Hey, you're one of the bosses here, so I am seriously say this respectfully. I don't wethrow around generalizations when it comes to Garrett. Think of the mistakes / poor decisions this man has made. I'll use the last game as an example. Him leaving Romo in the game late in the 4th Qtr to get sacked a few times was a complete disgrace. And its not just fans that think so. Chris Collinsworth wonders out loud "can someone explain to me why Tony Romo is still in the game?"
And then a day later Garrett says : "in hindsight, I really should;ve taken him out".
You mean to tell me that something as obvious as this, he couldnt make the right decision and pull the trigger? Just because Romo didnt get hurt, it doesnt mean it was okay. He makes some very bad decisions during a game.
Lol. I'm staff, but not a 'boss.' I enforce guidelines, but like any poster, I appreciate the respectfulness.
Leaving essential players in the game in a blowout loss was a mistake, for sure. I think you're stretching to call it a complete disgrace. It's enough to acknowledge it was a mistake. And Garrett definitely does make his share of game day mistakes. In my estimation, as much, or maybe more, than your average coach in this league.
And he makes some questionable calls in games now and again. And I'm not taking about run-of-the-mill second guessing. I mean stuff like play action calls on 3rd-and-18 in the red zone stuff.
And those things are getting an incredible amount of electronic ink here on CZ these days. But, honestly, I'd say 85-90% of the criticism I see of the guy is the same variety of stuff that you see said about literally every other head coach in this league by every other fan base. You have MIN fans puzzling over Leslie Frazier calling two timeouts on *defense* during a game-winning defensive stand. You have second guessing of Bill Belichick when he goes for it on 4th downs when people think he should now. You have Mike Shanahan playing an injured franchise QB when he should not. You have Tom Coughlin keeping a fumbling RB in the lineup after he single handedly hands us a victory in week one. All that stuff's valid to criticize, but it's not necessarily the stuff you use as you basis for evaluating your coach. If you look at it and see that there's a pattern, and that the number of poor decisions outweighs the number of poor decisions from other coaches in similar situations...or when they outweigh significantly some of the really good things the coach does, then you go ahead and make your position change.
And I'm not going to document another time all the things I think Jason Garrett does really well. Those things have been talked about to death and none of them changed with the butt-kicking we got on Sunday.
And I understand that JG only has so much time to fix the ship. That's as it should be, and this year or next is going to be all the time he gets. And as big a supporter of his as I am, that's appropriate.
I stand by my take that this is one of the hardest jobs in the league to fill, and that Jason does as good a job as I've seen in recent years of managing our limited resources, handling the ownership, handling the press and finicky fan base, managing the draft and building a coaching staff and communicating a message. I don't think it's an accident that he's held in such high regard by his players, staff, and by people in the know around the league. He still needs to get the job done, and so far, he hasn't.
And I know I'll get shouted down and lose an argument based on volume that should instead be based on reasons. But that's ok. I don't particularly care to change anybody's opinions on the matter. I'll change my own if I start seeing things that I consider to be actual coaching issues that are difficult or impossible to overcome. If he loses the team (not just suffers an embarrassing loss, but actually loses the team), it will be obvious that he needs to go. I don't think that will happen, but it's definitely a possibility given how thin the defense really is and given the inexplicable lack of success recently for our 3rd down offense. You can't win games in this league if those situations aren't addressed.
As I said above, though, it's a long season. Just two weeks ago, things looked a lot rosier for the Cowboys than they did for the Eagles. That's all changed. And it will probably change another two or three times again before it's all said and done. I know people prefer to straight-line the current trends and finish their NFL seasons early. But the offseason is long and boring. I'm content to just see how it plays out and then make our adjustments--major or relatively minor--from there. As I said, we'll see what happens, soon enough.
