Earlier this week, Jerry Jones made it clear that the Cowboys wouldn't be turning to younger players for the final three games of a season that was rendered meaningless a long time ago.
Double J said it was because trying to win games was important so that the Cowboys could "feel good about what we're doing" as the season draws to a close. Most reasonable people would agree that no one associated with the Cowboys should feel anything close to good about what the team's been doing this season. A good number of those would even opine that the only positive to draw from the final few games would be progress from some players who can help the team in the future.
Jones has been consistent about this approach, however, so it's not really worth wasting much breath on his decision to stay the course at 4-9 in the middle of December. Save your breath instead to scream to the heavens about the team's decision to push Marion Barber back into a backfield that has no need nor any place for him.
Barber was back at practice in a limited fashion on Wednesday, the first step toward a return to the lineup after missing the last two games with a calf injury. Jason Garrett said that he's hoping to get Barber back so that he can step back into the running back rotation with Tashard Choice and Felix Jones.
"One of the positive things for those guys is they have been in tandem backfields really throughout their whole careers — in college and certainly here in the NFL,” Garrett said. “It's something they are comfortable with, and we will continue to do as we've done in the past."
Why would you continue to do as you've done in the past when what you've been doing in the present has been so much more effective? Even if it infuriates you that Choice has gone from everybody's darling to pariah because he's an autograph collector, you have to admit that using him and Jones gives the Cowboys a much better chance to win than going back to the Barber school of running sideline to sideline while never moving forward.
When Jones says things about prioritizing winning over talent evaluation, you really want to believe him. When the team does things like push Barber's return to the lineup at the expense of guys who are outplaying him in every phase of the game, it becomes impossible to believe him and impossible to have faith that the Cowboys will make the improvements needed to get things back on track.
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