I'm posting this article here so we don't have these arguments spread out all over the board. Trying to keep this contained a bit.
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Examining the Cowboys’ Jason Garrett era: What went wrong in 2015-2019
By Bob Sturm 1h ago
This shall forever be known as Jason Garrett Week here in my little corner of The Athletic. I wanted to let the smoke clear and the tensions fade, and the time is right. Only two coaches in franchise history coached more than 80 regular-season games in Dallas: Tom Landry’s 418 and Jason Garrett’s 152. Enough books to fill a library have been written about Landry, so the least I can do is write a few pieces about the man who oversaw the Dallas sideline for 10 seasons. I invite you to treat these stories as a series and read each part as I close the book on a very memorable and frustrating era of Cowboys football before we cleanse our palates for the new dawn in 2020.
We began Jason Garrett Week with Part 1 Monday:
The unpardonable sins of 2011-2013
Today, we will tackle what happened after the unlucky break at Lambeau Field in January of 2015. Seemingly both teams involved on that frigid day admit that Dez Bryant caught the ball. Disagreements ensue on what would have happened next. The Cowboys would have led with 4:06 to play — by a score of 28-26 after an extra point or perhaps 29-26 if they had cashed in for two. Green Bay had 17 points in their last three drives and seemed to have the Dallas defense spinning in circles against Aaron Rodgers. With a little luck, Dallas closes the deal and the Cowboys go to their first NFC Championship Game in 20 years with a trip to Seattle where they had already won three months earlier. The Super Bowl would have been on the line, and Garrett’s legacy would have taken a noticeable shot upward. Perhaps that fork in the road would have validated all of the blind faith from the Jones family for his first five years on the job.
There would be no such luck, though. Dallas would not be given the completion at the Green Bay one-yard line. They would not touch the ball again as the Packers would run a 10-play drive to kill the remainder of the game, and the Patriots would ultimately win Super Bowl 49 in Glendale, culminating one of the most dramatic postseasons in history.
The Cowboys seemed so close. Everything seemed so perfect. And then it was all gone. Tony Romo, the quarterback whom the team invested so much in, would finish just two more games as starting QB in his entire career. The throw to Dez Bryant in Green Bay might have been his crowning moment, and it serves as the high-water mark of a career that required years of build-up. It also might have signaled the door being closed on it all as his body had been battered along the way to a level where NFL football was too much for him to handle any longer.
If one thing is certain in the NFL, it is that there is an end date on every career. Some players get a little luck with the health of their body, and some do not. Romo started 32 consecutive games to start his career and then only exceeded that mark one time: when he was able to take the field 47 times in a row from 2011-2013. There is no question this franchise has been blessed with absurd happiness. Much has gone right for America’s Team. But QB health has rarely worked out well for Dallas.
So 2015 would be an exercise in figuring out how to climb those final few spots to the Lombardi Trophy and then having to demolish all plans when Romo was lost. The Cowboys tried to play a season without their starting QB and no real ideas behind him. For Jason Garrett,
who now owned a brand new five-year, $30m contract extension that would cover 2015-19, it would be the ultimate test of taking a team that many thought could win it all, subtracting the franchise QB upon which everything has been built and still demonstrating competent NFL football.
It did not go well. At all.
Let’s continue our chronological list of the most firable offenses of Jason Garrett’s coaching tenure by starting in 2015 and concluding with his eventual dismissal.
2015
No. 7 – 2015 – One win in 12 games without Tony Romo
Perhaps this is not specific enough. Maybe it’s simply unfair. I don’t believe it is, but the total collapse of the entire organization because Romo got hurt again (something that should not have been a surprise given his big injuries in 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2014) was simply inexcusable. With a team that was loaded at just about every position — aside from the ill-advised idea of trusting RB Joseph Randle and backup QB Brandon Weeden — the team went into an epic freefall that saw them lose every single game without Romo for almost the entire year. No single time period did more to enhance the public perception of the QB — which is incredible, given how split the fanbase was on the man at the end of 2013 and that he saw his public approval rise without taking a snap — and less for the coach of the team. It seemed completely reliant on Romo to bail everyone out in the entire organization. That clearly makes you question what the coach is there for. All goodwill that was earned from the valiant efforts of 2014 quickly disappeared for Garrett.
