SPORTSDAY

Posted by TMC @ 12:37 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

Garrett is vastly overrated. His game plan did not have Owens coming out of the backfield or over the middle. Glad we locked up hands of stone Crayton Wade is a nice guy and horrible coach. You don't take a vacation the week before the playoff game. You prepare for the game. Considering the team was playing terrible all through December. Now he can wave the team goodbye for their winter and spring vacation.

Posted by BigHungryJoe @ 1:03 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

if garrett wants to go, let him go. he was great early in the season, good in the middle, and terrible when it mattered. if that's what miami wants let them have him

btw, this version of captcha is the worst i've seen!

Posted by Richard @ 1:06 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

All of this with a pretty good offense. What is he going to do with a offense not so good. I think JG need a year or 2 more. But one of these teams will hire him.

Posted by Charles - ATL @ 1:27 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

Sure he needs to share the blame. Did ok overall for his 1st season...and his 2nd year must be considerably better. But you never know with some of these guys. That's why Norv outshined his mentor Ernie Zampese as an O-Cord. Zampese could just drive you nuts with his brilliant play-calling and then duds...usually when he became a pass-happy dummy at all costs. Hope Garrett has a btter feel for running the ball consistently next year....because he will be back now...for no one wants him as much now with the way the o struggled.

Posted by randy @ 2:42 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

I think in time Garrett could be a good head coach in the NFL but the key word is 'time'.

He needs another 2-3 years at least in his current role to gain experience and knowledge, I wouldn't be in such a rush to hire a guy who appears to have a good handle on running an NFL offense but is way too green to become the Head Coach of an NFL franchise.

Posted by DaBoys @ 3:49 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

You know...at this time it doesn't matter who stays or who goes...the talent we had on this team needed to be capitalized on, but the coaches failed to prepare them. So much for 13-3, you put a great team together not to have a great regular season, but to succeed in the post-season, but that didn't happen. Oh well, Jerry opened up Pandoras box when he ran Jimmy JOhnson's talent out of town, it's been 12 years now. I guess he's being humbled....not even a playoff win! Wow,now he has to settle for mediocre coaching, and a mediocre post-season! He deserves it, players and fans don't!

Posted by Blue Zone @ 4:25 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

This is what happens when you give a high-powered-passing offense a running game plan. The O-line was worn out by the second half and so was Barber. The Cowboy's superstar receivers were wide open most of the 2nd half, but they has some trouble with the pass rush and instead of fixing it kept going back to the faulty running game plan.

Did someone get to Garrett and forced him into this stupidity? Maybe it was Jerry Jones trying to test out his McFadden wet-dream theory. Starting in December, we reverted to using re-cycled Bill Parcel's game plans. Conservative running-game plans went out the window with all of the NFL rules changes favoring the passing game.

Throw Garrett and Sporano under the bus for the elephant-cr@p offensive game planning. Since it smells like Jerry Jones has been meddling with things again, throw him under also and include Phillips for not stopping Jerry's meddling.

Posted by hateboys @ 5:05 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

Ahh 11 sec left..man jess looked good in her swim suit..oh 9 sec left..rubbimg lotion on her....she's hot.think Ill suggest her sis join us next time...huh what incerption..oh well...MEXICO

Posted by TOM B @ 5:44 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

Two thoughts:
In the immortal words of C&W song: "OHH, OH, Mexico, where Tequila loves me, This I know...."
And: In Golf, "You Drive (Long) for show but you Putt (Short) for Dough." The Cowboys forgot their short 'Passing' game, while "Showing Off," w/long passes.

Posted by Alan @ 6:29 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

This is a bigger potential upside with Garrett. Phillips is a loser. Always has been always will be. It's written all over him from the day he got here. A coach who takes morale victories out of bad performances. When we are 3-7 next year then we'll be talking the next search for the next coach.

Posted by Dan M. @ 6:40 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

This loss was on Jason Garrett.

I don't blame Wade. Wade was brought into to fix the defense. And he did.

In the 2d half of that football game, the half that was decisive, the defense gave up a grand total of SEVEN points.

Now if you were told the Cowboys D gives up 7 points in the 2d half, you'd have been ecstatic, because you would have been convinced that the Cowboys win the game.

IT WAS OUR OFFENSE.

AND THAT MEANS GARRETT.

We used to be an offense that DICTATED to the defense.

THEN we became an offense that "took what the defense gave" and from that point, we became an offense that did nothing.

We used to get the ball to T.O. REGARDLESS OF COVERAGE, whether they played Cover 3, Cover 2, Tampa 2, it was meaningless, we were going to get the ball to our playmaker. And when we did that, we earned over 30 points a game, and Jason Garrett was looking like a genius.

