What to do with the Cowboys?
By Jeff Magnia
The Dallas Cowboys are slipping more and more into a team that isn’t as great as their predecessors. The teams’ history and pride is not being carried over from generation to generation as it should.
The Cowboys cannot seem to hold things together under pressure. With time winding down, you saw no sense of urgency out of the quarterback or the offense. One would question that Tony Romo is to blame for such an attitude, but honestly the finger pointing starts at the top of the food chain. Head Coach Jason Garrett is not doing enough as a coach to prepare them for these situations. Someone is going to have to remind Garrett that Troy Aikman is not out at quarterback and that Emmitt Smith or Michael Irvin are there either. He needs to remember that this team needs to learn how to fight to survive before they can coast. Which is what they did? They thought, “Well, we can run the clock down because Dan Bailey will not miss this field goal. How many field goals has he kicked from that far? Never mind, he will make it.”
Much like some of the fans, myself included; Jason Garrett is using blinders to see and doesn’t see the fact that his team is subpar.
The offensive line is not dominating the other teams defensive lines. For goodness sake they move Tyron Smith from the right side of the line to play on the left and expect him to be a starter right away on that side. Really? Smith hasn’t played the left side of the ball for many years and to ask a person who has played the right side most of his football career, that isn’t really fair is it?
Our running back situation is becoming a problem as well. Demarco Murray is doing very well, but the problem is that when Murray gets hurt, Felix Jones seems to follow right along or he isn’t healthy in the first place. We carried four running backs and I heard Fox Announcer Bill Billick state that it wasn’t necessary to carry four running backs in a game. Guess what, Bill? It is if you are a Dallas Cowboy. Not only did we use Phillip Tanner, but in my opinion the fourth string running back Lance Dunbar was better.
Dez Bryant continues to amaze people. One minute he is making catches like you wouldn’t believe, then one play later he decides to lolli-gag. He is taking plays off when it matters most, for example it looked like he ran the laziest route ever on the 2 point conversion. I’m sorry, but Dez….get your head out and start playing some football full time buddy. Other than Dez, we have Miles Austin and Jason Witten who are getting older but still solid players. I think Romo is forcing too many passes to Dez because he is the starting receiver.
Defensively, as a whole unit, they are the dominating defense that was expected at the beginning of the season. They are more of a bend, but don’t break type defense. If you look at our opponents touchdowns, more than likely the numbers will show that the touchdowns given up are compliments of the Tony Romo interceptions. As many times as the offense has had to make tackles, you sometimes forget who is playing offense or defense because everyone on the team is getting into tackle stats.
It is frustrating to see a team run as well as we did against Baltimore, 227 yards to be exact. It is frustrating to see our team miss a needed two point conversion. It is equally frustrating to see our team recover an onside kick, only to run the clock down and miss a field goal from a kicker who rarely kicks that far away.
To alleviate these frustrations, there is one answer. Jerry Jones has to hire a general manager who knows the game better than him and let them do their job. The fans of Dallas deserve a winner and Jerry Jones the General Manager is not cutting it. Since his regime after the departure of Jimmy Johnson, this teams decision making process
has been nothing but comical and needs to change or this team will slip into mediocrity and stay that way. We cannot have that, this is America’s team…nothing but the best is expected. The new general manager needs to hire a new head coach that can manage the team the way it should be, it seems like Jason Garrett is learning as he goes. Get an established head coach.