The Dallas Cowboys are 4-5 this season, and the pressure continues to build. The team will face the San Francisco 49ers in Week 10, who are the Super Bowl favorites this season. Dallas, clearly the underdog in this matchup, needs to avoid a loss as much as possible.
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“You have the San Francisco 49ers, who are playing the best ball out of anybody in the NFL, going into Jerry World, and they’re gonna completely embarrass him,” Richie Incognito said on Initial Contact. “Jerry is gonna sit there … see them come in there and absolutely kick their a**. And Jerry Jones is gonna sit there in his $2 billion building and say, “Where did I go wrong?
“… You got your guy Schotty there right now [head coach Brian] Schottenheimer, and he is just a lifeless non-motivator. … They spent all that money. They brought in all those players on defense. They made all those trades, and they got worse. I don’t know how that defense could get much worse. So we’re in firing season. Fire Christian Parker. He’s obviously not it. Jerry needs to fire himself as a general manager.”
First on the list is Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer, whose game management has raised serious questions. One of them was the Baltimore Ravens game in Rio, for which he gave himself an F. Dak Prescott, on a third-and-goal and only five yards away from the end zone, threw the ball away. George Pickens was waiting for a touchdown pass in the end zone.
“I probably overcoached Dak on that one, because we had the points,” Schottenheimer said. “And I probably overcoached him on that, because it had to go to with the time, no timeouts; it had to go to GP [Pickens] or [Prescott had to] throw it away. . . . That’s on me. I overcoached him.”
Then comes the defense.
The Cowboys have struggled to find the right defensive coordinator since Dan Quinn left after the 2023 season. Mike Zimmer took over in 2024, but Dallas finished 31st in points allowed and 28th in yards. Matt Eberflus replaced him in 2025, but the defense became even worse.
Hoping for a fresh start, Dallas hired Christian Parker, but even he has struggled to deliver results.
The team also added several solid players in an attempt to improve its defense. It drafted safety Caleb Downs from Ohio State, edge rusher Malachi Lawrence from UCF, and linebacker Jaishawn Barham from Michigan. The Cowboys also traded for linebacker Dee Winters from the San Francisco 49ers.
Along with those draft picks, Dallas acquired pass rusher Rashan Gary from the Green Bay Packers, signed safety Jalen Thompson and cornerback Cobie Durant as free agents, and added safety P.J. Locke to give the secondary more depth. However, the additions have yet to produce the desired results.
The Cowboys’ defense had a poor start to the 2026 season against the New York Giants, allowing 28 points and 394 total yards. The Giants also recorded 29 first downs against Dallas’ 21. Then there were the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who embarrassed the Cowboys with a 24-16 victory. This defense couldn’t stop rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels or RB Bucky Irving.
Up in the stadium’s special suite. Jerry Jones was visibly frustrated. After the game, he said he was “extraordinarily disappointed” by how the Cowboys played.
Despite all these struggles, Jerry Jones has not said anything about firing the coaches. Meanwhile, criticism of Jones as a general manager is also becoming more evident. The Cowboys’ failure to reach the NFC Championship Game since the 1995 season is one of the main reasons behind it.
Whether Dallas finds its bearings ahead of facing the San Francisco 49ers remains to be seen. Kyle Shanahan, easily one of the best offensive play-callers in the league, if not the best, will most likely have an easy time stressing the Cowboys. But if Dallas manages to upset San Francisco, perhaps the heat under Schottenheimer’s seat could go down a notch.