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By Jon Machota 3h ago
CHICAGO — A postgame locker room doesn’t get much quieter than the Cowboys’ late Thursday night. And the box score doesn’t tell the actual story. Yes, the final score was 31-24, but the Cowboys were dominated by the host Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.
Despite putting together an impressive opening touchdown drive that lasted 17 plays and nearly nine minutes, the Cowboys did little on offense on their next five possessions, closely resembling their previous game against Buffalo.
On defense, at times it appeared they didn’t have much interest in playing.
“That score didn’t indicate how bad they beat us tonight,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. “The score was a lot closer. They beat us real good tonight.”
Jones typically emerges from the visitor’s locker room shortly after games and immediately starts chatting with reporters. That was not the case Thursday. He appeared in the locker room about 13 minutes after it opened. Such a large group of media members began to gather around him that Jones led the pack down a small hallway and back near the entrance to the field. Most reporters immediately stopped what they were doing and headed out after him.
“We had a little complaining last week about the marathon,” Jones began, referring to the 26 minutes he spoke with reporters after the Thanksgiving Day loss to the Bills. “This is going to be the shortest marathon y’all have ever heard.”
Jones then answered questions for eight minutes, confirming that there would be no coaching change before next weekend’s game against the Los Angeles Rams. He was much more vague while answering whether the team would look to sign a kicker after Brett Maher missed his third field-goal attempt in the last two games.
“They took it to us,” Jones said. “We just got to see if we can step in here and win a football game. I don’t care if we stay in contention all the way down until they have the playoffs. We got to start showing our fans – more importantly, showing ourselves – we can do the things to win the games.”
Jones’ dream scenario is for the Cowboys to win the division, get hot at the right time and make a Super Bowl run. But he also understands as poor outings continue to stack up that those dreams seem more and more unrealistic. Sure, they might stand atop an awful NFC East with only seven or eight wins, but their season will likely come to an end when facing any other playoff qualifier. The loss to the Bears drops Dallas to 6-2 against teams .500 or worse. The Cowboys are 0-5 against teams with winning records.
“I think we played hard,” head coach Jason Garrett said. “We didn’t play well. We didn’t play well enough.”
Does Garrett think the players are still buying in?
“I do,” he said. “I can see how they come to work every day, I see how they practice and, unfortunately, we didn’t carry the practice work to the game.”
Does Garrett have a sense that any players have quit?
“I don’t believe that,” he responded.
Garrett said he thinks one of the issues, particularly on defense, is players trying to do too much.
“I think sometimes that creates problems,” he added. “And we have to just get back into being more disciplined down-in and down-out. That’s the way you handle adversity. You execute.”
The defense finally won the turnover battle, 2-0, after not recording a single takeaway in the four previous games. Cornerback Jourdan Lewis intercepted a pass, only Dallas’ fifth of the season, and linebacker Jaylon Smith recovered a fumble. But the tackling continued to be sloppy, allowing struggling Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky to look like an MVP candidate. He rushed for a season-high 63 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries while also throwing for 244 yards and three more scores.
“The beautiful thing about it is we’re first in the division,” Smith said. “Any other division right now, probably be chalking it up. But for us, by the grace of God, we’ve been given life. We just need to decide what team we want to be. We all know what we’re capable of. The entire world does. But we have to put it together. And we’re going to make this decision.”
Garrett’s message to the team in the postgame locker room touched on one of Smith’s points, that they’ve been “given a gift” to still control their own destiny despite how poorly they’ve played. The problem is, the Cowboys have been sharing a similar message with reporters for several weeks, and the play on the field has not improved.
Jones tried to rally the group by criticizing his coaching staff after the loss in New England two weeks ago. Then came an intense speech from veteran defensive lineman Michael Bennett that could be heard outside the closed locker room following the Thanksgiving Day loss. This week, players talked about having some “chippy” practices, perhaps a sign that it would carry over to the game in Chicago.
None of it has worked.
“Just going out there and getting outplayed,” Ezekiel Elliott said. “We’re too good of a football team to be putting that on film. We got to figure out what we want this season to be. We still have hope. We still can get in the playoffs, but just the way we’re playing, that’s not going to really get us far.
