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COLUMN By TIM COWLISHAW / The Dallas Morning News
wtcowlishaw@dallasnews.com
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Just six days removed from making Wade Phillips part of the team’s past, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wasn’t ready to say too much about Jason Garrett’s place in the franchise’s future Sunday night.
That’s Jason Garrett – Only Cowboys Coach Never to Lose a Game -- as of right now, anyway.
Garrett received a game ball following the Cowboys’ 33-20 destruction of the division-leading Giants. It was a game in which Dez Bryant and Felix Jones continued to carve out their roles in the team’s present and future. It was a game in which the New Meadowlands Stadium crowd of 80,851 was far more upset about the outcome than the blackout that created an eight-minute delay in the third quarter.
The electrical problem got fixed. The Giants never got a handle on the Cowboys, a team they beat in Arlington just three weeks ago during a five-game winning stretch that, in many minds, established them as the NFC’s team to beat.
Maybe they are less than that based on Sunday’s events. But, from the Dallas point of view, isn’t this something that should have happened more than once in the season’s first half?
No need in beating up on Phillips after Jones and his players have kicked him to the curb. But Garrett’s no-nonsense direction brought the Cowboys back into focus Sunday as they looked a lot like the team that finished 2009 as the class of the NFC East.
“This is the way to start,” Jones said, “but I wouldn’t want to put more on it than that.’’
For the fans out in front of the Garrett bandwagon, Jones couldn’t extend him beyond this season if he wanted to. League rules mandate a legitimate search that includes a minority candidate.
But, realistically, three or four games like this against the kinds of quality opponents Dallas faces down the stretch will prolong Garrett’s tenure beyond this season.
It wasn’t as if he made wholesale lineup changes in his debut. NFL rosters are thin enough that there aren’t but a few positions on any team that can present real battles for the starting spot.
Felix Jones started at running back instead of Marion Barber, sparking speculation (that Garrett denied) about Barber having violated the new coach’s dress code. Barber got carries on the second, third and fourth plays of the game, so it wasn’t like he was punished, anyway.
Other than that it was the same Cowboys Phillips coached. Only it was a far different team in terms of effort and production.
This wasn’t a group that gave the appearance of packing it in at the first injury or sign of trouble. In other words, this wasn’t the 45-7 Green Bay loss revisited.
The defense was outstanding against the run. Giving up big passing yards wasn’t a problem since rookie Bryan McCann set a Cowboys record with a 101-yard interception return and Alan Ball wrapped up the victory by picking off another Eli Manning pass.
Jones and Barber ran for 4.5 yards per carry, Bryant produced an unreal highlight reel, and Jon Kitna had his best game maybe of this century.
But you can’t say Garrett was simply the fortunate benefactor here. Coaches get fired for players’ mistakes and they get contract extensions for players going all out for them.
As his boss pointed out, Garrett got his first win the hard way.
“The circumstances of the week, the change, the criticism – that took away the glamour of him being a first-time head coach,’’ Jones said. “He didn’t get the fanfare most coaches get with that first game.’’
Instead, he took over a sinking ship and kept it afloat. Or maybe to update the metaphor, Garrett simply got the engines started on the Cowboys’ stalled cruise ship.
The ship isn’t doing anything more exciting than limping back towards home (at 2-7) but at least the passengers (fans) aren’t as testy as they were 48 hours ago.
As Garrett put it, “It certainly helps the credibility of the message. It was a good day for us for a lot of different reasons.’’
In two months, we may look back on this as the best day ever in the short-lived Garrett era.
But two or three more victories like this one will remove any “short-lived’’ aspect of Garrett’s stay at the top.
wtcowlishaw@dallasnews.com
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Just six days removed from making Wade Phillips part of the team’s past, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wasn’t ready to say too much about Jason Garrett’s place in the franchise’s future Sunday night.
That’s Jason Garrett – Only Cowboys Coach Never to Lose a Game -- as of right now, anyway.
Garrett received a game ball following the Cowboys’ 33-20 destruction of the division-leading Giants. It was a game in which Dez Bryant and Felix Jones continued to carve out their roles in the team’s present and future. It was a game in which the New Meadowlands Stadium crowd of 80,851 was far more upset about the outcome than the blackout that created an eight-minute delay in the third quarter.
The electrical problem got fixed. The Giants never got a handle on the Cowboys, a team they beat in Arlington just three weeks ago during a five-game winning stretch that, in many minds, established them as the NFC’s team to beat.
Maybe they are less than that based on Sunday’s events. But, from the Dallas point of view, isn’t this something that should have happened more than once in the season’s first half?
No need in beating up on Phillips after Jones and his players have kicked him to the curb. But Garrett’s no-nonsense direction brought the Cowboys back into focus Sunday as they looked a lot like the team that finished 2009 as the class of the NFC East.
“This is the way to start,” Jones said, “but I wouldn’t want to put more on it than that.’’
For the fans out in front of the Garrett bandwagon, Jones couldn’t extend him beyond this season if he wanted to. League rules mandate a legitimate search that includes a minority candidate.
But, realistically, three or four games like this against the kinds of quality opponents Dallas faces down the stretch will prolong Garrett’s tenure beyond this season.
It wasn’t as if he made wholesale lineup changes in his debut. NFL rosters are thin enough that there aren’t but a few positions on any team that can present real battles for the starting spot.
Felix Jones started at running back instead of Marion Barber, sparking speculation (that Garrett denied) about Barber having violated the new coach’s dress code. Barber got carries on the second, third and fourth plays of the game, so it wasn’t like he was punished, anyway.
Other than that it was the same Cowboys Phillips coached. Only it was a far different team in terms of effort and production.
This wasn’t a group that gave the appearance of packing it in at the first injury or sign of trouble. In other words, this wasn’t the 45-7 Green Bay loss revisited.
The defense was outstanding against the run. Giving up big passing yards wasn’t a problem since rookie Bryan McCann set a Cowboys record with a 101-yard interception return and Alan Ball wrapped up the victory by picking off another Eli Manning pass.
Jones and Barber ran for 4.5 yards per carry, Bryant produced an unreal highlight reel, and Jon Kitna had his best game maybe of this century.
But you can’t say Garrett was simply the fortunate benefactor here. Coaches get fired for players’ mistakes and they get contract extensions for players going all out for them.
As his boss pointed out, Garrett got his first win the hard way.
“The circumstances of the week, the change, the criticism – that took away the glamour of him being a first-time head coach,’’ Jones said. “He didn’t get the fanfare most coaches get with that first game.’’
Instead, he took over a sinking ship and kept it afloat. Or maybe to update the metaphor, Garrett simply got the engines started on the Cowboys’ stalled cruise ship.
The ship isn’t doing anything more exciting than limping back towards home (at 2-7) but at least the passengers (fans) aren’t as testy as they were 48 hours ago.
As Garrett put it, “It certainly helps the credibility of the message. It was a good day for us for a lot of different reasons.’’
In two months, we may look back on this as the best day ever in the short-lived Garrett era.
But two or three more victories like this one will remove any “short-lived’’ aspect of Garrett’s stay at the top.
