ARLINGTON, Texas – Jerry Jones is possibly the best salesman in NFL history. The man could find a way to put a positive spin on a 0-16 season. But not even the normally optimistic Cowboys owner and general manager seemed upbeat when asked several times about playoff possibilities following the Cowboys' 38-31 Thanksgiving Day loss to the Washington Redskins at Cowboys Stadium.
"All I can do is just sit here and look at the numbers," Jones said Thursday, standing in the Cowboys locker room. "It looks like our best opportunity would be to end up with the best record in the NFC East. I don't know what that's going to be. I don't know if 8-8 will get it there or not, and I sure don't know if we're going to be 8-8.
"I'm not trying to be negative, but we've got to play these guys again. With how impressed I am with how they played, we've got our hands full up there for the last ballgame."
Wait, was that really Jerry Jones?
Yes, and he continued with the same tone.
"I'm just like everybody," Jones said. "I see our numbers. I see where we are. I see how we played against this team."
He added: "I'm very disappointed. I thought this was a critical game for us because it was with a division opponent."
At 5-6, the Cowboys currently sit in 11th place out of 16 NFC teams, a game and a half back of the Seattle Seahawks for the final Wild Card spot and a game and a half back of the New York Giants for the NFC East lead.
Passing the Seahawks is unrealistic because they own the tiebreaker over the Cowboys from a defeat earlier this year.
To complicate things further, the Redskins, who the Cowboys play in Week 17, also possess a 5-6 record.
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