blender he put the entire Commanders kickoff-coverage team into in order to earn the award.

The Cowboys return specialist was named the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for Week 12, an accolade given almost solely for the electrifying 99-yard kickoff return for touchdown he executed in the closing minutes of Dallas’s 34-26 win over Washington last Sunday.

It’s the first time he’s won the weekly award.

The play certainly didn’t start out looking like an award-winning effort from the speedster, who muffed the kick at first and had to retrieve the loose ball from the 1-yard line, turning his back to all 11 Commanders players to do so.

When Turpin turned around, he was moving at what looked to be half-speed as he reached a wall of would-be tacklers. And then he hit the purée button, pulling off a bewildering 360-degree spin move that caused a moment’s hesitation for every player wearing red.

Turpin came out of the spin in turbo mode and raced nearly untouched all the way to the end zone. The return, his first kick-return score in a regular-season NFL game, didn’t quite cement the Cowboys win, but it did lock up Turpin’s first Special Teams Player of the Week nod.

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The 28-year-old and former USFL MVP returned a punt for a touchdown in the season opener versus Cleveland. He also scored on a 64-yard reception in Week 11’s loss to Houston in which he hit 22.36 miles per hour, the fastest recorded time for a player thus far in the 2024 season.

Turpin has said he’s worried he may not get another chance at returning a kick now that opponents have seen the spin move he’d been saving for a desperate moment.

At least he made it count by turning it into an award-winner.

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‘The seas parted’: Cowboys’ unlikely hero could build off key TD catch

From @ToddBrock24f7: Second-year TE Luke Schoonmaker has soared since Jake Ferguson’s concussion last week. His timely grab Sunday could lead to bigger things.

Facing 3rd-and-5 from just outside the red zone, nursing a slim 13-9 lead with five minutes and change to play, the Cowboys offense was hoping for a dagger. A field goal- no sure thing this past Sunday- would extend their margin, but it would keep Washington within a single score.

The Commanders, understandably, focused on CeeDee Lamb, far and away the primary target within the Dallas passing attack all afternoon and season. Instead, Cooper Rush went a different direction, arcing a pass down the middle of the field to a wide-open Luke Schoonmaker. He had to extend his six-foot-five-inch frame and even leave his feet just to collect the throw, but the moment proved to be massive.

Not just in the Week 12 win, but maybe within the tight end’s football life.

“Well, the seas parted, right? I just needed to catch the ball,” he explained to reporters after the Cowboys’ thrilling 34-26 win. “Gosh, I didn’t even know what to do after that moment, but it was the best feeling.”

Schoonmaker’s score- his third catch of the afternoon and the third touchdown of his career- actually marked the first touchdown reception for a Dallas tight end all season.

“Someone needed to get a touchdown this year, so it was great to have that for the room.”

The Michigan man implied he was doing it for his position mates: third-stringer Brevyn Spann-Ford, practice squadder Princeton Fant, and John Stephens Jr., who’s been on injured reserve since last month, as well as Jake Ferguson, the concussed starter he was subbing for on nearly two-thirds of the offense’s Week 12 snaps.

“That’s what’s great about the room, is the competition and the chemistry,” Schoonmaker continued. “Every day, we’re going out there. Lunda [Wells, Cowboys tight end coach] is working us hard as ever. Just credit to him for each and every one of us, just taking the practice field to the game field, and that’s certainly helped everybody rise to the occasion and not have any dropoff at all.”

But coming through in that fourth-quarter gotta-have-it moment could well prove to be a turning point in Schoonmaker’s young career trajectory.

Since Ferguson went down in the first quarter of last week’s game with a concussion, Schoonmaker has been tasked with stepping up. And he’s made the most of his newfound opportunities: in 87 offensive snaps over the past two games, the 26-year-old has caught nine of 14 targets for 111 yards (by far his most productive two-game stretch as a pro)… and Sunday’s all-important score.

“It’s one thing to make plays,” head coach Mike McCarthy said of Schoonmaker in his postgame press conference, “but when you start making big plays, critical plays in games, it’s a whole different level, a big chunk of confidence.”

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Of course, Sunday’s fourth-quarter score ended up not being the definitive death blow that the Cowboys were looking for; there were five more insane minutes of football- and another 31 points still to be rung up- before the final gun.

“I didn’t even want to watch at some points,” Schoonmaker said of the final flurry of back-and-forth action.

The backup tight end still wasn’t thinking of his own individual growth even after the Cowboys pulled out the improbable win; he was far more excited about the team coming together- even as a mostly-ragtag bunch of injury replacements- to snap a five-game losing streak.

“That’s really what was said last night going into today, like, ‘Let’s get a win. Let’s play all together and everybody have each other’s backs, and let’s play this whole game.’ What a way to win today. Just the contribution all around was amazing.”

Schoonmaker’s timely contribution was huge, and just maybe a foundation to build on for the 2023 second-round draft pick who’s been used sparingly over just 28 regular-season games. His career numbers- 25 receptions for 232 yards- certainly don’t look like those of the game’s top tight ends. He’s already labeled a bust by a contingent of the fanbase who expects every Day Two selection to be an instant star.

But for right now, it’s one game, one day, one rep at a time for Schoonmaker, who was thankful that his one touchdown of 2024 came when it did.

“Oh my gosh. Just to win felt amazing,” he grinned. “The fact that we won just kind of takes over everything else. That felt great. Took a little breath, and now we forge forward.”

The suddenly-buoyed Cowboys… and an emerging Schoonmaker, too.

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Cowboys open 21-day practice window for pair of starters

From @ToddBrock24f7: Brandin Cooks developed a knee infection after Week 4’s win; Marshawn Kneeland went down in Week 5. Both should resume practicing Wednesday.

Reinforcements could be coming on both the offense and defense ahead of the Cowboys’ annual Thanksgiving gauntlet, even though it may be too late to salvage the greater 2024 season by the time they actually re-enter the lineup.

Wide receiver Brandin Cooks and rookie defensive end Marshawn Kneeland had their 21-day practice windows opened by the team on Wednesday. The Cowboys have three weeks to evaluate both players in a practice setting as they return from injury; that’s the deadline for either moving them back to the active roster or placing them on season-ending injured reserve.

Head coach Mike McCarthy had identified both players as being close to a return during a Tuesday press conference.

Cooks has been sidelined since just after the Cowboys’ Week 4 win over the Giants. Following the 20-15 win in which he caught just one pass for 16 yards, the 11th-year veteran, who had been dealing with a knee issue since training camp, underwent a meniscus procedure while in New York. The Cowboys’ WR2 option- behind CeeDee Lamb- developed an infection after that procedure, which led to him being placed on IR.

Cooks, 31, has 19 targets on the year, with nine receptions for 91 yards and a touchdown.

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Kneeland, the team’s second-round draft pick out of Western Michigan, exited Week 5’s win over Pittsburgh with a non-contact knee injury after just four snaps. While an MRI showed the ACL to be intact, arthroscopic surgery was required to repair the tear.

That injury proved especially costly for a team that was already perilously thin at defensive end well before mid-October; primary options Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence had gone down by that point, and Sam Williams was lost for the entire season during the summer.

Kneeland had registered 10 tackles, three QB hits, a defended pass, and a tackle for loss before his injury.

Both players are expected to resume practicing with the team on Wednesday, and both could be re-activated to the 53-man roster before Sunday’s divisional showdown with the Commanders. Someone else would need to be moved off the roster for that to happen.

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