For once, Jerry Jones tries to undersell the Cowboys chances

Fans of the Dallas Cowboys are certainly used to their owner speaking to the media. Jerry Jones has never met a microphone he didn’t like. Jones is a noted media hog and when he talks, he’s usually talking up the Cowboys.

Every offseason it’s a ritual to hear the Cowboys owner talk like the team is a legitimate Super Bowl contender, even when they are nowhere close. It’s become somewhat of a game for the local media to get Jones to make some kind of outlandish prediction for the Cowboys so all can laugh about it later.

Jones recognizes his own optimism. In the Cowboys kickoff press conference for this year’s training camp he spoke about it and said that it is often termed as being naïve by others, but he says it’s a good philosophy to live by.

So it was a little surprising to hear him describe the Cowboys opening game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in this manner.

“We’re going to have a lot of prayer, so we could get the courage to show up,” Jones joked on Back Together Saturday. “Let me tell you this: world-champion Tom Brady, Tampa, great atmosphere — what a better opportunity to step up there and be David against Goliath.”

Obviously that was tongue-in-cheek as it was noted that he was saying it in a joking manner. Jerry always lets his sense of humor out when he wants to make a point. But behind every good joke is a grain of truth and that’s what we have here: Jerry masking a truth with some humor.

The Cowboys are certainly underdogs in their first game of the season. Oddsshark has them as a consensus 6.5 point underdog at this point in time. That’s a pretty healthy spread in favor of the World Champions.

Dallas has an opportunity on September 9th to shock everyone with a win over the Bucs. Tampa Bay is bringing back basically their entire team that is coming off a Super Bowl win. And they will be at home. If Dallas wins that game, the rest of the league would be on notice that they are legitimate contenders.

While the offense isn’t really the problem for Dallas, everyone is wondering about the defense. If you are looking for a team around the NFL that has a receiving corps that matches up with the Cowboys, then Tampa Bay is a good place to start. When Bill Barnwell recently ranked offensive arsenals for teams going into 2021, the Cowboys were second, and Tampa Bay was first.

The Cowboys starting quarterback summed it up this way.

“I’m excited for the challenge for my defense and just the whole team,” Prescott said about taking on Tampa Bay. “I’m excited for these guys to go out there and improve off of last year. And that’s what training camp is about. We’re trying to iron-sharpen-iron right now. We’re trying to make them better, they’re making us better. But it’s going to be important for us to go out there and take care of the ball, put (the Bucs) in tough situations and put the pressure on those guys.”

Jerry Jones knows the Cowboys are true underdogs here, but so was David when he slew Goliath. There’s always a chance.