News: Bob Sturm: Why I was so wrong about Cowboys coach Jason Garrett

[CATCH17]

ahhh, you mentioned a bad Oline, then in the same breath say why we didn't run the ball? not sure it makes sense.

We didn't have a bad Oline the year before last..

Garrett had a solid O-line at worst his last year as Coordinator.

 

[CowboyRoy]

You mentioned Garrett is back as a walk around coach that motivates people and oversees things...with great coordinators. Sounds like a Jimmy Johnson type of coach.

Nothing like Johnson at all, other than the fact that he had great coordinators and is considered a walk around. Is EVERY CEO the same just because they oversee things?

Garrett has proven that when it comes to game day, he is terrible. Jimmy was also heavily involved in personnel and had proven himself in college and the pros. Jimmy ran the team with an iron fist and pushed buttons. It didnt take Jimmy 8 years to figure out he needed to run the ball did it?

And Garrett does what exactly? Repeats the same things over and over again he learned from other coaches and pats fannies?

Yah, he is like Jimmy Johnson. Too funny.

 

[CowboyRoy]

It must have been a bad moment for you when that same owner re-signed Garrett for another 5 years because he was thrilled with the progression of the team under Garrett.

And of course he suffered growing pains. All first time head coaches do.

It was bitter sweet for me. I loved the 12-4 season, but knowing Garrett was here for another 5 years was difficult to say the least. But Jones did what he needed to do in order to have success with Garrett. First order of business was to resign Linehan and Marianelli. Is it any coincidence it was his first off season priority?

And no, most coaches do NOT have the growing pains that Garrett did. And the ones that do, get fired. Garrett never did. Coaches also dont get jobs with resume's as laughable as Garrett. No head coaching experience at any level what so ever. No OC experience what so ever before getting that gig either. It was a huge gamble for Jones that was on a whim and Romo and the rest of the team suffered for 8 years. And we would still be suffering had it not been for Jones kicking him to the curb with the offense.

 

[Doomsday101]

This Coaching comparison reminds me of Wayne Fontes of the Detroit Lions. Jason Garret is my Wayne Fontes. Every year, Fontes was on the brink of getting fired yet he always survived.

YearAgeTmLeagueGWLTWin-Loss Percentage of teamG W plyfL plyfWin-Loss Percentage of team in RankNotes
198848Detroit LionsNFL5230.4004
198949Detroit LionsNFL16790.4383
199050Detroit LionsNFL166100.3753
199151Detroit LionsNFL161240.750211.5001
199252Detroit LionsNFL165110.3135
199353Detroit LionsNFL161060.625101.0001
199454Detroit LionsNFL16970.563101.0003
199555Detroit LionsNFL161060.625101.0002
199656Detroit LionsNFL165110.3135
9 yrs13366670.496514.2003.0

Jerry had to compartmentalize Garrett's responsibilities to Clapping and Motivation Speeches in 2014 while only allowing the assistant coaches to handle the team. Jerry's ego is too big to fire Garrett so he will do everything in this world to make sure JG succeeds. Jerry showed the world in the 1990s that anybody can coach the Cowboys and win a Super Bowl and he will do his best to make sure a "Coach in Training" wins a Super Bowl. Our biggest weakness in 2015 is keeping JG confined to his Clapping and Speech roles. If JG provides any input to any Game Planning, we will be screwed and Romo will once again have to save JG's butt.

Garrett has played a big part in getting the players and coaches he want on this staff. Your sour grape is just that yours. As for meeting, and game planning he is very much involved in it. You may not want to hear it since you seem to have issues but as you said you can't change FACTS.

 

[CowboyRoy]

That just isn't being fair to Garrett. We had many issues that were completely out of his control that contributed to those records. In fact, considering what we went thru on defense, going 8-8 could be considered a miracle. Add in completely rebuilding the roster to what it is today and some would say Garrett doesn't get enough credit.

Teams rebuild on the fly all the time. Garrett had plenty of talent to do better than 8-8. We choked games, gave them away with poor coaching, ect....ect...

We had the worst defense one season statistically. More reason to run the ball more. Which he didnt.

 

[CowboyRoy]

garrett has certainly had influence. and garrett has been working with Stephen in getting jerry to stay the course. lets not forget it was jerry who said he was ready to pick Manziel and if not for the system of checks and balances, he would have. why? my argument has been for years that jerry is a great business man and a master marketer and could you imagine manziel in dallas? but he was convinced otherwise and it probably did take a three headed monster to stop him, one of garrett, Stephen and mcclay.

