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NEW ORLEANS — The drumbeat from Jason Garrett remains annoyingly the same.
Even after what may have been the most embarrassing defeat of his coaching tenure — a 49-17 thrashing by the New Orleans Saints on national television Sunday night — Garrett preached his same weekly message.
“You go back to work,” the Cowboys coach said. “You have to watch the tape and see what was good in this game and what was not so good. You try to clean up what happened in this ball game, learn from it and get better as a result of it.”
But the tape isn't going to show Garrett all that ails his Cowboys. There's more to clean up than any sloppy play on the field. The Cowboys must clean up the mess off the field that is their coaching staff.
So the bye comes at an opportune time.
Everything needs to be reassessed. And I would expect Jerry Jones to be knee-deep in the process, demanding solutions from a staff of which so much was expected this season.
Because defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin doesn't appear to have any answers at this point. Neither does offensive coordinator Bill Callahan. Nor does Garrett. The Cowboys are getting outcoached as well as outplayed.
The last time the Cowboys appeared this inept on a national stage, Jones fired Wade Phillips after a 45-7 shellacking at Green Bay on the opening weekend of November in 2010.
Garrett has to realize his own job is on the line. He's 26-24 in his tenure as head coach and there's a glaring lack of progress in this his third season.
Garrett talks on a weekly basis about the coaches and players watching the tape and learning from it — but those lessons and that improvement don't seem to reach to the field. At 5-5, the Cowboys continue to plod along on the treadmill of mediocrity.
Offensively, the Saints trampled the Cowboys for 625 yards and 40 first downs. New Orleans collected almost as many first downs as the Cowboys ran plays (43). Drew Brees passed for 392 yards, Mark Ingram rushed for 145 yards and nine different receivers caught passes.
Whatever the Saints wanted to do on offense against the Cowboys, they did. Brees completed 19 consecutive passes at one point. Five different Saints turned in plays longer than 20 yards. Look for the Cowboys to sink to 32 in the NFL in defense this week.
Kiffin can blame injuries. Three more starters were missing Sunday night because of injury — tackle Jason Hatcher, cornerback Morris Claiborne and safety J.J. Wilcox. Then Sean Lee left early in the second quarter with a hamstring injury and DeMarcus Ware was an irregular contributor because of a lingering quadriceps injury.
But injuries are a part of football. The Saints themselves have been missing five injured starters on defense all season long — ends Will Smith and Kenton Coleman, linebackers Jonathan Vilma and Victor Butler and safety Malcolm Jenkins — plus nickel cornerback Patrick Robinson.
But there were no excuses from the Saints locker room. Only defensive stops of the Cowboys, who failed to covert a single third-down in nine tries.
Despite that short-handed New Orleans defense across the way, Tony Romo endured one of the worst games of his career. He completed only 10 of 24 passes with three sacks and an intentional grounding.
And the Cowboys couldn't figure out a way to get the ball to their resident playmaker Dez Bryant. That's on Callahan. And that's a coaching crime.
The Cowboys didn't throw Bryant a pass until the third quarter was three minutes old. By then the Cowboys were down 28-10. Romo didn't complete a pass to Bryant until a minute remained in the third quarter. By then the Cowboys were down 35-10.
The Cowboys didn't throw Bryant another pass and, quizzically, Garrett left Romo on the field the rest of the way in a lost cause. That subjected him to two more sacks in the closing minutes.
That's a beating he doesn't need to take. If Romo goes down, the Cowboys are cooked. Backup Kyle Orton should have been on the field once the score reached 49-17 with five minutes remaining — if not sooner.
That was on Garrett.
Certainly, the level of play must improve. Romo can't afford to have any more off days and this defense must start tackling someone, anyone regardless who's on the field. But the game plans also need be better. The great coaches in this league put their players in positions to be successful. That's not happening right now in Dallas.
When the Cowboys face quality quarterbacks such as Brees, they get toasted. When they face quality running backs such as Adrian Peterson, they get toasted. When they face quality offenses such as the Detroit Lions, they stagger. When they face quality defenses such as the Kansas City Chiefs, they sputter.
The Cowboys aspire to be a playoff team but in four games against teams that do figure to be playing this January — Kansas City, Denver, Detroit and New Orleans — they are 0-4.
There's plenty to fix and the Cowboys now have two weeks to fix it.
“I never saw this coming,” Jones said after the game.
The Rams were a 10-point underdog Sunday but routed the Colts at Indianapolis by 30 points. Carolina went to San Francisco as a touchdown underdog and shocked the 49ers. Coaching can make a difference in this league.
