During the Cowboys‘ 30-27 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, the defense allowed former Dallas running back Rico Dowdle to go off for over 230 scrimmage yards, let quarterback Bryce Young post the second-highest passer rating of his career, and had no answer whatsoever as the 2-3 Panthers maintained possession of the ball for the final six minutes of the fourth quarter and kicked an easy walk-off winning field goal as time expired.
Cowboys fans may have been left dumbfounded by what they had seen. But Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who rarely misses an opportunity to spill his thoughts into the nearest microphone, was also at an uncharacteristic loss for words.
The billionaire owner, who will turn 83 on Monday, did not speak to reporters outside the locker room at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte after the sobering defeat that sent his club to 2-3-1 on the season.
Jerry Jones is not talking today after the game
— Clarence Hill Jr (@clarencehilljr) October 12, 2025
That is a highly unusual development coming from Jones, who has long been the most visible and readily-accessible owner in the NFL and has seldom shied away from addressing the media; win, lose, or draw.
Some fans immediately took Jones’s rare silence as an ominous sign that the week will bring a swift and dramatic change of some sort to The Star in Frisco.
Most are zeroing in on defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus.
Hopefully he’s busy shopping for a new defensive coordinator…..
— The Common Sense Juan (@mexiace) October 12, 2025
Someone is getting fired, Jerry loves to talk
— TEXAS OUTLAW (@TEXOUTLAW1) October 12, 2025
Good. The only words I want after the game is “Matt, we’re going to have to part ways”
— Alex (@justwalkitoff13) October 12, 2025
Somebody ass getting fired! https://t.co/S0bVwEUfqq
— Dez Bryant (@DezBryant) October 12, 2025
Entering Week 6, the Cowboys defense had allowed the most points of any NFC team and more yards per game than any team in the league. By contrast, they had recorded just three turnovers and ten sacks, both among the lowest totals across the NFL.
But immediately following the embarrassing loss, Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer deflected blame away from his first-year assistant when asked if the team’s personnel is capable of working in the system Eberflus has installed.
“Yeah, absolutely. No question about it. We’ve got to coach better. We’ve got to play better,” he responded in his postgame press conference. “We have to be better, and it’s not just the defense; it was the offense.”
Yet it was the defense who let Dowdle average 6.1 yards per carry and give up over 11 yards per completion while missing tackles and blowing coverage assignments, often stopping midplay to throw up their hands in confusion and frustration.
If anything, Schottenheimer put the onus on himself as well as the players, like when one reporter asked if the Cowboys defenders believe in Eberflus’s scheme.
“That’s the bigger question. I would think so. I would hope so. I mean, what are we, six games in?” he said. “There’s a consistency that’s not showing up, and we’ve got to be better, and that starts with me, that starts with the coaching staff.”
The 55-year-old Eberflus was hired for the defensive coordinator job just four days after Schottenheimer was named head coach in late January. This is his second stint with the organization. The Jones family reportedly wanted Eberflus- the linebackers coach for seven years- to take over for Rod Marinelli after the 2017 season, but Eberflus opted not to undercut his mentor. He went on Indianapolis instead as DC and then spent two-plus seasons as the head man in Chicago.
Schottenheimer referred back to some of those successes in explaining why he trusts Eberflus to fix the myriad defensive issues plaguing this Cowboys team.
“Matt’s a great coach,” Schottenheimer explained. “He’s been around. Everywhere he’s ever been, he’s had good defenses. It’s not just Matt by himself. Matt’s trying. You know, the players are trying. This is not lack of effort. This is not that.”
The coach pointed to specific deficiencies- namely, poor tackling and run-gap control- adding that the staff would address those problems in practice. But he won’t blame Eberflus or any individual players for the current failings of the unit.
“It’s frustrating as hell, but you don’t point fingers,” he said. “You look at the film, we’re going to see it. It’s going to jump off the film, the things that we didn’t do well. And we’ll get them fixed. And I don’t worry about this team starting to point fingers in any way, shape, or form.”
But the Cowboys can’t cut the entire defense. So a lot of fingers, at least the ones outside the building, are pointing squarely at Eberflus as the thing that needs to change.
And this week, those digits will start pointing at Jerry (who himself spent much of last week talking about fingers) and demanding to know how much longer Eberflus and his downright bad defense will be allowed to drag down a high-powered Cowboys offense in an honest-to-goodness MVP-caliber season from Dak Prescott.
Jones has historically been reluctant to make drastic coaching changes midseason; he routinely calls his 2010 firing of head coach Wade Phillips- eight games into the season- as one of his regrets as owner.
The regrets Jones will admit to are rare… maybe even rarer than his not speaking with the media when given a chance. And if he’s not demanding that Schottenheimer dismiss Eberflus in an attempt to save the Cowboys’ season, Jones will have to start answering questions- sooner rather than later- as to why.
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This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Jerry Jones shuns media after Cowboys loss; HC defends Matt Eberflus
