FRISCO, Texas – With four games remaining in the regular season, the Cowboys still have a chance, albeit it slim, to reach the postseason after an Eagles loss on Monday night football.
As Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones put it, the team is also getting healthy at the right time and could have some of their key pieces back in the lineup as early as Sunday for the closing stretch of the regular season.
Let's dive into that and more from Jones' weekly radio show on 105.3 The Fan:
Door is still open for the playoffs
With Philadelphia dropping to 8-5 after a 22-19 loss in overtime to the Chargers on Monday night, the Cowboys now sit one and a half games behind the Eagles for the lead in the NFC East. Jones was excited about the fact that the chance is still there.
"Real excited. They didn't have to put any field in the plane, I just flew up here on my own…" Jones said of his reaction to the game. "I know it's cliché, but we've got to concentrate on the Minnesota Vikings this weekend. That's a big game for us. Boy, you see you need to stay in there every play, every play is meaningful right at this particular time, and we've sure got a shot at this thing."
Should Dallas win all of their last four games, Philadelphia would need to lose two of their remaining four games in order for the Cowboys to capture the division for the second time in the last three years.
No concerns with George Pickens
There was a lot of conversation surrounding WR George Pickens' effort in the loss against the Detroit Lions last Thursday, something that Jones warned to be "very careful" in terms of criticizing him about. On Tuesday, he made clear again that he had no issue with Pickens' performance.
"Just so that I'm real clear about it: I don't have the concern about the debate about what George Pickens did or didn't do in that game. I don't have that kind of concern about him as far as his competing and helping us win football games on the field, at all."
On Monday, head coach Brian Schottenheimer said he and Pickens spoke about a social media post Pickens made in response to former NFL CB Richard Sherman, who said Pickens looked "disengaged amongst other things, and did not disclose the details of the conversation but did say: "I love watching the guy play football."
More playing time coming for Logan Wilson?
Since his arrival in Dallas after being traded for at the deadline, LB Logan Wilson's snap count on defense has fluctuated. Jones was asked about fellow LB Kenneth Murray's play and hinted that there could be more of Wilson on the way.
"I'm sure you'll see more of Logan than you might've seen the other day, that's natural because this is Logan's [fifth] game coming up," Jones said. "The main thing is that we do have some alternatives there, we can do some things that will give [Murray] some better keys, but the big thing is that he's got some good competition there and that's as much as you can ask for to correct something at this time of year."
With Wilson joining the team during a four games in 17 days stretch, it becomes challenging to pick up an entire playbook that quickly. Now with an extra few days leading into Minnesota, it could give Wilson a chance to digest it more and lead to more playing time.
Updates on the injury front regarding Trevon Diggs, others
Against the Lions, the Cowboys were expecting at the beginning of the week to have CB Trevon Diggs, who was recovering from a knee injury, back on the field. Ultimately, that didn't happen, but Jones is optimistic with the extra time to recover and a good week of practice Diggs can make his return against the Vikings.
"We had some expectations that probably leaned towards him playing last week, and it didn't happen. And that's the nature of injury," Diggs said. "In his particular case, that was right at a game time decision. So we'll take a look and do the very same thing this week, if he's ready to go and has the week of practice… and we got lot of eyes on him… If he likes what he sees, feels, if we like what we see in terms of putting him out there, he'll be active."
Additionally, Jones seemed optimistic about the potential of having WR CeeDee Lamb, OT Tyler Guyton and DE Jadeveon Clowney back on the field as early as Sunday night.
"If we can get two out of three of those guys, that'd be a big gain for us." Jones said.
KaVontae Turpin's back-to-back weeks of kickoff penalties
In the last two games, Cowboys All-Pro KR KaVontae Turpin has been penalized twice for an invalid fair catch signal. It's a rare penalty in and of itself, but to have it in back-to-back games as a returner of his caliber is unusual. That said, Jones is banking on the past with Turpin.
"He's caught a lot of kicks, he's caught a lot of punts that he doesn't have that problem with. You go with the odds here, how often has that happened in his career? A fraction, a fraction of times. Not enough to even be a concern other than stop it. Concentrate on it and stop it."
It's a fix that seems fairly simple, and certainly will look to be a point of emphasis for Turpin going forward.
