dbair1967

Administrator
Messages
58,589
Reaction score
9,068
Garrett's passive leadership costly

Originally Published: November 11, 2013
By Jean-Jacques Taylor | ESPNDallas.com

Cowboys Surrender Big Lead, Fall To Packers


ARLINGTON, Texas - If the Dallas Cowboys don't make the playoff this season, and Jerry Jones decides to fire Jason Garrett, the coach can only blame himself.

Garrett let Tony Romo, his $108-million quarterback, and pass-happy offensive coordinator Bill Callahan potentially determine his fate with some of the dumbest decisions you'll ever see intelligent people make Sunday afternoon at AT&T Stadium.

Understand, pretty much the only way a team can blow a 23-point second-half lead at home is with dumb play calling and turnovers, but that's exactly what the Cowboys did.

Green Bay 37, Dallas 36.

It would be unbelievable, but we saw this just two seasons ago when the Detroit Lions rallied from a 27-3 third-quarter deficit to beat the Cowboys in this same stadium.

Apparently, Garrett learned nothing.

The Lions rallied that day in part because they returned interceptions for touchdowns on consecutive third-quarter drives. This time, Garrett, Callahan and Romo collaborated to ignore running back DeMarco Murray in the second half.

Just so you know, Murray finished with 134 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown. He had 11 carries for 93 and a touchdown at halftime. How does a team throw the ball 48 times in a game it leads 26-3, 29-10 and 36-24 in the second half?

Jason Garrett's clock management and the team's play calling were only two of the many problems the Cowboys displayed in a collapse against the Packers.
From 1:04 of the third quarter until Romo's interception with 2:58 left, the Cowboys dropped back to pass on 14 of 15 plays, while never leading by fewer than five points.

Ridiculous. Blame Garrett.

Jerry Jones made Garrett a walk-around head coach in the offseason to handle situations just like this. He's supposed to speak up in certain situations and dictate the strategy.

This is when Garrett should've demanded the Cowboys run the ball, especially since Green Bay couldn't stop Murray.

He gained at least 4 yards on 14 of his 18 carries and had four runs of 10 yards or more. Murray's only negative run occurred on his fourth carry of the game.

But Garrett took a passive role and let Romo and Callahan dictate the offensive approach instead of asserting himself. What happened in the last five minutes is a fireable offense.

Leading 36-31 with 4:17 left, Green Bay had scored on four consecutive possessions. We've seen this defense all year. No way, you could trust them to protect a lead.

The Cowboys needed to score or burn virtually all of the time off the clock.

A 13-yard slant to Dez Bryant on third-and-12 gave the Cowboys a first down with 3:02 left. Two more first downs and Green Bay probably wouldn't have enough time to come back.

A 4-yard run up the middle by Murray forced the Packers to burn their second timeout with 2:58 left. According to website Advanced NFL Stats, the Cowboys had an 88 percent chance of winning at that time.

Callahan called another running play as he should've done. Remember a few weeks ago, when Garrett became more involved in the play calling. Callahan gives the play to Garrett, who gives it to Romo.

During those few seconds Garrett can talk to Romo. That's when Garrett should've implored Romo to keep the running play no matter how many defenders Green Bay stacked in the box to stop the run.

At that point, time was the only thing more important than protecting the ball. Romo, who has been as conservative as Sen. John McCain this season, picked the worst possible time to return his gun-slinging ways.

On second-and-6, Romo narrowly avoided a defender off the edge. Then he whirled and fired a pass to Miles Austin, never known to fight for the ball, who was running a slant near midfield. Sam Shields undercut the pattern and made a finger-tip interception.

Eight plays later, Green Bay grabbed its only lead on Eddie Lacy's 1-yard touchdown run. It marked the Packers' fifth consecutive second-half touchdown drive.

"The idea was to run the ball and make them use the clock," Garrett said of the Cowboys' fourth-quarter strategy. "Run it, and then if we have to throw it, throw high percentage passes to keep the clock going and make them use their timeouts.

"Tony threw a pass on what we call a smoke -- or a flash -- that we have accompanying runs if he gets a bad look. That's what happened on the interception. It was a run call that he threw the ball on."

Romo had not thrown an interception since the first quarter against the New York Giants a month ago, a span of 130 passes. Romo said he switched the play because Green Bay had overloaded the side the Cowboys had planned to run.

So what.

Take the no gain or a negative play, at worst, and force the Packers to use their final timeout. Romo said the Cowboys wanted to be more aggressive on offense because of how Green Bay's offense was moving the ball.

"It's easy to look back now and say run the ball, run the ball, run the ball," Romo said. "At the same time, if they're going to have numbers, it's a tough situation.

"What I have to do a better job of is protecting the ball in that situation, and I didn't do a good enough job of that tonight. I will next time."

