Archer: Jason Garrett showing 'Jimmy Johnson stuff'

Jason Garrett showing 'Jimmy Johnson stuff'
January, 5, 2015

By Todd Archer | ESPNDallas.com

IRVING, Texas – Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett made a gutsy call by going for it on fourth-and-6 midway through the fourth quarter on Sunday.

"One of the things that kept going through my mind, is that when you get a chance to go play at the Masters, you don't lay up,” Garrett said in Jean-Jacques Taylor’s column off the Cowboys’ 24-20 wild-card win against the Detroit Lions. “You go after it.”

It might have seemed atypical for Garrett, but it has fallen in place with what he has done since the Thanksgiving Day loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

In the Dec. 4 win against the Chicago Bears, Garrett gave his team confidence by going for it on fourth down twice on their third series of the game. DeMarco Murray picked up 4 yards and the first down on fourth-and-1 from the 13 and four players later he bulled his way in from the 1-yard line. The Cowboys would go on to score on their next seven possessions and win 41-28.

Leading 20-7 in the second quarter of the season finale against the Washington Redskins, Garrett OK’d an onside kick attempt that the Cowboys recovered. Six plays later Murray had a 9-yard TD and the Cowboys took the game by its throat.

Last week Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin sat down with Dez Bryant for an interview that aired on NFL Network on Sunday, but he also took some time to talk to reporters. The subject was Garrett, and he saw things from Garrett that reminded him of the 1990s.

“It was Jimmy Johnson type stuff,” Irvin said last week. “And he’s been real true to form. The guys on our network I say, ‘Listen man, he’s true to form to Jimmy Johnson type stuff right now.’ These are the things that he experienced as a player and he knows how to press and keep it pressed. You know, like last week, he really played the guys. Now Jimmy may have pulled us out just a little earlier but Jimmy he wouldn’t have told you. ... But ya’ll know Jimmy would’ve said that previous Monday, ‘We’re playing,’ because he wouldn’t want to lose the week of work and the intensity and the sharpness going into it. And it’s smart to do it. It’s smart to do it.”

I didn't get a chance to post in the gameday thread at the time of this play because my phone had died, but I was not in favor of going for it in that situation, and this is from someone who is a big believer in being aggressive.

4th and 6 was too long and we had 6 min on the clock with 2 timeouts. I thought we should pin them deep and hope to get a stop and get decent field position back. If the Lions stop us there, they're already at midfield and I didn't like our chances to stop them from scoring.

But man am I glad that Garrett has brass ones. I've given him a lot of shit over the years......a lot of us here have given him a lot of shit, but we all have to give him major props but showing brass ones on that call. That decision took balls and he didn't hesitate to go for it.

Without that conversion, I don't know if we win that game. Garrett has done a lot of things right this season and he deserves credit for that, with nothing being bigger than that decision to go for it yesterday.

Props to you, ginger.

It feels like there is a perfect storm of things going right for us right now, and I don't want it to stop.

I loved that he showed some trust in the offense, and told them to go out and win him this game.

Caldwell played it safe, and look where it got him. You have to roll the dice sometimes, and it's been paying off for the Cowboys.

Jwooten15 said:

It feels like there is a perfect storm of things going right for us right now, and I don't want it to stop.

I loved that he showed some trust in the offense, and told them to go out and win him this game.

Caldwell played it safe, and look where it got him. You have to roll the dice sometimes, and it's been paying off for the Cowboys.

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The funny thing is early on in the Lions game it seemed like the opposite. Everything that could go wrong was going wrong. A kicker who never misses field goals missed a field goal. You pin a team back and your special teams unit gets too close to the punter. For a little while it just seemed like this team was cursed and there was nothing we could do.

In the end I kind of like that the Lions played us so close. Dallas hadn't really been in a close game in weeks and probably needed this game in order to refocus.

Cowboysrock55 said:

The funny thing is early on in the Lions game it seemed like the opposite. Everything that could go wrong was going wrong. A kicker who never misses field goals missed a field goal. You pin a team back and your special teams unit gets too close to the punter. For a little while it just seemed like this team was cursed and there was nothing we could do.

In the end I kind of like that the Lions played us so close. Dallas hadn't really been in a close game in weeks and probably needed this game in order to refocus.

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It was a good experience for them to have.

When things were all going wrong like you mentioned (I mean it would be hard to have started worse short of giving the ball away), it reminded me of the first Philly game down to the redzone turnover resulting in no TD.