Yakuza Rich
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 18,043
- Reaction score
- 12,385
The Rise and Fall of Jason Garrett
by Yakuza Rich
http://yakuzarich.blogspot.com
Last season the Cowboys considered making Jason Garrett the head coach of the team, but then decided on making him the team's offensive coordinator while they searched for a new head coach. At the time he never had any experience in coaching other than as a QB coach, but the well respected Ivy League alum was thought to have an extremely bright future in coaching.
Garrett's more up tempo and aggressive approach got the Cowboys offense on fire in 2007 and made it the second highest scoring offense in the league, only behind the historic Patriots offense. Terrell Owens, Marion Barber and Jason Witten all had terrific years and Tony Romo established himself as a legitimate franchise Quarterback. By year's end Garrett had become a hot commodity and was sought out by many teams to be their next head coach, particularly Baltimore and Atlanta. He wound up turning down those offers after being lured back by Jerry Jones offering him a $3 million a year contract, making him the highest paid coordinator in the game and virtually guaranteeing him he will be the next head coach after Wade Phillips.
Unfortunately for Cowboys fans, there are no guarantees in the NFL. Just like the Commanders practically guaranteed the head coaching job to Gregg Williams after Joe Gibbs retired and then backed out of it, the same could be happening to Garrett. And like Williams, Garrett's stock as a future head coach with other teams has greatly dipped this season.
A good part of the blame does need to go to injuries. It's obvious that the injuries Romo has suffered have effected his accuracy. There's also been numerous other injuries that have stifled Dallas as well, and I'm not *sure* what other coordinators around the league could fix it. Particularly, the loss of Kyle Kosier which seems more and more important every day (which I will go into a little later) and players like Marion Barber and Jason Witten being banged up as well.
But the offense may no longer be the strongpoint of the Cowboys and appears to be going in the wrong direction, all of which are hurting the possibility of Garrett being a head coach anytime soon.
I will say that the injury to Kosier is probably overlooked in most circles. While he's not Steve Hutchinson, he's a pretty good guard who is pretty solid in pass protection and very good in run blocking. On the flip side, his replacement Corey Procter is dreadful with both. While Kosier's pass blocking would seem more important, particularly since he doesn't get pushed back into Romo like Procter does, it's the run blocking from Kosier that they really miss.
Kosier was a solid drive blocker and a great blocker out in space. Flozell Adams on the other hand is a great drive blocker, but mediocre out in space. Kosier gave the Cowboys' running game some versatility by providing them with a good blocker out in space that can occasionally pull and trap for them. However, the major part of his importance was this also helped Flozell Adams in pass blocking. Adams has always struggle against speed rushers, but if he is able to get his hands on any pass rusher, he almost always wins the battle. In the past, the key was to get the running game going at Adams because if he could, that would usually force the speed rusher defensive ends to stop speed rushing and worry more about the run. But now with Procter in the game there's just no worry about the Cowboys running the ball at the left side of the O-Line. In fact, most teams will line up the DE way out wide so Flozell will have to take the DE and that forces Procter one-on-one with another defender. To combat that, they will often have a tailback chip or help out, but that clogs up the pocket and makes it difficult for Romo who has made a killing in his career from stepping up into the pocket and throwing the ball.
But all of that still doesn't excuse some of the problems they have had on offense.
I've been charting games quite a bit recently and I've seen quite a few issues with the team's offensive philosophy. Come the Ravens game they hit the tipping point with me and even if they had somehow managed to win the game, I would've made this post. Here's what I see:
POOR CLOCK MANAGEMENT
I've seen a noticeable difference on how long it takes the play to get off. In '07 it was routine to see the Cowboys get the play off with 10 seconds left on the play clock. Now that almost never happens and they are waiting until the end. There's not many delay of game penalties, but it's quite apparent that this effects the O-Linemen's jump off the ball and allows the defense to get a better jump off the ball (when is the last time we drew a defender offsides?) Furthermore, the general rule is that the longer it takes you get the play off, the better the chance the defense has at recognizing the play. One of the first things Garrett mentioned when he got here was how he was going to pick up the tempo of the offense. Well, he simply hasn't done it this year.
ODD USE OF PLAY FAKES
We've fallen in love with the fake slant into a draw play which may fool a defense about 20% of the time. That's particularly odd since we hardly throw many slants to begin with. It sort of reminds me of Mike Martz not running the ball, but still calling play action plays a lot and not fooling the defense. We also rarely use the good ole play action, which in my mind is the greatest offensive play in the NFL. It's the equivalent of the pick n' roll in basketball, very simple yet very effective.