We've all heard that before. Still, the Cowboys control their playoff fate.

If they win their last two games they will make the playoffs. If not, no one will be surprised if Jerry changes his mind and fires Garrett.
 
Messages
4,952
Reaction score
0
Garrett's passive leadership costly

"The idea was to run the ball and make them use the clock," Garrett said of the Cowboys' fourth-quarter strategy. "Run it, and then if we have to throw it, throw high percentage passes to keep the clock going and make them use their timeouts.

"Tony threw a pass on what we call a smoke -- or a flash -- that we have accompanying runs if he gets a bad look. That's what happened on the interception. It was a run call that he threw the ball on."

I've rooted for teams with shitty coaches in my time, but I've never experienced a little weasel so eager to pass blame onto anyone but himself after epic record-breaking coaching fuck ups. He's essentially throwing Romo directly under the bus here. He's a coward and has done this time and time again. As HC, he could have just taken away Romo's pass option if he was so concerned with an untimely turnover. I have no problem with Romo trying to make a play to Austin under duress. He's programmed as a player to get the ball down the field. Only Peyton Manning is maybe wired otherwise and even Peyton fucks up quite a bit, particularly in the playoffs against actual skilled DC's.

This is 100% on the coach. This ginger clown sounds like someone I'm sure our players really get motivated to show up and give 100% effort for huh? I can't wait until this toxic orange piece of shit is finally gone.
 

dbair1967

Administrator
Messages
58,589
Reaction score
9,068
I've rooted for teams with shitty coaches in my time, but I've never experienced a little weasel so eager to pass blame onto anyone but himself after epic record-breaking coaching fuck ups. He's essentially throwing Romo directly under the bus here. He's a coward and has done this time and time again. As HC, he could have just taken away Romo's pass option if he was so concerned with an untimely turnover. I have no problem with Romo trying to make a play to Austin under duress. He's programmed as a player to get the ball down the field. Only Peyton Manning is maybe wired otherwise and even Peyton fucks up quite a bit, particularly in the playoffs against actual skilled DC's.

This is 100% on the coach. This ginger clown sounds like someone I'm sure our players really get motivated to show up and give 100% effort for huh? I can't wait until this toxic orange piece of shit is finally gone.

Garrett's proven he isn't the answer and has to go, but it isn't 100% on him. He should absorb a lot of the blame, but the fact is the defense is playing with scrubs and the QB is a loser.

I do agree with another thing you said, in that situation late in the game he should have ordered Callahan and Romo to run the ball and not change the plays. Especially with Romo's penchant for screwing up in situations just like this.
 
Messages
8,660
Reaction score
0
All this shit is just a symptom of the disease...

Jerry stuck his meddling fucking hands into the play calling this past offseason, and what was already a disaster is now a crisis. You can't have this many people having input into calling the plays. Garrett was neutered and Callahan got the job. Then romo gets extended and jerry says give him more control. Then we play like shit and Garrett tries to force his way back in. Now you have three guys who should be thinking about game management when they're calling plays and instead they're all trying to make their presence felt on offense.

A real head coach would have the autonomy to say at halftime I don't give a fuck what you wanna do we're gonna run the ball. Or when GB cuts the lead to 12, get on the headset and take play calling away from the OC and QB. Garrett doesn't have the authority to do that.

They're all too busy trying to justify their position and they're not cognizant that they have a shitty fucking defense that is ravaged by injuries and NEEDS TO BE PROTECTED!! You absolutely cannot leave them on the field that long in the second half when you have a three-score lead.

It is all a clusterfuck of epic proportions
 
Messages
235
Reaction score
0
Jason Garrett is, always has been, and probably always will be, a complete pussy and an idiot when it comes to football sense.
 

Jon88

Pro Bowler
Messages
19,523
Reaction score
0
Garrett is a spineless ass kissing piece of crap and is the worst head coach the Cowboys have ever had.
 

dbair1967

Administrator
Messages
58,589
Reaction score
9,068
Garrett is a spineless ass kissing piece of crap and is the worst head coach the Cowboys have ever had.

Its close, although Switzer, Gailey and Campo were all lousy as hell too.

At least when Switzer was HC we had a superior roster (for a couple years) and a top notch group of assistant coaches.
 
Messages
3,665
Reaction score
22
It is pretty crazy.

Jerry has engineered a situation under which Jerry can maintain the belief that he wasn't wrong in hiring Garrett.

Jerry can believe that his main decision - hiring and keeping Garrett -- is the right one and that Jerry's smaller decisions regarding the OC and DC are the real problem. I'm sure that Jerry reasons that if you get the big decisions right (such as getting the right head coach), then you are doing well, because you can always fix the smaller decisions later.

