00:00As we bring to you Dallas Cowboys COO Stephen Jones, good afternoon, sir.
00:06Good afternoon, guys.
00:07Now, Dak Prescott, after the game, said, look, we've got to put the game away, period.
00:13Whether it's this game, whether it's things from last season or any other season,
00:17do you feel like that is still something that the team has struggled with or is getting better at?
00:25I think it's got to become our identity.
00:28I think he said it best.
00:29We do got to put the game away.
00:31I mean, that's no question.
00:33That's where our best players are, not to take anything away from the defense.
00:37If you just look at the math, obviously, with Dak and two of the best receivers in the league
00:44and two of the best guard, you know, guard top of the line.
00:48Now, he's not out there right now, but running back in a tight end, we got to, you know,
00:54you've got to go win the game right there.
00:56And unfortunately, we didn't get the job done.
00:58But if we want to have the type of team we know we can have and we got to have,
01:06then we've got to do better than we did last night.
01:10We've got to finish and close and had every opportunity to win that football game.
01:14When you talk about the ability to finish, close, especially offensively, are you ever surprised
01:19at the different play calls in the red zone or in the goal to go when it seems like the
01:26offense was so effective to get all the way down there?
01:30Yeah, I mean, any time it works, then everybody's going to be happy and say, boy, it was good.
01:36And, you know, it's not going to be any second guessing.
01:40But when you don't do it, when you don't get it done, then you're going to be second guess.
01:44That's the nature of our game.
01:46Our players know that.
01:47Our coaches know that.
01:48Coach Schottenheimer knows that.
01:51The organization knows it.
01:53You're going to be second guessed when it doesn't work.
01:56And certainly, you know, we could have done some things better last night when you go back
02:02and you rehash it and hadn't had a great chance because, as you know, we traveled all night
02:10but hadn't had a great chance to really digest it all.
02:13But, you know, it's like you said, the first drive.
02:16We do a great job of getting the ball down there and we come away with three points.
02:19I mean, that's the difference in winning and losing football games is finishing with a touchdown versus a field goal.
02:27So I can assure you there's a lot of things we've got to get better at.
02:31I do keep seeing signs of improvement on the defense.
02:34Obviously, still a long ways to go, but a huge stop there.
02:39Go line stand by the defense to give us the opportunity to then go back and take the lead
02:45and get control of the football game.
02:47So, you know, there were things the defense is where you see where it's starting to come together.
02:52So is it disappointing as hell?
02:55Yes, it is.
02:57But we've got to go back to work.
03:00We've got to go back to chopping wood.
03:01We've got to go play a really good Texans team that unfortunately hadn't won any football games.
03:07And I know they're hungry to get one.
03:09And then we've got to go to work.
03:12Whenever you're traveling back from a game like this, do you do something or watch something to try to take
03:18your mind off of it?
03:19Do you just kind of sit there and stew?
03:21Do you start talking to other people about what the next steps are?
03:24Like, what is your decompression process off a tough loss?
03:28Well, obviously, I rode back with Jerry Sr.
03:32And so we just talked about, you know, all the different critical points in the game.
03:38And, you know, it was also, you know, one of those things where, you know, it was going to be
03:44middle of the night.
03:45So you don't sit up for 10 hours and talk about it.
03:48You know, you've got a busy day the next day.
03:50You know, you need to, you can go to sleep and get a little rest.
03:55Obviously, we had three or four hours there just talking about all the things that we need to do and
04:01can do to be better
04:02and where the positives are and where we can certainly encourage our coaching staff, our players to even be more
04:13aggressive.
04:14I think that's, you know, the best way to say it.
04:17But, you know, we weren't watching the game hard to get right after the game to pull up on something
04:24like that.
04:25So we'll watch that game here this afternoon and have meetings and go from there.
04:31We'll have to turn the page and move on to the Texans.
04:33Sounds like a smarter approach because I would sit there with a bottle of Buffalo Trace and that would screw
04:37things up.
04:38So we don't want to go there.
04:39Stephen, do you feel like you...
04:41Man, I'm not saying we didn't have a drink.
