Jerry Jones didn’t defend Brian Schottenheimer on Tuesday. He didn’t bury him, either. Speaking on 105.3 The Fan, the Dallas Cowboys owner said nobody, including the coaching staff, has a satisfying explanation for the clock management at the end of Sunday’s 34-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Rio de Janeiro.
“There’s no explanation that you’re satisfied with. None. Let’s be sure that we all understand that. [The coaching staff] doesn’t have one that they’re satisfied with … There’s an evaluation of how to not make the same mistakes again, which is what you should be doing,” Jones said. That’s a long way from the shrug Jones gave Mike McCarthy’s clock issues for years.
Why Jones’ words carry weight
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The sequence gave him plenty to be upset about. Dallas took over at its own 35 with 1:30 left, trailing 31-28, and reached the Baltimore 2-yard line with 23 seconds and a timeout left. A Luke Schoonmaker false start pushed the Cowboys back to the 7, Dak Prescott scrambled for 2 yards, and Dallas burned its final timeout with 14 seconds to go. Prescott threw the ball away on third-and-goal, Brandon Aubrey tied it with a 23-yard field goal and Baltimore needed only two plays before Tyler Loop hit a 56-yarder as time expired.
Schottenheimer owned part of it. “I probably overcoached Dak on that one,” he said of the third-down call. Dallas then kicked into the end zone, giving the Ravens the ball at their own 35 with enough time for Lamar Jackson to get into range. The Cowboys had a 77.5 percent win probability with 20 seconds left, and NBC analyst Mike Tomlin called the coaching “negligent.”
That’s why Jones’ comments land the way they do. He didn’t say anyone’s job was in danger. But the owner publicly framing Sunday as a mistake the staff has to be evaluated on, in Schottenheimer’s second season and with Dallas sitting at 1-2, isn’t nothing.
The Cowboys visit the winless Houston Texans at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 4, on FOX. Another late-game mess would make Jones’ next radio appearance a lot less measured.
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