'Outstanding' Dallas Cowboys 'Will Evolve & Improve,' Jerry Jones & Mike McCarthy Promise for Bye Week

'Outstanding' Dallas Cowboys 'Will Evolve & Improve,' Jerry Jones & Mike McCarthy Promise for Bye Week

The Dallas Cowboys head into their bye week at 4-2 and in the thick of the NFC playoff picture, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Dallas bounced back from its previous shellacking against the San Francisco 49ers to best the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday night, but just barely escaped 20-17. The Cowboys have blown out three of their opponents, but have also laid a pair of eggs. Consistency has been an issue this season, but at the very least, the Cowboys still have time to work on that.

"I think we do have serious room for improvement — we have that," team owner Jerry Jones said. "We're not yet the team we can be. The major limiting factor for our team to evolve and get better will be availability of players we're counting on. Injury, principally, is the problem. But if we can stay healthy, we will evolve and get better.

"We have outstanding talent."

Regardless of any lingering issues, heading into the bye week on a high note is critical. The difference between 4-2 and 3-3 is massive, especially when the Cowboys were already behind the eight ball in terms of seeding. In fact, with two of their biggest rivals in the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers both suffering their first losses of the season on Sunday, the Cowboys actually gained some ground in the playoff picture.

"We did well," Jones said. "That was an important win for us and, yes, we did need to win because of the disappointment we had in San Francisco. We'll use this bye week to really evaluate our first six games. We're a long way down the road from when we left training camp, and we've got a long way to go."

Once again, though, there's still plenty of work to do. Dallas' roster is among the most talented in the league and the team has legitimate Super Bowl aspirations, but improvements must be made to reach those goals.

"We do need to clean some things up," coach Mike McCarthy said. "The pre-snap penalties … I think [correcting those] is part of being a team and going through the ebb and flow … We just need to continue to find ways to be creative, demanding but making sure we're stressing the correct things coming out of this bye."

The Cowboys return to action with a home game against the Los Angeles Rams on Oct. 29, hopefully looking clean and refreshed after some time off.