What did Cowboys owner Jerry Jones say about Prescott and McCarthy after Eagles loss?

The Dallas Cowboys suffered their fourth straight loss on Sunday, a 34-6 obliteration at the hands of their divisional rivals Philadelphia Eagles. It was the Eagles' first win at AT&T Stadium since 2017 and it was the Cowboys' fifth straight loss at AT&T Stadium, bringing their record for this season to a bleak 3-6.

This season was set up for failure from the beginning. While stars like quarterback Dak Prescott, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, and edge rusher Micah Parsons did return, several of their key players did not. And rather than find significant replacements, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones went the cheap route.

Head coach Mike McCarthy‘s season was on the line and he was expected to have a better record and make a deeper playoff run with a much worse team. Jones waited until the last moment to extend Prescott‘s and Lamb’s contracts, resulting in Lamb missing all of training camp and valuable time together with Prescott.

And in the end, several key players were injured, including Parsons by Week 4 and Prescott by Week 9. With all that in mind, here’s what Jones had to say about the situation with his head coach and quarterback.

Jerry Jones' comments on Prescott and McCarthy

Jones eventually did extend Prescott’s contract and made him the highest-paid player in NFL History. He might be regretting that now, and not just because he got injured.

“I don’t want to be sarcastic, but have you got the same arithmetic I’ve got? We’ve won three games with Dak,” Jones said after their loss to the Eagles on Sunday. “So, I’m just saying we weren’t playing well with Dak, at all. So, there’s a lot to work on here, and we are all aware of that, and [it’s] very concerning.”

“I thought that basically, we‘d look better tonight without Dak,” Jones went on. “I thought we‘d look better on offense than we looked without Dak.”

I rarely say this, but Jerry Jones is right...about the first part. Obviously, what I disagree with is that the problem was Dak and that the offense might actually play better under Cooper Rush (what a bold statement, honestly). No matter who was in at quarterback in that Game, it was hopeless from the start. That offense looked like one you‘d see in a preseason Game. That‘s what happens when you replace NFL starters with backups. But whose fault is that?

Well, Jones would say it‘s a bit of everyone’s, and sure, it is. And while Sunday‘s loss was certainly a huge failure on head coach Mike McCarthy’s part, Jones still won‘t be considering a coaching change mid-season, although it‘s almost certain he won’t be returning after this year when his contract is up.

“Everybody’s got a hand in this,” Jones said. “And we all know that the players play the Game, and we know the closest ones to them are the coaches. Closest one to them are the people that hire the coaches, and so everybody’s got a role in this. Everyone does."

“By the way, that’s no solace to have somebody step up here and say to the fans, ‘That’s my fault. I’ll take this one.’ What does that do? That doesn’t win the ballgame. And so I’m not trying to put that BS out either.”

Accountability certainly counts for something, and without it, we rarely see change. So it’s great that Jones included himself in the list of people to blame here, but at the same time, he’s defensive before taking any more of the blame than anyone else, despite being the most powerful person in the Cowboys franchise, who insists on having total control. When things are good, he can take the credit. Unfortunately for him, that backfired, as things have not been good since 1995.