FRISCO, Texas – Like the rest of the Cowboys, team owner/general manager Jerry Jones never expected a 28-point loss in Denver – the franchise's largest margin of defeat since the Saints dismantled Dallas 49-17 in the Superdome four years ago.
Jones was surprised by how efficiently the Broncos' offense performed and how thoroughly Denver's defense shut down the Cowboys' typically balanced attack.
He doesn't expect to see another struggle like that one.
"This team, the way we played, that's not us. I'm convinced of that," Jones said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan. "That is not us out there. We can go in here and learn from this."
The players made similar comments after the game.
"We're not going to point the finger," tight end Jason Witten said. "We're going to evaluate it and know that we can all do better, and bounce back. That's what this team is all about."
Said wide receiver Dez Bryant: "We just didn't play up to our standards. We know exactly who we are. We're not going to let this get us down."
The Cowboys have an extra day to regroup. They won't get back to practice until Thursday with a Monday night matchup at Arizona next.
Jones emphasized that an early-season loss like last Sunday's presents a "silver lining."
"If this is going to happen to you, if you're going to play like this, if you're going to have these kinds of results, the time to have it was last weekend," he said. "We can build from this. It's a young team. I've got a lot of optimism about what we can do this year."
