Jerry Jones reiterates support for coaches after Cowboys' loss to Cardinals; "I like the way we're trending"
Given another day to digest Sunday's ugly loss to the Arizona Cardinals, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Tuesday that he still stands behind his coaching staff.
After the Cowboys took a 14-point lead early in the fourth quarter, Arizona backup QB Gardner Minshew threw for three touchdowns as the Cardinals scored 20 points in the last 10:47 of regulation to force overtime (Arizona would have won in regulation if their kicker had not missed an extra point with 6 seconds left on the clock).
The defense showed once again it is a glaring weakness for the team under first-year coordinator Christian Parker, while head coach Brian Schottenheimer's decision making came under scrutiny for appearing to play for field goals amid Arizona's comeback instead of looking for a touchdown to put the game away.
Jones and QB Dak Prescott defended Schottenheimer in their postgame comments. On his Tuesday morning radio segment on 105.3 The Fan, Jones again said the coaches were not the only reason for the loss, and results like that can happen with a rebuilding team.
"There's no question that you can get the benefits of consistency without shuffling, in our case, defensive coordinators. What you pay the price on, the experience has been, is when you are improving, you can be inconsistent. Now that's an overused word this week, but it is right in keeping with when you're trying to build something. Now, we've been doing that under the premise that we had an offense and we had a head coach that can run that offense, extremely well ... When we don't play [offense] as well as we should be playing, and if you put in place the theory that your defense has a process in building or rebuilding, then if you miscue there, then that can end up like we did with the look that we had at the end of that ball game Sunday," he said.
"We've changed out on our defense, we've changed our coaching staff, complete coaching staff, we've changed out the majority of the players. Really. And in today's building of a team, you do it with a combination of draft, which, draft picks have to have a little seasoning most of the time. And therein lies the inconsistency that we're seeing, even within a game where we played so well in the first half and came back and didn't play as well in the second half. That is a disappointment, but not a surprise. We've got to learn from the negatives, which you do when you're rebuilding ... It does not call for very succinct, important changes because I like the way we're trending," Jones said.
Later on in the interview, Jones was asked if the inconsistencies on defense might be due to his selection of Parker as defensive coordinator, despite Parker not holding that position before.
"There's advantages both ways ... We had been through some pretty heavy veteran coaches on defense that we hadn't gotten the job done. And you can name them and you can look back on them ... We decided to go with someone that is basically fresher, that had a good background, that in this particular case had exceptional skills relating with the players. And by the way, he does have exceptional skills relating with the players he's got there, and it's a question of executing and it's a question of just believing in what you're doing and stay with it," Jones said.
Despite their struggles, the Cowboys are still alive for a playoff spot thanks to their particularly weak division, the NFC East. With the trade deadline one week away, Jones said they may look at adding players but are not planning on trading any pieces away. Up next, the Cowboys have a road trip to face the struggling Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.