Cowlishaw: Jason Garrett was just another coach in Cowboys' loss to Cardinals

Cotton

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Cowlishaw: Jason Garrett was just another coach in Cowboys' loss to Cardinals

Tim Cowlishaw wtcowlishaw@dallasnews.com
Published: 02 November 2014 06:27 PM

ARLINGTON — It was a side story in the grand scheme of things, a footnote in the Cowboys’ 28-17 loss to Arizona that rendered them a second-place team in the NFC East. But I was ready to give Jason Garrett full credit for it.

Joseph Randle did not touch the ball for three quarters. The running back arrested and charged with shoplifting last month whose comments in a Frisco jail criticizing teammates led to arguments in practice Friday had just one carry for 2 yards.

Now he usually gets just three or four touches, but he averages 4 more yards per carry than Lance Dunbar, and yet Dunbar was the first back off the bench to spell DeMarco Murray on Sunday.
So kudos to Garrett for at least taking a stand about the importance of team, right?

“It wasn’t a depth-chart type thing,” Garrett said, adding that Friday’s incident “really had no impact on it.”

Oh well. It’s not the first time Garrett has made himself a difficult receiver of compliments, but as his team falls on hard times, he might want to reconsider his general reluctance to speak the truth.
The Cowboys were riding high at 6-1 just a week ago, the new hot thing in the NFL. Garrett's status had never been higher.

Two home losses later, the Cowboys trail Philadelphia in the East and head to London with fingers crossed that a couple of fractures in Tony Romo’s lower back won’t keep him off the Wembley pitch Sunday against Jacksonville.

Yes, the Cowboys have reached the point of needing all hands on deck against the lowly Jaguars after watching Arizona run off 28 straight points. Garrett worked magic with backup quarterback Jon Kitna when he took over as interim head coach in 2010 and, even in defeat, he prepared Kyle Orton for a 358-yard passing game against the Eagles in 2013.

There was nothing close to magic in the arm of Brandon Weeden, picked twice, limited to 183 yards and unable to connect with Dez Bryant at all in the first 58 minutes.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made it clear that he expects Romo to have something close to a comfortable bed for the nine-hour flight to London on Monday night, and Garrett made it clear he expects Romo to start against Jacksonville.

“We’re optimistic,” Garrett said. “People with similar injuries have been on a similar timetable where they missed the first game and they were getting close to play in that second game. It’s the same standard with the pain tolerance and how that relates to how he can function.”

I’m not sure if all those “people with similar injuries” had two back surgeries before the injury, but let’s see how this goes. Romo’s absence was felt across the board. Murray was held below 100 yards rushing (19 carries for 79 yards) for the first time all season. The Cardinals ran 65 plays — more than the Dallas defense is accustomed to facing — as the Cowboys converted only three of 11 third downs.

Garrett chose to roll the dice on a fourth-and-1 at the Cardinals’ 34-yard line early in the fourth quarter with Dallas trailing, 14-10. Dan Bailey had hit a 52-yard field goal earlier, but he also had a 35-yard try blocked that Patrick Peterson nearly returned for a touchdown.

But it was a fairly long yard to gain and the Cowboys ran Murray straight ahead into a Cardinal defense stacked to stop him. He never had a chance of getting to the line of scrimmage as, basically, no one in the crowd of 85,688 or anyone on the Cardinals’ bench thought Weeden would throw in that situation.

“We’ve been so effective running the football this year, so effective in those short-yardage situations,” Garrett said. “We wanted to keep that drive alive at 14-10 and try to go down there and at least give ourselves a chance to score a touchdown.”

You can’t fault the desperation because, with Weeden and the offense having produced three points all day (Tyler Patmon’s interception return produced the first touchdown), there was no certainty the offense would be back in scoring territory.

For most of the last two months, Garrett has had the look of a man who had found his place as a head coach — comfortable with Scott Linehan calling plays that were once his province, assured in his manner of leading a young team playing beyond its expectations.

But sometimes you realize that a good coach loses his quarterback and then he’s just a coach. Garrett went 4-3 with Kitna, 1-0 with Stephen McGee back in 2010 to remove the “interim” tag from his title.

Another prolonged stay with a backup won’t enhance Garrett’s reputation in 2014.
 

vince

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Just bring in Dustin Vaughan and sit out Romo. We need Romo to be 90%+ healthy after the bye.
 
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