JJT: Doug Pederson's Success With Eagles Reveals Jason Garrett's Flaws

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,734
Doug Pederson's Success With Eagles Reveals Jason Garrett's Flaws
By Jean-Jacques Taylor
Published 3 hours ago | Updated at 9:10 PM CST on Feb 5, 2018

The Philadelphia Eagles won their first Super Bowl championship Sunday night with a daring coach who willed his team to victory.

Doug Pederson, who's in his second season as a head coach, already has accomplished something Cowboys' coach Jason Garrett hasn't come close to doing in seven full seasons.

Sean McVay, the NFL's coach of the year, showed the power of innovative coaching in transforming the inept Los Angeles Rams into the league's highest-scoring offense.

Jerry Jones, no matter what you think, is no fool.

He's seen Pederson's impact up close and personal as NFC East rivals with the Eagles. He saw McVay's impact on an October weekend when the Rams scored 35 points and rallied from an 11-point first-half deficit to beat the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium.

Now, we're about to find out whether the success Pederson and McVay has changed Jerry's thoughts on Garrett.

It'll be easy to find out.

If the Cowboys don't make a deep playoff then Jerry probably admits Garrett isn't the coach who can ultimately get his team to a championship level. Understand, Jerry's reluctance to fire Garrett makes intellectual sense even if it drives most of y'all crazy.

Jerry has always wanted Garrett to be his Tom Landry. Jerry doesn't want to fire Garrett a year or two early like the Cleveland Browns did with Bill Belichick and watch him blossom elsewhere.

Before you laugh, consider no one in Cleveland knew Belichick was going to become one of the best coaches in NFL history, and neither did anyone else.

Garrett, as we all know, is an intelligent person who moves deliberately. Sometimes, he's so caught up in the micro — a meeting, a practice, a film session — that you wonder if he can see the big picture and understand that time just might be running out on his time in Dallas.

Jerry hired Garrett in 2007 as offensive coordinator before he hired coach Wade Phillips, so in a sense he's always been the golden child. But he was also a first-time head coach at any level, which meant he was destined to make mistakes.

What Jerry's trying to figure out is whether Garrett is a pretty good coach or a dude like Pederson or McVay who can elevate the franchise.

When you watched Super Bowl LII we saw tangible evidence of Pederson helping the Eagles win their title.

We saw it with his fourth-down call at the end of the first half, when he decided to go for it on fourth-and-goal from the New England 1 — when the so-called "smart play" would've been to kick the field goal and take an 18-12 halftime lead.

Instead, Pederson called a time-out and called a reverse pass that resulted in quarterback Nick Foles catching a one-yard touchdown pass while simultaneously sending a message to the Patriots that the Eagles came to win, not just keep the score close.

Pederson also went for it on fourth down from the Philadelphia 45, trailing 33-32, with about five minutes left in the fourth quarter.

The Eagles converted and finished the drive with Zack Ertz scoring on an 11-yard touchdown pass that gave the Eagles a 38-33 lead. Pederson set the tone with the first fourth-down call and his team followed his lead.

In today's NFL, the talent is close because of the salary-cap restrictions that the teams with the best coaches have a clear advantage. Ask yourself the last time the Cowboys beat a team with more talent.

Too many times, Garrett puts the Cowboys at a disadvantage on game day.

A few years ago, Jerry hired Phillips because he wanted the players to see the tangible ways their head coach helped them win games. Then, he demanded Garrett give up the play-calling and turn it over to Bill Callahan.

When the offense struggled, Garrett started calling plays again. Prior to the 2014 season, Garrett hired Linehan to call plays as he entered the final year of his contract as a lame duck.

The Cowboys went 12-4 and Garrett received a new five-year deal worth $30 million. As we enter the fourth year of Garrett's current deal, we're left to ask ourselves about his impact.

They don't do that in Philadelphia or New England. They don't wonder what Mike Zimmer does in Minnesota or Sean Payton in New Orleans.

If we have to wonder about Garrett's impact at the end of next season, he won't be around for another year.
 

Smitty

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
22,488
A fair article without resorting to describing Garrett as one of the worst coaches in the league.
 

vince

Not So New Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
931
It was back to the drawing board for Bellichick. He wasn't ready to be a HC in Cleveland which is why he accepted 2 assistant HC jobs before becoming the Pats HC. Garrett needs to be demoted. He is not a HC right now.
 

