ARLINGTON, Texas — Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones never thought his team would be in this position after nine games, just 3-5-1 after Monday’s 27-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, but he was something of a realist after the game.

“We’ve won three ballgames and here we are with this juncture,” Jones said. “So, I do know how to add. I mean, I’m not trying to be trite, but I can add it up and look at the numbers of games we’ve got left and what potential combinations of records could get you in the playoffs. We have all that down real good.”

The Cowboys are in second place in the NFC East, 3½ games behind the Philadelphia Eagles. They are currently 11th in the conference standings, behind two teams that already beat Dallas, the Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers, while edging the Cardinals only because of their Week 4 tie against the Green Bay Packers.

After the Cowboys play the Las Vegas Raiders on Nov. 17, following their bye week, the next five opponents — Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, Los Angeles Chargers — are a combined 26-16.

The games against the Eagles, Chiefs and Lions come in a 12-day span.

“Every game is a must-win going forward,” quarterback Dak Prescott said. “You say that, and you feel that in the NFL and you should feel that. But when you put yourself in a position or behind like we have, it’s even more so that’s the case. … Having all those games to play, you can catch a hot streak and be right in the mix. That’s great. But you got to get a streak going and if you don’t get a streak going, you’re just putting yourself more and more behind the 8-ball, so it’s now or never.”

Jones’ first order of business is Tuesday’s trade deadline. Earlier Monday, he said on Stephen A. Smith’s show on Sirius XM that the Cowboys had a trade in place. After the Cardinals’ loss, Jones framed it differently, saying there is a trade he could make.

“When you’ve won only three games at this juncture, then you recognize you’ve got a lot of ground to make up,” Jones said. “And I’m very aware of that. And, yes, I would agree with you. It is an uphill battle. Can we have the kinds of things we were counting on? I was certainly hoping we’d have a couple more wins on the win column before we started taking advantage of any opportunities to change the roster. And so that’s still there under consideration.”

The biggest area of concern is a defense that has been depleted from the start of the season. The Cowboys have needs at defensive line, linebacker and the secondary to consider, and have had discussions with multiple teams about players at different positions.

“There is one [trade] that I can do. Without question, there is one I can do. There is not one [completed], but there is one that I can do,” Jones said. “And I’m leaning toward doing it.”

The deal might not be at the magnitude of the 2018 trade with the Raiders for wide receiver Amari Cooper that flipped the season in the Cowboys’ favor.

“I wouldn’t want to get into it. It’s just the nature of everybody involved in the trade,” Jones said. “But anything is significant if it’s somebody that’s going to be active in the games, on the field, that type of thing. So I don’t want to diminish the trade. But we certainly, for what a player was going to bring to the table, for whatever happened tonight, we need that player to bring that to the table, no matter what happened tonight. But does it make sense?”

As Jones wrestles with the final steps of making that trade — or multiple trades — coach Brian Schottenheimer wrestles with how to put everything together. And it goes beyond the scuffling defense. In the past two games, the first-team offense has averaged 13.5 points. Prescott was sacked five times by the Cardinals, and the Cowboys turned the ball over three times.

“We got a lot of work to do,” Schottenheimer said. “I challenged the guys. We’ve got to find solutions. We sit where we sit.”

With eight games to play, the Cowboys’ season is on the line and a trade might not be enough to fix everything.

“You’ve got a lot of ground to make up. I’ll grant anybody that,” Jones said. “Can we get there with better play, less mistakes? Can we get there with that? Are we going to have some personnel? We’re going to have the opportunity to have some different personnel than the first part of this season, either buying through a trade or players that we’ve had coming [back from injury]. You guys have been hearing about that and reading about that here for weeks and weeks and weeks.

“The old Parcells quote, ‘You are what you are,’ right today. We’ve got to take a look at it, and you won’t be disappointed that I didn’t get carried away, get illogical and do something that was all betting on us winning the Super Bowl. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.”