This is an untimely post, as for the first time in a while the Dallas Cowboys are rarely in the news. I was not a big fan of the hiring of Jason Garrett, not that I don't think he is a good coach, but to me it seems that Jerry Jones is not really correcting anything here. Garrett has been here for quite some time as well as he has had offensive play calling duties, so in my eyes he has a share of the blame for their 1-7 start. The Cowboys were able to rattle off a 5-3 second half to finish 6-10 with Garrett getting all of the praise for it. Let us review if that should be enough to be promoted.
In many people's view this cowboy was destined for greatness and many people had them as super bowl material as the NFC participant. The team has a ton of talent, which has not been argued as having Demarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer rushing the quarterback on the outside with Jay Ratliff applying pressure automatically makes you a formidable defense. Their inside backers are average at best, but they have been getting the job done to some degree as long as you don't have Keith Brooking trying to cover anybody. Mike Jenkins had a bad year considering how strong he was during their 2009 season. Offensively, this team has as much firepower as pretty much anybody. Their receivers are Roy Williams, Miles Austin and rookie Dez Bryant, so on any given day each of these receivers can beat you by them self. Tight end Jason Witten is among the top five in the league and their stable of running backs is formidable and right in the middle of the pack as far as the NFL goes. Their offensive line is pretty good as Leonard Davis has been revived since becoming a guard and Doug Free has done better than expected at times, but this is the Cowboys and it seems to me that this should be a point of emphasis at draft time.
Since we have broken down their team, we can now look at how well they did and who deserves credit. Tony Romo is a very good quarterback in my opinion and very much like his idol Brett Favre, his downside is having the big mistake at the worst time. He has done this time and again, which has kept him where he his when it comes to talking about quarterback slightly above average. Now, I am not going to say that Jon Kitna is better than Romo because he is not, but I can say that maybe he can help a team win close games because he doesn't tend to make untimely mistakes. In their four wins with Kitna at the helm, he threw 1 pick and 9 touchdowns. Their defense definitely played better than they had in the first half of the season as playing any worse would be hard to do with the talent they had on it. People stated how much more they ran the ball, but wouldn't you pass more if you had Romo and were always down a couple of scores early. Wouldn't it also make sense to run the ball more when you have a journeyman quarterback that has not started for quite some time.
Let us now breakdown who they beat and was it really such an unbelievable turnaround. In a game where I predicted this possibly happening, the overhyped Giants were playing a 1-7 team that everybody threw in the trash with a new coach. How often do we see this happen where a team not as good as the press clippings goes into a game thinking they only have to show up only to wonder what happened after a loss that would turn both team's seasons around. They then beat a Detroit Lion team that will be better in the future, but nothing special as of gametime. They gave one to the Saints where they played tough, but not tough enough to close it out. Peyton Manning must have felt bad as he did everything he could to give them this game with his four picks (one of a few losses for the colts that drove me insane as I needed them to win 11 games as they ended with 10). They lost to the Eagles in a game that wasn't as close the score seemed. The rival Redskins came back in a game they were down 30-14 going into the fourth quarter, another coaching issue. Lost to one of the worst teams in the league, the Arizona Cardinals with John Skelton as their quarterback. Finally they ended the season beating the junior varsity Philadelphia Eagles who had nobody playing or anything to play for. I will give credit as they did have to do this with Stephen McGee at quarterback.
A lot of these were close games that Kitna was able to keep them in it without making the big mistake and even making big plays. There were many times that he would take off for a big run on a third down to keep the chains moving. Kitna will not win a super bowl or maybe even a playoff game, but he can beat average teams with the help of a solid run game and defense. Now, I am not saying Jason Garrett shouldn't be an NFL coach, I just don't think he is ready to take a team with immense talent to the promised land. I am envisioning something of a Norv Turner led Charger team that will win its share of games based on better talent, but not have the coaching talent to put them over the top. I would have really liked to see John Fox here. You could say the same thing about Leslie Frazier and the Minnesota Vikings, but I won't because they will not have a ton of talent returning starting at the quarterback position. The Vikings have a ton of free agents and they can't possibly sign them all. So giving Frazier the reign doesn't bother me as much because he can squeeze as much talent to get them to 8-8, which would be big without the acquisition of a good quarterback. The Cowboys have the talent and the owner to get to a 13-3 season, but I am feeling a 10-6 season based on Garrett being head coach for the first time. This might sound good to some people, I just don't think that will be what Jerry Jones is looking for and it might be a 2 year stint for Jason Garrett.
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