ATLANTA — Jerry Jones doesn’t know how much more losing he can take.
After watching the Dallas Cowboys drop another close game, the team’s owner was despondent as he stood in the locker room.
It’s an old routine that’s getting worse for Jones. Falling 19-13 to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday gave the Cowboys four losses in five games.
Jones never imagined in training camp that Dallas would be 3-5, but with Atlanta holding the ball for all but 17 seconds of the final 5:21, the Cowboys ran out of time.
“Very disappointed that we didn’t have a chance and play better in the second half,” Jones said. “A play here, a play there might have made a difference. They’re 8-0 because they’re a good team. They play tough at home.”
Romo completed 25 of 35 passes for 321 yards, but the Cowboys were held to 65 yards rushing, including 39 yards on nine carries by Felix Jones. DeMarco Murray missed his third straight game with a sprained right foot.
Witten finished with seven catches for 51 yards and now has 754 receptions for his career to surpass Michael Irvin’s franchise record of 750.
“Nobody’s going to give up,” Witten said. “We’re to stay working together and believe in each other, but obviously there’s a tremendous amount of urgency right now for our football team.”
Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan blamed himself and wished he hadn’t called a zone blitz on Turner’s 43-yard run late in the third that set up his TD run early in the fourth.
“I didn’t hold up my end, so it’s all on me,” Rob Ryan said. “It’s damn unfortunate right there, but it’s the truth.”
The Cowboys struggled most of the night to cover both White and Julio Jones, one of the NFL’s top receiving tandems.
“I really can’t think of one (defensive back) that didn’t have a missed tackle for the game,” safety Danny McCray said. “That’s just something that we need to go back and work on, look at the film and work on so it doesn’t happen again. Probably just bad technique. Getting lazy, getting complacent, thinking you’re just going to run up and make the tackle and it’s not happening for you.”
Jones insisted that Jason Garrett, whose record as coach dropped to 11-13, is in no danger of losing his job even though Dallas faces a tough task next week when it visits NFC East rival Philadelphia.
“I have a lot of faith in Jason,” Jones said. “Jason’s future is ahead of him. I know how hard he works. I like his philosophy, so I’ve got a lot of confidence, a lot of faith. One of the brightest spots I see is our head coaching and our coaching in the future.”
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