While Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones said in the aftermath of Dallas' 51-48 loss to the Denver Broncos that the outcome should be considered a moral victory, his coach did not share his opinion.
"We don't believe in moral victories, and different people will say that different ways," Jason Garrett said. "But our job is to win football games and we didn't get the job done [Sunday]. They did. They're an outstanding football team, arguably the best team in the NFL coming into this game, and we put ourselves in a great situation, a great position to win that game and we didn't do it."
During a Monday afternoon radio interview on KRLK-FM, Stephen Jones, the Cowboys' executive vice president, also disagreed with his boss/father.
"There's no moral victories in this thing," Stephen Jones said. "At the end of the day you are what you are. It was obviously a very difficult one to digest. I know we'll bounce back as a team, and we'll get to work. There's some positive things to build on in terms of this team, but certainly no moral victories there."
Jerry Jones said he was proud of how the Cowboys played against the Broncos. The game wasn't decided until the closing seconds, when Denver kicked a field goal to win. Jones even said defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin should be cut some slack for the defensive struggles against Peyton Manning, who threw four touchdown passes and one interception.
"I'm just encouraged that we played at the level we played in a lot of areas that we're gonna win enough games to get where we want to be," Jerry Jones said after the loss. "This was a moral victory today for us."