Jerry Jones was ready to gloat on his big night. Then he saw the clock

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ARLINGTON, Texas — In a moment of sheer madness, when he thought the 3-hour, 47-minute odyssey was finally over, Jerry Jones left his feet and lost his mind.

Two weeks shy of his 83rd birthday, the billionaire Hall of Fame owner of the Dallas Cowboys jumped for joy in his suite at AT&T Stadium on Sunday night, convinced that the clock had struck zero in an after-dark, overtime thriller with more sudden swings than a Christopher Nolan movie.

The man had his reasons. There was a lot on the line for Jones, with 93,353 drained fans and tens of millions of TV and streaming viewers ready to issue a referendum on one of the most controversial trades in recent NFL history. For all his swagger and shameless self-promotion, Jones has some qualities that offset the perceived obnoxiousness. He has never pretended to be perfect or holier than thou, and his willingness to be vulnerable in conspicuous contexts distinguishes him from most of his peers.

With all that in mind, it made perfect sense that when Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love took a snap down three points with six seconds to go in overtime, and his pass to Matthew Golden in the back of the end zone hit the turf, Jones momentarily thought — at least for this night — that he could do some gloating.

“Oh yes, we jumped up and said, ‘We won this game! Time is out!’ ” Jones said later. “It would have been great to have gone ahead and complete that smile and gotten that win under all of the circumstances. I guess I’ve got more foibles (than most), and from that standpoint of feelings, but I don’t mind telling you — I wanted to win that game.”

He wanted to win because Micah Parsons, the elite pass rusher Jones traded in August after a charged contract dispute, was back in North Texas desperately trying to show his former boss what he’s been missing. And Jones wanted those who’d criticized him for the way he handled the Parsons saga — and yes, he made a point of half-teasingly calling me out as one of those critics when we spoke outside the Cowboys’ locker room after the game — to be forced to acknowledge that the move hadn’t completely wrecked his team.

For a second or two after Love’s incompletion, Jones thought salvation had arrived. Then, harsh reality reared its head once more: One second remained on the clock, allowing the Packers to secure a 40-40 tie on Brandon McManus’ 34-yard field goal on the final play of overtime.

When that happened, and the Cowboys (1-2-1) and Packers (2-1-1) retreated to their respective locker rooms with emotions ranging from ambivalence to frustration, Jones legitimately didn’t know how to feel. He was still processing 30 minutes after the game, weighing many of the data points as he projected a strange mixture of defiance, disappointment and something resembling satisfaction.

“I just can’t let this team, under these circumstances — Micah, Green Bay — I just can’t let this team drop that head down over what might be a half-loss,” he said. “And I said that to everybody (in the locker room), and I mean that. We played hard. We played good. And we’ve got some good days ahead of us.”

There was a lot to unpack. On one hand, Parsons barely made his presence felt, though the fifth-year pass rusher picked a pivotal time to shine: A two-play flurry in the first possession of overtime, with the Cowboys four yards from the end zone. On second-and-goal, Parsons chased down Prescott for a zero-yard sack. On the next play, he pressured the quarterback into an incompletion, forcing Dallas to settle for Brandon Aubrey’s go-ahead field goal.

Otherwise, he was very, very quiet. Parsons, aura and all, didn’t wreck this game — but then again, the Cowboys’ defense didn’t exactly prove it’s in tip-top shape without him. Dallas gave up 489 yards and allowed Green Bay to convert 10 of 14 third downs and its sole fourth-down attempt on that final drive. In their five possessions after halftime, the Packers scored three touchdowns and made two field goals.

Given that Green Bay also scored the game’s first two touchdowns, the Cowboys’ resilience was somewhat remarkable. They seized an unlikely halftime lead thanks to a blocked extra point returned to the opposite end zone (cutting the Packers’ advantage to 13-2) and a strip sack that helped them score a pair of touchdowns in the final 41 seconds of the second quarter.

After punting to start the third quarter, Dallas was damn near unstoppable, too, with Prescott directing three consecutive touchdown drives, the last ending on a 28-yard strike to wide receiver George Pickens with 43 seconds left in regulation.

So, yeah, when all was said and done, Jones was exhausted.

