Cowboys owner Jerry Jones cheers from the sideline. (Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News)
On top of dropping their second game of the season Monday night, the Dallas Cowboys lost defensive captain Justin Durant (torn right biceps) for the season, and quarterback Tony Romo is uncertain for Sunday’s game with a bruised back.
How worried is Jerry Jones about the current state of his team?
“I think that we all knew going into the game that every game and every series impact the psyche of the team,” the Cowboys owner and general manager said Wednesday on 105.3 The Fan [KRLD-FM]. “I will tell you, after the game, this team had the attitude that you wanted to see. It was mad as all get out, the team in general, everybody. They were just as mad at themselves, mad at each other, just mad, because we felt like we were at home and should’ve ended up with a win.
“We know we’ve got challenges ahead. We said that last week when we were 6-1. If this season is like all of them are, we’re going to have some serious challenges as we move forward, and we’re going to miss having not won that game, there’s no question about it.”
Jones later pointed out that sitting at 6-2 leaves the Cowboys in better position than 25 other NFL teams that are dealing with more than two losses.
And Jones certainly isn’t worried about his team listening to the hype that comes with having one of the league’s best records after eight games.
“I don’t think this team is in that frame of mind,” Jones said. “Everybody realizes that we got to have it right for us defensively. We don’t need to be getting tired out there, even with our rotation, we need to stay as fresh as we can. We need that balance of possession in a game, we need that to go our way. So all of those things are part of it.
“We’ll learn from this and we will use parts of what happened to us Monday night to get better. We just got to have a team here than can withstand the attrition that normally goes on in a football season and hope it doesn’t happen to a player like Romo.”
Follow Jon Machota on Twitter: @jonmachota