Time is running out for the coaching to start to make a difference in Dallas
Even after what may have been the most embarrassing defeat of his coaching tenure — a 49-17 thrashing by the New Orleans Saints on national television Sunday night — Garrett preached his same weekly message.
“You go back to work,” the Cowboys coach said. “You have to watch the tape and see what was good in this game and what was not so good. You try to clean up what happened in this ball game, learn from it and get better as a result of it.”
But the tape isn't going to show Garrett all that ails his Cowboys. There's more to clean up than any sloppy play on the field. The Cowboys must clean up the mess off the field that is their coaching staff.
So the bye comes at an opportune time.
Everything needs to be reassessed. And I would expect Jerry Jones to be knee-deep in the process, demanding solutions from a staff of which so much was expected this season.
Because defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin doesn't appear to have any answers at this point. Neither does offensive coordinator Bill Callahan. Nor does Garrett. The Cowboys are getting outcoached as well as outplayed.
The last time the Cowboys appeared this inept on a national stage, Jones fired Wade Phillips after a 45-7 shellacking at Green Bay on the opening weekend of November in 2010.
Garrett has to realize his own job is on the line. He's 26-24 in his tenure as head coach and there's a glaring lack of progress in this his third season.
Garrett talks on a weekly basis about the coaches and players watching the tape and learning from it — but those lessons and that improvement don't seem to reach to the field. At 5-5, the Cowboys continue to plod along on the treadmill of mediocrity.
Offensively, the Saints trampled the Cowboys for 625 yards and 40 first downs. New Orleans collected almost as many first downs as the Cowboys ran plays (43). Drew Brees passed for 392 yards, Mark Ingram rushed for 145 yards and nine different receivers caught passes.
Whatever the Saints wanted to do on offense against the Cowboys, they did. Brees completed 19 consecutive passes at one point. Five different Saints turned in plays longer than 20 yards. Look for the Cowboys to sink to 32 in the NFL in defense this week.
Kiffin can blame injuries. Three more starters were missing Sunday night because of injury — tackle Jason Hatcher, cornerback Morris Claiborne and safety J.J. Wilcox. Then Sean Lee left early in the second quarter with a hamstring injury and DeMarcus Ware was an irregular contributor because of a lingering quadriceps injury.
But injuries are a part of football. The Saints themselves have been missing five injured starters on defense all season long — ends Will Smith and Kenton Coleman, linebackers Jonathan Vilma and Victor Butler and safety Malcolm Jenkins — plus nickel cornerback Patrick Robinson.
But there were no excuses from the Saints locker room. Only defensive stops of the Cowboys, who failed to covert a single third-down in nine tries.
Despite that short-handed New Orleans defense across the way, Tony Romo endured one of the worst games of his career. He completed only 10 of 24 passes with three sacks and an intentional grounding.
And the Cowboys couldn't figure out a way to get the ball to their resident playmaker Dez Bryant. That's on Callahan. And that's a coaching crime.
The Cowboys didn't throw Bryant a pass until the third quarter was three minutes old. By then the Cowboys were down 28-10. Romo didn't complete a pass to Bryant until a minute remained in the third quarter. By then the Cowboys were down 35-10.
The Cowboys didn't throw Bryant another pass and, quizzically, Garrett left Romo on the field the rest of the way in a lost cause. That subjected him to two more sacks in the closing minutes.
That's a beating he doesn't need to take. If Romo goes down, the Cowboys are cooked. Backup Kyle Orton should have been on the field once the score reached 49-17 with five minutes remaining — if not sooner.
That was on Garrett.
Certainly, the level of play must improve. Romo can't afford to have any more off days and this defense must start tackling someone, anyone regardless who's on the field. But the game plans also need be better. The great coaches in this league put their players in positions to be successful. That's not happening right now in Dallas.
When the Cowboys face quality quarterbacks such as Brees, they get toasted. When they face quality running backs such as Adrian Peterson, they get toasted. When they face quality offenses such as the Detroit Lions, they stagger. When they face quality defenses such as the Kansas City Chiefs, they sputter.
The Cowboys aspire to be a playoff team but in four games against teams that do figure to be playing this January — Kansas City, Denver, Detroit and New Orleans — they are 0-4.
There's plenty to fix and the Cowboys now have two weeks to fix it.
“I never saw this coming,” Jones said after the game.
The Rams were a 10-point underdog Sunday but routed the Colts at Indianapolis by 30 points. Carolina went to San Francisco as a touchdown underdog and shocked the 49ers. Coaching can make a difference in this league.
Time is running out for the coaching to start to make a difference in Dallas