Bob's Blog - Football 301: Decoding Garrett - Week 10

[Alexander]

However, when the chips are all down does Wade have what it takes to reel Garrett in when he's obviously blowing it?

If he was allowed to truly run the team and had an assertive personality he could. I don't think first he can and second he would even if could.

It is the same situation we've been dealing with since day one. They simply don't communicate very well. Garrett doesn't answer to him, I have no doubt in my mind. Nor does Phillips really have a stake in the gameplan or the direction of the offense. That has to come from up above.

 

[Vegas_Cowboy]

Ever notice how the Jason Garrett aplogists always stay out of threads like this?

Doesn't matter for them. They always have, "the players just didn't execute," excuse to fall back on every time he calls a horrible game. Yeah, the players don't always do the greatest job of executing the plays that Garrett calls but Garrett has a bad habit of drawing up plays that stack the odds drastically in favor of the defense. That's what the Garrett apologists just don't seem to comprehend. Whether it's a horrible game plan that puts the defense at an advantage or not, the players just need to execute.

 

[BAT]

Tough to argue against that, right now bro.

We're all happy when the Boys are winning. It seems to work. However, when the chips are all down does Wade have what it takes to reel Garrett in when he's obviously blowing it? We can (and most likely will) get away with a performance like Sunday (from the coaches AND the players) and still have a chance to make some noise in the playoffs. BUT, Sunday was the closest the Cowboys have seen to a playoff type atmosphere this season (it had been posted ad naseum here the days leading up to the game that this was the Packers season). Garrett and the offense failed miserably in a situation that the opposing team were playing like they HAD TO WIN (sound like the playoffs yet?).

I'm guardedly holding out hope that Garrett can still lead this offense to some late season and post-season success. History, though, is against him.

I agree completely. This was a good test for the Cowboys new found mental toughness. Like you correctly pointed out, this was a perfect primer for the Cowboys to play a team in playoff mode. Not only that, the Cowboys were also picked to win, and they don't seem to play well when they are the favorites.

That said, even if precedent is against them I remain optimistic. The pieces are all there, they just need to go into every game w/the same intensity and discipline as they did against Philly and Atlanta. The underdog role suits them better, keep that chip on the shoulder all the way thru to the post season, the coaches too. But something has to give, either Wade gets tougher or Garrett becomes more aware.

 

[skinsscalper]

And the reverse happened when Garrett's offense was rolling two weeks ago.

Can't argue that one. I've been critical of Garrett in the off-season AND at times during this season. In all, honesty, he's been pretty brilliant lately. Tough to complain about a guy who is coming up with game winning schemes.

Unfortunately, the performances like Sunday become ugly reminders that MAYBE he hasn't gotten over the hump (yet). Familiar problems/successes bring back familiar arguments.

 

[ethiostar]

Great analysis by Bob, as always.

 

[kramskoi]

Interesting. But not unexpected.

On the contrary; anyone watching the game a few days ago...anyone with a bit of common sense...would probably tell you that something went wrong somewhere in the process, and the offense changed the way they approached situations throughout the game, and not for the better.

A lot of people said, correctly as it turns out, that there was something wrong with the playcalling or the quality of the adjustments. I did the same. But if you watch much football, again, it wasn't all that hard to detect. Those who made the claim and have made similar claims in the past didn't have the evidence to fully back it up like Bob does here; but still they knew.

The problem with Garrett isn't that he's an idiot. I actually believe that he is capable of brilliant playcalling. We've seen it. I think the Philly game the weekend before was a good example. However, something happens to him in certain situations. It's almost like he suddenly has this narrow tunnel vision on and can't see the big picture during the game. I don't know if it's panic or if he has a jekyll/hyde complex, but here's my gripe: What good is his brilliance if he keeps turning into this single minded, tunnel visioned coach when the heat is on?

It better stop...now, or else this team isn't going to make the playoffs and he might not be around next year to get it right...at least, I won't want him around anyway.

...two things...

...one...we don't know how many games his "blindspot" has cost this team over the past three years...i won't speculate but i'm sure some here can/will...

...two...the fact that Dallas won in Philly using S11 is a rather chilling indictment in itself...it means that a once-vaunted, or thought to be vaunted 2 TE base offense is less potent than we've been led to believe...the offense looked this way against Carolina, Denver and Kansas City [until the second-half]...sunday was the fourth game this year that the offense has looked impotent...that's nearly 50% of the games this year!...either way this team surely has challenges going forward, especially with the loss of Columbo...

