For the second straight week, the Dallas Cowboys were in a close battle with a struggling team. On Sunday, Dallas found a way to survive against the Indianapolis Colts.
During his latest appearance on 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM), Cowboys co-owner Stephen Jones compared his team’s performances over the last two weeks. He also said Dallas has a key lesson to learn after its 27-23 win over Indianapolis.
“I think it’s something that — it’s a learning experience. I still think we’ve got a long ways to go,” Jones said. “We’ve got to learn to win. We’ve got to learn to close. The game felt eerily similar to the week before as it was unfolding. I know Coach [Brian] Schottenheimer feels that way. We’ve just got to do some better things.”
What exactly are those things? Jones pointed at the Cowboys’ tackling troubles. In last week’s 33-30 overtime loss to Arizona, Dallas struggled to stop running back Tyler Allgeier as he ran for 147 yards. Multiple Cowboys missed tackles on Allgeier’s 63-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.
Dallas had a similar sequence in the third quarter of Sunday’s meeting with Indianapolis when Colts receiver Ashton Dulin ran past several would-be tacklers for a 55-yard touchdown reception.
“We’re certainly — definitely a work in progress. Certainly on defense, it feels like we’re making the steps. I thought we ran the ball good yesterday. I thought we made good plays, but we also had some drives that didn’t end up the way you’d like to see them end up in terms of moving the ball down the field and scoring.
“In this particular case, last week was no different closing the game out. We’re just not getting that done right now.”