They went 1-11 in the 12 games when Romo was inactive and lost them in every style imaginable. They lost games late because of silly mistakes. They were blown out early and hardly even showed up. They would show some scrappiness on the road and then play just well enough to lose at the end. Through it all, Garrett seemed to offer no real solutions and then, when chaos would ensue — such as Greg Hardy and Rich Bisaccia in a dustup on the Giants Stadium sidelines — he would stare straight ahead and not address a single thing as you would want your man in charge to properly do. It would be tough to explain firing a coach who spent an entire season without his starting QB and just signed a new five-year deal, but Garrett certainly did not inspire the slightest amount of confidence throughout 2015. If the Cowboys had a top coach in the NFL, they certainly offered no signs of that during one of the most disappointing seasons in memory.
2016
No. 8 — January 15, 2017 — Divisional Playoff vs Green Bay
This one seems particularly unfair. The man had done the near-impossible. He had navigated a preseason loss of a franchise QB. He had handled the preseason loss of a backup QB. He had sorted through the rookie season of a third-tier QB taken at pick No. 135 and the even-more-unlikely run to 13-3, despite the original franchise QB coming back and having most of the fanbase and media rooting for him to retake his “rightful” starting job. Romo’s health status surely prevented this possibility from ever being seriously considered by the team’s decision-makers (and maybe even Romo), but that didn’t keep those on the outside from fanning all flames, causing the noise to increase. Through it all, though they had the No. 1 seed in the NFC and were two home wins from the Super Bowl in Dak Prescott’s rookie year. Even just this was the very ceiling of any reasonable expectation on September 1st.
It would be a playoff game against their old friends in Green Bay. A team Garrett could never lose to as a player was a team he could not beat as a coach, aside from back in October with his rookie QB. This might just be the year.
Here was the thing about that year, though, and we all knew it going into the game: The two offenses were opposites. One had the best QB in the game and would not run the ball. The other had the best running attack in the game and wasn’t really into throwing it. Styles will make fights here, but Dallas knew that since they drafted their vaunted offensive line, the Packers had been murdered on the ground against them. They simply could not stop the Cowboys in Wisconsin or Texas, in the regular season or the playoffs. The Cowboys ran the ball against the Packers for 6.3 per carry, which is off the charts. They were set up to stop the pass, not the run. Everyone knew it.
We thought we did, at least.
Here is what I wrote from the offensive breakdown after another loss when they buried themselves with a few missed passes in the first half before their rookie QB got rolling:
What is the most legitimate critique of Sunday’s effort? For me, it is that the Cowboys had an unstoppable force against a defense that has no idea how to slow it down, and Dallas elected to not destroy its opponent with it. We talked about this in the Linehan preview last week: Since 2013, the Cowboys have played the Packers four times. In each game, they ran all day and had no issues whatsoever. They ran and ran and ran. They have run the ball with this massive offensive line against the Packers and Dom Capers 99 times in four games and have rolled up an absurd 641 yards. That comes out to 6.48 yards per carry. Oh, and the Cowboys are 1-3 in those four games.Well, make it 123 times for 779 yards in five matchups — 6.33 yards per carry! And a 1-4 record against Green Bay.
Let’s go back to the question/critique of the entire offensive operation: Even with 31 points and 429 yards, why isn’t the answer to nearly every play-calling situation (within reason) running Elliott behind this offensive line you have built? The Cowboys are a running team. They claim that, identify that and lead all rushing categories. And yet, when it is third-and-2, they pass. Even when there is no reason not to give the ball to Elliott twice. I can understand the premise if the opposition was stopping you. The Giants have a chance. Surely, there are others. But Green Bay? You can barely find one play in five meetings where Green Bay is stopping the Cowboys’ running game. And yet the Cowboys are passing in run situations with the season on the line. I really don’t understand.
Would I fire Garrett for what happened in a playoff game that required a Green Bay miracle after a 13-3 Dallas season? Of course not. But I left that game again thinking that Dallas had the second-best coach on the field. In the NFL, that means too much.
2017
Several examples in 2017 come to mind, starting with allowing the entire three-month-long Zeke suspension fiasco and the national anthem controversy to invade the locker room in a way a stronger coach might not tolerate. Of course, a more assertive coach might not tolerate Greg Hardy, Randy Gregory, Rolando McClain, Josh Brent and probably most Dez Bryant sideline tantrums, either. For that matter, a coach with a stronger sense of how things should be no doubt wouldn’t be starting his eighth season as head coach for the Jones family, so I guess we don’t need to go on.
We could point out at least three more games, but I will limit my feelings about 2017 to one game and one game only, so as not to run up the score.