...numbers don't lie and Bob has warned us before about Garrett's tendency to run S11 into the ground [along with Romo] down the stretch...this is just more proof that this guy is often out of his league when facing the elite defensive coordinators...

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Well I'm glad a "credible" source confirms what many on here have said - we abandoned the running game and Garrett was out coached.

I think Garrett is a smart guy, I know he is. But being smart doesn't equate to being good.

There are a lot of people that think they can play poker. They're real smart when it comes to knowing what hands to play, what the percentages are, when the pot odds are in their favor. But they still suck at poker.

They lack the intuition of knowing when to bluff, when to bet big, when to check, when to check raise, reading your opponent.

I feel Garrett just lacks that intuition.

Good analogy.

Intuition, feel, whatever you want to call it is important in almost every field. The lack of it is why we so often see new coordinators fail even though they keep the exact same terminology, scheme, and playbook that the previous successful coach used.

 

[khiladi]

Jason Garrett looked brilliant because Miles Austin was playing all-world and we were playing scrubs. Teams started taking notice of Miles Austin and Garrett did what he did best....Every OC shows 'flashes' once in awhile... It's been 3 years and Jason keeps making the same mistakes. This team is stocked with talent and Garrett's been riding high because of Romo...

 

[The30YardSlant]

Garrett isnt "terrible" as a playcaller (Well, not the majority of the time anyway). His problem is that he either sticks with something that clearly isnt working too long or he tries futile in-game adjustments that offer little in the way of improvement.

How many times under Garrett has Dallas played awful offense in the first half, only to come out and roll teams up in the second? You know after the first 2-3 series whether or not Dallas' offense is going to be "on" that day, and it's because JG is incapable of making proper adjustments to his gameplan.

Hoopefully he improves on this, but after 2 and a half seasons it is becoming tougher and tougher to believe he will

 

[khiladi]

Garrett has been terrible as a play-caller... How do we know Garrett just panicked, instead of Garrett simply not knowing what to do? We have seen the shot-gun formation that gets Romo pounded over and over all again, many times. It was the staple all last year and it seems to be this year out of passing formations.

 

[The30YardSlant]

Garrett has been terrible as a play-caller... How do we know Garrett just panicked, instead of Garrett simply not knowing what to do?

Because he has proven to be capable if designing successful gameplans. Look at the first 12 games of the '07 season, or the number of offensive outbursts the last two years.

Once the rest of the NFL figured him out (and they HAVE figured him out), his rate of success gameplans plummeted, and he can't do anything about it because he, for some reason, is unable to successfully adjust

 

[khiladi]

Those first 12 games, until he got figured out. He hasn't been the same. So how is that being a good play-caller? Maybe this is the trend. He's been dread awful with a couple of all world performances by Miles Austin which made people buy the hype. His offensive outbursts are often blurred by statistics, such as TOs all world day against SF on 3 passes, or Miles Austin 200 plus performance of breaking tackles against KC. The last two games, teams just dropped back in coverage and took away Miles AUstin, like they did with TO and there we have it.. The guy has a running game and personnel any OC would kill for and he's doing crap like this....

 

[TheCount]

Oh boy, there are some people around here that are going to hate hearing this from Bob, especially since he makes a point of reminding everyone that it is something that happens consistantly.

 

[kramskoi]

Because he has proven to be capable if designing successful gameplans. Look at the first 12 games of the '07 season, or the number of offensive outbursts the last two years.

Once the rest of the NFL figured him out (and they HAVE figured him out), his rate of success gameplans plummeted, and he can't do anything about it because he, for some reason, is unable to successfully adjust

...i do know that this offense is cooling off from where it was at the start of the season...the running game in particular is in decline...a pattern from 07 and 08...and we're starting to see S11 rise to prominence once again...

...anyone who's followed Sturm can no longer deny, with a straight face, that Garrett has been a big part of this team's struggles down the stretch and in close games...

 

[Vegas_Cowboy]

...i do know that this offense is cooling off from where it was at the start of the season...the running game in particular is in decline...a pattern from 07 and 08...and we're starting to see S11 rise to prominence once again...

...anyone who's followed Sturm can no longer deny, with a straight face, that Garrett has been a big part of this team's struggles down the stretch and in close games...

