Cowboy HC Garrett Needs His Walking Papers.
By cowgirlcas
After watching Jason Garrett’s Dallas Cowboys get humiliated by the Chicago Bears, I have to ask: what has happened to ‘Americas Team’? It seems the more hype put out by the Cowboys Owner and General Manager Jerry Jones about any acquisition by the Dallas Cowboys, the more that acquisition turns out to be a disaster. The lack of discipline and inconsistency shown by the Dallas Cowboys since Jason Garrett (following the mid season termination of Wade Phillips) took over as head coach in 2010, is evident in virtually every aspect of the Cowboys football team. Whether or not Jason Garrett was ever qualified for the job, also seems worth questioning.
December 26, 2011; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton on the sidelines against the Atlanta Falcons during the first half at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-US PRESSWIRE
On Tuesday, suspended New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton (formerly with the Cowboys) was asked if he’d be interested in the head coaching job in Dallas.
"“I’d rather answer a bounty question,” Payton said, via The Times-Picayune. “Right now my focus is on staying with New Orleans and really getting back on the sidelines.”"
What does that tell you? The fact that he would rather talk about the bounty scandal is a solid indication that he wants nothing to do with Jerry Jones or the Dallas Cowboys. Why do you think that is? People are tired of Jerry Jones and his traveling circus. He has done a great job of marketing the Cowboys, too bad selling jerseys and promoting Papa Johns pizza doesn’t win football games.
The biggest blunder since giving Doug Free All-Pro Left Tackle money to end up being a below average Right Tackle, was the hiring of the inexperienced Jason Garrett as the head coach. I was against it in the beginning; the guys at the top of my list were: Jim Harbaugh, John Gruden, Bill Cowher, and Brian Billick.
Lets face it, it takes more than a Princeton education and warming the bench behind Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman on a resume to be qualified as a head coach in the NFL. What is the tie between Jerry Jones and the Garrett family to begin with? Jason is the head coach, his brother Judd Garrett is in charge of the scouting department, and John Garrett, his other brother, is the tight ends coach. Nepotism anyone? Maybe the Garretts’ are the problem. I previously wrote an article about the predictability of Jasons’ play calling, you can see it here.
Lets take a look at the decline in the Cowboys production since Bill Parcells and Sean Payton left town.
2011 Garrett/Ryan
| Team Statistics | ||
| Cowboys | Opponents | |
| TOTAL FIRST DOWNS | 327 | 305 |
| FIRST DOWNS (Rushing-passing-by penalty) | 91 – 219 – 17 | 78 – 199 – 28 |
| THIRD DOWN CONVERSIONS | 78/198 | 81/204 |
| FOURTH DOWN CONVERSIONS | 5/10 | 4/11 |
| TOTAL OFFENSIVE YARDS | 6008 | 5491 |
| OFFENSE (Plays-Average Yards) | 1017 – 5.9 | 972 – 5.6 |
| TOTAL RUSHING YARDS | 1807 | 1585 |
| RUSHING (Plays-Average Yards) | 408 – 4.4 | 385 – 4.1 |
| TOTAL PASSING YARDS | 4201 | 3906 |
| PASSING (Comp-Att-Int-Avg) | 376 – 570 – 12 – 7.8 | 336 – 545 – 15 – 7.6 |
| SACKS Romo | 36 | Opp QB’s 42 |
| FIELD GOALS | 32/37 | 26/33 |
| TOUCHDOWNS | 39 | 38 |
| (Rushing-Passing-Returns-Defensive) | 5 – 33 – 0 – 1 | 10 – 24 – 0 – 4 |
| TIME OF POSSESSION | 31:24 | 29:33 |
| TURNOVER RATIO | +4 |
| Rushing Statistics | |||||
| Player | Att | Yds | Yds/Att | Long | TD |
| DeMarco Murray | 164 | 897 | 5.5 | 91 | 2 |
| Felix Jones | 127 | 575 | 4.5 | 40 | 1 |
| Sammy Morris | 28 | 98 | 3.5 | 15 | 0 |
| Receiving Statistics | |||||
| Player | Rec | Yds | Yds/Rec | Long | TD |
| Jason Witten | 79 | 942 | 11.9 | 64 | 5 |
| Dez Bryant | 63 | 928 | 14.7 | 50 | 9 |
| Laurent Robinson | 54 | 858 | 15.9 | 74 | 11 |
| Miles Austin | 43 | 579 | 13.5 | 53 | 7 |
As you can see in 2011, Tony Romo took a career high 36 sacks, there were 162 more passes called than runs, and the Cowboys had an all time low of only 4 rushing TD’s by running backs. The Cowboys also gave up 28 1st downs by penalty and only got 17. People can say what they want, but that is far from a balanced offense. The question now becomes: What did Jason Garrett do as the head coach to improve on these horrific numbers from 2011? When you look at the table below you shouldn’t be surprised to see that the Dallas Cowboys are actually on course to be worse than in 2011.
2012 Garrett/Ryan
| Team Statistics | ||
| Cowboys | Opponents | |
| TOTAL FIRST DOWNS | 75 | 65 |
| FIRST DOWNS (Rushing-passing-by penalty) | 13 – 61 – 1 | 19 – 38 – 8 |
| THIRD DOWN CONVERSIONS | 19/48 | 19/53 |
| FOURTH DOWN CONVERSIONS | 1/3 | 5/6 |
| TOTAL OFFENSIVE YARDS | 1456 | 1110 |
| OFFENSE (Plays-Average Yards) | 248 – 5.9 | 226 – 4.9 |
| TOTAL RUSHING YARDS | 271 | 432 |
| RUSHING (Plays-Average Yards) | 79 – 3.4 | 113 – 3.8 |
| TOTAL PASSING YARDS | 1185 | 678 |
| PASSING (Comp-Att-Int-Avg) | 110 – 161 – 8 – 7.7 | 64 – 104 – 1 – 7.2 |
| SACKS Romo | 8 | Opp QB’s 9 |
| FIELD GOALS | 5/5 | 6/6 |
| TOUCHDOWNS | 7 | 10 |
| (Rushing-Passing-Returns-Defensive) | 1 – 6 – 0 – 0 | 2 – 5 – 0 – 3 |
| TIME OF POSSESSION | 30:25 | 29:34 |
| TURNOVER RATIO | -7 |
| Passing Statistics | |||||||||||||
| Player | Att | Comp | Yds | Comp % | Yds/Att | TD | TD % | INT | INT % | Long | Sck | Sack/Lost | Rating |
| Tony Romo | 151 | 101 | 1148 | 66.9 | 7.6 | 5 | 3.3 | 8 | 5.3 | 49 | 8 | 52 | 78.5 |
| Kyle Orton | 10 | 9 | 89 | 90.0 | 8.9 | 1 | 10.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 137.1 |
| Rushing Statistics | |||||
| Player | Att | Yds | Yds/Att | Long | TD |
| DeMarco Murray | 61 | 237 | 3.9 | 48 | 1 |
| Tony Romo | 12 | 12 | 1.0 | 9 | 0 |
| Felix Jones | 3 | 13 | 4.3 | 13 | 0 |
| Receiving Statistics | |||||
| Player | Rec | Yds | Yds/Rec | Long | TD |
| Dez Bryant | 21 | 269 | 12.8 | 38 | 0 |
| Jason Witten | 21 | 188 | 9.0 | 23 | 1 |
| Miles Austin | 18 | 300 | 16.7 | 49 | 3 |
| Kevin Ogletree | 17 | 221 | 13.0 | 40 | 2 |