The Cowboys won a meaningless game on Sunday, allowing them to finish the year at 9-7 instead of 8-8. The cost? A drop from No. 16 to No. 19 in the first round of the draft.
For owner Jerry Jones, it was worth it.
“It’s important,” Jones said during a Tuesday appearance on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “We have had a winning season, had an ugly winning season. If you can deal with what we’ve dealt with and have a winning season, then let’s pick the main areas that we would like to improve upon and we’ll have a better won-loss record. But, no, I wanted that win a lot.”
Jones hopes to parlay 9-7 through adversity into something even better, with hopefully less adversity.
“Now -- the word N-O-W -- is very big,” Jones said. “Just by the nature of the rules of the NFL and what we do, then you can’t get it all done now. But ‘now’ is very important. This defense, we’ve really got it on the come. It’s going to be better. Quarterback, we’ve got a good footprint what we want to be with that offensive line and with running attack, and again we’ve got the quarterback. Let’s just get it coached up and get it out there and give ourselves a chance to be where we’re not right now. I’m not dismayed and you know I’m not going to get dismayed, but I am really taken back that we are not in these playoffs.”
The Cowboys have made it to the playoffs only three times in the last 10 years, winning only two playoff games since 1996. They’ve yet to return to the NFC title game since 1995, joining Detroit and Washington as the only NFC teams that haven’t played for a berth in the Super Bowl.
