DALLAS — Following a blowout loss in the home opener for the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones wasn’t in quite the same mood as last week during an appearance Tuesday on the Shan & RJ show on 105.3 The Fan.
A jovial Jones after the Week 1 win in Cleveland gave way to a perplexed team owner.
After the season started on a high note, Jones was forced to discuss the disappointment from the Week 2 beatdown by the New Orleans Saints at home. Here is what the latest installment of Tuesdays with Jerry brought:
Did Week 2 bring back memories of the playoff loss to Green Bay?
“Not really at all,” said Jones. “[The loss] felt like Opening Day many, many years ago. There was a lack of quickness, urgency, and the importance of not running through a block, and they made us pay. They came in ready to play at a high level and we were not. Our players have to play a lot better, and they can do that. But [this loss] doesn’t call for a change in the system or the players.”
Maybe the Week 2 blowout loss didn’t look like the team failing the same way that they did in January’s wild-card loss to Green Bay to Jones, but the game followed the same script as the playoff loss. Dallas trailed big early and looked lethargic throughout in their second consecutive home defeat.
The lack of urgency from the Cowboys
“When I say lack of urgency, it can be on a given play,” Jones chimed in to talk about what went wrong in the 44-19 loss. “You’ve got to beat that guy to the angle. It isn’t rare to get beat from one time to another, it’s unusual to get beat across the board as often as it happened. That’s where I’m getting a lot of the confidence that I have, that we can correct what we’re doing. We’ve got the players to do it, albeit some of them are young, but we’ve got some good talent out there.”
At some point, there must be some urgency from the core of a team that hasn’t been able to get over the hump. Yes, it’s only Week 2, but the same problems continue to pop up in these losses and head coach Mike McCarthy needs to get it fixed in what could be his last opportunity in Dallas. There needs to be urgency on every play, much less each week.
On attempt to fix run defense
“What you saw was an addressing of the run game in the offseason,” Jones explained. “It was a result of doing things differently, but not doing them well. The players can do it better, cumulatively. It looked dramatic, but these are not dramatic things (to fix) that I’m talking about. We got bigger in the middle and we got linebackers I think that have better skills at defending the run and that are capable of reading what the guy in front of them is doing.”
The Cowboys did get bigger in the middle, but they waited until late August to try fixing the run defense at defensive tackle. And when they did it, it came with aging veterans who have flaws in their game instead of signing an impactful free agent or two when better options were available.
It was a smart move to try to improve the room at linebacker, but it could take some time for rookie Marist Liufau and first-year player DeMarvion Overshown to play at a high level consistently. With the defensive tackle position still looking like a detriment, the run defense could remain a question mark in Dallas.
Growing pains with young defenders
“[Sunday’s loss] will give us a very great sense of awareness, a great teaching tool as we get ready to play Baltimore,” Jones said while talking about the young players on defense. “You have to take what we didn’t do out there Sunday and show them how it works when you do what’s right. Not just hope and prayer, I can say we’ve got the people, and we’ve got the scheme to stop it.”
Lessons can be learned, but this is putting a lot of faith in defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer. The group does have some young talent, but there’s a lack of depth in the middle of a defense that cannot be fixed during the season. There will be growing pains with Liufau and Overshown, but the scheme can’t help the lack of quality at DT.
Should we expect Dalvin Cook to play?
“Not sure right now,” said the team owner and general manager. “Right now, across the board, Rico [Dowdle] did really well the other day but I don’t foresee a change with [Dalvin] Cook there this week.”
It has been a common thought among the masses on social media; would two weeks of lackluster play be enough for the Cowboys to elevate Cook to the active roster.
Jones says it won’t happen, but the situation is reminiscent of the 2018 season when Dallas spoke highly of their wide receiver by committee plan only to see it fail before Jones relented and sent the then Oakland Raiders a first round pick for Amari Cooper after just seven weeks. Changes could come despite Jones’ reluctance to admit the need for them.
Was Derrick Henry ever an option?
“There are a lot of good players you’re connected with,” Jones admitted. “I bet we get connected with 90% of the free agents out there, but that doesn’t mean you’re ‘connected.’ But if you don’t sign them, guess what, you’re probably going to be playing against him. [Henry] is a heck of a running back, but we have other things to do other than regret or lament on whether or not we signed someone.”
Signing Henry could’ve been a big boost to the running backs room for the Cowboys, an area that now looks like a massive weakness, but Jones’ view on this is refreshing. The team does have other things to work on besides lamenting a specific signing they, frankly, were never going to make — a list that includes the Cowboys working to get more production from the RBs who are here.
Is McCarthy further on the hot seat?
“I don’t think where he is in his contract has anything to do with [the Week 1 win in Cleveland], where we handed accolades out, or how we played [during the Week 2 loss to New Orleans],” Jones replied. “I don’t think you pair them up to that kind of timing. On any given Sunday, you can have a bad day in the NFL.”
This is something that will continue to be asked with McCarthy being in the last year of his contract. Each loss will be magnified because of his lame duck situation. Any given Sunday is true in the NFL, but it can’t be that way for McCarthy if he wants to keep his job long term.
Do you think the Cowboys will give Jones something to be happy about in Week 3? Share your thoughts with Ben on X (formerly Twitter) @BenGrimaldi.
