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The Dallas Cowboys got the job done on Christmas Day, and owner Jerry Jones credits his pre-game gift giving as a reason why.
The 83-year-old revealed in a radio interview that he dressed as Santa Claus and visited his players at their hotel on Wednesday night prior to facing the Washington Commanders to pass out some presents and get his team in the holiday mood.
“I know this (team) got so much out of it, I’ll never forget it,” Jones said to 105.3 The Fan. “A lot of fun.”
Dak Prescott and the Cowboys proceeded to take down the Commanders, 30-23, to sweep their rivalry series this season. Unfortunately for Dallas, though, the win didn’t help them with the playoffs, as they were already eliminated heading into the contest.
Jones didn’t divulge the presents he passed out to the team.
COWBOYS HANG ON BEHIND DAK PRESCOTT AS COMMANDERS’ RALLY FALLS SHORT ON CHRISTMAS DAY
The Cowboys are now 7-8-1 on the season, which certainly wasn’t what they had in mind entering the season. They moved on from head coach Mike McCarthy after last season, replacing him with offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer in his first head coaching gig in the league.
The Cowboys’ offense, introducing new running back Javonte Williams and wide receiver George Pickens, has been one of the best units in the NFL, averaging 398.6 yards of offense per game now after the victory on Thursday. They also average 28.4 points per game.
The flaw in most games has been the lack of defense, which has given up the third-most yards per game in the NFL this season (376.8) and 29.8 points per game.
But they were able to hold off the Commanders’ offense in the end, as veteran Josh Johnson, starting in place of the injured Jayden Daniels and Marcus Mariota, started to get rolling in the second half. Prescott, who has been money all season for Dallas, was missing some throws he usually makes, but it helps when kicker Brandon Aubrey can knock in three points, it seems, whenever he’s remotely close to field goal range.
It was a bounce-back win following a blowout by the Los Angeles Chargers at AT&T Stadium in the team’s final home game of 2025.
Jones acknowledged the team’s roller coaster season, but does find positives despite what the record says.
“Yes, from what we expected, what we thought, absolutely we did. We all underachieved, really. The fact we’re not in the playoffs says that for you.
“I thought we’ve done some things out there that we can forward with us, as is always the case, there are some positive things. The question is, can we make some changes where we need to? That’d be pretty thorough and a lot of multiplication there with the way we played this year.”
The Cowboys will be looking for one more win in their season finale against the New York Giants in Week 18, but they should be looking to what Jones discussed about next season.
A big question will be whether they will resign Pickens, who will be a free agent in March. It would bode well to look at defensive free agents as well.
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