If there's one thing I've noticed about Owens, and even his critics really cannot deny, it's that if he hits the big pass play early on in the game it completely changes the game. The defense starts questioning and changing how they defense him and put more focus on him and that frees up Witten, Crayton, Williams and opens up the running game. That's exactly what happened in the San Francisco and Philadelphia games. And if there's one good way to free up Owens, it's with a good, solid play action and throwing the ball over the top. Of course, Romo still has to hit him.
ODD USE OF OWENS
Owens has always exceled at two plays, the slant and the crossing pattern. He's not as great at the deep go's and fades as one would think, although if he does hit those patterns it changes the complexion of the game. These patterns are now a rarity with Owens instead we're seeing a lot of deep go's and fades along with out routes and comebacks. All of which have to be run by a receiver and we didn't run many slant patterns last year, but why we've gotten away from the crossing patterns is quite puzzling since they worked quite well last season.
What's even more peculiar is they'll motion Owens out into the backfield and then run the play to him even though he's been the main focus of attention from the opposing defense since the first snap of the game and everybody knows the ball is going to Owens anyway. Last night was the first time they actually set Owens in motion like that and used him as a decoy to throw the ball to somebody else. They motioned Owens off to the right and the entire Ravens defense put their attention at #81 and then Romo fired the ball to Roy Williams who was wide open underneath.
THE 'WAIT AND LOOK' APPROACH
Last season it was made note of by statisticians that the Cowboys offense was not very potent in the first quarter, but was pretty strong in the second quarter, almost unstoppable in the third quarter, and tough in the 4th quarter.
During that time Romo would often say that the offense was trying to get a feel for the defense's approach to defending them and then they could come up with a plan of attack. But now it's taking longer and longer for the offense to get a feel for what the defense is trying to do and in the Ravens game it took too long for that to happen.
LACK OF TRICK-ER-ATION
Probably the only team that uses less trick plays than the Cowboys are the Indianapolis Colts who have had the same key members in their offense for years and years. Furthermore, two of the key players (Manning and Harrison) are future Hall of Famers who will go down as top 3 players off all time at their respective positions. The others, Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark, are excellent players as well with Wayne having an outside shot of being a Hall of Famer as well. Furthermore, Manning is the best in the league at audibling the plays at the line of scrimmage. In fact, for all intents and purposes he is the Colts offensive coordinator. Thus, there's no real need for the Colts to run trick plays. But for the rest of the league, and this includes the Patriots with Tom Brady, they run trick plays because they are often effective and can get the offense going.
Under Garrett the trick play is usually an end around to Owens, who is being closely followed anyway. Under Parcells, known for his conservative nature, the offense was not afraid to run a trick play to jump start the team, and in particular was a fan of and successful with the flee flicker (could we not have tried that at least ONCE against the Ravens?) And they don't have to be blatant trick plays either. They can be more "gadget" plays as well. The Cardinals ran a nice gadget play against the Cowboys on a crucial down where they faked the screen one way, faked a screen the other way and then had the Tight End release down the middle of the field and threw to him. We see none of that under Garrett.
THE SCREEN PASS
I'm a fan of team that's effective at throwing the screen pass because it's usually a safe play that has the chance of making a big impact on the game. Most teams in the league either blitz or run a Cover 2 where they get pressure with their 4 down linemen sprinting upfield as fast as they can. The screen is a great counter to the blitz and the Cover 2 and if it can rattle off a few productive plays, it often forces the opposing defense to slow down their blitzes and/or their D-Linemen.
While there may be some concern about the team running screen plays with the size of the O-Line, the Philadelphia Eagles have probably been the most effective screen pass team in the league for the past ten seasons and Andy Reid has also had the biggest O-Lines over the past ten seasons as well.
Now, we probably do not have this conversation if Romo starts hitting his receivers and doesn't turn over the ball. But the blame cannot all go to Romo just like it cannot all go to Garrett. But both guys need to make some adjustments to the game and more importantly NOT get away from things that were working for them in the past.
I'd hate to see Garrett become another Gregg Williams and miss out on an opportunity to be a head coach when he had one. But if he cannot make the adjustments or is unwilling to do so, then he doesn't deserve to be a head coach, particularly for the Cowboys, anyway.