No. 9 — November 12, 2017 —At Atlanta
Chaz Green. Are you kidding me? From
the Morning After:
Could it have been avoided by the time you get to game day? Yes. The coaches did him no favors. You can’t hide a left tackle, but you can help him. In the third quarter, the Cowboys were still in the game. They take their first drive of that quarter right down the field with great power on the ground. Down just 17-7 with much of the second half to play, they marched all the way to the Falcons’ 12-yard line after Alfred Morris had runs of 14 yards, 20 yards, and 11 yards. They have actually salvaged the situation and now have a first down in the red zone. Why then, would you decide to hop back into shotgun on first down and ask Chaz Green to pass protect – on an island – against a guy who already has 4 sacks against him? It is first down and your offensive line and power personnel groupings had just mowed all the way down the field in a few short plays. And now, you want to take those tight ends off the field and get back into shotgun on first down? Predictably, the play ended in a sack and that drive was killed, too.
Unfortunately, the coaches had not done enough damage yet. Even though the game was over in the fourth quarter (after a few more sacks), the staff that evidently had their brains suspended for the game are calling timeouts down 27-7 to try to get the ball back so they can call more plays in shotgun and get their star QB blindsided a few more times by Clayborn and friends who have savaged the left tackle spot long after Chaz Green was gone and Byron Bell (their other idea) was being served up on a platter. They should have been running the ball or even taking a knee – not calling timeouts to prolong the destruction – but Jason Garrett is going to never stop being Jason Garrett. They never really helped out Chaz Green, nor did they modify their strategies to protect him from getting Dak killed, but instead wanted to get the ball back to rerun their same poor strategies. Madness.
I would like to tell you right here that this is where I thought Garrett should have been fired. Honestly, though, you already know that was in 2012. This was the game when I suggested Garrett and Scott Linehan should have been left on the tarmac in Atlanta.
Ridiculous doesn’t fully categorize it.
2018
Starting 2018 with no wide receivers after cutting Dez Bryant and deciding Allen Hurns, Terrance Williams, Deonte Thompson and Cole Beasley were sufficient receiving options will not make our list. Nor will the ridiculous showings in both Carolina and Seattle to start the year. I might also apologize to the game at Washington and the goofy appearance at home against Tennessee on Monday Night football. Nope. In the interest of time and your sanity, this headliner was always going to be the trip to Houston.
No. 10 — October 7th, 2018 — At Houston
He had to go. How did the Cowboys enter a ninth year with this millstone still around their neck?
Again
from the Morning After, this time after a beautiful new site known as The Athletic had gone online:
This is a game they needed to win, with Jacksonville coming to town next week. For all the imperfections of an offense that can hardly produce 300-yard days anymore (and this one even gave the ball away a couple of times), Dallas scrapped its way to this moment in time with under six minutes to go in overtime with the ball. Their choices were as follows:
A) Take the talent you do have on this offense, with first- and second-round picks Tyron Smith, Zack Martin, Connor Williams, Ezekiel Elliott, and honorary first-round pick La’el Collins (who we all know was certainly thought of as such before his unfortunate draft weekend in 2015) and challenge the Texans to stop you on 4th and 1 from the Texans’ 42-yard line. Do this because you are 18 out of 19 in the Ezekiel Elliott era on 4th-and-1 for 95%, and only failed last year in Week 17 in Philadelphia. You probably can just sneak your big QB for the yard, but if not, there are about a dozen different variations of either ramming Zeke or using him as a decoy for a bootleg or a wide play with speed.
B) Punt, because you are a very conservative coach on a team that can’t overcome your conservatism any further.
Again, this is not the first quarter. Your team has battled its tail off for about three hours already and you need this win. The team is not good enough to overcome coaching themselves out of a few wins anymore. If you cost the Cowboys any games in 2018, you are most likely missing the playoffs which hypothetically should mean a regime change. Let’s ask this question about the rest of the league. Well, according to the greatness of the Profootballreference.com play finder, there have been 52 situations like this one (including five from Dallas) in the NFL since the start of last season — that is, 4th and 1 from between midfield and the opponent’s 40-yard line — at any point of a game. The rest of the league has decided this is where you go for it, and have done so 37 of 47 times (79%). Incidentally, they have succeeded on 25 of those 37 attempts on 4th and 1 (68%).
Not Jason Garrett. For he is the only coach in the NFL in the last two years who faced this situation and called out the punter on multiple occasions. The league, as a whole, has punted only 12 times in those 52 occasions. Jason Garrett is the only one to do it twice. He punted on the first drive of the game against Kansas City last year and then in overtime last night.
