At around 8 p.m. Sunday night, the clock is going to start on Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. He’s gonna have to decide whether or not to keep interim head coach Jason Garrett full time, or dump him and start all over again with a new head coach. And he’s gonna have to act fast.
This could be a record season for coach firings in the NFL, and if the Double J is slow on the draw, he’ll end up stuck picking from the coaching scrap heap (Hi, Chan Gailey!). He needs to make a decision right away if he hasn’t made it already. Maybe he hasn’t. Maybe you, Mr. Cowboys Fan, still aren’t sure either way. It’s more than understandable. After all, they play hard, but the defense still sucks. What’s a team to do?
I think I can safely say that we at Blue Star have a unified opinion as to which way Jones should go. Despite that horrid loss at Arizona on Christmas Night, the Cowboys should go ahead and name Garrett head coach full time. I asked Alper and others to give their opinions as to why, but I’ll give mine first.
First off, who else are you gonna hire? Bill Cowher isn’t coming here. No one wants Bill Parcells, part 2. There are a good number of Super Bowl coaches out there on the open market, but most of them won’t work for Jerry Jones and the few that will (Brian Billick, maybe Jon Gruden) aren’t really that impressive. So if Jerry doesn’t hire any of those guys, that means hiring a college coach (BARF), or a retread like Gregg Williams (double BARF), or a hot coordinator. You know, like Brad Childress once was. None of these options are all that appealing.
Garrett has had seven games to coach this team. In those seven games, the offense has scored 26 points or more every time out. And that’s with Jon Kitna at the helm and Dez Bryant laid up for the final portion of the season. Furthermore, he has the team playing like it gives a crap, something it didn’t do under Wade Phillips. He’s been good at challenging calls. He hasn’t had any brutal clock mismanagement fiascoes. Yes, the team still commits dumb penalties and the defense is putrid, but there’s only so much you can do in seven games. Garrett has clearly improved this team when it had no reason to improve, and that has earned him a shot for 2011. This team doesn’t need a new head coach. It needs a new defensive coordinator (and GM, but that’s another issue).
So that’s my take. Now here’s Josh Alper:
I think he should keep his job for two reasons. He's proven that he's able to get players to buy into what he's selling since taking over for Wade and it's vital that the Cowboys hit the ground running in 2011 after an offseason that could be greatly diminished by the lockout.
And Adam Boedeker:
Unless Bill Cowher is interested, Jason Garrett should retain his head coaching job in 2011 and beyond. The Cowboys thought enough of him to give him the OC job before Wade was hired and now he's showing signs of why. With the right assistants in tow, he's shown he can take control of a team and play with some of the best teams in football.
And Scott Crisp:
Jason Garrett has probably done enough to lose the interim tag at the end of the year. The team has lost three games under Garrett by a combined seven points, and though close losses do not a Super Bowl team make, Dallas is finally showing a little bit of fight. Under Wade Phillips this season, there was exactly no fight in this team, no sense of pride and a penchant for collapsing completely at the first sign of trouble.
Sports Connection
Connecting you to your favorite North Texas sports teams as well as sports news around the globe.
It’s unanimous. So do the right thing, Jerry. Don’t go around hiring Bobby Petrino on us.
Stay on top of the latest Dallas Cowboys news with NBCDFW.com. Follow NBC DFW Sports on Facebook or have breaking Cowboys news sent directly to your phone with Blue Star SMS alerts. Text "bluestar" to 622339 (NBCDFW) to subscribe to this free service. Read more about it here.
