Dallas Cowboys star sends clear message about brutal loss

It’s been more than a month since the Dallas Cowboys lost to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Wild Card Round and Jake Ferguson is ready to move on.

Appearing on NFL Total Access on Wednesday, Ferguson discussed the fallout from his team’s season-ending loss. And in doing so, the 2023 Pro Bowl selection noted that it’s not uncommon for the Cowboys to receive opponents’ best efforts on a weekly basis.

“You know it’s tough to say,” Ferguson responded. “I think for me, it’s also the NFL, 32 of the best [teams] in the world are playing one sport against each other but at the same time I always like to think, ‘We’re the Dallas Cowboys, every team that’s going to play us is going to bring their all every single time.’ We’re not going to get anybody’s ‘We don’t have to bring that hard against them.’ They’re bringing their all against us. It’s a kill-or-be-killed mentality. We’ve just got to kill them first.”

As one might have expected, a lot of the criticism directed at the Cowboys has been aimed at the play of quarterback Dak Prescott. But Ferguson insisted that both Prescott and rest of the Dallas roster are ready to move on, rather than spending too much time reflecting on the devastating defeat.

“I know Dak is ready for the next season, that’s all you can do,” Ferguson said. “You can’t look back and you know, have any sort of just ‘Oh, I made a bad play, so we lost.’ No, it’s just on to the next, it’s over with, so we played that game, clock’s zero, it’s time to move on to the next week. We’ve got to get ready for this OTA session coming up, and then also fall camp and just get ready so if we do get in this situation down the road again, where we take advantage and we aren’t really looking back, we’re just going straight through the wall.”

Despite the manner in which the Cowboys’ 2023 season ended, Dallas still has a promising future thanks to arguably one of the best rosters in the NFL. Time will tell if the Cowboys will be capable of overcoming their recent postseason struggles, but to Ferguson’s point, dwelling on last season will do little to help Dallas capture what would be its first Lombardi Trophy in 29 years.

[NFL Total Access]

About Ben Axelrod

Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.