Watkins: 'I didn't expect this,' says Jerry Jones

Cotton

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'I didn't expect this,' says Jerry Jones

November, 11, 2013

By Calvin Watkins | ESPNDallas.com


NEW ORLEANS -- The Dallas Cowboys were outplayed in every way on Sunday night by theNew Orleans Saints.

Jerry Jones, the Cowboys' owner and general manager, was stunned by the 49-17 loss.

"I didn’t expect this," Jones said late Sunday night. "I didn’t see this coming. But I did think we would have to come in here and get some points on the board with them. I felt we certainly were compromised relative to our defense where we are with our personnel, it's not an excuse 'cause we didn’t play as well as they played. They just did a very good job of defending us and kept us off the field."

During the game, the Cowboys lost starting linebackers Sean Lee and Justin Durant to hamstring injuries. Starting defensive tackle Jason Hatcher was inactive because of a stinger. Gone, too, was rookie starting safety J.J. Wilcox to a sprained knee.

Of course there was Dez Bryant, who said he was healthy despite getting treatment for a sore back earlier in the week. Bryant had just one catch for 44 yards, and though it was a fantastic catch, it's an unacceptable total for the Cowboys' best offensive weapon.

The defense gave up a franchise-record 625 yards along with an NFL-record 40 first downs. Tony Romothrew for just 128 yards and looks like a man searching for a new playcaller. The Cowboys ran the ball 16 times, a wonderful concept considering it rushed a franchise-low nine times last week against Minnesota.

The bottom line in all this is that the Cowboys aren't an elite team. With a chance to maintain its lead in the NFC East, the Cowboys are now tied for first place with the Philadelphia Eagles at 5-5. At this rate, the Cowboys might need to beat the Eagles at AT&T Stadium in the regular-season finale just to reach the postseason.

"We got to put together a plan that allows us to get in here and have a shot at this thing," Jones said. "At the end of the day what we’re trying to do [is] get to the playoffs and go from there."

The Cowboys didn't look like a playoff team on Sunday night. It seems as if the team has regressed, and while making the postseason seemed like a given considering how bad the division is, that's not guaranteed now. The scene in the locker room afterward was sad and sorry.

"I've never been a part of nothing like this," cornerback Orlando Scandrick said.

"I'm very stunned," safety Barry Church said.

While the defense is missing some key pieces, the offense should be better. DeMarco Murray, the starting running back, rushed for 89 yards on 16 carries. Romo couldn't find Bryant on a consistent basis and for that matter anybody else of note. Terrance Williams, the man who's supposed to take advantage of the double coverage applied to Bryant and tight end Jason Witten, had just one catch. Witten had two catches. Cole Beasley, the talented slot receiver, had one catch.

The offensive coaches need to discover a way to get Bryant the ball. On some routes he was jammed tight, but other times he seemed to be a decoy.

"We just got outplayed," Bryant said. "Their defense did a great job on us. You have to give them a lot of credit. We had some opportunities and we didn't make them."

Romo is a better quarterback than his numbers suggest, but he needs a run game and some effective play calling to help him.

"I think more than anything it's just about losing," Romo said. "And I think you just have to forget about everything else and just look at what happened in this football game. You got to look and re-evaluate and just get better. We just didn't play a good football game."

And Jones has to evaluate where this is going. He's got his defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin, praising the defense's work in practice, but the unit can't execute on a consistent basis on game days.

"I thought we would hang in there real good with [the Saints] and you might have a game comparable to when we played Denver, a game like that," said Jones, referring to the 51-48 loss to the Broncos earlier this season.

"This is not what I envisioned," cornerback Brandon Carr said.

The Cowboys are a pedestrian group right now, and they have two weeks before the New York Giants game to solve their problems. If they can be solved.
 

bbgun

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"I've never been a part of nothing like this," cornerback Orlando Scandrick said.
You weren't on the field when you gave up 51 to Denver and 600 yards to Detroit?
 

Cotton

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Jerry Jones on Dallas Cowboys’ 49-17 loss: ‘It’s embarrassing not to be representative, not be competitive’
By Jon Machota
jmachota@dallasnews.com
12:41 am on November 11, 2013

Jerry Jones was blindsided by Sunday night’s embarrassing 49-17 loss in New Orleans.

Talking to reporters after the game, the Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager said he never expected the game to play out the way it did.

