Great NFL teams are largely built in the image of their head coach and their quarterback. The Eagles aren’t great this year but have still played big games with a championship pedigree. The team takes the shape of its head coach, Doug Pederson, its quarterback, Carson Wentz, and the city of Philadelphia. They remain a resilient, all or nothing, hard-nose in-your-face, physical team despite injuries and their backs being against a wall. This is Philadelphia’s third consecutive season making a run at the playoffs despite key injuries at key positions.
Pivoting to The Cowboys, they are unfortunately the identity of Coach Jason Garrett. This would be great if he was a special coach; however, Garrett is just a good competent NFL head coach. Good enough to retain his job, but not quite the guy who can galvanize his club to lead them to Super Bowl heights.
Doesn’t that familiar, just like most Cowboy teams? Good enough to remain relevant, but never Super Bowl caliber.
The Cowboys’ urgency, or lack-thereof, feels like Garrett. Where is the dog in the 2019 Cowboys? Those moments where the team flexes a by-any-means-necessary attitude to win a game regardless of the odds. To find that attitude it isn’t hard to notice, Garrett doesn’t have that trait in him on gamedays. Therefore, the Cowboys don’t possess it.
The lack of fight is the only justification for Dallas abandoning the run so quickly. On an injured shoulder, Prescott threw the ball 44 times. The ideology feels strategic: exploit a weak secondary, but the numbers of rush carries are still way off. 15 carries should be closer to 25-30. Ezekiel Elliott wears down defenses.
When evaluating Pederson, he took notice how Dallas’ defense struggled against the athleticism of quarterbacks, Mitch Trubisky and Josh Allen. Both games the Cowboys were beat decisively. Against the Rams, Dallas’ defense dominated the Rams’ offense, largely due to Jared’s Goff lack of mobility. The game wasn’t close.
Pederson developed a game plan around Wentz’s mobility. Along with the screen game (another weakness of Dallas’ defense), he incorporated timely quarterback options and bootleg play actions to optimize Wentz’s athleticism. Dallas made no adjustment to defend Philadelphia’s game plan.
In the third quarter, Pederson made another timely adjustment. At the goal-line, he ran running back, Miles Sanders, twice on second and third down to score the touchdown. Earlier in the second quarter, he called two pass plays on third and forth and one. The well-defended coverage by the Cowboys forced a turnover on downs. Pederson learning from his earlier mistake shows a coach who controls the pulse of his team.
Ignore the score, the Cowboys were out-coached, out-schemed, and physically dominated during Sunday’s game. Let’s not forget Philadelphia missed two fields. On short fields, Dallas then scored six of the team’s nine points because those missed Eagles’ attempts.
Time of possession, total yards, first downs, and third down efficiency all considerably favored the Eagles. Great coaches rise to the moment and win the big games. Dallas scored no touchdowns and that isn’t good enough. As America’s most valuable franchise, the Cowboys need a special head coach to ascend to new heights.
Despite being a decent head coach, Garrett is likely gone after this season. He will likely land on his feet to coach again, if he chooses so, but his tenure in Dallas has come to an end.
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