ARLINGTON, Texas – Fresh off what he called one of the toughest losses he'd experienced, Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones was bound to field questions about his head coach's future.
Anyone hoping for Jones to make a drastic decision or a bold statement in the wake of the Cowboys' 37-36 loss to Green Bay left disappointed, though. With plenty of speculation about a potential coaching change this year, Jones declined to add fuel to it.
"Let me just say this: I'm clear and I don't choose to talk about that or talk about several things about the franchise or the team right now," Jones said. "This is not appropriate to talk about it right now. We've just had a loss."
Jones caused a stir in the lead up to the Cowboys' Nov. 24 game against New York when he backed Garrett to keep the head coaching job, regardless of whether the team reached the postseason. That topic was bound to come back up after Dallas surrendered a 23-point lead Sunday, but Jones was defiant in his focus on the remainder of the Cowboys' season.
"We've got to rebound. We've got a ball game coming up, and, by the way, Garrett will coach that game against the Redskins. So write about that," he said. "He'll coach our ball game we've got coming up, and as far as I can see in the future, he will be coaching games for the Cowboys."
It was a measured response to an emotional situation. The Cowboys led by 23 points at halftime, and they led by 12 points halfway through the fourth quarter. The totality of the collapse prompted reporters to ask Jones if he was mad enough to fire someone – be it Garrett, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, or another.
"If I thought getting mad at it would do some good, I'd have been mad a long time ago," he said. [embedded_ad]
Instead, Jones focused on the positives he could glean from the loss. The Cowboys racked up 332 yards of offense on the Packers in the first half, highlighted by 93 yards and a touchdown from DeMarco Murray, and four field goals from Dan Bailey.
Ideally, Jones said, the Cowboys could build on their first half performance while cleaning up the mistakes of the disaster that occurred after halftime.
"The main thing we've got to do is somehow get over this second half – not the first half," he said. "Take the first half, and play better, play as well as we played in the first half, come back and give us a chance against Washington."