YAKUZA
by Yakuza Rich
http://yakuzarich.blogspot.com
Last season the Cowboys considered making Jason Garrett the head coach of the team, but then decided on making him the team's offensive coordinator while they searched for a new head coach. At the time he never had any experience in coaching other than as a QB coach, but the well respected Ivy League alum was thought to have an extremely bright future in coaching.
Garrett's more up tempo and aggressive approach got the Cowboys offense on fire in 2007 and made it the second highest scoring offense in the league, only behind the historic Patriots offense. Terrell Owens, Marion Barber and Jason Witten all had terrific years and Tony Romo established himself as a legitimate franchise Quarterback. By year's end Garrett had become a hot commodity and was sought out by many teams to be their next head coach, particularly Baltimore and Atlanta. He wound up turning down those offers after being lured back by Jerry Jones offering him a $3 million a year contract, making him the highest paid coordinator in the game and virtually guaranteeing him he will be the next head coach after Wade Phillips.
Unfortunately for Cowboys fans, there are no guarantees in the NFL. Just like the Commanders practically guaranteed the head coaching job to Gregg Williams after Joe Gibbs retired and then backed out of it, the same could be happening to Garrett. And like Williams, Garrett's stock as a future head coach with other teams has greatly dipped this season.
A good part of the blame does need to go to injuries. It's obvious that the injuries Romo has suffered have effected his accuracy. There's also been numerous other injuries that have stifled Dallas as well, and I'm not *sure* what other coordinators around the league could fix it. Particularly, the loss of Kyle Kosier which seems more and more important every day (which I will go into a little later) and players like Marion Barber and Jason Witten being banged up as well.
But the offense may no longer be the strongpoint of the Cowboys and appears to be going in the wrong direction, all of which are hurting the possibility of Garrett being a head coach anytime soon.
I will say that the injury to Kosier is probably overlooked in most circles. While he's not Steve Hutchinson, he's a pretty good guard who is pretty solid in pass protection and very good in run blocking. On the flip side, his replacement Corey Procter is dreadful with both. While Kosier's pass blocking would seem more important, particularly since he doesn't get pushed back into Romo like Procter does, it's the run blocking from Kosier that they really miss.
Kosier was a solid drive blocker and a great blocker out in space. Flozell Adams on the other hand is a great drive blocker, but mediocre out in space. Kosier gave the Cowboys' running game some versatility by providing them with a good blocker out in space that can occasionally pull and trap for them. However, the major part of his importance was this also helped Flozell Adams in pass blocking. Adams has always struggle against speed rushers, but if he is able to get his hands on any pass rusher, he almost always wins the battle. In the past, the key was to get the running game going at Adams because if he could, that would usually force the speed rusher defensive ends to stop speed rushing and worry more about the run. But now with Procter in the game there's just no worry about the Cowboys running the ball at the left side of the O-Line. In fact, most teams will line up the DE way out wide so Flozell will have to take the DE and that forces Procter one-on-one with another defender. To combat that, they will often have a tailback chip or help out, but that clogs up the pocket and makes it difficult for Romo who has made a killing in his career from stepping up into the pocket and throwing the ball.
But all of that still doesn't excuse some of the problems they have had on offense.
I've been charting games quite a bit recently and I've seen quite a few issues with the team's offensive philosophy. Come the Ravens game they hit the tipping point with me and even if they had somehow managed to win the game, I would've made this post. Here's what I see:
POOR CLOCK MANAGEMENT
I've seen a noticeable difference on how long it takes the play to get off. In '07 it was routine to see the Cowboys get the play off with 10 seconds left on the play clock. Now that almost never happens and they are waiting until the end. There's not many delay of game penalties, but it's quite apparent that this effects the O-Linemen's jump off the ball and allows the defense to get a better jump off the ball (when is the last time we drew a defender offsides?) Furthermore, the general rule is that the longer it takes you get the play off, the better the chance the defense has at recognizing the play. One of the first things Garrett mentioned when he got here was how he was going to pick up the tempo of the offense. Well, he simply hasn't done it this year.
ODD USE OF PLAY FAKES
We've fallen in love with the fake slant into a draw play which may fool a defense about 20% of the time. That's particularly odd since we hardly throw many slants to begin with. It sort of reminds me of Mike Martz not running the ball, but still calling play action plays a lot and not fooling the defense. We also rarely use the good ole play action, which in my mind is the greatest offensive play in the NFL. It's the equivalent of the pick n' roll in basketball, very simple yet very effective.
