ARLINGTON, Texas -- Sometimes the Jerry Jones jokes are just so easy.

Case in point: Remember when his Dallas Cowboys sent playoff tickets to their season-ticket holders this summer, something never before done in the NFL?

Jerry Jones deserves credit this season for listening to advisers such as his son Stephen. Matthew Emmons/USA TODAY Sports

That resulted in plentiful punchlines for a franchise that was in the midst a four-year playoff drought, the longest of Jones' ownership tenure that started in 1989. It seemed to provide further proof that the Cowboys' owner is a marketing genius but their general manager a football fool.

So many times over the past 17 years -- a span that features only one playoff win -- Cowboys fans have lamented that the businessman owner believed he was a wise enough football man to also run the team as a general manager.

Well, those fans can activate the barcodes on the tickets they were sent this summer. GM Jerry's Cowboys are the NFC East champions, punching their playoff tickets with a 42-7 pounding Sunday of the Indianapolis Colts.

Time to put all the Jerry jokes on hold, huh? Relax on ripping the most harshly criticized general manager in sports history.

"First of all, I'd like for you to think about that on Christmas,” Jones said while celebrating his franchise's biggest win, joking about being the subject of so much scorn and ridicule. "Think about these matters for your fellow man.”

Seriously, while a man with skin like an armadillo shell doesn't let the criticism get to him, Jones deserves his share of the credit for the Cowboys' success.

Start with a couple of Jones' most criticized decisions over the past few years, each of which has played a significant role in the 11-4 Cowboys' success this season.

How many talking heads and sports radio hosts have hollered about Jones being a sentimental sucker for giving a veteran quarterback with one playoff victory a six-year, $108 million extension with $55 million guaranteed? Anyone have a problem with Tony Romo's contact at this point?

In a week when $127 million quarterback Jay Cutler watched from the Chicago Bears' bench, Romo completed 18 of 20 passes for 218 yards and four touchdowns in a near-flawless performance against the Colts. As a result, Romo ranks atop the NFL's passer rating leaders, and the Cowboys are legitimately lobbying for him to be considered as an MVP candidate.

That's money well spent.

How many times have fans and media tried to fire head coach Jason Garrett over the past few 8-8 seasons? Jones shut out the noise, sticking with an inexperienced coach he was convinced had the potential to be one of the best in the business.

Considering that most saw 8-8 as an optimistic prediction for the Cowboys this season, Garrett must be included as a Coach of the Year candidate. There's no question that Garrett, who is in the final year of his contract, will coach the Cowboys for the foreseeable future.

Garrett has proven his patient boss right.

Critics can point out that Jones had to be talked into a lot of the Cowboys' front office's smartest decisions in recent years.

Take the rebuilding of an offensive line now widely considered the best in the NFL, for instance. Jones had never drafted an offensive lineman in the first round until Garrett convinced him to take tackle Tyron Smith in 2011. The Cowboys took Travis Frederick after trading down in the first round last year -- and were laughed at for doing so, but Dallas' scouts had the center ranked much higher than most. And owner Jerry admittedly wanted to draft glitzy quarterback Johnny Manziel in the first round this year, but he went with the consensus of the draft room and took a boring guard, Zack Martin.

Smith, Frederick and Martin should all be Pro Bowl selections this season, having played huge roles in the Cowboys' league-best rushing attack. And Jerry should be applauded for listening to the football men around him, such as his son and director of player personnel Stephen Jones, assistant director of player personnel Will McClay, Garrett and the team's scouts.

Good general managers hire smart people and trust them. That's what Jones has done lately.

The Cowboys have had their fair share of personnel misses lately, too, which gives them something in common with every other NFL team. But Jones certainly isn't above being second-guessed all of the sudden.

As a matter of fact, it happens almost every morning when he looks in the mirror.

"I really can't tell you I haven't looked back on decisions,” Jones said. "Do I second-guess them? Yes, I do. I sure do. I spend too much time second-guessing decisions. I don't know if I could be an effective play-to-play quarterback because I think a lot about the bad one that I made.”

Heck, Jones is second-guessing his biggest personnel decision of the offseason, which seemed to signal a shift to a more financially sound approach by the Cowboys' front office. He felt forced to let release DeMarcus Ware, the franchise's all-time sacks leader, due to the defensive end's high salary and the Cowboys' salary cap concerns.

"Now, I'm going to throw this one at you: What if you had Ware out here with the way he's playing now with the effort of this team?” Jones said, well aware that Ware has 10 sacks for the Denver Broncos, twice as many as any Dallas pass-rusher. "We didn't cost ourselves a Super Bowl because we don't have him out there, did we? A major pressure player out here right now would make you want to give a quarter of the stadium for.”

That decision can certainly be debated.

The Cowboys' general manager is far from perfect. But Jones isn't a punchline at this point, not with those playoff tickets actually of use.