Jerry Jones hints Schottenheimer isn’t the guy for Cowboys

Jerry Jones just gave the most damning assessment of a sitting head coach that a Cowboys owner has ever delivered on public radio.

Appearing Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, Jones described the game plan his coaching staff installed for Week 8 against the Arizona Cardinals.

He did not defend Brian Schottenheimer.

He exposed him.

“We were playing a game to avoid turnovers the best we could,” Jones said, according to Joseph Hoyt of the Dallas Morning News.

“The game plan you saw was doing that. You can call that conservative if you want to.”

Jones went on: “The game plan was based on us running the ball better than when we ran it. And when they did stack it really good … it’s certainly based on us giving [Dak Prescott] better protection.”

That was not a vote of confidence.

It was a confession that the head coach’s entire strategy was built around fear.

Dallas lost that game 33-30 in overtime after blowing a 24-10 fourth-quarter lead.

The Cowboys fell to 3-5.

Schottenheimer called 39 running plays against 29 dropbacks.

Arizona entered Week 8 ranked 29th in EPA per play on defense.

They ranked 21st in success rate.

They ranked 31st in dropback EPA.

But they ranked 8th in rush EPA from Weeks 1 through 7.

Schottenheimer chose to attack their strongest unit.

He chose to take the ball out of Dak Prescott’s hands.

He chose a risk-averse approach against a team that had lost four straight games and had already traded star guard Quenton Nelson and standout defensive tackle DeForest Buckner.

The Buccaneers and Packers had already shown the league how to attack Dallas — stack the box and bring pressure.

Schottenheimer’s game plan ignored that evidence.

Jones’s radio appearance confirmed that the head coach was not improvising.

He was executing exactly what the owner saw and approved.

That is not a defense of Schottenheimer.

It is a description of a coach who cannot be trusted to make adjustments, who cannot be trusted to attack a weakness, and who cannot be trusted to put his franchise quarterback in a position to win.

The Cowboys have no immediate plans to fire Schottenheimer.

A decision on his future is expected to wait until after the season.

But Jones’s public description of the game plan makes one thing clear: the owner already knows the coach is not the answer.

Jones has a history of making splashy moves before the NFL trade deadline.

This year’s deadline is November 10.

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano reported that the Cowboys have been linked to Cardinals edge rusher Josh Sweat.

“Cardinals edge rusher Josh Sweat has been linked to Dallas, which could be in the pass rush market but hasn’t made any moves there yet,” Fowler wrote.

Fowler added: “The sense I get from teams in the edge rusher market is that Sweat would prefer a new deal as part of a trade — or at least a sweetener, such as a raise on his $18.1 million salary this year or next.”

Sweat is in the second year of a four-year, $76 million contract.

That contract structure could be a hurdle.

But the fact that Dallas is even linked to a high-priced pass rusher suggests Jones is still trying to win now, even as his head coach’s job hangs in the air.

The Cowboys have not reached the NFC Championship since 1995.

That drought is now 31 years.

Jones has hired head coaches on the cheap, by NFL standards.