But something funny happened along the way. We started getting the ball to Witten.

Now Witten is an exceptional player, and is a stellar performer, BUT HE'S NO T.O. He's not an explosive player; he doesn't take ordinary patterns and turn them into points.

Every single time that Romo had to look down to Witten was an opportunity lost.

We used to be a team that COULD run the ball, but didn't ACTUALLY run the ball a great deal. And we averaged over 30 points a game.

BUT AGAIN, a funny thing happened, we kept hearing about how "we had to have a running game." WE JUST HAD TO HAVE IT.

Why?

Nothing specific was ever offered in support, just vague generalities. No one reminded us that points, {WHICH IS THE OBJECT OF THE EXERCISE} come off the passing game.

So getting away from our strength, {which was getting the ball to perhaps the foremost playmaker in the league, T.O.} we started getting the ball to other guys, {guys who are good, important, just as Witten and Barber} BUT GUYS WHO AREN'T EXPLOSIVE.

Witten isn't explosive.

BARBER ISN'T EXPLOSIVE.

Sure, Barber is great, and one of the best backs in the league right now. BUT HE'S NO TONY DORSETT. HE'S NO O.J. SIMPSON; HE'S NO L.T.

The running game which we heard so much about LIMITED OUR point total.

HOW was it possible for an offense that used to average 30 plus a game to have been held to 3 in the 2d half?

And the Giants weren't all that.

They didn't play a spectacular game.

They were just begging to be beat.

They gave us the ball back with a 2 minutes left.

AND WE HAD FIELD POSITION TOO.

We didn't have to go very far.

AND ROMO should damn well hear about it.

He deserves it.

Ever since it got hot and heavy with Romo, in early December, our offensive performance entered a slow motion death spiral.

1} First there was Detroit, where going into late the 3d quarter, we had scored a grand total of 13 points. WE NEEDED THE ABSOLUTE LAST THREE possessions just to eke out 28 points against Detroit.

2} Then there was the Eagles game, where again our offense sputtered. That was the game we we really began to hear about a "lack of a running game," but you don't hear too much about the guys that were open, but Romo didn't hit.

3} Washington, by then, our offense was experiencing TRUE difficulties.

WE LOST OUR MENTAL FOCUS; WE LOST OUR MENTAL EDGE; WE WALLOWED IN THE HYPE; WE GLORIED IN THE MEDIA COVERAGE; WE SPOKE TOO MUCH ABOUT BEING 13 AND 3 INSTEAD OF not speaking at all and taking care of business.

Too much hype.

Too much media glorification.

Too little focus.

Too much self regard.

Too little respect for your opponents.

Too much delusion that the playoffs were merely a coronation, instead of a tournament.

Too much BULL!

And now it's going to be an awfully long off year.

And deservedly so for some.

Defense played great....................... BUT FOR THAT FINAL MINUTE of the 1st half, which was INEXCUSABLE and INEXPLICABLE!

Posted by RRS @ 6:52 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

Garrett needs at least two more years to mature as a coordinator. Look at Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh. He was a coordinator for one year and then moved on to a head coach and his team was one and done in the playoffs. This league is too quick to go with the "hot assistant".

Posted by selke99 @ 7:01 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

I read in a competitor newspaper online that this ball control running actually hurt Dallas because while you're controlling the game and the clock with these long drives, who cares when your crappy defense gives up a 40 second TD drive the length of the field! All year it seemed they had used the pass to set up the run like the Patriots (something they should have done under Parcells if he wasn't so archaic). There's nothing inherently wrong with the game plan yesterday. If you rush for 90+ yards in the first half and control the ball for 40 minutes, you should not lose. A lot of the blame should go to special teams (kickoff and punt return) and defense.
But I agree, Garrett is too green to become a head coach for a new football team. I see him staying another year. Interesting how the NE offensive coordinator refused to interview anywhere.

Posted by dallus1 @ 7:16 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

I agree with all of you that Garret has cooled off.

But when you let the Giants go 80 yards in a minute with one timeout because you are playing back and only rushing 4. That is flat out ridiculous. I know he is not out there making plays but you have got to bring the pressure. I can live with bringing the pressure and getting beat. I can't accept playing soft and letting Eli complete about 6 passes in a row on the last minute drive before the half. That was a major turing point in the game.

Posted by Mike G @ 7:28 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

If Garrett needs more time, what about Sparano??It is no coincidence that the O-Line played its worst game of the season. Both of these guys were interviewing for jobs, instead of focusing on the jobs they already had.

