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Garrett's challenge: Get mentally tougher
January, 4, 2011 Jan 411:23AM CTEmail Print Comments2
By Tim MacMahon
IRVING, Texas -- Jason Garrett told the Cowboys that he was proud of the approach they took during his tenure as interim coach. He appreciated their effort and intensity.
But Garrett also challenged the Cowboys. He wants a more mentally tough team.
“Line one of football is emotion, passion and enthusiasm,” Garrett said. “You have to play that way. You have to play that way collectively or you have no chance.
“After you do that, you start getting into poise, mental toughness, discipline to execute. Battle through some adversity, execute well at crunch time. I think when you evaluate those two things, I think we did the first thing. I think we did that consistently over the last half of the season. Regarding the second thing, I’m not so sure we did that on a consistent enough basis. Those are the things that we have to continue to work on.”
The Cowboys went 5-3 after Garrett took over. It’s easy to see the improvement after the 1-7 start that got Wade Phillips fired.
It’s also easy to see the room for improvement. The three losses under Garrrett came by a total of seven points, and the Cowboys lost a late lead in two of those games.
“We won some hard-fought games at the end of games, doing the things you need to do,” Garrett said. “The best teams are able to do that all the time. That’s an area where we have to continue to improve.”
January, 4, 2011 Jan 411:23AM CTEmail Print Comments2
By Tim MacMahon
IRVING, Texas -- Jason Garrett told the Cowboys that he was proud of the approach they took during his tenure as interim coach. He appreciated their effort and intensity.
But Garrett also challenged the Cowboys. He wants a more mentally tough team.
“Line one of football is emotion, passion and enthusiasm,” Garrett said. “You have to play that way. You have to play that way collectively or you have no chance.
“After you do that, you start getting into poise, mental toughness, discipline to execute. Battle through some adversity, execute well at crunch time. I think when you evaluate those two things, I think we did the first thing. I think we did that consistently over the last half of the season. Regarding the second thing, I’m not so sure we did that on a consistent enough basis. Those are the things that we have to continue to work on.”
The Cowboys went 5-3 after Garrett took over. It’s easy to see the improvement after the 1-7 start that got Wade Phillips fired.
It’s also easy to see the room for improvement. The three losses under Garrrett came by a total of seven points, and the Cowboys lost a late lead in two of those games.
“We won some hard-fought games at the end of games, doing the things you need to do,” Garrett said. “The best teams are able to do that all the time. That’s an area where we have to continue to improve.”