This is the hallmark of the Garrett era. He's inspiring, vocal, charismatic and well-spoken. There are just too many examples of Garrett's statements conflicting with reality to take them seriously, however.
That the players like him and support him is a separate issue - it proves only that he is a charismatic and inspiring leader, which is a good thing. But we're still stuck with the uncomfortable fact that the inconsistency of what Garrett has delivered and what he said he would deliver is extreme.
This is a coach who preaches discipline yet fielded a team in the bottom 5 of turnover differential.
This same team was not just at the top of the league in penalties and penalty yardage, but was at the top of the league in the types of penalties that are directly correlated to poor coaching. (Some would have you believe it was just in False Start penalties related to a makeshift O-Line) Look at these:
- Your Dallas Cowboys were responsible for 21% of the Illegal Shift penalties called in 2012. That is as squarely on coaching, play design and preparation as possible.
- The Cowboys were responsible for 9% of 12-Men penalties on the defense. This is awful coaching - of the top 6 (there's a tie that brings us past top 5) in this penalty category, 4 lost their jobs on Monday.
- Illegal substitution penalties rates put us in VERY poor company.
- Tackling discipline and form penalties all above league average: we do 4.6% of roughing the passer, 4% of facemasks, 5% of hands to the face, more than 4% in unsportsmanlike conduct, 8% of horse collar tackles.
I don't want more inspiring quotes from Garrett. I don't want more quotes from players telling us that Garrett inspires them.
I want Garrett to
do what he says he will do. If that means getting better coordinators to take over gameday management so that Garrett can be the leader of men that he is, that's fine. But no number of right-sounding quotes that conflict with any objective analysis of reality is going to work on me until that time.
