Colin Cowherd didn’t waste much time zeroing in on the Cowboys’ biggest problem after Thursday night’s 24-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. For him, the issue starts at the top with Jerry Jones.
Dallas fell to 2-3 after five games, and the defeat stung even more because Tampa Bay came in winless and without starting quarterback Baker Mayfield. Instead of stabilizing things after a Week 4 win over the Houston Texans, the Cowboys let another chance slip away at AT&T Stadium.
On Friday’s edition of “The Herd,” Cowherd aimed his criticism at Jones’ philosophy when it comes to building a staff. His argument was simple: Jones will spend big on players and team infrastructure, but not on the coaches tasked with making it all work.
“In a salary cap league, there’s a ceiling. There’s two places where you can spend all you want, and it doesn’t count against the cap: coaching staffs and front offices; head coaches and GMs. And the Cowboys go cheap on those,” Cowherd said.
He also took a shot at Jones’ willingness to deal with coaches who have real backbone inside the organization.
“Strong coaches push back, and Jerry doesn’t like the pushback,” Cowherd said.
Cowherd went even further, painting a picture of a franchise that will pay for everything except the people in charge on the sideline and in the front office.
"Jerry will overpay top of the market for players, a yacht, a stadium, a practice facility, and go cheap on the coach. It's like hosting a party in a mansion and going: Who's doing the catering? … We called Subway" @colincowherd says it's time for Dallas to pay up for a coach pic.twitter.com/RxivQNNSMu
The loss also put a spotlight on a defense that has had problems through the first five weeks. Tampa Bay piled up 419 total yards, with 241 coming on the ground, and the Buccaneers repeatedly found room between the tackles.
That part of the performance clearly bothered Jones, too. After the game, he said he was “extraordinarily, extraordinarily disappointed” and singled out Tampa Bay’s success running inside.
For Dallas, the questions aren’t slowing down. The Cowboys now head into Week 6 with a road game against a struggling Green Bay Packers team on Oct. 18.
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