Posted by Scott @ 7:37 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

It's clear to me Mr. Garrett was over his head in this one. He was abused by the Giants defensive coordinator. The Giants were playing the second half with a rag-tag secondary and were forced to blitz on every down. The 1st year offensive coordinator did not adjust. I saw no 3 step drops or slants. The loss belongs to the coaches.

Posted by PaulC @ 7:52 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

Garrett is a whore. Instead of focusing on the job he had, he spent the last two weeks worrying about his next job. After the game, he was yucking it up and laughing with the Giants' Toomer. Whore. Fraud. Unprofessional POS.

Posted by Dan @ 7:53 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

I'm a law professor who loves the Cowboys. So I don't spend every waking minute thinking about football strategy. I'm knowledgeable but no "expert." But even I knew pretty quickly during the game that the coaching staff was screwing up by opting for a grind-it-out offensive game plan and not sending a fifth guy to pressure Eli. Seems to me elementary that play-action against a totally depleted secondary would have produced big points, given the credibility of the running game. In any other competitive industry, executive decisionmaking as awful as this would lead to serious re-evaluation. I'm beginning to see that "expertise" in football is a myth.

Posted by tracy @ 7:56 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

I to piss to comment on this debacle.

Posted by Dave @ 8:00 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

Yeah right. Fire Phillips. His "feel good" antics cost us a prepared team. Of course, what do I know...I am simply a fan.

Posted by Holy Cow! @ 8:08 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

Holy Cow! Wade just needs a little more time to mature....he just needs time. Next year wil be better....didn't we say that for the last 14 years? LOL 0 - 4 And we are talking about what a great coach he is? LOL

Throw the "Bum" out....sorry...wrong person... but you get the idea!

Posted by wildbill2u @ 8:20 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

You aren't going to get a head coaching job after calling a terrible game in the second half.

How many times were the Giants vulnerable over the middle, especially when blitzing, and the Cowboys never adjusted.

They kept trying long passes when the Giants would have given up lots of 5-10 yd. passes. Brady and Favre took what their opponents gave. The Cowboys didn't.

Posted by shahab @ 8:20 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

bad play calling on that last drive, in particular the last offensive play. on the 4th and 11, it looked like all three receivers went to the endzone. the TE and RB were kept in to help block. the gaints dropped their secondary to the endzone leaving the middle of field completely open. witten or barber could have easily picked up the first down. i understand the clock situation and no timeouts, but i think you had enough time to pick up the first down and spike the ball and have enough time for a couple of quick pass plays. very, very disappointing.

Posted by Hagar1029 @ 8:30 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

A shame Jerry Jones seems to have no mirrors in his house. He should look into one occasionally. He drove away the only solid football mind he ever hired that was young enough to still be driven to succeed, lived off the team Johnson assembled for a few years, and ever since has been responsible for nothing but flashy junk.

The Garret/Wilson/Sporano debate is largely irrelevant. Jerry will only hire some mush-for-brains who will readily accept Jerry's football "acumen." If anyone has a spine and a plan, he's not wanted in Dallas. Wilson is perfect for Jerry because, while he should never be entrusted with an NFL team to call his own, he probably thinks Jerry knows something about football.

FOX TV had a wonderful shot of Jones on the sideline immediately after the game. You could almost see him questioning his decisions to to pay another set of superstars who never show up in the 4th quarter of important games, or his vote of confidence to prop up someone who's coached down yet another solid team into a playoff loss.

But then, you heard him in interviews afterwards, and you realize that what appeared to be introspection was probably just gas.

This fish carcass has been rotting from the head since day one. Johnson only delayed the inevitable. These years of futility are on Jones' watch and I am eternally amazed at the lack of scrutiny he gets in the Dallas media.

Posted by Packer Fan @ 8:47 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

To bad Cowgirls. Looks like Brett Favre and the Packers came out on TOP in the end. We always knew that Tony Nono and the Cowgirls weren't for real. The Pack has already beaten the Giants so we welcome them back to Lambeau Field.
Looks like we have a good chance to go to the BIG SHOW.

Posted by ajb @ 9:08 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

guys....what really pisses me off is that all of us could have called a better game in the second half! It was so obvious that the giants were selling out on blitzes because they couldn't hold up in coverage! Did anyone notice that even Aikman and Buck kept saying how the boys needed to take advantage of it? To me, it looked like the cowboys failed to make any second half adjustments. As far as Wade goes, I'm afraid it'll be more of the same each year guys. Once a loser, always a loser...look at his mentor, Shottenheimer! Jerry at least needs to hire a new D-coordinator...like Rex Ryan.

