The Dallas Cowboys recently concluded a campaign that failed to live up to high expectations in the 2020 NFL season. Team owner Jerry Jones bared that the lack of offseason preparation ultimately hurt the Cowboys' chances to attain success this season, per Dallas News‘ Calvin Watkins.

The Cowboys, like the rest of the league, only had a condensed training camp along with canceled preseason games due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The squad also welcomed new faces during the offseason and forming chemistry between many players in a short amount of time is a hard thing to do for any team.

Dallas began the season in the wrong direction by losing three of their first five games. Despite the team's struggles, quarterback Dak Prescott was having a strong start to the season until he went down with a gruesome season-ending ankle injury in Week 5 against the New York Giants.

Without Prescott, the Cowboys failed to gain momentum and were derailed even more midway through their campaign. Despite losing consecutive games from Weeks 6 to 9 right before their bye week, the Cowboys remained in contention as the entire NFC East struggled this season.

The tight competition in the division allowed the Cowboys to still be in the playoff hunt in Week 17.  With a 6-9 record, the Cowboys found themselves in the second spot of the NFC East after winning three-straight games prior to their last game of the season against the Giants.

However, the Cowboys ran out of gas in the all-important game and ultimately fell to a 23-19 defeat to end their season with a disappointing 6-10 record to miss out on the playoffs.

Given how the past season has been for his team, Jerry Jones can use these experiences as stepping stones to further improve on his leadership and to finally bring the Cowboys back to relevance in 2021.