Stephen Jones says the Cowboys deserve to be 2-4 after many self-inflicted mistakes

Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones joined the K&C Masterpiece on 105.3 The Fan [KRLD-FM] recently to talk about Dallas' struggles and more. Here are some of the highlights.

How do you divide up fault between turnovers, execution, injuries, and maybe personnel?

Jones: “I think you just — you got to take the full body of work. There’s a lot of things that go into this. As we all know, this league is built on parity, salary caps, and there’s a fine line there. There’s very little room for error, and right now we’re making all the mistakes. We lead the league in negative turnover margin and that’s the ultimate recipe for losing. Probably fortunate we won the two games we won with turnover battle with the turnovers the way they’ve been. You know, we just — injuries are a part of this league. Some years you have more than others. Obviously, this year we’re getting a full dose of it, but you got to construct a team that can withstand it, and we’ve got a new coaching staff that’s got to get in here and continue to work with this group. It was unprecedented in terms of the offseason. We didn’t have a competitive offseason program where the coaches could be with the players and were able to spend time with them on the mental aspect of it. But we just got to keep grinding. This is a long season, a lot of football left to be played. Obviously, you’re not going to win many games if we continue to make the mistakes we’re making, and the flip side of that is we’re certainly not creating turnovers on the defensive side of the ball. But I don’t think anybody has a silver bullet here as to exactly what the right answer is other than we got to continue to go to work every day and get better. This is a good group of players. We’ve got to come together as a team. Obviously, we’re not doing that right now. I think Coach [Mike] McCarthy said it well last night. We’re just not doing things that good football teams do. We continue to put ourselves in a hole, which makes it even more difficult when you’re playing with pretty much one of the youngest offensive lines in the league when you look at what they’re doing. They haven’t played a lot together, and just got to continue to go to work.”

Has Mike McCarthy expressed to you what he learned about this team so far already?

Jones: “No, I think the biggest thing, and we all know it, is attribute, you know, a majority of this to the turnovers and the slow starts. At times we’ve, as we all know, we move the ball well. We got a good group, great group of receivers. We all know Zeke’s a great back, but we’re turning the ball over. And then on the defensive side of the ball, it’s a new scheme that we got to continue to get better at. We got them out to start the game three times, and we’re doing our job, and unfortunately, we weren’t doing our job on the other side of the ball. So, we just got to continue to work as a team. I know everybody, as you said, has their thoughts and certainly not positive ones now. We’re sitting 2-4. We deserve that. We had a coach through the doors, Bill Parcells, who used to say ‘you are what you are,’ and right now we’re a 2-4 football team that leads the team in negative turnover margin and we got to change that narrative.”

What does Zack Martin have to do to get out of concussion protocol and back out on the field?

Jones: “It’s medical. They obviously judge how he’s coming in the protocol each day. And as he makes steps and he shows no symptoms, then he’ll advance in the protocol. Certainly that’s what we hope will happen.”

Any guys coming back that can put a finger in the hole of this dam?

Jones: “As we know, we did end up getting Cam Erving back and hopefully we’ll get him back this week, and then we’ll get Randy Gregory. So, that will be great to get another pass rusher out on the field that can help us. The biggest thing is we’ve got to go to work and bring our lunch pail and get better as a team. At some point, we believe we’re going to eliminate these turnovers and change that narrative and we got to go win a football game. That’s the most important thing right now.”

Is there any point after a loss where it becomes a pound-your-fist-on-the-table moment, or is it too soon?

Jones: “I think it’s too soon. I think obviously Mike has his feelings and he certainly has his way as to how he addresses the team, and it’s internal. We’re going to go back to work and we’re going to improve as a football team.”

Click here to listen to the full interview.

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