Havent you heard? Garrett is not the problem. The players just need to execute his crappy game plans!!

 

[NextGenBoys]

Actually if you followed the link to the previous day's game recap in the OP you would see that he, in fact, did say that we didn't run enough.

To quote:
This team did not do that at all. The Cowboys went back to their road ways that suggest they cannot handle failing on offense. This happens time and time again in road wars: @ Pittsburgh, @ Denver, @ Green Bay; When they cannot get in the end zone early, as the game goes on, they start to get more and more impatient. They start to pass in running situations. They start to go "shotgun" and sling it around - which only invites more blitzing and more chaos from the defense. They do not stick to their game-plan of what they do well: Power Football.

The main point of the article was Dallas ran shotgun and got out of it's base offense.

It mentioned the running game, but the overall point of that article was to point out Garrett running shotgun too much, and he had the stats to back it up showing the efficiency of each formation.

 

[NextGenBoys]

...i do know that this offense is cooling off from where it was at the start of the season...the running game in particular is in decline...a pattern from 07 and 08...and we're starting to see S11 rise to prominence once again...

...anyone who's followed Sturm can no longer deny, with a straight face, that Garrett has been a big part of this team's struggles down the stretch and in close games...

Yeah that Philly game wasn't close at all.

And in that same game we had a mere 4 more rushes than we did against GB yet no one complains about that game.

 

[CoCo]

Garrett apologists will stay out of this thread because while there have been a couple folks who have made balanced comments (skinsscalper in particular) there are others who are now (IMO) overreacting and painting a picture where Garrett gets all the blame and credit is going to the players (Austin) making the difference when a Garrett play call succeeds.

Running game decline? Its Garrett, with no mention of injuries to Barber & Felix.

Close losses? Garrett again. Not Romo's pick decision versus the Giants, not Flo for blocking down and missing Woodson, not Romo choosing Hurd over Austin in Denver, not Roy's fumble, not Roy's drop.

Good stuff down the stretch? Austin twice in KC, is all Austin and no Garrett. Austin vs Philly is all Austin again apparently.

Its the singular focus and myopic view by some that keeps the apologists and bashers apart. Give credit where its due. Give blame where its due.

There are too many folks who simply can't do it.

 

[NextGenBoys]

Garrett apologists will stay out of this thread because while there have been a couple folks who have made balanced comments (skinsscalper in particular) there are others who are now (IMO) overreacting and painting a picture where Garrett gets all the blame and credit is going to the players (Austin) making the difference when a Garrett play call succeeds.

Running game decline? Its Garrett, with no mention of injuries to Barber & Felix.

Close losses? Garrett again. Not Romo's pick decision versus the Giants, not Flo for blocking down and missing Woodson, not Romo choosing Hurd over Austin in Denver, not Roy's fumble, not Roy's drop.

Good stuff down the stretch? Austin twice in KC, is all Austin and no Garrett. Austin vs Philly is all Austin again apparently.

Its the singular focus and myopic view by some that keeps the apologists and bashers apart. Give credit where its due. Give blame where its due.

There are too many folks who simply can't do it.

Great post.

The KC game was all Austin...it was the same routes, and he just made plays on them.

The Philly game was set up throughout the game by Garrett and set up perfectly. Credit goes to the call there.

And I will fully blame Garrett for getting away from our gameplan and employing Shotgun too much. No doubt about that.

 

[Dodger]

Yeah that Philly game wasn't close at all.

And in that same game we had a mere 4 more rushes than we did against GB yet no one complains about that game.

Well, sorta.

Look at percentages, not just the fact that there were a handful more running plays against Philly. There were also 5 less passing plays against Philly, meaning that the passing percentage against Philly was roughly 62%. And again, against the Pack it was 75ish%. Big difference.

That, and maybe things just clicked against Philly with the shotgun. No need to go away from what's working. But against the Pack, it's quite obvious that that strategy was NOT working, yet Garrett kept going back to it over and over.

Anyone see the movie Tin Cup? Remember when Roy McAvoy kept trying to reach the green instead of laying up in the U.S. Open?

"I can make that shot!"

So he keeps dropping the ball at the same spot, trying the same shot, over and over, each one landing in the water hazzard. Finally, he makes the shot, but not before plummeting in the Open's standings and almost being disqualified...all because he has to prove something.

Well, he proved it, but at what cost?

That's the picture I get of Jason Garrett right now.