“I’m thinking about it out loud now, about what to think about the tie,” he conceded. “I know I could feel worse.”

In the month since trading Parsons, Jones has offered a steady stream of rationalizations, some of which sound more plausible than others. One that gained some steam Sunday night: The owner said he was far more comfortable paying his quarterback a top-of-the-market deal than he was paying his young pass rusher.

Prescott (31 of 40, 319 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, one sack) was an absolute monster in this game, even with top target CeeDee Lamb sidelined by an ankle injury, and has played at an MVP-caliber level thus far in 2025.

“It’s very simple: Dak was indispensable in my mind. And Micah wasn’t,” Jones reiterated after the game. “It’s just numbers. It’s that easy. Without Dak and without that experience he’s got, and without the leadership and all of those kinds of things, we’re in a bad spot. The numbers weren’t there with Micah.”

Prescott, like Jones, wasn’t sure how to feel afterward. When I caught him in a private moment in the locker room, he certainly didn’t sound defeated.

“We’re gonna be fine,” he said, his voice rising in excitement. “We’re gonna get this s— rolling. Get a couple of stops on defense, and we’re gonna be dangerous.”

Another mini-victory for Jones: His trade for Pickens, a talented but temperamental player who had yet to fulfill his potential in three seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, is looking like a steal. The Cowboys gave up third- and fifth-round draft picks for Pickens and a sixth-rounder.

On Sunday night, Pickens was a beast, catching eight passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns. The highlight: A brilliant, 28-yard sideline catch at the one-yard line while being double-covered, which set up the Cowboys’ first TD.

“Pickens is real,” Prescott said.

George Pickens caught eight passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns against the Packers. (Sam Hodde / Getty Images)

The end of this two-drinks-past-the-limit, back-and-forth game was flat-out surreal. The newly instituted overtime rules allow each team to have at least one possession, and Aubrey’s field goal with 4:40 remaining in the extra period left the Packers with plenty of time to tie (with a field goal) or win (with a touchdown).

And yet, they took their time, even as they converted a fourth-and-6 (on Love’s 14-yard pass to Golden from his own 24), and even as they reached the red zone with a minute to play. Green Bay used its second and final timeout with 28 seconds to go and the ball at the Dallas 15, and very nearly went home with an unconscionable “L.”

“I was freaking out,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur conceded afterward as he walked to the team bus. “We had 28 seconds and ran two plays, and it took us 27 seconds. It was a horrible feeling.”

After catching a pass from Love, running back Emanuel Wilson was tackled for a one-yard loss, setting up a third-and-14 from the 16. Love didn’t receive the next snap until six seconds remained. Linebacker Jack Sanborn broke up Love’s pass to Golden, and the ball immediately hit the ground. Jones and his family members leaped to celebrate what they thought was a victory. The realization that a second remained made the landing a rough one.

“If the ball bounces up, rather than to the ground, it runs out,” Jones said afterward. “It’s that close. (But) it went straight to the ground.”

McManus came on to secure the tie, and Jones quickly made his way to a locker room full of conflicted emotions.

“You need to fire that clock operator,” Prescott said to the owner, who told the quarterback that the NFL is in charge of keeping the official time.

Later, while meeting with reporters, Jones referred to one of his relatives being the team’s clock operator before deciding not to finish the sentence. Was he joking? It was hard to tell, but it didn’t really matter.

Minutes later, as Jones prepared to leave the stadium — and, inevitably, to replay many of the wild game’s moments in his mind before drifting off to sleep — perspective finally seemed to arrive.

No, the Cowboys didn’t win, but in the wake of their previous effort, a 31-14 road defeat to the Chicago Bears, this back-and-forth battle with a much more highly regarded foe represented some form of progress.

“Having gotten it handed to us in Chicago,” Jones said, “this was an important way for us to feel good about ourselves. Now, I guess it’s not gonna let us feel all the way good. But we feel better than the way we could have walked out of here.”

Yet if Love’s last pass had stayed in the air a tick longer, the owner’s feet, at least in a metaphorical sense, may not have touched the ground for a long, long time.

(Top photo of Jerry Jones:  Kevin Jairaj / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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