Who is placing "all the blame"? Dallas has plenty of dysfunction. Garrett happens to be part of it. Calling him blameless is where I have issue.
Not calling him blameless.
I've said many times it's 75% personnel, 25% coaching.
The problem is, you can't get an accurate read on what really needs to be fixed with the coaching because getting even competent players at 4/5ths of our OL spots might cure a lot of the coaching issues, because Garrett wouldn't have to "adapt" to say, the spread offense that he is not comfortable calling, but he'd be able to trust his running game more and all phases of the offense would be more effective without even a single change to the plays that are called.
The same cannot really be said in reverse. You will never, ever, in a million years, coach Nate Livings-Phil Costa-Mackenzie Bernadeau into an interior OL that isn't one of the worst in football and a complete liability. You might -- MIGHT -- be able to playcall around it.... by running a spread/shotgun offense where the run is almost completely abandoned and the passes are so short that the rush can't get there.
Of course, we tried that approach against Atlanta, actually, and scored 13 points. So..... next idea.
Yes, what a mess. They actually scored more than the year before with the "worst OL we've had here".
2012: 23.5 ppg, 15th in the league
2011: 23.1 ppg, 15th in the league
2010: 24.6 ppg, 7th in the league
2009: 22.6 ppg, 14th in the league
2008: 22.6 ppg, 18th in the league
2007: 28.4 ppg, 2nd in the league
Notice a trend here? Garrett pretty much coordinates a middle of the pack scoring offense.
Yes, the trend I notice is that 2007 was the best OL we've had under Garrett and we scored like a well oiled machine, and since then the OL has gotten steadily worse and so have the results.
Maybe Garrett is getting dumber though. That's a logical explanation.
Good skill positions + lousy line talent = average offensive talent. Average results make sense.
And as far as Sturm, this was the article I was referencing.
I've read it. There's another one from Sturm that also pointed out how even when they said "This game plan isn't working, let's scrap it and go sandlot" that it wasn't nearly as efficient compared to previous years Garrett offenses either.
The whole thing was down. It certainty is an indictment that the game plans were not working, but Bob explicitly says "I'm not saying why they aren't working, just pointing out that they're not." (Verbatim, the quote is "
This is a team that fell behind early almost every single home game. Why? Because their game-plan week after week was not working. Why? I could offer 100 ideas. But, the point is, they weren't working.")
I know why. It's 75% on the OL.
Some people were saying that we should just say F it and go spread/hurry up mode all the time, then. But again, in another article, Bob pointed out that even when we did in that 2012, it was more effective than Gameplanned 2012, but less effective than gameplanned 2007-2009. So that wasn't an answer either; its just that nothing was working.