Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made his weekly radio appearance on 105.3 The Fan’s “Shan and RJ” on Tuesday morning to discuss the team’s upcoming playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Cowboys will be the road team against the Buccaneers for a Monday Night Football playoff game on January 16 at 7:15 p.m. CT.
Among the topics specifically discussed were Dallas’ record against Tom Brady, the differences between the teams since their first meeting at the beginning of the season, Dak Prescott’s performance, and the future of head coach Mike McCarthy.
Dallas has yet to beat Tom Brady in seven tries, including a 19-3 loss to start this season. Jones is plenty aware of that but says his team cannot afford to just concentrate on beating Brady.
“We’re not playing Brady,” he told the show. “[W]e’re playing Tampa Bay, the team. And it’s conceivable that we could make Brady not play well and get our tails beat by the rest of the team.”
There is evidence of that from the first meeting, as Brady did not play spectacularly, but Tampa Bay gashed the Cowboys for 157 rushing yards, and Dallas only managed 244 total yards of offense.
Jones did not hold back when asked about his team’s performance in that game.
“I remember us not playing very well. Vividly. We didn’t lose that game because of Dak’s injury. That happened at the very end of the game,” he said.
“We’ve got to be a lot better,” he added. “You’re not going to have anybody on the Dallas Cowboys going to Tampa with rose-colored glasses.”
Dak Prescott missed several games with that injury and has not looked the same ever since, tying Houston’s Davis Mills for the most interceptions thrown this season.
Jones also commented on Prescott’s season and his confidence level in his quarterback.
“It’s in Dak’s DNA not to turn the ball over … so I have all the confidence in the world that he as a player has all the right balance of confidence and all the right balance of aggressiveness as it pertains to turnovers.”
As for the secondary, the Cowboys are still looking for a viable option to emerge at the cornerback position opposite Trevon Diggs. Jones says there is a chance newly signed Xavier Rhodes gets a shot on Monday.
“It wouldn’t surprise me, absent of something happening this week, if he were in our active group. But we’ll see how this week goes on that. I can’t be definitive there,” he said.
The final topic discussed was the future of head coach Mike McCarthy.
The coach has taken some heat for failing to make the playoffs in 2020 and losing in the first round last season — causing many to speculate whether a loss this weekend could put his job at risk. When asked about McCarthy point-blank, Jones quickly dispelled all of that.
“No. I don’t even want to –- no. That’s it. I don’t need to go into all the pluses or minuses, but I’ve got a lot more to evaluate Mike McCarthy on than this playoff game,” he said.
I mostly quit watching any football but I have noticed over the years that dak and the cowboys play worse toward the end of the game and the end of the year. They are not closers.