DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - Sunday afternoon's 26-6 loss to the Washington Commanders might have been the worst one of the season for the Dallas Cowboys, who will enter the Wild Card round as the No. 5 seed against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
But following the loss, Cowboys owner and GM Jerry Jones was nothing but confident that the can turn all of the negatives from Sunday into a learning experience and improve heading into Raymond James stadium.
"There's no doubt in my mind that as a team, not just individually, but as a team we can come back and take this nightmare -- whatever you want to call it -- and turn it into a plus," Jones said. "I'm thrilled that we've got the opportunity and I'm thrilled that we didn't have to look over there at the Philadelphia game and the San Francisco game and say, 'Boy, did we mess up.'"
Jones is seemingly counting on the competitive edge of the Cowboys players, who he believes will see the embarrassment at the hands of their rival as ample motivation.
Related
"We get to suck on that all week," owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. "If that doesn't make you want to get ready to go in about six, seven days, nothing else will. That was as thorough a butt-kicking as we've had this year, and we're going to find out if that'll get you ready or not. It should with what these guys are made of."
Speaking of embarrassing, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott will be coming off one of the worst games of his career vs. the Commanders, completing just 14 of 37 passes for 128 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
However, echoing the sentiments of Jones, Prescott believes the Cowboys can take Sunday as a lesson, and learn from it heading into the matchup.
"No, this one won't linger," Prescott said. "Yeah, I mean, it's easy to go back and look at our body of work and what we've done, especially with this not anywhere in those past 16 games. So when you have a performance like this, whatever it was, whatever the reason may be, we've got to individually look at it, take accountability, learn from it and then understand when the plane touches down we're on to Tampa.
Related
The Cowboys have already faced the Buccaneers this season, getting blown out 19-3 at AT&T Stadium, in a game that Prescott was forced to leave early due to injury.
However, despite that loss, Prescott still believes the Cowboys are in a good spot to move forward into the Divisional Round.
"We know who they are," Prescott said. "Played them twice these last two years, and it's going to be a good one."
Kickoff is set for 7:15 on ESPN and ABC on Monday Night Football.