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Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys opened the NFL season with contender expectations, yet Thursday’s 24-16 home loss to a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that had yet to win a game dropped Brian Schottenheimer’s squad to 2-3.
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Jones called himself “extraordinarily, extraordinarily disappointed” afterward, and the defensive numbers help explain why. Dallas is giving up 395.4 net yards per game, the second-worst average in the NFL, while its 136 points allowed rank 26th.
In that loss, Tampa Bay’s Bucky Irving gashed the Dallas defense up the middle for a career-high 165 rushing yards, including a 72-yard burst, and scored twice. Much of the criticism has landed on first-year defensive coordinator Christian Parker, whose rebuilt unit can’t get stops.
Jones, however, did not sound interested in any staff changes after the loss and said he believes Parker is “competent,” while Schottenheimer promised to evaluate everything. It did not take long to see what that review would produce.
On Monday, the Cowboys announced a major move, hiring Mike Pettine as a senior defensive assistant, bringing one of the league’s most respected defensive minds out of retirement. The hire is meant to support Parker rather than replace him, which fits with Jones’s comments days earlier.
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The 60-year-old Pettine broke in with the Baltimore Ravens in 2002, climbing from coaching assistant to the defensive line and then outside linebackers. That climb led to coordinator jobs with the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills and Green Bay Packers, plus two seasons as Cleveland’s head coach, before four years in Minnesota helping Brian Flores build one of the NFL’s toughest defenses and a retirement in January.
The fit is natural, since Pettine gave Parker his first NFL job as a quality control coach in Green Bay and shared a Jets staff with Schottenheimer for three seasons.
Pettine’s first test comes in prime time, as the Cowboys visit the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on Sunday at 8:20 p.m. ET.
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This story was originally published October 12, 2026 at 2:35 PM.