Posted by dvelcro @ 9:13 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

America's Team, Dallas is not!! They are a bunch of BIG Ego's and BIG babies (Terrell)but at least they live up the "everything is big in Texas", they just can't stop choking in the playoffs. A 13-3 season means nothing if you can't win in the playoffs. I AM SO HAPPY THEY ARE OUT - CAN'T STAND ANY OF YOU!

Posted by Bill In DC @ 9:30 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

I don't think Garrett is ready to be a head coach and I think he knows that as well. I expect he'll be back next season, he still has some learning to do as an O Coordinator. He fell down badly in his play calling the last part of the season and the offense seems to have lost confidence after the Packers game and could not recover. The only thing good that comes of this is that Garrett will probably not get a HC gig this year.

Sparano is gone, count on it. Garrett is not.

Posted by cowboy fan @ 9:46 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

Second half - maybe one draw play, no screen passes, no guick hitches or slants, one pass to Barber out of the backfield, no moving the pocket -very PREDICTABLE play calling with nothing but seven step drops....Garrett is not ready for prime time yet as he got gamed by the Giants in the second half. Garrett needs more experience in big games and the Cowboys will be good for years to come with Romo....we need one more wideout.

Posted by Jim @ 10:04 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

Wades defense did a good job but that offensive line should hang their heads between their tales. They proved to me ( including Garrett ) that when push comes to shove, they can't handle it. Keep Wade and let Garrett go!!

Posted by Tony @ 10:36 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

I think we can do better than Garrett and Sparano. The play selections were awful yesterday and Sparano's O-Line didn't come out after halftime.
I hope they go somewhere else and take Jacque Reeves with them.

Posted by bresson @ 11:17 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

the second half demonstrated some of the most inept offensive play ever in professional sports. the boyZ basically gave up the short to mid pass and went for the long bomb or run when the giants were full blitzing. blame this on garrett.

romo also shows why he was undrafted - his judgment and mechanics in the second half were awful. he overthrew, underthrew, took sacks, and then a stupid penalty that reminded me of the Saints teams from the 80s.

the whole team is to blame for all this. crayton is more interested in doing things with style than following through with the fundamentals - wes walker would never have done this. romo is a hothead who thinks he's much better than the league. flozell adams basically gave up playing. overall, a very inept performance

Posted by Geoff @ 11:31 AM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

The play calling for the last 5 or 6 games has been suspect. The reason the Cowboys offense (and in part the defense) is ranked so high is becuase they used to stretch the field and really air things out. That has all but disappeared over the past 5 or 6 games. I have not studied the film to see if the defenses simply made it priority 1 to take this away or they just stopped attacking it. Regardless, that is what i see as the main issue with the team and their production.

Posted by No Pants Lance @ 12:25 PM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

Sparanos O-line showed up completely out of shape after the bye.
This reminded me of the Cowboys last superbowl win against Pittsburgh when the O-line completely dominated the Steelers the 1st two series and then were so gassed they couldnt bust a grape with a sledgehammer the rest of the game.
Those time consuming drives should have spelled doom for the Giants defense not the Cowboys O-LINE. Who is in charge of keeping these guys in shape. Thats who I blame....

Posted by Dan C @ 1:35 PM Mon, Jan 14, 2008

Fellas,

You know what was COMPLETELY ABSENT yesterday, and it would have been a PERFECT tactic against a blitzing defense, and a defense that was blitzing UP THE MIDDLE, ............ and it was something we did frequently this year, ................... you know what that was........................................................................... IT WAS ROLLING OUT TO PASS!

I don't recall a single instance of Romo ROLLING OUT TO PASS, and Romo throws exceptionally well on the run.

Not once.

And that would have inserted a note of caution in their blitz packages.

Their defensive secondary was hurting, so the only thing left for the G-Men was blitzing.

EVERYBODY KNEW IT.

Why couldn't our team take advantage, when all throughout the year Romo EXCELLED in taking advantage of blitz happy defenses.

Well guess what guys.

If you think you saw blitzes yesterday, ............................. you just wait to see the blitzes we'll be seeing next year.

The whole NFL is going to blitz Romo into oblivion next year, ......... or at least do the devil's best trying to.

AND WE HAD BETTER BE PREPARED FOR IT!

Posted by carl @ 5:22 PM Tue, Jan 15, 2008

Until the Boy's shore up the corners on this team, address AWFULL special teams, which basically cost the game , and get someone who can return kicks to give good field position.. then this will repeat again in 08..... Jacques Reeve, and overated ROY W.( he did play on Sunday ? Didn't he? ) A Henry .. All get out of town... Only keeper is Terrance N... almost forgot ..Hamlin go back to Seattle.. You suck ...