ARLINGTON, Texas -- For clarity's sake, Jerry Jones answered the burning question very bluntly.
"Well, I'm just not going to make a coaching change," Jones said.
The Cowboys' owner/general manager met with a crushing crowd of reporters for 28 minutes on Thursday night, just moments after his team's 26-15 loss to the Buffalo Bills. And across all 28 of those minutes, the constant theme of the evening was Jason Garrett's future.
Thursday's loss was the second-consecutive setback for the Cowboys' head coach, who is now sitting on a .500 record after starting the season 3-0. And after Jones spent much of the week publicly criticizing his coaching staff for its deficiencies in Sunday's loss to New England, it was only fair to ask if this served as a breaking point.
Jones wasn't just emphatic with his "no," but he also explained his reasoning in why.
"This is not the time," he said. "For me, I'm looking ahead at another ball game and I'm looking ahead at winning four or five straight and helping write the story that they'll talk about how it looked like you were down and out and you got it back."
Sitting here at 6-6, that sounds like an awfully tall order. The Cowboys have yet to beat a team that with a winning record, as Jones was reminded on several occasions. They have dropped games to four playoff contenders, adding insult to injury with a 24-22 loss to the 4-7 New York Jets.
Having said all that, the Cowboys remain on top of the NFC East. Thanks to the benefit of tiebreakers, they will remain there through the weekend, no matter what the Philadelphia Eagles do on Sunday against Miami.
To hear it from him, Jones is expecting his team to reverse its fortunes in the month of December -- and he still trusts that he has the personnel in place for them to do so.
"Every decision that I make over the next month will be with an eye in mind to get us in the Super Bowl, now," he said.
Let it not be said that Jones isn't self-aware, though. Coming off a double-digit loss at home, it's hard to imagine the Cowboys stringing together a month of good results. Next week features a daunting cold weather to road trip, and that's followed by back-to-back games against playoff contenders -- the Rams and Eagles.
"I would normally say 'You're really smoking something.' I normally would say that," Jones said. "But I know the room, and I see the room. And I'm the one that OK'ed and put the coaches that are in that room in there. And I believe in this group."
