These are difficult times for the Dallas Cowboys.

After the Cowboys were beaten 47-9 at home by the Lions on Sunday, a ghost from Dallas’ past returned to add insult to injury.

On NBC’s “Football Night in America” ​​on Sunday night, Devin McCourty and former Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett expressed extreme criticism of the team’s toughness.

“Right now, Dallas’ defense just looks weak,” McCourty began. “Not everything is planned. It’s (Lions running back) David Montgomery running over people. They reach for his jersey. They’re just not a strong football team right now.”

Garrett pressed on.

“The injuries are real,” he said. “But they’re not physical on both sides of the ball. They can’t do it on offense. They don’t control the line of scrimmage. Everything is on (quarterback) Dak (Prescott) every time the ball is snapped – and they can’t stop the run on the other side.”

Garrett was the Cowboys’ head coach from 2010 to 2019 after previously serving as offensive coordinator and quarterback for the franchise.

Sunday’s loss came on Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ 82nd birthday.

Still, Jones wasn’t willing to accept the idea that Mike McCarthy’s job – who succeeded Garrett as head coach – was in jeopardy.

“Oh, I haven’t even considered that, I don’t think so, so tell me clearly I haven’t considered that,” Jones told reporters. “Do you think I’m an idiot? Do you? OK? Now, I’m not going to hypothesize with you about what I view as a coaching change given the timing of where we’re sitting here, I don’t do that at all.”

The Lions appeared to be clearly out for revenge in the game, as they threw passes even though the game was well out of reach, ran trick plays on offensive linemen, and even called a timeout past the point where the Cowboys had thrown in the towel.

Detroit may still have been upset from last year’s controversial regular-season game, when a dispute broke out over offensive lineman Taylor Decker’s reporting, resulting in a two-point conversion being called back and the Lions losing.