FRISCO — It was early Sunday evening when Jerry Jones, headed to his private elevator taking him to his suite at AT&T Stadium after an emotionally draining victory, was asked if he felt vindicated.
“Yes, I do. Yes, I do,” the Cowboys owner said.
Jones is accustomed to receiving criticism from fans and the media. That comes with the job. But he traded away defensive star Micah Parsons. He said after a loss last month that making another trade wouldn’t help his team. Then he made a trade for the present and the future.
The gambler is back.
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With six games remaining in a regular season that didn’t have much hope, the 83-year-old owner and general manager feels good about where his 5-5-1 team sits.
Playoffs? That’s still hard to believe considering all of the things that need to happen. But making an August trade for Kenny Clark and eventually a deal at the deadline for Quinnen Williams to improve the run defense, signing Jadeveon Clowney at edge, and ignoring the criticism for hiring Brian Schottenheimer as head coach back in January, is working in Jones’ favor.
At least right now.
“Brian needs to be commended, and I know he’s going to get second-guessed from a decision, not only [as] head coach, but calling the plays,” Jones said. “And everybody likes to have them back.”
On Sunday, the Cowboys rallied from a 21-0 deficit to stun the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles, 24-21. The 21-point comeback tied for the largest rally in franchise history.
The Cowboys’ defense, with all the pieces acquired by the front office with Jones’ approval, stepped up when needed.
The victory accomplished a few things for the Cowboys: It was the first time the Cowboys defeated a team with a winning record this season. It was also the first time the Cowboys won in consecutive weeks.
The last time Dallas beat a team with a winning record was Dec. 22, 2024, when it defeated Tampa Bay, 26-24. That was also the last two-game win streak, beating Carolina and Tampa in Weeks 15 and 16.
“The important thing is we can say, we beat the world champ and we can say we also beat the team that, at the time we played them, was the top team in the league,” Jones said. “That’s big. That’s big. You got to have these little wins. It’s daunting ahead on our schedule, and our numbers of what we are going to do, to get in the playoffs. But that’s one right there I’ll be as proud of on my dying breath as I will any game we’ve won around here.”
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“I’m not going to say Super Bowl,” he said, laughing. “But I can dream and put it over there.”
The dream is the postseason.
The probabilities don’t look good.
Next Gen Stats projects the Cowboys with a 10% chance of making it. ESPN gives them 9%. The Athletic 14%.
Those are the stats. But looking at the schedule, the dream is alive.
Of the six teams remaining on the schedule, just one, the LA Chargers (7-4), are currently in the postseason, if it started today. Half the teams — Kansas City, Detroit and the Chargers — have winning records.
On Thursday, the Chiefs come calling. If the Cowboys can beat KC, it would mark their first three-game winning streak since the 2023 season, when they knocked off the New York Giants, Carolina and Washington to start a five-game win streak.
“We have to find that unique place that I was talking about being down,” quarterback Dak Prescott said. “We’ve had it almost going with every game with that mindset. It’s not one game at a time. We have to win every game. With that being said, you can only do that by winning every play and giving it your best every play.”
Jones saw his team down 21-0, not even halfway through a 60-minute contest, rally to win. So why not dream big?
The next three games, Kansas City (Thanksgiving Day), at Detroit and Minnesota, might determine if the Cowboys will watch playoff football in January or continue to dream about overcoming the odds.
“We won’t climb a bigger mountain to knock them all three off if you want to look at it that way,” Jones said. “That was quite an uphill pull [on Sunday]. And I think this will be inspirational.”
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