The Dallas Cowboys found a new way to lose on Sunday, blowing a 17-3 lead late in the third quarter to an Arizona Cardinals team that had just benched its starting quarterback.
Arizona pulled Jacoby Brissett for backup Gardner Minshew, who hadn’t thrown a pass all season, and he rallied the Cardinals to a 33-30 overtime win at AT&T Stadium.
The loss dropped Dallas to 3-5, with three losses in its last four games. Naturally, that put head coach Brian Schottenheimer’s job security front and center after the game.
However, owner Jerry Jones doesn’t seem ready to make a change.
Jerry Jones Not Pulling the Plug on Brian Schottenheimer — Yet
Jones was asked after the game whether he’d consider making a coaching change in the middle of the season.
“That’s not in my mind at this time,” Jones stated. “This is an indictment of the whole show … This is a criticism of everyone.”
He also pointed to the one time he did it, and made it clear this situation is different.
“I’m not proud of it, but I made a change with Wade Phillips there in the middle of the season,” Jones said, via The Athletic’s Jon Machota. “I don’t see that here at all.”
Jones fired Phillips in November 2010 after a 1-7 start — the only midseason coaching change of his ownership. Dallas isn’t there yet, but the team isn’t exactly trending in the right direction either.
Jones also went out of his way to defend Schottenheimer.
“I will say that a lot of people let Brian down today,” Jones said. “For whatever criticism we have of Brian, we can all get in line.”
When asked if he was concerned about Schottenheimer not getting it done, Jones spread the blame around the entire building.
“Well, I don’t know,” Jones said. “None of us are getting it done and that should be my concern. So I’m not pointing at Schotty, I’m not pointing to anybody, but none of us have it done. I haven’t been involved in too many games that we should have wanted and we had the opportunities we had to win this game. So that is a big snapshot that we want to put above our mirror.”
Cowboys Trending in the Wrong Direction
Up until Minshew checked in with 1:35 left in the third quarter, the Cowboys defense was having arguably its best game of the season.
Then Arizona scored touchdowns on four straight drives.
Dallas had a chance to slam the door with 2:07 left, but couldn’t run out the clock and settled for a 41-yard Brandon Aubrey field goal with 1:09 remaining. That was plenty of time for Minshew, who marched the Cardinals 80 yards in 63 seconds and hit Michael Wilson for a 13-yard touchdown with six seconds left.
Kicker Chad Ryland pulled the extra point wide left, giving Dallas a lifeline in overtime. The Cowboys didn’t take it.
Josh Sweat sacked Dak Prescott to end their first overtime possession, and Ryland redeemed himself with a 42-yard game-winner on Arizona’s next drive.
The Cardinals outgained Dallas 467-261 and ran for 202 yards, with Tyler Allgeier piling up 147 yards on just 11 carries.
After taking over in 2025, Schottenheimer has just a 10-14-1 record during a stretch that includes a 7-9-1 finish in Year 1. Dallas still hasn’t won back-to-back games since last November.
Some believed the Cowboys could be legit payoff contenders this season — especially with the turmoil going on in Philadelphia — but after Sunday’s performance, it’s clear Dallas has regressed, if anything.
Jerry Jones Addresses Brian Schottenheimer’s Job Security After Cowboys’ Latest Loss