Garrett's lack of power allows Jerry not to hold Garrett responsible. And by not holding Garrett responsible, Jerry frees himself from holding himself responsible for hiring Garrett.
 

ThoughtExperiment

Quality Starter
Messages
9,906
Reaction score
3
I've rooted for teams with shitty coaches in my time, but I've never experienced a little weasel so eager to pass blame onto anyone but himself after epic record-breaking coaching fuck ups. He's essentially throwing Romo directly under the bus here. He's a coward and has done this time and time again. As HC, he could have just taken away Romo's pass option if he was so concerned with an untimely turnover. I have no problem with Romo trying to make a play to Austin under duress. He's programmed as a player to get the ball down the field. Only Peyton Manning is maybe wired otherwise and even Peyton fucks up quite a bit, particularly in the playoffs against actual skilled DC's.

This is 100% on the coach. This ginger clown sounds like someone I'm sure our players really get motivated to show up and give 100% effort for huh? I can't wait until this toxic orange piece of shit is finally gone.
:like :B&B:

And I don't know how some of you blame Jerry for this. Garrett has the headset. He's the one talking to Tony every single down. You tell him to run the fucking ball, end of story. It's not complicated.

But the truth is that Garrett loves his run-pass check system. Just like he talked about in the press conference, it's all about the numbers. Well sometimes screw that, the game situation dictates that you burn some clock even if the numbers aren't in your favor. And Murray was averaging 7.5 yards a carry!

And then this guy still tries to blame Romo and Callahan! Why can't he ever just say I FRICKED UP, I'M TO BLAME. Because his ginger ass has been kissed his whole life, telling him how smart and wonderful he is.

So infuriating.
 

Jon88

Pro Bowler
Messages
19,523
Reaction score
0
Its close, although Switzer, Gailey and Campo were all lousy as hell too.

At least when Switzer was HC we had a superior roster (for a couple years) and a top notch group of assistant coaches.

They all sucked, but at least Switzer had backbone, Gailey wasn't completely clueless on offense, Campo....he and Campo are probably tied.
 
Messages
46,859
Reaction score
5
Maybe if JJT would take his stunna shades off from time to time he could see what is being built here
 
Messages
8,660
Reaction score
0
:like :B&B:

And I don't know how some of you blame Jerry for this. Garrett has the headset. He's the one talking to Tony every single down. You tell him to run the fucking ball, end of story. It's not complicated.

But the truth is that Garrett loves his run-pass check system. Just like he talked about in the press conference, it's all about the numbers. Well sometimes screw that, the game situation dictates that you burn some clock even if the numbers aren't in your favor. And Murray was averaging 7.5 yards a carry!

And then this guy still tries to blame Romo and Callahan! Why can't he ever just say I FRICKED UP, I'M TO BLAME. Because his ginger ass has been kissed his whole life, telling him how smart and wonderful he is.

So infuriating.
garrett gets the blame for this game, but jerry gets 100% of the blame for creating this entire situation.
 

Jon88

Pro Bowler
Messages
19,523
Reaction score
0
This is getting so old.

I'm at the point where I don't care anymore. This may be my last season following the team.
 

ThoughtExperiment

Quality Starter
Messages
9,906
Reaction score
3
garrett gets the blame for this game, but jerry gets 100% of the blame for creating this entire situation.

He gets blame for hiring Garrett, yes. He gets blame for his circus atmosphere, yes. He doesn't get blame for things like Garrett's offensive system, which goes back a lot farther than this game. Jerry doesn't care if we run the ball at the end of the game. Jerry doesn't insist on this count the box system that goes back to the 2008 game when we ran it like 6 times and passed it 60. I don't believe Jerry cares about insisting on details like that.
 

cockstrong

UDFA
Messages
1,927
Reaction score
0
He gets blame for hiring Garrett, yes. He gets blame for his circus atmosphere, yes. He doesn't get blame for things like Garrett's offensive system, which goes back a lot farther than this game. Jerry doesn't care if we run the ball at the end of the game. Jerry doesn't insist on this count the box system that goes back to the 2008 game when we ran it like 6 times and passed it 60. I don't believe Jerry cares about insisting on details like that.

Agree
 
Messages
235
Reaction score
0
He gets blame for hiring Garrett, yes. He gets blame for his circus atmosphere, yes. He doesn't get blame for things like Garrett's offensive system, which goes back a lot farther than this game. Jerry doesn't care if we run the ball at the end of the game. Jerry doesn't insist on this count the box system that goes back to the 2008 game when we ran it like 6 times and passed it 60. I don't believe Jerry cares about insisting on details like that.
Good post.

Blaming Jerruh for last night's loss, aside from the hiring of JG (which is a huge stretch anyways), is just silly.
 
Top Bottom