Jerry Jones Says This Defense Is Better Than the Last Two. His Own Coordinator Named the Test.
The owner made a falsifiable claim after a 37-20 win. Christian Parker, hired to fix the unit, said in February exactly which two things would measure it.
Owners are rarely worth quoting on football. They speak in weather, and the weather is always improving. Jerry Jones did something different after Dallas beat Washington 37-20 - he made a claim with a shape, one that can be checked against the season rather than absorbed into it.
Useful next steps
The context sharpens it. Dallas had opened the year with a defeat, and Washington outgained the Cowboys on the night this was said. Jones was not describing a dominant performance; he was describing a direction, and he set the comparison against a specific period rather than against nothing. It is also a claim an owner did not have to make. A win takes care of a Sunday night by itself, and nobody had asked Jones to commit to a comparison with the last two seasons. He volunteered a standard, which is rarer and more useful than the usual reassurance, because it converts an opinion into something the rest of the year can confirm or contradict without his help. The games will settle it whether or not anybody quotes him again.
We're better than we've been in the last two years on defense.— Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager, after the Week 2 win over Washington
The useful thing is that his own defensive coordinator has already said how to measure it. Christian Parker, appointed in February, was asked what a defense is actually for and gave an answer narrow enough to test: "Definitely stopping the run and affecting the quarterback are the two most important things you can do." He located both in the same place - "The game is definitely won and lost up front" - which means the standard Parker set for himself is not takeaways, not points conceded, and not the eye test. It is whether the front controls a game.
The claim and its measuring stick
"We're better than we've been in the last two years on defense."
Dallas won 37-20, but Washington outgained the Cowboys on the night.
"Definitely stopping the run and affecting the quarterback are the two most important things you can do."
"The game is definitely won and lost up front."
Jones named a two-year baseline rather than speaking generally.
Clearing the last two Dallas defenses is not the same as being good.
That gives this season an unusually clean scoreboard. Jones has claimed improvement over a two-year baseline, and Parker has defined what improvement consists of, and neither man needs the other's agreement for the test to work. There is a real case for patience: Parker is a first-time coordinator installing his own system, and run fits are traditionally the last thing to come together in a new scheme, so a September sample is thin evidence against him. There is an equally real case for skepticism, which is simply that a bar set against the last two Dallas defenses is not a high one, and clearing it is not the same as being good. What makes the claim worth revisiting rather than dismissing is that Jones did not hedge it. He named a period, he named a unit, and the games between now and January will do the rest without anyone's help.
The owner said better than the last two years. The coordinator said it is won and lost up front. Between them they have written the test, and neither of them can now grade it.
Better, Or Just Better Than That
A first-year coordinator with his own system deserves more than two games, and run fits are always the last thing to arrive.
The comparison is against the last two Dallas defenses, which is a bar low enough that clearing it proves very little.
Parker's own two criteria. Whether this front stops the run and affects the quarterback, which is the standard he chose before a snap was played.
Around the site
Sources: DallasCowboys.com — Jones encouraged by the Cowboys' response in the 37-20 win, DallasCowboys.com — Christian Parker outlines his vision for the defense