If there's one thing I've noticed about Owens, and even his critics really cannot deny, it's that if he hits the big pass play early on in the game it completely changes the game. The defense starts questioning and changing how they defense him and put more focus on him and that frees up Witten, Crayton, Williams and opens up the running game. That's exactly what happened in the San Francisco and Philadelphia games. And if there's one good way to free up Owens, it's with a good, solid play action and throwing the ball over the top. Of course, Romo still has to hit him.
ODD USE OF OWENS
Owens has always exceled at two plays, the slant and the crossing pattern. He's not as great at the deep go's and fades as one would think, although if he does hit those patterns it changes the complexion of the game. These patterns are now a rarity with Owens instead we're seeing a lot of deep go's and fades along with out routes and comebacks. All of which have to be run by a receiver and we didn't run many slant patterns last year, but why we've gotten away from the crossing patterns is quite puzzling since they worked quite well last season.
What's even more peculiar is they'll motion Owens out into the backfield and then run the play to him even though he's been the main focus of attention from the opposing defense since the first snap of the game and everybody knows the ball is going to Owens anyway. Last night was the first time they actually set Owens in motion like that and used him as a decoy to throw the ball to somebody else. They motioned Owens off to the right and the entire Ravens defense put their attention at #81 and then Romo fired the ball to Roy Williams who was wide open underneath.
THE 'WAIT AND LOOK' APPROACH
Last season it was made note of by statisticians that the Cowboys offense was not very potent in the first quarter, but was pretty strong in the second quarter, almost unstoppable in the third quarter, and tough in the 4th quarter.
During that time Romo would often say that the offense was trying to get a feel for the defense's approach to defending them and then they could come up with a plan of attack. But now it's taking longer and longer for the offense to get a feel for what the defense is trying to do and in the Ravens game it took too long for that to happen.
LACK OF TRICK-ER-ATION
Probably the only team that uses less trick plays than the Cowboys are the Indianapolis Colts who have had the same key members in their offense for years and years. Furthermore, two of the key players (Manning and Harrison) are future Hall of Famers who will go down as top 3 players off all time at their respective positions. The others, Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark, are excellent players as well with Wayne having an outside shot of being a Hall of Famer as well. Furthermore, Manning is the best in the league at audibling the plays at the line of scrimmage. In fact, for all intents and purposes he is the Colts offensive coordinator. Thus, there's no real need for the Colts to run trick plays. But for the rest of the league, and this includes the Patriots with Tom Brady, they run trick plays because they are often effective and can get the offense going.
Under Garrett the trick play is usually an end around to Owens, who is being closely followed anyway. Under Parcells, known for his conservative nature, the offense was not afraid to run a trick play to jump start the team, and in particular was a fan of and successful with the flee flicker (could we not have tried that at least ONCE against the Ravens?) And they don't have to be blatant trick plays either. They can be more "gadget" plays as well. The Cardinals ran a nice gadget play against the Cowboys on a crucial down where they faked the screen one way, faked a screen the other way and then had the Tight End release down the middle of the field and threw to him. We see none of that under Garrett.
THE SCREEN PASS
I'm a fan of team that's effective at throwing the screen pass because it's usually a safe play that has the chance of making a big impact on the game. Most teams in the league either blitz or run a Cover 2 where they get pressure with their 4 down linemen sprinting upfield as fast as they can. The screen is a great counter to the blitz and the Cover 2 and if it can rattle off a few productive plays, it often forces the opposing defense to slow down their blitzes and/or their D-Linemen.
While there may be some concern about the team running screen plays with the size of the O-Line, the Philadelphia Eagles have probably been the most effective screen pass team in the league for the past ten seasons and Andy Reid has also had the biggest O-Lines over the past ten seasons as well.
Now, we probably do not have this conversation if Romo starts hitting his receivers and doesn't turn over the ball. But the blame cannot all go to Romo just like it cannot all go to Garrett. But both guys need to make some adjustments to the game and more importantly NOT get away from things that were working for them in the past.
I'd hate to see Garrett become another Gregg Williams and miss out on an opportunity to be a head coach when he had one. But if he cannot make the adjustments or is unwilling to do so, then he doesn't deserve to be a head coach, particularly for the Cowboys, anyway.
YAKUZA
