FRISCO, Texas — Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said Tuesday that the linebackers have to fill their assigned areas and the defense has to communicate better after the Dallas Cowboys lost their season opener 28-20 to the New York Giants.
Jones made his weekly appearance on 105.3 The Fan two days after the loss at MetLife Stadium. New York held the ball for 36:40, ran 68 plays to Dallas’ 52, converted 9 of 11 third downs, and rushed for 165 yards.
The changes on defense are an explanation for Sunday, and a valid one, in Jones’ view. Dallas replaced defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus with Christian Parker in January after allowing 511 points last season, the most in the NFL.
“The last time that I was involved in as much change as we have made this year, the very last time that I had that experience was the first year I bought the Dallas Cowboys,” Jones said. “And we won one game. That’s a long time ago. The game has changed. But we changed our scheme out. We changed our coaches out. And we had a real turnover in players that year.”
Jones bought the team in 1989. Dallas went 1-15 that season.
The starters did not play together in the preseason, and Jones said Sunday was the first time the full group was tested.
“In training camp and in the preseason games, we really didn’t test out in a game-type situation a real combination of all of our numbers, if you put the offense, defense, and special teams out there,” Jones continued. “And so this game was really very much in the air as to what we would have if we walked out there.”
Jerry Jones Names Linebackers, Secondary On Film
Jones said the Cowboys spent Monday going through one-on-ones and how each player performed. The front had some good moments. It was not enough.
“We had some good things happen in there, not good enough, but we did have some good things,” Jones explained. “Our linebacking corps made some mistakes. We had some mistakes in the secondary. And we let their offense get wide on us a lot. Those were just breakdowns on the defense.”
“We’ve got to execute on what we were trying to change out,” Jones added. “You don’t just go out there and put it on a drawing board and have meetings. You’ve got to really go out and fundamentally execute what you’re trying to get the players to recognize and execute when they get on the field.”
105.3 The Fan offered Jones two options for what bothered him more about the defense: the communication issues or New York winning the line of scrimmage.
“Communication. The communication aspects of it. Just being out of position fundamentally,” Jones said. “We had some guys play hard, and we had some guys do some good things on both sides of the ball, offense and defense. But I was really surprised and dismayed, as all fans were, that we couldn’t basically stop some of that outside stuff.”
“I was frustrated that we didn’t get more out of our running game, which would have helped us more in our passing game,” Jones detailed.
Dallas rushed 18 times for 69 yards. Linebacker DeMarvion Overshown served as the defensive play-call communicator in the opener and left in the fourth quarter with a strained hamstring.
Keep-Away In The Second Half
New York held the ball for 21:33 of the 30 second-half minutes. Dallas had two possessions after halftime and scored touchdowns on both.
The Giants kept the ball from the Cowboys, and Jones put that on the defense for not getting it back.
“The bottom line is that we did not play well, and they effectively executed a keep-away plan, kept the ball, kept the ball for a long duration,” Jones said. “That second half was unbelievable, that they were able to have that ball in control as much as they did. You’ve got to take advantage of those turnovers, and you’ve got to get that ball back so your offense can get it.”
Dallas forced 4 fumbles and recovered 1. Quarterback Dak Prescott threw an interception 58 seconds before halftime.
Jones said the Cowboys will practice differently this week than they had planned. The defensive plan itself stays.
“We will do some things differently as we line up here this week, as far as practice is concerned, than maybe we had anticipated,” Jones said. “But we’ve got to stay right on, stay with our head down on what we had planned to address this year when we changed this defense out.”
Jones called back into the show after his phone connection failed. Everyone is disappointed, Jones said, and the question now is what the Cowboys do about it.
“The facts are we’ve got a lot of new people, not necessarily young players, but we’ve got a lot of new people on defense doing different things than they’ve been doing,” Jones said. “So that’s got to come together. If we will keep our head down and keep working on it, it will be better than it was Sunday night.”
Dallas hosts the Washington Commanders on Sunday at AT&T Stadium. Kickoff is 3:25 p.m. CT on FOX.
