Believe it or not, sitting at 4-9 on the season, the Dallas Cowboys haven't been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. Their win against the equally football-poor Cincinnati Bengals in Week 14 keeps their hopes alive for at least one more week, but they'll have to win out and get a lot of help in order to find their way into the NFL playoffs -- be it as NFC East champ or in a wild card seat. Those odds are slimmer than the side of sheet of tissue paper though, but the least the Cowboys can do is try and end an abysmal season on a positive note, as owner Jerry Jones sees it.
Jones has stiff-armed any talk of a potential tank job in Dallas, preferring his players and coaches do all they can to win and let the chips fall where they may. As it stands, the Pringles are lining up to see them land a top-5 pick, which already has the forward-thinking Jones pondering a trade down to throw the kitchen sink at the needy defense, and likely ditching defensive coordinator Mike Nolan in the process.
The 2021 NFL Draft aside though, as is usually the case and as evidenced under Jason Garrett in times wherein the Cowboys had no playoff to look forward to, Jones wants wins to finish out the season.
He believes that will combine with lessons learned to create positive momentum for 2021.
"Oh yeah, and I think adversity can be used to build when you're dealing with it," Jones told 105.3FM the Fan ahead of their Week 15 meeting with the San Francisco 49ers. "I don't recommend it if you can not have it. But, I certainly agree with Mike when he said you could take this disappointment we've had wasn't planned. You can take some of the things we've been dealing with, and you can use that.
"Our sport -- football is a game that you can do that with. And it's more than psychological. You can just look at basically how you did it, how you approached whether it be a technique or how you're trying to do it in a particular scheme. You can learn from the negatives in football."
And, to that end, Jones hopes the Cowboys begin stacking wins to both end the season on a positive note and to use that as a means of mentally creating a platform to begin climbing in 2021.
"You want to reinforce by repetition positive play, but certainly you can really learn from downtimes in football," he furthered. "And you don't want much of it. I've heard that, well, 'You play loose, you play loose, you play loose.' You become that. You become a loser.
"I've been a part of teams that really disappointed -- terrible letdowns -- and then turn around and win it all quick. And that really is what I was a part of in college as well as the times we've done well with the Cowboys, is when we've got something to prove in a certain area of our makeup."
As for head coach Mike McCarthy's future with the team, the elder Jones joined team exec Stephen Jones this week in confirming CBS Sports' reporting from Sunday ahead of the matchup with the Bengals, in that McCarthy was completely safe from being fired this coming offseason -- one year into his five-year deal.
"Not one time, not one time have I been in any discussion, had any dream, been sitting by myself, have I given a thought to anything but Mike McCarthy being our coach next year, and being our coach in the future," said a firm-standing Jones. "How in the hell something like that could get going with a conversation with Stephen or anybody else about whether McCarthy is going to be the coach or not is ridiculous. Now, just think about it: we just made the move to start down the road with our coach, and we all understand that continuity, really sticking with a plan and having a long-term plan to put your team together around a particular coach and his style -- his ability to just put a winning team on the field.
"He won't do it the same way he did it in Green Bay. I'm talking Mike McCarthy. But the facts are does he have the background, does he have the experience, does he have the skillset, does he have the ability to motivate. Does he have the knowledge? The answer is yes, and that's why we hired him."
As Jones has admitted on previous occasions, however, nobody signed up for 4-9 in Year 1. Keeping an optimistic view though, he reiterated comparisons between McCarthy's inaugural year with Cowboys coaching legends of yesteryear -- even if they're not exactly apples-to-apples comparisons.
"We didn't hire him to sit here and have a rough year right out the door," said Jones. "Some of your greatest jobs have been done coaching for the Dallas Cowboys had a very unimpressive start, whether it be Coach [Tom] Landry or Jimmy Johnson or even Bill [Parcells]. Those starts have not been something that had Super Bowl written all over them, but they evolved into being a part of some great teams. ... I've been known to stick with these guys with early troubled times on coaching.
"I don't understand how frankly ridiculous this conversation is in terms of actually having any meat on the bone. I don't think I've ever dreamed the thought of Mike not being the coach."
By all accounts, Nolan won't get the same chance at a mulligan after leading a historically bad defense that often shows lack of effort and has -- at times -- had very public rifts/disconnects with the defensive coaching staff. For McCarthy, however, it's all about trying to appease Jones with wins in the Cowboys' final three games, even if it doesn't end in a playoff seat.
Jones wants to get the ball rolling on winning games again right now -- not later.