“It was a long yard.”
Again, those are 10 different moments when I was pretty concerned or convinced that this wasn’t the guy to lead this team back to the promised land. Maybe I was unfair, but in which direction? I might have been too tough on one or two, but if you said I need to get to 25 moments, it wouldn’t have been that hard. Remember Calvin Johnson going for 300? Josh McCown putting up 45? The Saints scoring seven touchdowns in eight drives? No? Just as well, I promise.
2019
In his 10th and final season, Garrett seemed convinced he could not be fired. He now tried to test the limits of his job security with one crazy idea after the next.
Here is but a shortlist.
- Dallas refused to bring in a single kicker to compete with one who was inarguably bad in 2018. It would cost them dearly.
- Dallas lost as a road favorite in Week 4 against a Saints team without its QB.
- Dallas lost to Green Bay at home despite outgaining the Packers by 230 yards, playing them without their only WR of note in Davante Adams, giving up 55 yards receiving to wide receivers and holding the Packers to only three third- or fourth-down conversions.
- Dallas lost to a Jets team which only scored a combined 39 points in four games. The Cowboys were a seven-point favorite and playing a QB who had been missing for several weeks. They would allow Sam Darnold one of the best performances of his life. This would also represent the third time Garrett would face the Jets and the third time he would lose to the Jets. In a nutshell, this actually explains much of his Dallas career in three acts.
- Dallas would lose a crucial game to Minnesota at home. Their QB played nearly perfect football but would be sabotaged by two coaching issues that included a red-zone play-calling snafu inside the final two minutes and an incredibly bizarre command to order Tavon Austin to take a fair catch despite nobody within 20 yards of him inside the final 20 seconds. It was among the worst moments of Garrett’s coaching career.
Perhaps, as opposed to commenting, let me just round out the list.
- Another incredibly absent-minded day of special teams work in New England. Dallas couldn’t score a touchdown, then got a punt blocked, muffed a few kickoff returns and received a punt without a deep return man. Those details get you beat.
- Dallas then laid another egg against mighty Buffalo despite being a touchdown favorite at home on Thanksgiving.
- Dallas allowed Mitchell Trubisky to throw for three touchdowns and run for another, accounting for a season-high four scores. The Cowboys lost as a favorite once again, something they did a season-high seven times (tied with the Chargers).
- They finally cut the worst kicker in football when it was too late. The damage had been done.
- They were nearly full strength when playing the Eagles, who were missing so many parts they started a rookie and a college QB as their two wide receivers. They also were on their fourth RB and played a backup right tackle. They lost in a very humiliating way, and here you would blame the Jones family again for insisting that a fired-coach-to-be was better than an interim coach. The product disagreed.
- With one play left, the season on the line and all their timeouts available, Dallas ran a 4th-and-8 play without Amari Cooper on the field. They then tried to suggest it was by design. If ever a coach had to explain a ridiculous, inexplicable decision, I imagine this was it. The franchise ended up giving Cooper $100 million, which seems to indicate they were befuddled, too.
I wrote this after the disaster in Chicago. It followed a similar article I wrote after the Buffalo game, in which I wondered why the Joneses refused to fire Garrett when the team was beyond lifeless:
I see no logical reason to counter the simple belief that Jason Garrett must be fired today. Actually, the counter was to do it a week ago. There is simply no air left in the balloon. We have reached the part of the story when everyone knows what is around the next corner.
The coach knows he is gone. He understands the business and he understands his room. He has been in the NFL for three decades and is far more familiar with how this works than most of us could ever be. Coaches talk about the moment they realize they are a “dead man walking,” and then it becomes an exercise in simply carrying out your own role with dignity and class. No, he is not going to quit on his team, but he knows they stopped responding and he knows who will ultimately pay for that. Cats have nine lives, and this Cowboys coach had nine full seasons. We believe he just used up the last one.
The amazing part of this decade-long story is that even toward the end, the Cowboys still wouldn’t fire Jason Garrett. The final game was played on December 29th, 2019. From then until January 5th, 2020, there was no word — just a series of bizarre stories and half reports that still indicated internal wrestling about Garrett’s future.
He was the coach they couldn’t fire. He helped authorize a lost decade of Cowboys football. We will never forget it, but many hope to soon.
On Friday, we will complete Jason Garrett Week by trying to figure out what we learned before turning the page completely.
