Anyone who has watched the Cowboys kind of knew what was going to happen when Dallas was driving for a game-tying score with under seven minutes to go in the fourth quarter against the Patriots in Foxborough. We’ve seen it before. The Cowboys offense gets desperate, they stall and are left with a long fourth-down conversion or in this case the option to take a field goal. The failed fourth-down conversion happened in the Cowboys game against the Vikings. Dallas got conservative while Dak Prescott was absolutely cooking the Minnesota defense. The Cowboys ran the ball twice and failed to convert.
In the New England game, the Cowboys ran two desperation passes on second and third down and settled for a field goal. It makes sense when you’re down seven in a torrential downpour and heavy winds against the best defense in the league to kick the field goal to remain a score down. When you need a touchdown, always kick the field goal to still need a touchdown. Not surprisingly, Jerry Jones wasn’t exactly happy with the coaching in the game or the results.
Jerry Jones: "This is very frustrating. It's frustrating just to be reminded that some of the fundamentals of football and coaching were what beat us out there today."
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) November 25, 2019
The internet was not kind to the man at the helm of the Cowboys. Jason Garrett got absolutely roasted.
When you stare across the field & know Jason Garrett will kick the FG pic.twitter.com/zKuF9tNUNZ
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) November 25, 2019
That’s fine. Many a coach has been outsmarted by Bill Belichick. The problem isn’t that Garrett was beaten by one of the best to ever coach. The problem is that he was even in this position in the first place.
See, Garrett’s coaching has been questionable for a while now. You don’t get a meme made up about you unless you’re very good or very bad. We’ll have you guess which one Garrett is.
— Doug Farrar (@NFL_DougFarrar) November 25, 2019
Sure, he’s been able to coach some Cowboys teams to the playoffs, but no one would ever say Dallas had a coaching edge. He started off his career as perfectly mediocre with an 8-8 record in his first three full-time years. Since then the Cowboys have been up and down. Now they are 6-5 with one of the most talented teams in the NFL. Going into Week 12, Dallas was fourth in DVOA behind only New England, Baltimore, and Kansas City. They were ahead of San Francisco. They should be better than their record.
They aren’t because of Garrett, but maybe Garrett shouldn’t be in this situation. You can’t complain about the meal when you bought the groceries to make it. Jerry Jones knew exactly what he was getting himself into this year. He’s had a soft spot for Garrett ever since he took over as head coach and started out with that constant .500 record. Some folks say Jones liked keeping Garrett around because the head coach was never going to be a bigger star than the owner. Garrett is quiet and reserved. Jones can say and do whatever he wants and there won’t be any issues. That makes some sense. Maybe Jones has a soft spot for Garrett since he was around during the last time the Cowboys were truly Super Bowl contenders. We can guess all day as to why the Garrett-Jones relationship has worked out for so long.
It shouldn’t matter. Dallas knew it had something to build on this year, and they also knew that their window could be short with the impending contracts of Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper. This was the year. They have one of the best offenses in the NFL. They have a talented defense, yet coaching comes back to bite them at an inopportune time more often than not.
It would have been hard to move on from Garrett after Dallas won the NFC East in 2018 — over a disappointing Eagles team — and even won a playoff game. It still would have been the right move. Sometimes teams need to move on from their coach to reach the next level. We know Garrett’s ceiling. Jerry Jones knows Garrett’s ceiling as well, yet he brought him back to coach anyway. If Jones had a ton of faith that Garrett was the answer, he would have extended Garrett’s contract in the offseason. He didn’t. Garrett is a lame-duck coach.
So Jones shouldn’t be surprised when the Cowboys get outcoached week in and week out. He knew what he was getting. If only there was someone who could have made the decision to move on from Garrett in the offseason. Someone like the owner.