Why Garrett can't bring back the 1990s

sean10mm

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More than anything else, what Jason Garrett is trying to do with this team is to re-create the Jimmy Johnson era. And who doesn't want that? In the 1990s the Cowboys ground their opponents into dust with straightforward game plans and overpowering talent, winning games with the kind of tragic inevitability we normally associate with geological disasters. Garrett ultimately dumped the 3-4 of the Parcells and Philips eras for the old 4-3 defense, they run the same basic Air Coryell offense that Norv did (with some odd tweaks to account for the new guy's legs), and they sank a ton of capital into assembling an elite offensive line and every-down running backs.

However, this was actually a terrible idea that was doomed to fail, on multiple levels.
  1. You can't build a team like Jimmy did anymore. The emergence of free agency and the salary cap makes it impossible to stockpile teams like they did in 1992-1996 where you have stars all over the roster AND great depth behind them. At best what the Cowboys have done lately is assemble a brittle structure with some big names on the top, but nothing behind them but pure scrubs, so any key injuries just ruin entire units of the team overnight. The best you can do now is build teams that deep in complementary parts, with a coaching staff that is skilled in shuffling them around over the course of a season to keep the unit as a whole operating through the inevitable injuries or suspensions or whatever.
  2. Because of #1, you can't just get by on running old timey schemes and win by bludgeoning people to death using plays they see coming a mile away. The gap between the best roster and the worst roster is just too small now; now more than ever, the weaker team can beat the stronger team with strategy. Part of Garrett's vision almost seems like an implicit admission of his lack of tactical ability - he wants a team that doesn't require tactical ability to win with. The problem is, like I said, you can't make a team like that anymore. At best, it works in spurts until somebody important gets hurt and the whole thing falls apart.
  3. Jimmy Johnson was great at coaching "difficult" players into being part of the team; you could even argue he was the first coach who really knew how to get the most out of the "modern" star-athlete type of guys. He did it at the U and he did it in Dallas. Garrett, by contrast, has shown no ability to handle these guys - they just become locker room cancers he has to kick out, like TO and Bennett. Do we really believe Garrett could handle a modern-day Charles Haley type? LOL. This is where the attempts to equate Jimmy delegating duties to his coordinators to what Garrett does crap out - Jimmy was a practical psychologist on a level that Garrett can't sniff. Bennett's Super Bowl ring with the Patriots says "hi" right about now, just to rub it in.
  4. This 1990s football worldview especially doesn't mesh with the guys he has taking the place of the triplets. Dez is supposed to be his Irvin, but Dez is already in decline. Zeke isn't even playing. Dak is good enough to be the QB of the future, but he's also such a different kind of player from Aikman that the Air Coryell playbook should probably just be burned. Whatever Andy Reid's faults, if you put Dak on the Chiefs running that crazy WCO/spread option/wacky motion/whatever offense instead of Alex Smith he probably has 5,000 combined yards by the end of the year. Instead he's trying to throw jump balls to a declining player running a telegraphed route combination that belongs in a museum, and we're mad he doesn't look like Drew Brees doing it.
 

pitt33

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One thing missing from this current version of the Cowboys that those 90's teams had was a good - to what I would consider - a great defense. Those teams Johnson built were strong not only on that side of the ball but they also played real well as a special teams unit.
 

cowboyblue22

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the teams Johnson built was good in all three phases of the game we are lucky if one or two phases of garrets team contributes on a consistent bases to the team success weekly
 

RS12

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He is not Jimmy and his assistants arent as good as Jimmy's. He also doesnt have Bob Ackles in the front office fleecing other GMs.
 

TheCoolFan

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The NFL is full of parity BUT teams like the 90s Cowboys and the Patriots of the last 15 years are not easily replicated because you can't copy Jimmy and Belichick. Garrett and Jerry can do their best to try to copy the 90s Cowboys on paper but in the end, there is no one like Jimmy running things and that's why it won't succeed.

That's why it's a waste trying to copy dynasty teams and instead, they need to get with the rest of the league and try to copy those teams who have had recent success. That's where you can succeed in a league of parity.
 

ondaedg

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Another theory is old offenses and defenses aren't as good as the newer more sophisticated ones of 2017. Just a theory though...
 

triplets92

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More than anything else, what Jason Garrett is trying to do with this team is to re-create the Jimmy Johnson era. And who doesn't want that? In the 1990s the Cowboys ground their opponents into dust with straightforward game plans and overpowering talent, winning games with the kind of tragic inevitability we normally associate with geological disasters. Garrett ultimately dumped the 3-4 of the Parcells and Philips eras for the old 4-3 defense, they run the same basic Air Coryell offense that Norv did (with some odd tweaks to account for the new guy's legs), and they sank a ton of capital into assembling an elite offensive line and every-down running backs.

