Cowboys' Stephen Jones 'absolutely' supports Brian Schottenheimer after another miserable showing, 2-4 start

Another disastrous Sunday for the Dallas Cowboys has led into another Monday of chatter around what's wrong with the team.

The focus continues to swirl around head coach Brian Schottenheimer.

The Cowboys produced a surprisingly tepid offensive effort in a 23-13 loss to the Packers on national TV Sunday night. On the heels of a 24-16 loss to the Buccaneers in Week 5, it marked the second poor outing for an offensive unit that’s been viewed as a strength of a team that now sits at 2-4.

The run game ranks 31st out of 32 teams with 76 yards per game, and a normally prolific pass game anchored by quarterback Dak Prescott has accounted for two touchdowns and four interceptions in the last two games.

Adding to the concern is that the return of All-Pro left guard Tyler Smith from injury the last two weeks has coincided with the team's struggles on offense.

Stephen Jones ‘absolutely’ supports Schottenheimer

Schottenheimer is a former offensive coordinator and the offensive play-caller for the Cowboys in addition to being the team's head coach. With the new-found concerns around the Cowboys offense, all questions about the team's struggles point to him.

Cowboys COO Stephen Jones, the son of owner Jerry Jones, made an appearance on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas Monday to talk Cowboys football. He, of course, was asked if the team maintained its confidence in Schottenheimer as head coach. His answer was unequivocal.

"Absolutely. There's not any question in Jerry's and I's mind," Jones said. "He has the team. There's no question they want to go out there and execute and make things happen.

"Feel really good as I've mentioned throughout this conversation about our coaching staff. We just have to continue to have it evolve and get to a point where we can win these football games."

In 38 years of ownership under Jerry Jones, the Cowboys have largely been hesitant to make coaching moves amid outside pressure to do so, particularly during the season. This appears to be the company line with Schottenheimer, whose seat apparently is not as hot internally as the Cowboys' record would suggest.

Jones admits ‘surprising’ offensive struggles

Stephen Jones reiterated throughout his interview Monday that the Cowboys "like our coaching staff" while acknowledging the obvious concerns on both sides of the ball.

"We probably had an unrealistic view of how fast we could get the defense turned around," Jones said. … "The surprising thing is we were playing so well on offense. All of last year, we played good offense and then certainly played well to start the season. And these last two games it is surprising in terms of how we're performing on offense.

"Our running game just hasn't come together this year up to this point. We certainly feel like we've got the players in our offensive line group and our running back."

Former player under Schottenheimer blasts Cowboys coach

While Jones says he's confident in his head coach, a former player under Schottenheimer is anything but. Former NFL wide receiver Braylon Edwards played under Schottenheimer when Schottenheimer was the offensive coordinator of the New York Jets.

The Jets lost consecutive AFC championship games in 2009 and 2010. They scored 17 and 19 points in those games, respectively. Edwards has been watching the Cowboys, and he blames Schottenheimer for those poor offensive outings in the Jets’ title game losses.

“Watching the Dallas Cowboys struggle two weeks in a row reminded me of why we as a Jets offense were terrible in back to back afc championship games in ‘09’ and ‘10,’” Edwards tweeted Monday. “mid OC by the name of Brian Schottenheimer.”

Edwards has held that grudge for 16 years and pounced on the opportunity of the Cowboys’ struggles to air it on Monday. And he certainly speaks for the frustrations of some of the Cowboys fanbase.

Thanks to an NFC East that doesn’t appear to have any good teams that’s led by the 3-2-1 New York Giants, the Cowboys can reasonably project to rally and win the division. But they’re under pressure to turn things around now.

They’ll face the 2-4 Philadelphia Eagles next Monday in a third-straight primetime game with a national TV audience. If they don’t get the job done then, it will became that much harder for Cowboys brass to continue to voice their support for Schottenheimer.