“I didn’t expect this,” Jones said. “I didn’t see this coming. But I did think we were going to have to come in here and get some points on the board and I felt we are compromised relative to our defense [because of injuries]. That’s not an excuse. That’s not an excuse because we still didn’t play as well as they played.

“They just did a very good job of defensing us, kept us off the field. They had the ball a lot and really did a great job offensively. But I can’t say enough about how well they played. They put it all together here tonight and we really were the recipients of it.”

The Saints set an NFL record with 40 first downs and totaled 625 yards of offense. But Jones said he thought the Cowboys’ offense would be able to hang with the Saints’ high-powered attack, similar to what they did against Denver in Week 5.

The Broncos managed 34 first down and 517 yards of offense while outlasting the Cowboys 51-48 last month in Arlington.

“It’s embarrassing to lose,” Jones said. “It’s embarrassing not to be representative, not be competitive, all of those things. But more importantly than anything, the real issue is can we do something about it? Can we get in here and use this time off, get some of our guys back and get a little healthy and come up with some ideas of how to go against the rest of this schedule and see if we can have a happy year? This year, not next year. This year.”
 

E_D_Guapo

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"We got to put together a plan that allows us to get in here and have a shot at this thing," Jones said. "At the end of the day what we’re trying to do [is] get to the playoffs and go from there."
 

asklesko

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another final game with postseason on the line, who wants to bet nick foles throws 8?
 

Plan9Misfit

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another final game with postseason on the line, who wants to bet nick foles throws 8?
I'd place a larger bet that Week 17 would be the week where the classic, choke artist, "bad Romo" shows up. Or, frankly, doesn't show up. You know, he goes 21-55 4 INTs, 0 TDs in yet another lopsided loss which he shrugs off as no big deal.

And then gets his contract restructured immediately following the season to guarantee him more money and a longer duration so that we can get under the 2014 cap.

Game. Set. Fucked.
 

Clay_Allison

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I'd place a larger bet that Week 17 would be the week where the classic, choke artist, "bad Romo" shows up. Or, frankly, doesn't show up. You know, he goes 21-55 4 INTs, 0 TDs in yet another lopsided loss which he shrugs off as no big deal.

And then gets his contract restructured immediately following the season to guarantee him more money and a longer duration so that we can get under the 2014 cap.

Game. Set. Fucked.
When has Romo ever had a stat line like that?
 

ravidubey

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I am very surprised Jerry has yet to make reference to the Giants-Saints prime time game of almost exactly the same score in 2011, the Giants last Superbowl winning season.
 

Smitty

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If we can beat the Giants, Raiders, and Redskins -- none of those things being a given but we do have a decent track record of beating sub-.500 teams -- you have to figure that at the very least the final game against the Eagles, in Dallas, will be for the division. At least.

The Eagles have a favorable schedule but even if they go 4-1 that puts them at 9-6.

So we have to be at 8-7 heading into that final game. So again.... Giants, Raiders, and Redskins. Or take one of the Packers or Bears.
 
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L.T. Fan

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If we can beat the Giants, Raiders, and Redskins -- none of those things being a given but we do have a decent track record of beating sub-.500 teams -- you have to figure that at the very least the final game against the Eagles, in Dallas, will be for the division. At least.

The Eagles have a favorable schedule but even if they go 4-1 that puts them at 9-6.

So we have to be at 8-7 heading into that final game. So again.... Giants, Raiders, and Redskins. Or take one of the Packers or Bears.
The remaining schedule does look more favorable if Dallas can find enough players to field a team.
 

Genghis Khan

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If we can beat the Giants, Raiders, and Redskins -- none of those things being a given but we do have a decent track record of beating sub-.500 teams -- you have to figure that at the very least the final game against the Eagles, in Dallas, will be for the division. At least.

The Eagles have a favorable schedule but even if they go 4-1 that puts them at 9-6.

So we have to be at 8-7 heading into that final game. So again.... Giants, Raiders, and Redskins. Or take one of the Packers or Bears.
Right. That's basically the way I look at it.

There are kind of two conversations with this team right now. One is the macro view, which we saw on display against the Saints. This team isn't good enough - whatever the cause - to play with the big boys. No doubt that changes in some way, shape or form need to happen.

The other conversation is on the micro level, where we are currently undefeated in our division, are tied for first place, have one game left against the team we are tied with, and generally have a very manageable schedule remaining and reside in at best a mediocre division. The playoffs and winning the division are certainly not daunting goals even for this flawed team.
 
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