Are Cowboys’ defensive issues more on the players or coaches? Jerry Jones responds

The Dallas Cowboys are a little less than midway through the season, and it hasn’t gone too well thus far.

And Cowboys fans, in turn, are starting to point fingers.

Dallas is coming off a blowout loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday that dropped their record to 3-4-1. Though the players certainly didn’t pull their share of the weight in the 44-24 loss, there was plenty of blame placed at the feet of Brian Schottenheimer and his controversial decision to punt on a critical fourth down in the second half.

That, and of course the mess that is the defensive side of the ball under coordinator Matt Eberflus.

Cowboys

In his weekly visit with “Shan and RJ” on 105.3 The Fan, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was asked if the issues this team has faced on defense fall more on the players or on the coaching staff?

Read Jones’ full answer below.

Question: “What gives you confidence that the issues on defense are player-related and not coaching-related?”

Jerry Jones: “I’ve seen them do what we’re asking them to do, the players. And I’ve seen the individual players make the kind of plays [and] practice the way we want them to practice. So I’ve seen them do it, so I’ve got belief that as we continue to go forward we’ll do better, and I think that’s the best way to say it.

“We didn’t play well across the board for whatever reason against Denver, it was a big game for us. It’s disappointing, I know how disappointed our fans are, but the answer here is not a single position. An answer here is just to get better at what each of the players are doing that we wanna do.

“Help on the way is important, we do have, as we look ahead, two or three key players [returning], and we’ll get healthy at safety. We’re suffering with our depth right now at safety and having to play some players that are a little unfamiliar compared to the veteran players we thought we’d have back there. But that’s not an excuse, that’s a fact. But we should be able to play better than we played Sunday even in those circumstances.”

The Cowboys look to bounce back against the Arizona Cardinals in Dallas’ first Monday Night Football game of the year, with Arizona hopeful it will get back starting QB Kyler Murray in time for the matchup.

Click here to listen to the full interview.

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