Well, the thing is, when we, as a person, look at Garrett, we see him through our own eyes. If you don't like him as a coach (and you don't seem to) then things he says in his pre game speeches, etc. is going to look and seem very different to you than it would to someone who respects and likes him. You might think they seem uninspired and trite, while someone else who thinks highly of Garrett listens intently and buys in to what he is saying.
By that same token, just because someone likes Garrett and thinks he's doing a good job with his team speeches doesn't mean that everyone views him in that light.
I like Garrett and I pull for him to do well and cement himself as the Dallas head coach going forward. I think he controls Jerry and his draft day itches just about better than anyone else ever has, including Jimmy and The Tuna. The direction he has taken the team since he took over is a very good one, IMO, and I want to see him continue to run the team and make it younger and more aggressive. He took over an old, tired team in 2010 and has given Dallas fans hope that he is building things the right way.
However, I might think a speech he gives the team is a very good one, and expect the team to respond favorably to it, while the truth could be that many on the team might not think as highly of him as I do and the speech seem hokey to them.
The point is that we, as fans, have our likes or dislikes of Garrett and his time as HC in Dallas, and that colors everything we see or hear from him. That doesn't mean that the players share a similar view as either one of us... or any particular fan.
What we kind of have to go on is how the team plays for him. Up to this point, the team has always seemed to play hard for him ever since Wade Phillips lost the same team at the beginning of 2010. To me, that early part of 2010 was a very clear indicator that the team had given up on Phillips and were ready for different leadership. I haven't seen anything close to that from the players in regards to Garrett's reign as HC here. They have always seemed to respond to him favorably and have played hard each year he has been the HC.
Had they quit on Garrett, none of the past years would have seen them at 8-8 and playing for a post season birth. I say that because I look at what Garrett has done personnel wise as a pretty much complete rebuild. Those usually don't go smoothly and 8-8 in the midst of a rebuild job is better than most.
Yes, they have had a franchise QB the whole time, but other than that, he has remade the whole roster pretty much. He inherited an old, overpriced OL and 4 years later we have a completely different OL with young, hungry, mobile, talented players all along it. There is even a little depth there. This year, he has had to completely rebuild the DL. Three years ago, the secondary was rebuilt (no matter if you like Claiborne and Carr... they still were not what Garrett started with). The LB's have completely changed as well.
It goes on. The RB position is completely different than in '10. The WR spot is entirely new, unless you count Dez as a Wade guy taken a few months before Phillips was fired. Even if you don't count Dez as a Garrett guy, every other WR is different now. Yeah, Witten has been here for a while, but Garrett brought in both of the other guys.
I see Garrett as a guy who came in to a team that had a good QB, TE, an old but good OLB/DE and another OLB/DE that was good but would end up with microfracture surgery on his knee soon, and a talented rookie WR at the beginning of 2010, and basically had to get the other 48 roster spots out the door and bring in new one's. Of course as it turned out, the two talented OLB's would only play 2011 and 2012 together, and really in 2012 Ware was hurt most of the time, so they too had to be replaced by 2013 (Spencer) and 2014 (Ware).
All of that, we asked Garrett to do while being expected to lead the team to the playoffs. In '11, '12, and '13 he won 8 games and had the team fighting for a playoff birth in their last game. Frankly, if you look at what he's had to do with the roster and coaching staff, it is a testimonial to how much the team works for him and listens to him that the bottom hasn't fallen out on the Cowboys record. And frankly, had somebody (anybody) managed to field an even average defense in any one of those 8-8 years, the team would have won more games and made the playoffs. Last season in particular was sabotaged by horrific defensive play that I doubt any team could have done much more than 8-8 with.
So anyway, yeah this post is too long, so I'll knock it off now... but to end it I will just say that I'd rather Dallas had ended up with 8-8 records for 3 years, get rid of the fat on the roster, and make the 53 look like fans used to always ask for it to, than to have kept any of the old, high priced players and squeeze out one more 10-6, first round playoff exit while continuing to screw up the salary cap and have Ware and Champ Bailey (as an example) finishing out old, stale careers taking Geritol with Jerry.
This team doesn't have near the defensive talent of the 2011 team. I predicted the Cowboys would fall flat in 2010 but didn't anticipate a 6-10 season or even a losing season. I kept thinking back to the 08 season when most everyone thought that would be the Cowboys year after the big disappointment in 2007. The Cowboys got caught up reading all their press clippings buying into the many SB predictions entering the 08 season. I saw the same thing happening entering the 2010 season. The Cowboys could have gone 12-4 in 2011. They blew a lead to NY on opening day with Romo throwing that game away with a pick in the final minute. They blew a franchise record 24 point lead to Detroit with the help of a meltdown performance by Romo. The following week vs NE they blew a lead in the final minutes due to Garrett having his offense sit on the ball instead of trying to put the game away with a couple of first downs. He allowed his defense that just got toasted by Matt Stafford in the 4th quarter the previous week to try and stop Tom Brady in the final couple of minutes.
Against AZ the Cowboys blew another lead and Garrett put the final touches on the game by icing his own kicker.
That was 4 games the Cowboys could have won that season. As for the 2014 season it's going just as I expected. I knew at the end of last season the Cowboys were headed for a losing season in 2014.
