While the Cowboys sweated through two-a-days in San Antonio, Jerry Jones spent the team's preseason delivering one long, drawn-out paean to his new stadium; he insisted at one point that the team would likely play to the level of JerryWorld, a sentiment that caused many to wonder if the owner was off-base...Or senile.
But apparently, the dizzying effects of stadium lust have left the owner, as his team stands at 6-2, atop the NFC East. Today on 105.3 The Fan, Jones admitted some fault in over-hyping the ultimately forgettable debut of the stadium against the Giants, a development that causes one to wonder if maybe it's a new day for the Cowboys, after all.
"I thought we came out of training camp in very good shape to be at that juncture of the year," said Jones. "That was a setback for us to have lost that first game, and we didn't play well, we had those turnovers, and that was a setback. Of course, the magnitude of the game, I am responsible for exaggerating the one game--the second game, I'm talking about the Giants game--because that was the opening of the stadium. We put such emphasis on it and literally, that was a down-time for this team. "
Jones continued, that such disappointment early in the season could ultimately benefit the team, citing the 1993 season, which started with an Emmit Smith contract dispute (leaving Derrick Lassic as the primary running back) and losses to Washington and Buffalo. Of course, that team went on to win the Super Bowl.
"To their credit, to everybody's credit, they've stuck in there," Jones said of the 2009 Cowboys. "There was disappointment at Denver, but those are the kinds of things, those disappointments... a team that can come back from disappointment is on sounder footing."