No doubt Garrett has had some influence. One in three is fine with me. But no way are you going to say Garrett is the reason for all the changes. We also saw Garrett lobby for Felix Jones several years back. We also saw the sour look on his face several times when Jones drafted someone. I would bet that out of Jerry, Stephen, Clay and Garrett, that Garrett has the least influence on draft day. And when picking a defensive player, Marianneli has more influence even then Garrett.

And certainly when it comes to FA's, we can see quite clearly that Garrett has little influence at all. Unless your going to tell me that guy like McClain and the Kraken and Garretts RKG's.

 

[CowboyRoy]

garrett as an OC produced several top 10 and a #2 offense in the league? garrett as a HC and OC not as much success.

and once again, the anti garrett crowd points to lack of running, in a pass happy league. so I guess McCarthy sucked because he was pass happy. so was billicheat. so was Denver. so was indy. so was NO and the list is long. but that's the one thing and probably the only thing the anti garrett crowd continuously hangs their hat on, yet totally ignore all these other teams who were pass happier than dallas, including the current OC who was head coach of Detroit and set a record with the # of pass attempts by a QB in a season.

Cmon bro, the lack of running with Garrett was documented over and over again. Aikman and others calling games would wonder out loud why he wasnt running the ball. Jerry bashed him multiple times. It was an issue. When the team had success in the early years of Wade it was because we were running the ball better.

Teams that are overly pass happy do so because they have guys like Manning, Brady, Brees, ect...ect.... And most of those guys only won a SB in year where they were able to run the ball well in the playoffs.

Romo is great, but he isnt those guys. And when you have had a poor defense like we have lately, you better run the ball more.

 

[CowboyRoy]

aha, defense. that's the key. not just the running game. New England won it because of their passing and improved defense. Denver invested heavily on defense and was a passing team when they made it to the superbowl, NO won it on average rushing game, heavy passing game and improved defense. so did Indy when they won their superbowl. no one denies that having a defense is not a key ingredient of having a successful team.

I do have my facts straight. NE was # 2 passing team in the league. #15 rushing. but yeah, let perception get in the way of reality.

You are missing point bro. The point is not that EVERY team needs a great RG or to run with great success. But the Cowboys clearly needed that. They had Romo winging the ball all over the place and where did it get them? We lost games clearly because we couldnt run out the clock or keep the ball. Did you simply not watch the Cowboys the last 7 years?

So Brady won a SB being pass happy so we should win a SB that way? Cmon, your angle here is very weak.

Its as weak as the Romo haters saying that Romo stinks because he isnt Tom Brady.

And all this after watching what a great RG just did for this team last year? Can you really be this pig headed?

Do you really think Garrett is some great coach?

 

[CowboyRoy]

aha, defense. that's the key. not just the running game. New England won it because of their passing and improved defense. Denver invested heavily on defense and was a passing team when they made it to the superbowl, NO won it on average rushing game, heavy passing game and improved defense. so did Indy when they won their superbowl. no one denies that having a defense is not a key ingredient of having a successful team.

I do have my facts straight. NE was # 2 passing team in the league. #15 rushing. but yeah, let perception get in the way of reality.

LOL........Tom Brady and the New England Patriots is your defense for what exactly? Why we dont need to run the ball. What do the Patriots have to do with the Dallas Cowboys? Do we have Tom Brady and Bellichek? 15th in rushing is not bad. And NO you dont need a top 5 rushing attack when you have Tom Brady at QB.

Do we have Tom Brady at QB?

So are you going to tell the Seahawks they are doing it all wrong?

 

[CowboyRoy]

how did it work out when the defense improved from 32nd and one of the all time worst to #19. but I am sure that had nothing to do with improved record. in 2013 we went 10 quarters without making one stop on the defensive side. the opponents scored at will. but lets not let facts and reality get in the way of our agenda.

Thats really your problem. You cant see the forest through the trees. You dont see how the dominant run game and time of possession helped out defense give up less points. Well that explains a lot. How many sacks did we have in 2013 as compared to 2014?

Now the defense did improve in takeaways. That was huge.

 

[Dodger12]

and once again, the anti garrett crowd points to lack of running, in a pass happy league. so I guess McCarthy sucked because he was pass happy. so was billicheat. so was Denver. so was indy. so was NO and the list is long. but that's the one thing and probably the only thing the anti garrett crowd continuously hangs their hat on, yet totally ignore all these other teams who were pass happier than dallas, including the current OC who was head coach of Detroit and set a record with the # of pass attempts by a QB in a season.

