FRISCO, Texas — Penalties wiped out about 180 yards of offense in Sunday’s 27-23 win over the Indianapolis Colts, by Jerry Jones’ count. The Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager called the win bittersweet Tuesday during his weekly appearance on 105.3 The Fan’s Shan & RJ show.
Dallas needed help to get out of Lucas Oil Stadium with the win, and Jones said the team is not playing well overall with the 7-1 49ers next on the schedule.
“Bittersweet,” Jones said. “We would like to have avoided [being] in those circumstances. Where we had spurts of playing well, both the offense statistics are impressive. The defense played some great snaps out there. On the other hand, we had to really have some help to get that win.”
“And overall, we’re not playing very good, and we’re sure going to have to take what we’ve done over the last several weeks, put the best parts of it together, because we’ve got a real challenge coming up this weekend with San Francisco,” Jones continued. “That’s where our focus should be, and that’s where it is.”
The Cowboys were flagged 14 times for 153 yards. Four of the accepted penalties were holding calls, and three were offensive pass interference. Dallas finished with 508 total yards and held Indianapolis to 271.
Jerry Jones Says Flags Were Not Typical
About seven penalties a game had been the norm for Dallas before Sunday, according to Jones, and the flags at Indianapolis came on the snaps that mattered most.
“The mistakes, the penalties that we made the other day, those are atypical, or aren’t typical, in that we’re averaging about seven penalties a game up until then, and of course we had some snaps,” Jones explained. “That’s what we erased off the board when we got those penalties and brought them back.”
“Now the offensive stats include the makeup that we made of those yards that were erased by those penalties,” Jones added. “It’s not even counting the penalty yardage of 150 yards. So we did some good things offensively, but we’ve got to put it all together against this San Francisco team.”
The offense drew the first seven flags of the game, The Associated Press’ Schuyler Dixon reported. CeeDee Lamb was called for offensive pass interference twice, and both wiped out first-down catches. He still finished with 10 catches for 195 yards. Through nine games, the Cowboys lead the NFL with 667 penalty yards.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Monday the team watched all 14 penalties together in its team meeting, and the four holding calls stood out.
“We pointed it out,” Schottenheimer said. “Sloppy. Not good enough. I think there was two pre-snap, which is a positive. We’ve been averaging about seven penalties a game, so we were twice the average. Not good enough at all. We showed all the different penalties from the PIs to the holdings.”
DeMarvion Overshown Penalty Addressed
The flag that drew the most attention came in the fourth quarter. Quinnen Williams forced a fumble that Shemar James recovered, and inactive linebacker DeMarvion Overshown ran onto the field to celebrate. Officials threw a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that moved Dallas back to its own 15-yard line, and the Cowboys punted four plays later.
Overshown, who was out with hamstring and back injuries, apologized after the game. He has missed six of the team’s nine games this season. Jones said the way forward is to start down the list of what is going right, then address and correct the rest.
“You address, you correct,” Jones said. “The Overshown penalty, the celebrating, was completely addressed. The penalties will be completely emphasized. But more importantly, let’s take what we’ve got. Let’s take the healthy players we’ve got right now.”
Schottenheimer took the Overshown penalty to the linebacker before he took it to the team, and agreed Monday that “undisciplined” was an accurate word for Sunday.
“Addressed it one-on-one with D-Mo first, addressed it with the football team,” Schottenheimer explained. “Totally unacceptable, and it won’t happen again.”
The Cowboys (4-5) host the San Francisco 49ers (7-1) on Sunday at AT&T Stadium. Kickoff is set for 3:25 p.m. CT on FOX.
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