Despite the obvious issues with the collective bargaining agreement, Jerry Jones’ choice for head coach is complicated. There MIGHT not be a 2011 season, but more concerning is the Tony Romo golden egg timeline. Say what you want about his charisma or leadership ability, Tony Romo is still the best all around quarterback to don a Cowboys uniform since Troy Aikman. And that means expectations are high.
This is an open letter to Mr. Wade Phillips
So Mr. Jones gave you your walking papers eh? Can’t say I blame him in-light-of-every-catastrophic-failure that has occurred this season.
In all honesty, he had to do something despite this season’s disastrous 1-7 start didn’t he? I mean last season the Cowboys made an exceptional post season appearance and whipped up on the hated Philadelphia Eagles and while doing so put to rest a couple of dreadful streaks:
1). the last time the Cowboys won a play-off game, those silly Rangers were all the rage
The Cowboys will be 0-3 after they go to Houston in week three and get skull thumped by the very good Houston Texans. It looks like this week’s answer to all the current woes of a shake-up for field goal kicking didn’t have the impact Jerry thought it would.
So what is next? Change the blue Gatorade to red? Discount the parking fee at the Death Star by 33%?
All kidding aside, I can get specific on all the areas where I see problems, but I don’t want to get caught up on the granular. Everything that is wrong with the Cowboys seems to easily fall into a few generalized categories and those have been in place for years, albeit some of them in revolving incarnations:
Earlier today, Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com posited a scenario in which Jason Garrett could make a power play for Wade’s job. I’ve heard no one else in the traditional media talking about this possibility, but let’s look at it just in case.
Jason Garrett has his hands full today as the final preparations are made for tonight’s epic battle against the New Orleans Saints. In this matchup, one thing is certain: Drew Brees and his quiver full of weapons can score in less than two minutes at any time. The Saints have scored more touchdowns on first down than any other team in the NFL. It’s an insane percentage of their total.
Which begs the question: How will Garrett scheme to win?
Last we left the “Romo Friendly” offense, Romo found himself in anything but a friendly situation. I more or less blasted Garret for being rather stubborn and trying to continue passing the ball when Romo was having a less than stellar outing, all while the running game was clicking on all cylinders. Did Garrett learn from his mistakes last week? Did we have an actual return to “Romo Friendly” territory? And of course, most importantly, how effective was the offense on Monday night? Let’s dive into Monday night’s game and find out.
That which we had feared but didn’t expect is upon us. Our beloved Cowboys are all but guaranteed to miss the playoffs. Good thing owner Jerry Jones specifically requested the Baltimore Ravens as the Cowboys’ final opponent in Texas Stadium. At the time of his request, Baltimore seemed like an easy win. Oops.
Baltimore fed off this knowledge the entire game, wanting to show up the presumptuous Cowboys on their last night in the stadium. And as Matt Mosley mentioned on ESPN.com, Baltimore fans got to see once again how fortunate they were to not get the head coach they originally wanted (Jason Garrett).
