Jerry Jones blames offense for Cowboys' fifth straight loss to Cardinals

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones pointed to his team's sputtering offense as the primary reason for a fifth consecutive defeat by the Arizona Cardinals. The home team lost 33-30 in overtime at AT&T Stadium on Sunday.

The Cowboys trailed until the final seconds of regulation when a missed extra point by Cardinals kicker Chad Ryland forced an extra period. Jones expressed frustration that his team failed to force a punt at the start of that period, instead matching the Cardinals' three-and-out.

Arizona drove to a field goal to seal the victory. The Cardinals, who are 3-5 on the season, have won five straight meetings against Dallas. They are also 5-0 at the Cowboys' home field, which opened in 2009.

"It's an indictment of the whole show," Jones said in the postgame press conference. He noted that Dallas held a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter before falling apart.

Jones declined to single out head coach Brian Schottenheimer, who has led the team for two seasons. Under Schottenheimer, the Cowboys have finished with a 7-9-1 record last season and are currently 3-5. The team has been above .500 for only one of the 25 weeks since the new coaching staff arrived.

"None of us are getting it done," Jones said. "And that should be my concern. So I’m not pointing at Shotty. I’m not pointing to anybody. I haven’t been involved in too many games that we should have won it. We had the opportunities we had to win this game. That is a big snapshot that we want to put above our mirror."

The Cowboys' defense initially limited Arizona, forcing three punts and two turnovers in the first seven possessions. The balance shifted in the third quarter when Tyler Allgeier broke free for a 63-yard touchdown. The defense then allowed three more touchdown drives in the fourth quarter, including one that covered 80 yards in 63 seconds with no timeouts remaining for the Cardinals.

In the first possession of overtime, the Cowboys defense stopped the Cardinals again. However, the offense failed to capitalize. Javonte Williams ran for two yards, quarterback Dak Prescott's pass was tipped at the line, and the team surrendered the ball after recording a season-high four sacks.

Prescott completed 19 of 29 passes for 195 yards. The running game, which had produced 204 yards in a win against Philadelphia the previous week, averaged just 2.4 yards per carry. Williams finished with 56 yards on 24 carries, down from a career-high 155 yards against the Eagles.

"At this point, talk is cheap," Prescott said. "Telling stories is cheap. We've got to go write on our story. We've put ourselves in this position."

Schottenheimer defended his staff while acknowledging the poor second-half performance. "I believe in our staff," he said. "I believe our players. I think we played a really good game in Philadelphia. And then we played pretty good first half here. Second half was not very good. So we got to look at the film and learn from it."