Chocolate Lab

Mere Commoner
Joined
Oct 2, 2014
Messages
19,860
Jerry's reluctance to fire Garrett makes intellectual sense even if it drives most of y'all crazy.

Jerry has always wanted Garrett to be his Tom Landry. Jerry doesn't want to fire Garrett a year or two early like the Cleveland Browns did with Bill Belichick and watch him blossom elsewhere.
Wanting someone to succeed, hoping someone will succeed after years of evidence to the contrary isn't intellectual at all. It's stupid, stubborn ego.

What Jerry's trying to figure out is whether Garrett is a pretty good coach or a dude like Pederson or McVay who can elevate the franchise.
JJT showing his closet Garrett love again. As if "pretty good coach" or "coach who elevates the franchise" are the only two options. How about the option that he's a huge bag of nothing?

I think almost eight effing years is enough to know that answer already.
 

ravidubey

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
20,162
Landry coached as an assistant for an all-time great for years and fricking invented the 4-3 defense.

What skins did Garrett have besides a Princeton diploma?

Believing there was any indicator that Garrett would somehow be Landry was delusional.

Landry transformed an expansion team into a perennial winner (20 consecutive winning seasons, a record that Belichick will break in a few years-- nearly 35 years after Landry's achievement).
 

Couchcoach

DCC 4Life
Joined
Dec 26, 2017
Messages
2,971
Jerry is lost and clueless. He can blather on and on with his bogus optimism (which he doesn't even believe himself),all he wants. He knows he's no more closer to having his own "Tom Landry" now than he was twenty years ago. Doesn't mean he will make the necessary changes to make it happen. But he knows he has failed, and he knows the solution is not in place. Or even close.
 

junk

Not So New Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
580
This is from a Deadspin article by Drew Magary bitching about Mike Lombardi, but I thought it captured the differences between Garrett and Pederson well.

I will say, though, that it’s possible that Foles just cost someone like Kirk Cousins a bit of money with that Super Bowl MVP. Doug Pederson figured out what Foles was good at and had him do it. I know that sounds basic but it’s nearly fucking revolutionary in an NFL landscape where coaches treat their precious “scheme” like it’s the fucking Da Vinci codex.
Garrett has zero imagination or creativity, yet he insists on injecting his stink on the offense.
 

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,734
This is from a Deadspin article by Drew Magary bitching about Mike Lombardi, but I thought it captured the differences between Garrett and Pederson well.



Garrett has zero imagination or creativity, yet he insists on injecting his stink on the offense.
Spot. On.
 

deadrise

DCC 4Life
Joined
Dec 27, 2017
Messages
934
Not to worry. Jerry and Garrett are all over this. The coaching staff stayed at home during the Senior Bowl so they could "study what other teams do on offense."
 

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,734
Not to worry. Jerry and Garrett are all over this. The coaching staff stayed at home during the Senior Bowl so they could "study what other teams do on offense."
That shit still blows my mind. We are having to scout other teams to figure out why ours is deficient. Makes perfect sense in a PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE!
 

BipolarFuk

Demoted
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
11,464
Figuring out what your players are good at and have them do it instead of forcing a scheme on them?

 
D

Deuce

Guest
This article could have been much shorter.

Garrett's flaws: Coaching football.

The end.
 

Smitty

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
22,488
What Jason Garrett can take from Doug Pederson he has shown before

FRISCO, Texas -- The Philadelphia Eagles winning Super Bowl LII was not a good thing for Jason Garrett.

It’s not just that an NFC East rival beat the New England Patriots to win its first Lombardi Trophy. It’s how the Eagles did it.

They did it by doing what Garrett espouses to the Dallas Cowboys -- by being their best regardless of circumstance. They won a Super Bowl with a backup quarterback, Nick Foles, who Jerry Jones did not believe was good enough for a Dallas training camp roster spot in 2016. They won without their Pro Bowl left tackle, Jason Peters. They won without their third-down back and punt returner, Darren Sproles. They won without their starting middle linebacker, Jordan Hicks.

