Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is frustrated with how things are going in 2025. The Cowboys thought they had a playoff roster on their hands this year, but despite a top-five scoring offense, they are 6-7-1 and well outside of the NFC playoff picture and have less than a one percent chance of making the postseason.

The Cowboys’ struggles this year stem from issues on the defensive side of the ball. First-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer has done a terrific job with the offense, but his defensive coordinator, Matt Eberflus, has struggled to come to grips with this defense.

With just three games left in the regular season, Eberflus’ unit ranks 31st in scoring (30.0 points per game), 29th in total defense (374.9 total yards per game allowed), and 32nd against the pass (254.8 passing yards per game allowed). Their run defense was also horrible for the first part of the season, but Jones’ move to acquire Quinnen Williams at the trade deadline has paid off, with Dallas now ranking 18th in rushing defense (120.1 rushing yards allowed per game).

Sunday night’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings encapsulated the Cowboys’ struggles this season pretty well. Their offense put up 26 points at home, but they lost because their secondary allowed J.J. McCarthy, who looked like one of the worst quarterbacks in the league for a couple of weeks, to throw for 250 yards and two touchdowns. In his first media appearance since the loss, Jerry Jones was very critical of his defensive coordinator, saying it’s very telling when every quarterback plays much better against them than they do against other teams.

Jones’ rant continued, with the Cowboys owner telling the media that the talent isn’t the issue; it’s the system Eberflus has in place.

Jerry Jones calls for a system change in Dallas

After Jones called out Matt Eberflus for Dallas’s struggles defending the pass, he went on to say that he’s satisfied with the players on the roster; he doesn’t think the system is set up for them to succeed. He believes it’s on Eberflus to adapt his scheme to his players, not the other way around.

Eberflus’s defenses tend to have a problem defending the pass. During his tenure as a head coach in Chicago, his defenses ranked 17th, 18th, and 25th against the pass. Even before he was a head coach, he was the defensive coordinator in Indianapolis for four seasons, and there his defenses ranked 15th, 19th, 20th, and 23rd in passing yards allowed per game.

At some point, instead of blaming the players, you’ve got to blame the coach. This will be the seventh time in eight seasons since Eberflus took over as the defensive coordinator in Indianapolis that his defense has finished in the bottom half of the league in passing yards allowed per game.

Something’s got to change in Dallas. Whether they get Eberflus to change his scheme or just straight up fire him, I don’t know. But changes will be made in Dallas. Jerry doesn’t like to miss the playoffs, especially when he has one of the best offenses in football.