Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was at a loss for words trying to explain his team’s bewildering and seemingly dumbfounding 33-30 overtime loss Sunday to the Arizona Cardinals.
What he did muster was that it was hurtful and it was an indictment of the franchise, from ownership to coach Brian Schottenheimer to players in the locker room, led by $60 million quarterback Dak Prescott and the most expensive duo of receivers in the NFL in CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens.
What Jones knows now is that he’s not inclined to making a coaching change with Schottenheimer, who is now 10-14-1 as Cowboys coach and won just back-to-back games just once in his short tenure as the 10th coach in franchise history.
What he doesn’t know is if the Cowboys (3-5) will be able salvage a season that began with talk of reaching of the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1995 and is now in the doldrums of what Prescott called the regular season loss the could remember as quarterback of America’s team.
“Very disappointing; it sucks,” Prescott said. “One of the toughest I guess I’ve been a part of. Yeah, no words for it really. Other than that, really, really disappointing, and frustrating.”
What is left to say after the Cowboys blew a game the seemingly dominated throughout. They ked 14-3 at halftime, 17-3 in the third quarter, 24-10 to start the fourth and 27-17 with 3:54 left.
And the Cowboys led 27-24 when they recovered an onsides kick at the 2:07 mark and 30-24 following a Brandon Aubrey field goal with with 1:09 to go in the game.
That the lost this game in overtime was unconscionable.
But it was par for the course for the Cowboys against the Cardinals, who have now won five straight in the series and eight of the last nine since 2008. The Cowboys have never beaten the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium.
The Cowboys were the betting favorite in every game.
But this time was supposed to be different.
It was set up to be different, following last Monday’s uplifting victory against the Philadelphia Eagles and a chance to gain some momentum against a struggling Cardinals team.
The Cardinals have four wins in the last 23 games, two have come against the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in 2025 and 2026.
In the end, it was another punch to get for the Cowboys and their frustrated fan base.
This is the first home loss in Cowboys history with a 14+ point lead in the 4th quarter (were 202-0-1 incl playoffs). Before Sunday the Cowboys were 69-0 since 2000 when leading by 14 points or more in the fourth quarter.
It was a complete meltdown.
Certainly, the team’s abject defense was bad and only added to a maddening stat. The Cowboys have allowed 20+ points in 15 straight games, the longest active streak in the NFL.
The defense, which had five sacks and an interception, allowed 20 points in the fourth quarter alone.
But consider that the Cowboys’ high-powered and highly-paid offense didn’t do anything to put the game away Dallas gained 34 yards of offense on its final 27 plays from scrimmage. The Cardinals picked up 267 yards on its final 31 plays
Cardinals backup running back Tyler Allgeier, who had 63-yard touchdown run and a 52-yard run in the second half against the worst run defense in the NFL, outgained the Cowboys 184 to 152 in the second half.
It was backup quarterback Gardner Minshew who replaced starter Jacoby Brissett and led the comeback with three fourth-quarter touchdown passes.
The end came a 42-yard field goal on the second possession over overtime when it probably shouldn’t have gone that far as Cardinals kicker Chad Ryland missed an extra point following the final touchdown with :06 left in the game.
Prescott, who passed for just 195 yards, said he can’t remember a more disappointing regular season loss.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. Not up to this point,” Prescott said. ” As I’ve probably alluded to or stated at this point, I’m a guy that’s focused on what’s in front of me now. So, it’s hard to even go back and, trust me, I try not to remember certain losses and things like that, but that’s what makes this one the most disappointing. And I don’t know if there’s been a game in my career with this much time left with this lead that I haven’t, or the team hasn’t finished. So, yes.”
Prescott had fewer than 200 yards passing and Lamb and Pickens failed to score against the worst scoring defense in the NFL — one that allowed league-high 18 touchdown passes but only one to Dallas.
Prescott said Schottenheimer may have gotten too conservative with his play calling in the fourth quarter, most notably after the onsides kick when the Cowboys seemingly settled for a field goal rather attempt to put the Cardinals away with a shot to the end zone.
Prescott had 10 yards passing in the fourth quarter and overtime combined. He had just seven attempts, six in the fourth quarter.
“I’m disappointed. Disappointed in the way we played in the second half,” Schottenheimer said. “But I only know how to do it one way, and that’s to work. I’m a worker. I’m a problem solver.
“I think we’ve got guys in that locker room that are problem solvers. We have guys in there that want to be great. We’ve got guys that believe in what we’re doing as a football team in all three phases. They’re hurting. They’re hurting right now too.”
Jones has fired only one coaching during the season.
That was Wade Phillips in 2010.
And while his disappointed in the Cowboys, he is not ready move on from Brian Schottenheimer.
“I made a change and I don’t want to mention it because I’m not proud of it,” Jones said. But I made a change with Wade Phillips there in the middle of the season, and I don’t see that here.”
“That’s not in my mind at this time.”
Jones said a lot of people let Schottenheimer down on Sunday.
The Cowboys trail the idle New York Giants (4-2-1) in the NFC East and remain in the chase for the playoffs. But Jones didn’t sound to excited or confident when asked where does the team go from here.
Well, you certainly show up because that’s what you’re supposed to do,” Jones said. “You show up, you evaluate, and you step forward, and this obviously creates quite a challenge. Everybody knows that when you’ve been hit on the nose or you’ve been knocked down, those are difficult times to overcome. This will be very difficult for each individual player and coaches, me, everybody involved that just really is glaring in a negative way.
“How we could be where we were and end up losing that ball game. And we had a great chance right at the end to win the game and had everybody out there that can win games for us. And of course, didn’t get it done. So that was also telling. And we just did not play well enough at all to win that ball game. And not well enough, at all, after you had to lead the way we did and had the opportunities we had to win the ball game, so it’s an indictment of the whole show.”
Schottenheimer said his team has to learn how to finish.
And while he takes ownership of his role in their struggles, he agreed with Jones in saying it was a total team collapse.
“I’m going to always own my part of this as a head football coach,” Schottenheimer said. “It starts with me and there’s certainly things that I need to do better. But as a football team in all three phases, I can point out three, four, five, six plays right off the top of my head. A lot of football left.
I believe in those guys and they should as well. We’re going to work our asses off to get right and fix it. But again, you jump up 14-3, come out of halftime and you got to have that killer instinct and we didn’t do that.”
The Cowboys play at the 2-6 Indianapolis Colts next Sunday.