They won despite being underdogs in all three playoff games.

They won with Doug Pederson as coach in just his second season. Pederson’s ability to adapt without his top personnel and succeed is being correctly lauded.
Jason Garrett has found success when faced with the loss of a key player -- most notably in 2016, when Tony Romo was injured in the preseason. Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images

Garrett lost Ezekiel Elliott to a six-game suspension that the Cowboys knew was a possibility for months and did not adapt well. In the first of three games that Pro Bowl left tackle Tyron Smith missed because of injury, the Cowboys allowed eight sacks, with his replacement, Chaz Green, allowing four of them. The Cowboys were too slow to give Green help and change their scheme. The Cowboys did not have weakside linebacker Sean Lee for five games because of a hamstring strain and lost four times.

"Next man up" is a solid philosophy, but the next man is never as good as the man he is replacing. There has to be some schematic alteration to account for the difference in ability.

What gets lost, however, in proclamations that Pederson has it all figured out and Garrett is clueless is that the Cowboys have won without their top players. In 2016, they lost Tony Romo in the preseason and saw Dak Prescott step in and win 13 games. They lost Smith to injuries in 2016 and won games with Green as their left tackle. In 2014, they lost Lee for the season to a knee injury, traded for Rolando McClain and won 12 games.

Pederson’s playcalling might have made the biggest difference in the Eagles’ success. Only the most ardent of Philadelphia supporters would have believed Foles could lead their team to a Super Bowl with how he closed the season against the Oakland Raiders and Cowboys.

Pederson adjusted as the playoffs began, playing to Foles’ strengths and making things clearer for the quarterback so he could excel.

The coach also knew when and how to seize control of a game. In the regular season, the Eagles went for it on fourth down 26 times and converted 17 times. His two critical calls in Super Bowl LII produced a Foles touchdown catch and a first down on their way to the winning touchdown.

“Playing quarterback, watching a lot of teams, a lot of football,” Pederson told MMQB's Peter King after the Super Bowl, “you learn if you play passive, if you play conservative, if you call plays conservatively, you are going to be 8-8, 9-7 every year.”

Yes, Garrett has a conservative bent, but he has displayed gambling tendencies, too. In the playoff win against the Detroit Lions in 2014, Garrett was Pederson-like. Trailing with six minutes to play and facing fourth-and-6 at the Detroit 42, he went for it and Romo hit Jason Witten for a first down. A few plays later, Romo threw the game-winning touchdown pass. Earlier in the third quarter, Garrett went for it from the 1 on fourth down when trailing 20-7 and DeMarco Murray scored.

“You can punt and then try to get a stop to get the ball back or you can say, ‘Let’s go get the job done right,’” Garrett said after that game. “What kept going through my mind was when you get a chance to go play The Masters, you don’t lay up. You go after it a little bit. They play football better than I swing a golf club.”

Garrett does not need to copy Pederson for the Cowboys to be successful in 2018, but he does need to not be timid.

Signed through 2019, he will be coaching for his future in 2018.

He does not need to lay up anymore.
 

Chocolate Lab

Mere Commoner
Joined
Oct 2, 2014
Messages
19,860
What Jason Garrett can take from Doug Pederson he has shown before
Let me guess who wrote this... Todd "Spagnola" Archer?
 

p1_

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 10, 2013
Messages
26,462
“Playing quarterback, watching a lot of teams, a lot of football,” Pederson told MMQB's Peter King after the Super Bowl, “you learn if you play passive, if you play conservative, if you call plays conservatively, you are going to be 8-8, 9-7 every year.”
Clap, clap, clap. Finish the fight. Its a process.

Wash, rinse, repeat.
 

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,734
All of those words in that article Smitty posted, and all it basically said was that the only difference between the Eagles winning the big game and Dallas not being able to, is coaching.
 

Cujo

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
3,630
That shit still blows my mind. We are having to scout other teams to figure out why ours is deficient. Makes perfect sense in a PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE!

I'm shocked they would admit it to the media.
 

Genghis Khan

The worst version of myself
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
37,486
All of those words in that article Smitty posted, and all it basically said was that the only difference between the Eagles winning the big game and Dallas not being able to, is coaching.
And there's a lot of truth to that.
 
Top Bottom