I do have my facts straight. NE was # 2 passing team in the league. #15 rushing. but yeah, let perception get in the way of reality.

Since 2007 when Garrett became the OC, NE and Denver have run more than Dallas 5 out of 8 years. If you take away the Linehan influence of 2014, that would make these "pass happy" teams have more rushing attempts than Dallas 5 out 7 years.

Denver had more rushing attempts than Dallas in 2012 and 2013 with Payton Manning as their QB. Let that sink in when you label another team "pass happy." Bottom line, we've seen enough of Garrett to know that running is not necessarily his philosophy. We can use the OL excuse all day but it just doesn't fly for anyone grounded in reality. Garrett's been in the top 10 in rushing attempts only twice since he's been here and one of them was last year with Linehan. The other year was 2009 when we won a playoff game and should have made more noise in the playoffs. We run, we win. On the other hand, NE has been in the top 10 in rushing attempts 3 times during the years Garrett has been in Dallas and Denver twice (same as Dallas).

Not sure how you can definitively label some of these successful teams as "pass happy" when they have consitently run more than we do.

Yes, perception can often be greater than reality.......

 

[CATCH17]

The defense was notably better last year, although not great. The ability to control games with the run game with the final addition of Zack Martin was the key.

Garrett's playcalling was ENTIRELY dictated by the painfully obvious fact that they couldn't run the ball in critical situations and they couldn't protect Romo. Linehan's playcalling wouldn't have meant a thing from 2010-12. The offense started to come together in 2013, but the defense was an absolute embarrassment.

There is no play to call when it's going to be a jail break the second you snap the ball.

Actually there are.

You can win with a bad O-line in this league. Teams do it all the time. You just can't call plays like the bad O-line doesn't exist like we did.

You can impose your will on the ground but you can't do it through the air like Garrett thinks you can. It takes creativity at times.

 

[CowboyRoy]

The question is about Garrett as the Head Coach, not as the OC. I've always said that he was the right HC, but should delegate the OC job.

The part of the HC's job that relates to building the right team mentality takes time. In my estimation the rule of thumb would be about a 2 to 3 year delay to see results in this area. Garrett had to inherit a locker room that was a complete disaster. Remember when Parcells told the players not to "eat the cheese" in regards to not getting an inflated ego? Wade basically had semi-trucks of cheese force fed to the players when he was the HC. That team ended up with leaders like Jay Ratliff. They were a bunch of entitled underachievers. The only guys that didn't fall into that were Romo and Witten who were tight with Garrett. Even as OC Garrett stood up to TO when Wade wouldn't or couldn't.

Wade inherited the opposite from Parcells. That team was well disciplined and went 13-3 in his first season but steadily declined as the lack of discipline caused the players to develop an overwhelming sense of entitlement and eventually they just quit on Wade.

Garrett took over for Wade at mid-season and managed to get a 1-7 team to go 5-3 in the 2nd half of that season. After that the team mentality had to be purged and that is a slower process when a bunch of players have contracts that prevent them from being cut immediately.

It might have been 3 straight seasons of 8-8, but there was progress in 2013 despite the record. They had 3 losses by only 1 point that season, another loss by 2 points and another loss by 3 points.

It's fairly obvious that the current locker room mentality is what you want and Garrett has done an excellent job of building up that winning type mentality. The only player that might have any of that Jay Ratliff type of over-entitlement would be Rolando McClain and he is basically a loner on the team, not a leader like Ratliff or TO. McClain only got a veteran's minimum deal plus incentives which also limits his impact on the team.

The front office might have under-cut Garrett a little this season. Garrett really wanted to keep Murray but the FO didn't. Garrett valued his leadership and no nonsense approach to the game. Keeping the right locker room mentality is a high priority for Garrett but the FO saw the probability of decline as high for Murray based on the history of RBs at that age and when coming off seasons with super high numbers of carries. Hopefully, the FO made the right decision.

Building the character of the team is by far the number one job of the Head Coach. Many coaches can do the X and O stuff. Since off-loading the OC duties, Garrett has not had any in-game issues which people criticized him for in his early years as HC. Jimmy Johnson said from the beginning that he thought Garrett would become a very good HC, but as a young coach that he should not be both the OC and HC.

