ARLINGTON, Texas — A week ago, owner and general manager Jerry Jones was one of the key decision makers who noted that the Dallas Cowboys needed and would improve on their embarrassing loss to the New Orleans Saints in Week 2. But now as they head into a shortened Week 4, improvement is still a long way off, especially since they lost their Week 3 game to the Baltimore Ravens.
Things spiraled out of control again when the defense was unable to stop Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry, while the offense continued to struggle in the red zone and overall was at a loss for how to score touchdowns – promising drives were thwarted by a series of mistimed penalties and a fumble by CeeDee Lamb.
“It seemed like we couldn’t get out of our own way,” Jones said. “But it’s just a reminder of what this game is about.”
The bright spot this week that was missing seven days earlier is how the Cowboys thrived in all three phases of the fourth quarter, scoring three touchdowns, recovering an onside kick and forcing Jackson’s offense off the field on third down multiple times.
The Ravens’ late-game push nearly caused the NFL’s biggest collapse of the season, but they needed one more stop to have a chance and were unable to complete their comeback.
Jones sees the events of the fourth quarter as at least a momentum and confidence that he can build on in the future – considering that the Cowboys scored more points in this quarter than in the previous eleven quarters combined.
“They can take something from what they showed at the end of the game and we can carry on with that,” he said. “That’s a (good) taste in the mouth at least. Of course we’re sad for our fans that we lost two in a row here at home, but if things go the way they’re supposed to go, they can take something from what we showed at the end and carry on with that.”
That in no way means he ignores what happened in the first 45 minutes of the game against Baltimore.
He expects improvement and there is at least something that gives him confidence that improvement is imminent.
“No, I’m very disappointed that we lost today,” Jones said. “Very disappointed. And you can’t sugarcoat the fact that we lost. And there were parts of the way we lost that we really need to get a lot better at. … We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we’ve got time to do that kind of work, and we’ve got a short week this week, but we’ve got to start.
“It was disappointing… If you look at the bigger picture, we were outplayed today.”
Now that the Philadelphia Eagles are one game back with 14 regular season games left to play, it’s all about getting things right as quickly as possible to avoid getting into a situation where they regret losing early games that could ultimately determine playoff seeding or their playoff fate overall.
Jones hopes the team’s confidence has returned after nearly scoring a win in the fourth quarter against the Ravens.
“It takes a lot after playing the way we played all day, shooting yourself in the foot and then making some big plays,” he said. “It takes something to come back and show that much effort at the end. That’s what I hang my hat on.”
“I hope our fans will do the same.”