“It’s just frustrating because it’s not clicking, we’re not playing well. You just really can’t put your finger on it, that’s the tough part.”
Elliott ran well at times, turning in a season-long run of 31 yards while finishing with 83 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries.
Prescott threw for 334 yards and a touchdown. Amari Cooper caught six passes for 83 yards and a touchdown. Michael Gallup had six catches for 109 yards. The problem is that most of those passing game statistics came in the fourth quarter while the Cowboys were trying to dig out of a 24-7 hole. Prescott totaled 110 passing yards in the first three quarters.
Dallas trailed 17-7 at halftime. The Cowboys’ scores after two quarters have matched up perfectly with their results. They have led at halftime in their six wins and trailed in their seven losses.
“Frustrating,” Prescott said when asked to describe the mood in the locker room. “I think that’s the best word for it. It’s a blessing, fortunate enough, I don’t know how it is, we’re still in the lead for our division. You have to be thankful for that. But we can’t hang our hat on that. We have got to figure out our issues right now, fix them and get better.”
At this point, it doesn’t seem like any momentum is going to be built off a hard-fought loss. Losing seven of their last 10 has dug a significant hole. Their hope is that a win can get things heading back in a positive direction. It looked as if that was happening with consecutive victories over the Eagles and Giants in Weeks 7 and 9. But since then, there’s been only one win: an unimpressive survival against a poor Lions team.
“A win is so huge in this league,” Cooper said. “They’re not easy to come by. Even if a team is 15-1, those 15 wins, not many of them are going to be easy to come by. I think definitely one win will get us back on track. We just have to go out there and get it.
“Everything is still in front of us. I really believe we can make a run and get hot.”
Here are five other notable postgame quotes from Thursday night.
1.) Prescott on if players have checked out and quit on their coach: “That’s false. False as ever. This team is focused on right now, and that’s the only thing that matters. Somehow we’re 6-7 and still in front of our division. Nobody’s looking past this day, this moment, this time, in the division, the chance of playoffs, and when you get to the playoffs, all of that’s gone – it’s washed out the window. So we believe in our coach, we believe in his message, we’re going out there and we just got to figure out as players what it is on game day. Throughout the week everything’s well. We’re preparing well. We had our best week of preparation this week from an offensive standpoint and went out there and just didn’t execute like we were supposed to. So when it becomes an execution matter and not a communication and not a scheme deal or a players’ deal, it’s hard to put it on the coach. So, us players, we look in the mirror first, and as I said, I know I’ll do it myself these next couple of days. I hope the other players will as well. I know the coaches will. We’ll evaluate ourselves, and we’ve got to figure it out now.”
2.) Cooper on remaining optimistic: “I’m still optimistic. Like Coach Garrett just said before you guys came in, we’re still No. 1 in the division. We’ve been given a gift. So I’m still optimistic about what this team can do. I know we have the right pieces in place, the right players, the right mentality. It’s just all about doing it now instead of talking about it.”
3.) Maher to reporters on his recent struggles: “I feel like I did a good job staying in my lane this week. I feel like I hit every ball pretty well tonight. I’ll put my head on the pillow tonight feeling good about what I did this week and moving forward.”
4.) Smith on Garrett: “Man, I love him. I love him. Just everything he stands for. For us, it’s just about getting the job done. He takes responsibility for it because he’s the head coach, but we’re grown men and we’re on the field, we’re not getting the job done. It’s not his fault. We’ve got to do it.”
5.) Witten on TV cameras catching an emotional outburst from him on the sideline: “I just, well, did you see the game? I was just trying to get something going. I have played a lot of football, and I realize this opportunity is rare for all of us. To be sitting here at 13 weeks in and still have a chance to win this division, you are just trying to get it going. I believe in this group, I believe in this team wholeheartedly. It is a good group of guys, and they are talented and work hard. But, you know, it is a show-me game. It has been for a long time, and we have to play better football.”
________________________________________________________________________________________
"Like Coach Garrett just said before you guys came in, we’re still No. 1 in the division."
