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By JEAN-JACQUES TAYLOR / The Dallas Morning News
jjtaylor@dallasnews.com
As his helmet hung in his locker, it was easy to notice a chunk of paint – about the size of a half dollar – had been scraped off the front of Martellus Bennett's helmet.
When asked about it, Bennett said, "Man, we've been going hard in practice."
Welcome to the Jason Garrett Era. Whether it lasts eight weeks or eight years , Garrett is running the Cowboys his way.
Garrett has made several changes during the 13 days he’s been the Cowboys’ coach from making sure the players are all standing at attention during the national anthem to implementing a dress code for home and away games.
But Garrett’s biggest change is making the players wear full pads on Wednesdays.
“I just think football is a physical sport. You can never lose that,” Garrett said. “You have to be smart going forward over the course of a season, but Wednesday is the day when you’re putting the base stuff in.
“A lot of it is focused on the running game and the play-action passing game, and you need to be physical in those areas. Over the course of time, if you’re not practicing that way, I think maybe you lose some of that physicality. Now there are a lot of other coaching philosophies that have been incredibly successful doing it a different way. This is just something that we believe in.”
Many teams don't wear full pads this late in the season, preferring to preserve the players' bodies.
After watching this team shamefully give much less than a full effort in successive losses to the New York Giants , Jacksonville and Green Bay, Garrett realized this team is mentally weak. It needs the toughness that occurs from wearing pads during practice.
“One of the things that you have to guard against is having too much sympathy for the players,” Garrett said. “It’s hard, and it’s going to be hard. It’s a long season, and we know that. The best players know that. You’ve got to fight through some things.
“Practices are supposed to be hard. The seasons are supposed to be hard. But if you work at it and you improve individually and as a group, you have a great chance of having success on Sunday.”
Last week, Dallas rushed for 103 yards against the Giants. On Sunday, against Detroit, we’ll see if they can post consecutive 100-yard games.
The passing game is sexy, and the Cowboys have a bevy of weapons from Dez Bryant and Miles Austin to Jason Witten and Felix Jones.
Time after time, though, history tells us that you have to run the ball to win in the NFL.
More important, you have to be able to run whenever you want to run it such as when the offense moves inside the opponents’ 20 or it needs to close out the final four minutes of a game.
Study the facts.
Teams that have an edge in rushing yards are 105-39. Teams with 100-yard rushers are 45-19. Now let’s look at teams that sling the ball around.
Teams with a 300-yard passer are 25-32 this season, though Jon Kitna managed to lead Dallas to a win over the Giants last week with a 300-yard performance. Teams with a 400-yard passer are 1-7.
We all know the Cowboys have struggled to run the ball this season whether you choose to blame the offensive line or the runners, but when you look at the numbers they’re probably even worse than you figured.
They rank 32nd in the NFL in rushing touchdowns (2). They rank 31st in rushing yards (78.3). They rank 29th in yards per carry (3.58).
They’ve had just 16 runs of 10 yards or more, which ranks 31st in the league and just two runs of more than 20 yards – both by Felix Jones against Tennessee several weeks ago – which is tied for 30th.
Ridiculous.
It doesn’t matter why this approach didn’t occur when Garrett was offensive coordinator – only that he’s trying to get this underachieving team to perform now.
jjtaylor@dallasnews.com
As his helmet hung in his locker, it was easy to notice a chunk of paint – about the size of a half dollar – had been scraped off the front of Martellus Bennett's helmet.
When asked about it, Bennett said, "Man, we've been going hard in practice."
Welcome to the Jason Garrett Era. Whether it lasts eight weeks or eight years , Garrett is running the Cowboys his way.
Garrett has made several changes during the 13 days he’s been the Cowboys’ coach from making sure the players are all standing at attention during the national anthem to implementing a dress code for home and away games.
But Garrett’s biggest change is making the players wear full pads on Wednesdays.
“I just think football is a physical sport. You can never lose that,” Garrett said. “You have to be smart going forward over the course of a season, but Wednesday is the day when you’re putting the base stuff in.
“A lot of it is focused on the running game and the play-action passing game, and you need to be physical in those areas. Over the course of time, if you’re not practicing that way, I think maybe you lose some of that physicality. Now there are a lot of other coaching philosophies that have been incredibly successful doing it a different way. This is just something that we believe in.”
Many teams don't wear full pads this late in the season, preferring to preserve the players' bodies.
After watching this team shamefully give much less than a full effort in successive losses to the New York Giants , Jacksonville and Green Bay, Garrett realized this team is mentally weak. It needs the toughness that occurs from wearing pads during practice.
“One of the things that you have to guard against is having too much sympathy for the players,” Garrett said. “It’s hard, and it’s going to be hard. It’s a long season, and we know that. The best players know that. You’ve got to fight through some things.
“Practices are supposed to be hard. The seasons are supposed to be hard. But if you work at it and you improve individually and as a group, you have a great chance of having success on Sunday.”
Last week, Dallas rushed for 103 yards against the Giants. On Sunday, against Detroit, we’ll see if they can post consecutive 100-yard games.
The passing game is sexy, and the Cowboys have a bevy of weapons from Dez Bryant and Miles Austin to Jason Witten and Felix Jones.
Time after time, though, history tells us that you have to run the ball to win in the NFL.
More important, you have to be able to run whenever you want to run it such as when the offense moves inside the opponents’ 20 or it needs to close out the final four minutes of a game.
Study the facts.
Teams that have an edge in rushing yards are 105-39. Teams with 100-yard rushers are 45-19. Now let’s look at teams that sling the ball around.
Teams with a 300-yard passer are 25-32 this season, though Jon Kitna managed to lead Dallas to a win over the Giants last week with a 300-yard performance. Teams with a 400-yard passer are 1-7.
We all know the Cowboys have struggled to run the ball this season whether you choose to blame the offensive line or the runners, but when you look at the numbers they’re probably even worse than you figured.
They rank 32nd in the NFL in rushing touchdowns (2). They rank 31st in rushing yards (78.3). They rank 29th in yards per carry (3.58).
They’ve had just 16 runs of 10 yards or more, which ranks 31st in the league and just two runs of more than 20 yards – both by Felix Jones against Tennessee several weeks ago – which is tied for 30th.
Ridiculous.
It doesn’t matter why this approach didn’t occur when Garrett was offensive coordinator – only that he’s trying to get this underachieving team to perform now.