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FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys may have been a little optimistic about how quickly their defense would come along, owner and general manager Jerry Jones said Tuesday. Jones made the admission during his weekly appearance on 105.3 The Fan’s Shan & RJ show, five days before the 7-1 San Francisco 49ers visit AT&T Stadium.
A host pointed to recent improvement on defense and raised whether it came from defensive coordinator Christian Parker settling in or from the arrival of Mike Pettine. Dallas hired Pettine as a senior defensive assistant to help Parker before the Week 6 trip to Green Bay.
Parts of the defense showed up over the last two games that Jones had not seen early in the season.
“Well, I think the kinds of things I’m seeing are what they hope to get, whatever player hope to attain,” Jones said. “I don’t want to even use the word, but you’ve got to do it time and time again, and you’ve got to do it when it counts. But you’re seeing that, and there’s no doubt.”
“I loved his comment about communication. Sometimes that’s not the right word,” Jones continued. “Sometimes the player just didn’t do the job, and the very best sometimes don’t do the job. But generally, they do it the predominance of the time. The good players do. We’re seeing some of that. Last two games, we’ve seen parts of it that we weren’t seeing in the first part of the season.”
Dallas held the Indianapolis Colts to 271 total yards in Sunday’s 27-23 win. In the first half against Arizona the week before, the Cowboys held the Cardinals to 3 points and 42 rushing yards on 17 carries and forced two turnovers.
Jerry Jones Says Dallas Was ‘A Little Optimistic’
The plan coming into the season was for the offense to move the ball with the personnel Dallas has on that side, and for the defense to come on.
“So what’s challenging for us right now is we really did feel that we would be moving the ball because of the personnel that we’ve got on that side of the ball,” Jones explained. “And this defense, once we realized that we might have been a little optimistic as to how quick this defense could come along, we needed it to come on, baby. And so maybe coming on a little bit.”
Parker, 34, is in his first season calling a defense. His debut was a 28-20 loss to the New York Giants, when New York went 4-for-4 in the red zone. After five games, Dallas had the NFL’s worst run defense at 168.4 rushing yards allowed per game, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ran for 241 yards in a 24-16 win at AT&T Stadium on Oct. 8.
Defensive tackle Quinnen Williams entered the week leading the NFL with 14 tackles for loss.
San Francisco 49ers Visit AT&T Stadium
Every coaches meeting after a game finds good plays, Jones said, but the most important thing at the end of the day is to have won.
“This is a huge test for us out here Sunday, and this is an outstanding team, probably the NFL’s best today,” Jones said. “And having said that, if we go out here and play well, and play as well as we played on many plays, now you can’t go in a coach’s meeting after a ball game and not find good things that the team did. But obviously, if you lost the game, then you can. I’ve never seen any coaches that didn’t say. But by the end of the day, the most important thing is to have won the game.”
“It’s getting to make the majority of them at the same time, so that you can have the whole success that you want to have,” Jones continued. “That’s what we’re into. We got our head down. We should. This is the time to put it out here. Let’s try to go out here and have the better game we’ve had all year long and pull a great upset.”
San Francisco leads the NFC West. The 49ers won the last meeting between the teams, 30-24, in 2024.
The Cowboys (4-5) and 49ers kick off at 3:25 p.m. CT on Sunday on FOX.
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