CHICAGO — A postgame locker room doesn’t get much quieter than the Cowboys’ late Thursday night. And the box score doesn’t tell the actual story. Yes, the final score was 31-24, but the Cowboys were dominated by the host Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.
Despite putting together an impressive opening touchdown drive that lasted 17 plays and nearly nine minutes, the Cowboys did little on offense on their next five possessions, closely resembling their previous game against Buffalo.
On defense, at times it appeared they didn’t have much interest in playing.
“That score didn’t indicate how bad they beat us tonight,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. “The score was a lot closer. They beat us real good tonight.”
Jones typically emerges from the visitor’s locker room shortly after games and immediately starts chatting with reporters. That was not the case Thursday. He appeared in the locker room about 13 minutes after it opened. Such a large group of media members began to gather around him that Jones led the pack down a small hallway and back near the entrance to the field. Most reporters immediately stopped what they were doing and headed out after him.
“We had a little complaining last week about the marathon,” Jones began, referring to the 26 minutes he spoke with reporters after the Thanksgiving Day loss to the Bills. “This is going to be the shortest marathon y’all have ever heard.”
Jones then answered questions for eight minutes, confirming that there would be no coaching change before next weekend’s game against the Los Angeles Rams. He was much more vague while answering whether the team would look to sign a kicker after Brett Maher missed his third field-goal attempt in the last two games.
“They took it to us,” Jones said. “We just got to see if we can step in here and win a football game. I don’t care if we stay in contention all the way down until they have the playoffs. We got to start showing our fans – more importantly, showing ourselves – we can do the things to win the games.”
Jones’ dream scenario is for the Cowboys to win the division, get hot at the right time and make a Super Bowl run. But he also understands as poor outings continue to stack up that those dreams seem more and more unrealistic. Sure, they might stand atop an awful NFC East with only seven or eight wins, but their season will likely come to an end when facing any other playoff qualifier. The loss to the Bears drops Dallas to 6-2 against teams .500 or worse. The Cowboys are 0-5 against teams with winning records.
“I think we played hard,” head coach Jason Garrett said. “We didn’t play well. We didn’t play well enough.”
Does Garrett think the players are still buying in?
“I do,” he said. “I can see how they come to work every day, I see how they practice and, unfortunately, we didn’t carry the practice work to the game.”
Does Garrett have a sense that any players have quit?
“I don’t believe that,” he responded.
Garrett said he thinks one of the issues, particularly on defense, is players trying to do too much.
“I think sometimes that creates problems,” he added. “And we have to just get back into being more disciplined down-in and down-out. That’s the way you handle adversity. You execute.”
The defense finally won the turnover battle, 2-0, after not recording a single takeaway in the four previous games. Cornerback Jourdan Lewis intercepted a pass, only Dallas’ fifth of the season, and linebacker Jaylon Smith recovered a fumble. But the tackling continued to be sloppy, allowing struggling Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky to look like an MVP candidate. He rushed for a season-high 63 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries while also throwing for 244 yards and three more scores.
“The beautiful thing about it is we’re first in the division,” Smith said. “Any other division right now, probably be chalking it up. But for us, by the grace of God, we’ve been given life. We just need to decide what team we want to be. We all know what we’re capable of. The entire world does. But we have to put it together. And we’re going to make this decision.”
Garrett’s message to the team in the postgame locker room touched on one of Smith’s points, that they’ve been “given a gift” to still control their own destiny despite how poorly they’ve played. The problem is, the Cowboys have been sharing a similar message with reporters for several weeks, and the play on the field has not improved.
Jones tried to rally the group by criticizing his coaching staff after the loss in New England two weeks ago. Then came an intense speech from veteran defensive lineman Michael Bennett that could be heard outside the closed locker room following the Thanksgiving Day loss. This week, players talked about having some “chippy” practices, perhaps a sign that it would carry over to the game in Chicago.
None of it has worked.
“Just going out there and getting outplayed,” Ezekiel Elliott said. “We’re too good of a football team to be putting that on film. We got to figure out what we want this season to be. We still have hope. We still can get in the playoffs, but just the way we’re playing, that’s not going to really get us far.