04:43Okay.
04:45Yeah.
04:45Do you feel like you did, you guys have found yourselves a middle linebacker in Barham?
04:54Yeah, there's a lot of, like I said, there's a lot of encouraging things that you can point to and,
05:00you know,
05:01and say, hey, we're starting to show signs.
05:05You know, Caleb down to Barham making that play on Henry, fourth down and, you know,
05:12keeping us in the ballgame, you know, look at a guy like Quentin Williams chasing down Lamar Jackson,
05:20busting his ass.
05:22I mean, you know, the whole crew, KC, Kenny Clark, and, you know, there's a lot of things that are
05:28showing up.
05:29We've just got to continue to chop wood.
05:31We've got to continue to communicate and get past and physical, and I do think things will get better.
05:39As I think everybody knows, we've got a hell of an offense.
05:41We've just got to, you know, got to continue to be as aggressive as possible and continue to take advantage
05:49of having an offense like we have that can,
05:53you know, as we saw last night, can move the ball basically, you know, 80 yards in about a minute
06:01with no problem at all,
06:02and that was with running time off the clock.
06:05So, you know, we've got a lot of positive things.
06:08We've just got to execute and finish and win the game.
06:10We've got to, you know, we've got to win these big games.
06:13You know, and also, speaking of that closeout moment, even last night, it did look like there wasn't enough pass
06:20rush.
06:20Do you guys still feel like maybe you're missing some essential pass rush that could help you close something out
06:26like that and put a stamp on it?
06:28Yeah, I mean, you always look into where you can be better.
06:32You know, that's what you do.
06:35I mean, obviously, we've made moves to improve the interior and make moves to stop the run.
06:41I mean, I thought, you know, as I said, I think the defense made some steps.
06:45I mean, we held the big guy under a 100-yard rushing, and I know that's hard to do with
06:50a player like him,
06:51and they were sticking to the run, and I think he touched the ball 26, 27 times, something like that.
06:59So, anyway, I thought our guys, you know, I know we let them loose one time.
07:02We can be better on the edges.
07:05Lamar Jackson, you'll have to show me a game where he doesn't at least have two or three big plays
07:12scrambling or running the ball for 20 or 30 yards.
07:15He's just a dynamic player that, you know, he's going to get one or two of those on you.
07:20And so, you know, Zay Flowers came back, and he showed why he's one of the best in the business
07:25and made some plays on us that we've got to be better at.
07:29But, you know, there were things that, you know, that I think are showing up, and we've got a lot
07:35of new faces, a lot of young faces, and I think we'd be better.
07:39And then, as you said, we've got to close it out, as Dak said it.
07:42Not you said it.
07:43As Dak said it, we've got to close the game out and win it.
07:46Now, I know there are positives from the defense, like you said, and I agree with you on that.
07:51And on Mondays, especially with a long travel back, it can be tough to have injury updates.
07:56But going into the game, down some people.
07:59After another game with some starters getting knocked out, do you anticipate the need to bring in players for workouts
08:07or anything?
08:07Or do you have enough confidence to just kind of perhaps lean on the practice squad?
08:13Well, the safety position is tough.
08:15I mean, we've been hit there, no question.
08:18We'll see the corner spot a little bit to the same degree.
08:22We feel good.
08:23Demo's going to get back.
08:24We're very hopeful.
08:25Hopefully, Hooker will have a shot this week.
08:28But unfortunately, it does look like we're going to miss JT for a couple of weeks along with Locke.
08:37So, you know, that safety spot, we'll definitely be looking and seeing if there's a way to shore that up.
08:43Those two, you know, they're probably looking, both of them looking at four-plus weeks of missing time.
08:50But good news is that was one of our positions of depth.
08:53And we actually kept an extra one when we cut to 53.
08:56We kept six rather than five just because of the quality of the players.
09:00So we're needing to ever last one of them right now because of the injuries.
09:05Well, we appreciate the time very much, good sir.
09:08And we'll catch up with you again next week.
09:11Thank you, guys.
09:12Appreciate you.