However, this was actually a terrible idea that was doomed to fail, on multiple levels.
  1. You can't build a team like Jimmy did anymore. The emergence of free agency and the salary cap makes it impossible to stockpile teams like they did in 1992-1996 where you have stars all over the roster AND great depth behind them. At best what the Cowboys have done lately is assemble a brittle structure with some big names on the top, but nothing behind them but pure scrubs, so any key injuries just ruin entire units of the team overnight. The best you can do now is build teams that deep in complementary parts, with a coaching staff that is skilled in shuffling them around over the course of a season to keep the unit as a whole operating through the inevitable injuries or suspensions or whatever.
  2. Because of #1, you can't just get by on running old timey schemes and win by bludgeoning people to death using plays they see coming a mile away. The gap between the best roster and the worst roster is just too small now; now more than ever, the weaker team can beat the stronger team with strategy. Part of Garrett's vision almost seems like an implicit admission of his lack of tactical ability - he wants a team that doesn't require tactical ability to win with. The problem is, like I said, you can't make a team like that anymore. At best, it works in spurts until somebody important gets hurt and the whole thing falls apart.
  3. Jimmy Johnson was great at coaching "difficult" players into being part of the team; you could even argue he was the first coach who really knew how to get the most out of the "modern" star-athlete type of guys. He did it at the U and he did it in Dallas. Garrett, by contrast, has shown no ability to handle these guys - they just become locker room cancers he has to kick out, like TO and Bennett. Do we really believe Garrett could handle a modern-day Charles Haley type? LOL. This is where the attempts to equate Jimmy delegating duties to his coordinators to what Garrett does crap out - Jimmy was a practical psychologist on a level that Garrett can't sniff. Bennett's Super Bowl ring with the Patriots says "hi" right about now, just to rub it in.
  4. This 1990s football worldview especially doesn't mesh with the guys he has taking the place of the triplets. Dez is supposed to be his Irvin, but Dez is already in decline. Zeke isn't even playing. Dak is good enough to be the QB of the future, but he's also such a different kind of player from Aikman that the Air Coryell playbook should probably just be burned. Whatever Andy Reid's faults, if you put Dak on the Chiefs running that crazy WCO/spread option/wacky motion/whatever offense instead of Alex Smith he probably has 5,000 combined yards by the end of the year. Instead he's trying to throw jump balls to a declining player running a telegraphed route combination that belongs in a museum, and we're mad he doesn't look like Drew Brees doing it.


So...How did we win 12 games last year with it? Seems to me that it isn't working now because of key players missing and young additions to defense. I love all the misdirection/ east and west stuff Andy Reid does but as I previously stated, this offense worked as recently as last year. And IMO it wasn't just because of the emergence of Dak either. I think Romo would've done just as well or even better.
 

noshame

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Not only is he not Jimmy Johnson if you put Jason Garrett back in the nineties with Jimmy team and Jimmy's assistants he'd still be up flipping failure
 

BrAinPaiNt

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More than anything else, what Jason Garrett is trying to do with this team is to re-create the Jimmy Johnson era. And who doesn't want that? In the 1990s the Cowboys ground their opponents into dust with straightforward game plans and overpowering talent, winning games with the kind of tragic inevitability we normally associate with geological disasters. Garrett ultimately dumped the 3-4 of the Parcells and Philips eras for the old 4-3 defense, they run the same basic Air Coryell offense that Norv did (with some odd tweaks to account for the new guy's legs), and they sank a ton of capital into assembling an elite offensive line and every-down running backs.