“It’s just frustrating because it’s not clicking, we’re not playing well. You just really can’t put your finger on it, that’s the tough part.”
Elliott ran well at times, turning in a season-long run of 31 yards while finishing with 83 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries.
Prescott threw for 334 yards and a touchdown. Amari Cooper caught six passes for 83 yards and a touchdown. Michael Gallup had six catches for 109 yards. The problem is that most of those passing game statistics came in the fourth quarter while the Cowboys were trying to dig out of a 24-7 hole. Prescott totaled 110 passing yards in the first three quarters.
Dallas trailed 17-7 at halftime. The Cowboys’ scores after two quarters have matched up perfectly with their results. They have led at halftime in their six wins and trailed in their seven losses.
“Frustrating,” Prescott said when asked to describe the mood in the locker room. “I think that’s the best word for it. It’s a blessing, fortunate enough, I don’t know how it is, we’re still in the lead for our division. You have to be thankful for that. But we can’t hang our hat on that. We have got to figure out our issues right now, fix them and get better.”
At this point, it doesn’t seem like any momentum is going to be built off a hard-fought loss. Losing seven of their last 10 has dug a significant hole. Their hope is that a win can get things heading back in a positive direction. It looked as if that was happening with consecutive victories over the Eagles and Giants in Weeks 7 and 9. But since then, there’s been only one win: an unimpressive survival against a poor Lions team.
“A win is so huge in this league,” Cooper said. “They’re not easy to come by. Even if a team is 15-1, those 15 wins, not many of them are going to be easy to come by. I think definitely one win will get us back on track. We just have to go out there and get it.
“Everything is still in front of us. I really believe we can make a run and get hot.”
Here are five other notable postgame quotes from Thursday night.
1.) Prescott on if players have checked out and quit on their coach: “That’s false. False as ever. This team is focused on right now, and that’s the only thing that matters. Somehow we’re 6-7 and still in front of our division. Nobody’s looking past this day, this moment, this time, in the division, the chance of playoffs, and when you get to the playoffs, all of that’s gone – it’s washed out the window. So we believe in our coach, we believe in his message, we’re going out there and we just got to figure out as players what it is on game day. Throughout the week everything’s well. We’re preparing well. We had our best week of preparation this week from an offensive standpoint and went out there and just didn’t execute like we were supposed to. So when it becomes an execution matter and not a communication and not a scheme deal or a players’ deal, it’s hard to put it on the coach. So, us players, we look in the mirror first, and as I said, I know I’ll do it myself these next couple of days. I hope the other players will as well. I know the coaches will. We’ll evaluate ourselves, and we’ve got to figure it out now.”
2.) Cooper on remaining optimistic: “I’m still optimistic. Like Coach Garrett just said before you guys came in, we’re still No. 1 in the division. We’ve been given a gift. So I’m still optimistic about what this team can do. I know we have the right pieces in place, the right players, the right mentality. It’s just all about doing it now instead of talking about it.”
3.) Maher to reporters on his recent struggles: “I feel like I did a good job staying in my lane this week. I feel like I hit every ball pretty well tonight. I’ll put my head on the pillow tonight feeling good about what I did this week and moving forward.”
4.) Smith on Garrett: “Man, I love him. I love him. Just everything he stands for. For us, it’s just about getting the job done. He takes responsibility for it because he’s the head coach, but we’re grown men and we’re on the field, we’re not getting the job done. It’s not his fault. We’ve got to do it.”
5.) Witten on TV cameras catching an emotional outburst from him on the sideline: “I just, well, did you see the game? I was just trying to get something going. I have played a lot of football, and I realize this opportunity is rare for all of us. To be sitting here at 13 weeks in and still have a chance to win this division, you are just trying to get it going. I believe in this group, I believe in this team wholeheartedly. It is a good group of guys, and they are talented and work hard. But, you know, it is a show-me game. It has been for a long time, and we have to play better football.”
________________________________________________________________________________________
"Like Coach Garrett just said before you guys came in, we’re still No. 1 in the division."
