‘Indictment Of The Whole Show’: Jerry Jones Says Change Not In His Mind After Dallas Cowboys’ Overtime Loss To Arizona Cardinals

ARLINGTON, Texas — Jerry Jones said Sunday that making a change was not in his mind at this time after the Dallas Cowboys blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead and lost 33-30 in overtime to the Arizona Cardinals at AT&T Stadium.

The Cowboys owner and general manager called the loss an indictment of the whole show. Dallas fell to 3-5 and has not won consecutive games this season. Chad Ryland won it for Arizona with a 42-yard field goal with 2:53 left in overtime.

Jones said the Cowboys are continually evaluating, though he said re-evaluate was not the right word for it.

“We’re not going to get into anything. That’s not in my mind at this time,” Jones said. “But the main thing that’s in my mind is we tee it up for those kind of spots to win it. We really do want those situations. Call for it. Bring it on. And we got it and didn’t get it.”

“And we made some, really, I’m not going to say any one play, but we just did not play good in the second half,” Jones continued. “And that put us in a spot, but we got a reprieve, and we should nail it.”

Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer is in his second season. Dallas led 14-3 at halftime and was outscored 30-16 the rest of the way, overtime included.

“We had innumerable chances to win this game and didn’t do it,” Jones explained. “And I know everybody, our fans especially, but everybody is disappointed. We came out the second half and were a shadow of ourselves. So there’s nothing to point to other than we just weren’t a good team the second half.”

Jerry Jones Says Loss Will Be Difficult For Every Player And Coach

The loss came six days after a 38-21 win at Philadelphia on Monday Night Football. Each of Dallas’ three wins this season has been followed by a loss.

“Well, everybody, you certainly show up because that’s what you’re supposed to do,” Jones said. “You show up, you evaluate, and you step forward. And this obviously creates quite a challenge. Everybody knows that when you’ve been hit on the nose or you’ve been knocked down, that those are difficult times to overcome.”

“This will be very difficult for each individual player and coaches, me, everybody involved,” Jones added. “That just really is glaring in a negative way, how we could be where we were and end up losing that ball game.”

Dallas had everyone it wanted on the field at the end, in Jones’ view, and still did not get it done.

“And we had a great chance right at the end to win the game and had everybody out there that can win games for us,” Jones said. “And, of course, didn’t get it done. So it was a couple of games within the game, really, that was also telling. And we just did not play well enough at all to win that ball game. Not well enough at all after you had the lead the way we did and had the opportunities we had to win that ball game. So it’s an indictment of the whole show.”

Dallas’ five losses have come by a combined 32 points, and four of them were decided by 8 points or fewer.

“This is something that we’ll take a good hard look at,” Jones said. “We haven’t had many games that we were dominating, frankly not dominating, but we were playing well enough to win the game and play in their game and then come back and just not play well. So we’ll have to look at that.”

Brian Schottenheimer Says He Believes In His Staff And Players

Schottenheimer said Dallas played a really good game at Philadelphia and a pretty good first half Sunday. Dak Prescott said afterward that blaming one person would be weak and cowardly.

“I believe in our staff. I believe in our players,” Schottenheimer said. “We played a really good game in Philadelphia, and we played a pretty good first half here. The second half was not very good. So we’ve got to look at the film and learn from it.”

Schottenheimer does not think he needs to light a fire under most of his players.

“Disappointed. Disappointed in the way we played in the second half, but I only know how to do it one way, and that’s to work,” Schottenheimer explained. “I’m a worker, problem solver. I think we’ve got guys in there in that locker room that are problem solvers. We have guys in there that want to be great. We’ve got guys that believe in what we’re doing as a football team in all three phases.”

“They’re hurting. They’re hurting right now, too,” Schottenheimer noted. “As a leader, I’m going to stand in front. Hit them with the truth. That’s what I did in there. And I think that’s important.”

Dallas visits the Indianapolis Colts on Nov. 8 at Lucas Oil Stadium. Kickoff is set for noon CT on FOX.