Monday Nightmare Football For The Dallas Cowboys
By Tyrone Starr
Oct 27, 2014; Arlington, TX, USA; Dallas Cowboys chief operating officer Stephen Jones and owner Jerry Jones (right) on the sidelines against the Washington Redskins at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Blame Dez Bryant for somehow not being able to dominate a rookie cornerback all night long and being limited to just three catches for thirty yards.
Blame the offensive line for the miscommunication and inability to figure out what was happening time and time again.
Blame the secondary for allowing quarterback Colt McCoy to complete all but five of his passes and almost get 300 yards.
Seriously… Colt McCoy. A career high 83% completion percentage and his second highest yardage total ever. That just happened.
and lastly, Blame Jerry Jones for not taking the decision out of Garrett’s hands, out of Romo’s hands and not letting backup quarterback Brandon Weeden finish the game out. I know, you’re going to think this is some crazy, maniacal witch hunt and this has nothing to do with Jerry. Except it has everything to do with him.
Do you really believe Romo is going to not try everything to get back in, without regard for his own health? If so, you’re new. Romo has a long history of being the tough guy and trying to get back in the game after injury. See San Francisco, September 18, 2011. See Washington, December 22, 2013. Hell, if you remember, reference the Giants game, also on Monday night, almost exactly four years ago when he tried to talk his way back into a game with a broken collarbone.
What is Garrett supposed to do in a situation like this? Is he really supposed to not let him go back in if the doctor’s say he’s physically capable? In no other other sport, is a head coach/manager more tied to a player than in football when it comes to the quarterback. Being a former quarterback himself, Garrett is not going to set some kind of precedent by not putting Romo back in if he’s cleared by the doctors. This just allows anyone else with an ailment to use this as an argument for not going back in either which does not fit the culture of a locker room.
It’s not the doctor’s job either to lie and say that’s he’s not healthy enough to go back in. The doctor is going to give an opinion and provide facts and let someone else make that decision. That someone else needed to be Jones. The fact is that even though Romo was healthy enough to go back in, he should not have because he needed some kind of injection just to walk back from the locker room to the field. I am pretty sure he wasn’t mentally prepared to go back in after almost an hour of non-football related activity to go back to picking up blitzes he wasn’t picking up earlier.
In his stead, all Weeden did was complete four of his six passes for 69 yards and a touchdown, leading the Cowboys to 10 points in the process. With a tie ball game and almost two full minutes and all three timeouts, I think an “in the flow” Weeden could have mustered another sixty yards to get kicker Dan Bailey into position to win the game.
Alas we’ll never know because Jones, the drama seeker, wanted the hero moment with Romo when it was clear that Romo was not going to be able to produce that moment. By the way, for those of you thinking that this would elicit some sort of “quarterback controversy,” just stop. Jones could have hidden Romo and Garrett behind an explanation of not wanting to risk further damage or the rest of the season or his $100 million investment. The outs were there and they were numerous.
Make no mistake, the handling of this situation did not lose this game. The Dallas Cowboys lost this game because of how they played for the entire sixty minutes. Tonight was without a doubt, a nightmare. Let’s hope it also serves as a wakeup call and not a harbinger of things to come.