Cowboys owner Jerry Jones criticized the coaching staff immediately after the team’s 13-9 loss to the Patriots. Executive vice president Stephen Jones wasn’t quite as pointed Monday morning but indicated ownership wants to see postseason progress.
“Certainly Jerry said it, I’ve said it: We want to take the next step this year,” Stephen Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. “We certainly can still do that. We’re still first place in our division. We’ve got to go get on a run right now and make the plays that we need to make to win the games that we need to win our division and then we have to go have success in the playoffs.”
Jerry Jones called Sunday’s loss “a significant setback,” and he is scheduled to talk publicly again Tuesday on his radio show on 105.3 The Fan.
The day Jerry Jones came out publicly and said he was not renewing Jason Garrett’s contract was the day the head coach was put on notice. But Garrett, who is in the final year of his deal, now sits on the hottest of hot seats.
Oddsmakers on Monday gave odds for the Cowboys’ next head coach.
Garrett, though, was not biting on any questions about his job security.
“We’ve just got to focus on coaching as well as we can and playing as well as we can,” Garrett said Monday night. “There certainly were some things in the game we have to get better at and we’re going to work on that as a staff and as a football team. But again, our eyes our forward on Buffalo.”
Garrett said he has not spoken to Jerry Jones since the loss to the Patriots.
“Typically, we have a personnel meeting on the Monday after the game, but we haven’t traditionally done that when we have the short weeks,” Garrett said. “We just get our eyes forward.”
The Cowboys are 6-5, a game ahead of Philadelphia in the NFC East standings, but their six victories have come against teams that are a combined 16-46-1. They have yet to beat a team that currently has a winning record, with losses to the Patriots, Packers, Saints and Vikings. Dallas’ other loss was to the Jets.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t win the ball game,” Garrett said of the Patriots. “Obviously, they’re a good team. They’ve been a good team for a long time, and we didn’t do enough to get the job done.”
The only question is whether Garrett will do enough to keep his job. It might take getting to the NFC Championship Game, something the Cowboys haven’t done since 1995 and something they appear incapable of doing this season.