FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys and Jake Ferguson did not expect to start the season at 3-3, especially with three losses being significant defeats at AT&T Stadium. However, they will have an opportunity to regain momentum on the road, where they are 3-0, this Sunday against a challenging opponent, the San Francisco 49ers.
To prepare for the 49ers, the Cowboys had to first “look in the mirror” after their 47-9 loss in Week 6, and Ferguson confirmed that the team did just that.
“I think, after that game, we came in and cleaned up,” said the Pro Bowl tight end. “After that Detroit game, we really got down to it. Then [we] had a couple more meetings after that, and then kind of flushed it like, ‘OK, stop thinking about football for a couple of days. Make sure your body does get right.'”
For Ferguson, this meant additional rest for a mild MCL sprain that caused him to miss one game, clarifying that “if I’m not 100 percent right now, I’m at least 99.” While this is promising news for the Cowboys, the offense continues to struggle in the red zone, where most turnovers and stalls have occurred since Week 1.
Every turnover or failure to score serves as a learning opportunity, but Ferguson believes the focus shouldn’t be on a complete overhaul.
“I think that’s important every week — having a flush win or lose,” he said. “It’s the NFL. You are going to play one of the best guys on the best 32 teams and you’ve got to be sharp with whatever you’re doing. So you can’t sleep, you can’t say, ‘Oh, we won this week. It’s going to be good. Oh, we lost this week. I got to do this much stuff.’
“No, stay on your process, add a little stuff here and there, but don’t make it too crazy or don’t try to go the extra mile. Stay on your process, trust it.”
This process will be put to the test against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 8, a team that has historically posed challenges for the Cowboys. To secure a victory in Santa Clara, it will require both “stepping on necks,” as Micah Parsons put it, and utilizing the two-week break for mental reflection and adjustment.
A significant part of this involves balancing necessary rest with staying focused.
“When you start getting towards the end of that bye week, you start thinking a little bit more,” Ferguson explained. “You start getting a little bit more under the gameplan. Start looking at some of the [film] cutups that we’re putting out there, and then getting into the normal process. You don’t want to change anything when the real week comes. You don’t want to say, ‘Oh, I had a bye week, I already did this or I already did that.’
“You want to keep that same process. So, just staying on top of that, and staying on top of your body, your mind, everything and just making sure it’s a good week.”
As they strive to keep pace in the NFC East and the conference overall, the Cowboys will need a win against the 49ers to propel them through one of the toughest stretches in the NFL. The time for their process to yield results is now.