Yah, we are just not on the same page. Wade took over a team that Parcells couldnt get past 10-6 and improve the defense. Romo also had more experience. That is why they went 13-3. The team faltered because Jones whiffed on too many drafts and made bad trades and our line started to falter.

Garrett took over a team that had injuries early and got off to a terrible start. A team that was 11-5 the year before. So he got an 11-5 team to go 5-3. That was barely beating an Eagles team the last game of the year playing thier 3rd string.

I dont see Garrett building a winning mentality. Jones has brought in more talent, and we have great coordinators now. Marianelli is doing his part with the D, and linehan ran the ball like Garrett should have been doing. If Garrett still handles the offense and he is last in the league in rushing attempts again, this team goes 8-8 or close to it and we miss the playoff again.

Jones got smart and saw that Garrett running the offense was a disaster. So he needed REAL coaches to run both sides of the ball. So he finally has Garrett where he can be affective. After 8 years of learning on the job and hampering Wades job and Romo's career.

 

[CATCH17]

So by your estimation, it's easy to win in the NFL?

With a QB like Romo.. It definitely could've been a lot easier than we made it. We should definitely have been and had more post season success than what we have had.

 

[CowboyRoy]

ok, I am glad you are starting to understand that every team is different and there is no single formula.

so "you better be able to run the ball". what if you can't. what if you don't have the personnel? doesn't the score also dictate what you have to do? in 2013 we had one of the worst defenses ever. we went two games without stopping an offense once. they never punted. being couple of scores behind specially in 2nd half forces you to pass. but should we just run the ball to pad the stats so some fans such as yourself don't complain?

having a good defense helps the team. having a good OL. helps the team. not being behind by 2 scores helps the team.

having a running game does not equal to success.

LOL........But I thought you said it was a pass happy league? You are going around in circles now buddy.

yah, having a great defense is another thing I strongly believe in. Did you see somewhere where I said it wasnt?

So Dallas had a pass happy offense and a poor defense and they were going 8-8 3 years in a row. So at what point do you think they should start focusing on the run?
Oh wait, the just did that and look what happened? 12-4 Facts are stubborn things.

 

[CowboyRoy]

better defense from one of the all time worst had nothing to do with the improvements. yeah...sure. it was all the running game. then we should have just traded all our draft picks to get gurley or Gordon and just laugh our way to a superbowl because the running game is the only thing needed to be a successful team.

Nope, didnt say it was all just the running game. Another year in the scheme, better health.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

Nope, didnt say it was all just the running game. Another year in the scheme, better health.

but you keep faulting garrett for not running the ball and your have compared 2013 and 2014 pointing to the difference being the running game only!!

 

[CowboyRoy]

There's a massive difference in calling running plays, and being able to run the ball.

Garrett didn't call them because Dallas proved over and over they couldn't do it. How many 3rd-and-1 failures did you have to witness?

Romo was the only option he had to win games. He used it. Just as Linehan would have at that time.

Running the ball is as much a commitment and attitude as anything else. And there were plenty of games where the running was working and the Cowboys went away from it. "thats just what they do" GB game.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

LOL........But I thought you said it was a pass happy league? You are going around in circles now buddy.

yah, having a great defense is another thing I strongly believe in. Did you see somewhere where I said it wasnt?

So Dallas had a pass happy offense and a poor defense and they were going 8-8 3 years in a row. So at what point do you think they should start focusing on the run?
Oh wait, the just did that and look what happened? 12-4 Facts are stubborn things.

I am not going in circles. its not a pass happy league. its a passing league as over the past 10 years rules have been made more difficult on defensive players to defend the pass, because the league wanted more scoring.

my response was in regards to your comments. you totally ignored everything else, except laser focus on running game being the total difference maker between 2013 and 2014.

 

[CowboyRoy]

ok, I am glad you are starting to understand that every team is different and there is no single formula.

so "you better be able to run the ball". what if you can't. what if you don't have the personnel? doesn't the score also dictate what you have to do? in 2013 we had one of the worst defenses ever. we went two games without stopping an offense once. they never punted. being couple of scores behind specially in 2nd half forces you to pass. but should we just run the ball to pad the stats so some fans such as yourself don't complain?

having a good defense helps the team. having a good OL. helps the team. not being behind by 2 scores helps the team.

having a running game does not equal to success.

How much success did the Cowboys have last year with a dominant run game? duuuughghg..............bububububut Tom Brady won without a dominant run game.