However, this was actually a terrible idea that was doomed to fail, on multiple levels.
  1. You can't build a team like Jimmy did anymore. The emergence of free agency and the salary cap makes it impossible to stockpile teams like they did in 1992-1996 where you have stars all over the roster AND great depth behind them. At best what the Cowboys have done lately is assemble a brittle structure with some big names on the top, but nothing behind them but pure scrubs, so any key injuries just ruin entire units of the team overnight. The best you can do now is build teams that deep in complementary parts, with a coaching staff that is skilled in shuffling them around over the course of a season to keep the unit as a whole operating through the inevitable injuries or suspensions or whatever.
  2. Because of #1, you can't just get by on running old timey schemes and win by bludgeoning people to death using plays they see coming a mile away. The gap between the best roster and the worst roster is just too small now; now more than ever, the weaker team can beat the stronger team with strategy. Part of Garrett's vision almost seems like an implicit admission of his lack of tactical ability - he wants a team that doesn't require tactical ability to win with. The problem is, like I said, you can't make a team like that anymore. At best, it works in spurts until somebody important gets hurt and the whole thing falls apart.
  3. Jimmy Johnson was great at coaching "difficult" players into being part of the team; you could even argue he was the first coach who really knew how to get the most out of the "modern" star-athlete type of guys. He did it at the U and he did it in Dallas. Garrett, by contrast, has shown no ability to handle these guys - they just become locker room cancers he has to kick out, like TO and Bennett. Do we really believe Garrett could handle a modern-day Charles Haley type? LOL. This is where the attempts to equate Jimmy delegating duties to his coordinators to what Garrett does crap out - Jimmy was a practical psychologist on a level that Garrett can't sniff. Bennett's Super Bowl ring with the Patriots says "hi" right about now, just to rub it in.
  4. This 1990s football worldview especially doesn't mesh with the guys he has taking the place of the triplets. Dez is supposed to be his Irvin, but Dez is already in decline. Zeke isn't even playing. Dak is good enough to be the QB of the future, but he's also such a different kind of player from Aikman that the Air Coryell playbook should probably just be burned. Whatever Andy Reid's faults, if you put Dak on the Chiefs running that crazy WCO/spread option/wacky motion/whatever offense instead of Alex Smith he probably has 5,000 combined yards by the end of the year. Instead he's trying to throw jump balls to a declining player running a telegraphed route combination that belongs in a museum, and we're mad he doesn't look like Drew Brees doing it.


Seems pretty straight forward.
No need to argue with it, although some will try.

You get a

giphy.gif


For the day
 

sean10mm

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One thing missing from this current version of the Cowboys that those 90's teams had was a good - to what I would consider - a great defense. Those teams Johnson built were strong not only on that side of the ball but they also played real well as a special teams unit.

This is also a good point, and Jimmy's strategy on offense can't be taken in isolation from what they did on defense. "Old school" run-heavy offense works a lot better when the defense doesn't just roll over and die every time the other team gets the ball.

So...How did we win 12 games last year with it? Seems to me that it isn't working now because of key players missing and young additions to defense. I love all the misdirection/ east and west stuff Andy Reid does but as I previously stated, this offense worked as recently as last year. And IMO it wasn't just because of the emergence of Dak either. I think Romo would've done just as well or even better.

Is the goal to be in contention every year and win titles, or is it put in a good regular season every couple years and then die in the postseason? Because I never said Garrett couldn't do the latter.
 

sean10mm

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Not only is he not Jimmy Johnson if you put Jason Garrett back in the nineties with Jimmy team and Jimmy's assistants he'd still be up flipping failure

He wouldn't do what Jimmy did (he probably couldn't hold that team's personalities together, for one thing...), but Switzer won a title with that roster in 1995 running on auto-pilot. I could see Garrett possibly doing that, but no more.
 

BrAinPaiNt

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This is also a good point, and Jimmy's strategy on offense can't be taken in isolation from what they did on defense. "Old school" run-heavy offense works a lot better when the defense doesn't just roll over and die every time the other team gets the ball.



Is the goal to be in contention every year and win titles, or is it put in a good regular season every couple years and then die in the postseason? Because I never said Garrett couldn't do the latter.


Some will misunderstand your initial post and boil it down to Jason trying to be Jimmy but Jason is no Jimmy.

They fail to grasp the other parts you took time to lay out.

We know he is not Jimmy...that is a given.
 

Fletch

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You can certainly do it this way, but not without defense.

This thing needs another draft, and this time, they can't sit out free agency. They have to spend money on defensive holes.
FA is a must! Two big time players at least. Offense or defense. Pick your poison!!

Preferably the D side of the ball on at least one!
 

sean10mm

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Some will misunderstand your initial post and boil it down to Jason trying to be Jimmy but Jason is no Jimmy.

They fail to grasp the other parts you took time to lay out.

We know he is not Jimmy...that is a given.

Or put another way, Jimmy Johnson in 2017 wouldn't use the strategy Jimmy Johnson used in 1993, because he knows it wouldn't work in 2017. He would do something else.

I mean, if he was motivated to stop drinking beer and fishing. :p
 

BrAinPaiNt

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You can certainly do it this way, but not without defense.

This thing needs another draft, and this time, they can't sit out free agency. They have to spend money on defensive holes.


They will spend money on Defense...but the bulk of that money spent will be on their own Defensive Players.

The best FA pass rusher available in the offseason ...will be Tank.
 

BrAinPaiNt

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Or put another way, Jimmy Johnson in 2017 wouldn't use the strategy Jimmy Johnson used in 1993, because he knows it wouldn't work in 2017. He would do something else.

I mean, if he was motivated to stop drinking beer and fishing. :p


Ding Ding Ding.

It was the hard lesson he learned in Miami.
 
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