Is Jason Garrett more Princeton material then NFL head coach material?

After two days I'm still trying to figure out what the Cowboys were doing when trying to set up for the potential game winning field goal against the Ravens. Does the blame fall on Jason Garrett or Tony Romo or maybe both of them? I saw no sense of urgency from the Cowboys offense after Dez Bryant caught the one yard pass with 20 seconds left and one timeout remaining. I saw players standing around, I saw Bryant arguing with the official. To me it seemed as though everyone was looking towards the sidelines wondering what to do next. In that situation I wish Romo would have either got the offensive unit up to the line to clock the ball or call the timeout right away instead of letting it run down to three seconds. Even if the offense didn't have another play ready (which they should have) the smart thing would have been to rush the players to the line so that Romo could spike the ball. Then there is probably about 15 seconds left and the Cowboys still have their one timeout left. Then they could run almost any play they wanted to get Dan Bailey closer. It was poor clock management by Garrett and there are no excuses in my opinion. Garrett says that Ogletree and Austin ran vertical routes and it would have taken them longer to get back to lineup. Then that falls on Garrett for calling a horrible play with so little time left on the clock. I want Romo as the true leader of the offense, with the game situation at that time to take control and know what to do instead of looking towards the sidelines for answers from Garrett. I'm not really blaming Romo since he is only doing what the coaches tell him to. In those situations I wish Romo would just stand firm no matter what the coaches will think and quickly make a decision on his own instead of waiting for his own coach to make a decision as the clock to running down. Seriously, what's going to happen? Does anyone believe that Garrett would bench Romo for making a quick decision like that?

It's almost as though Garrett coaches scared sometimes. I would hope his only thought in that situation is to get his team closer for the field goal attempt and not thoughts of an offensive penalty or a sack or a turnover. As the head coach you not only have to be aware of the situation, but you also need to be aggressive and be ready. There is no time for Garrett to be learning on the job for the Cowboys. He needs to be prepared no matter what situation comes up.

“We had the one time out, so we had the ability to throw the ball inside,” Garrett said. “Tony was going to get them on the ball as quickly as he could, knowing that we had that one in our hip pocket, and try to get a play run, knowing that we could throw the ball anywhere we wanted with the timeout. It just took too long for everybody to get un-piled. It got down to the single digits, so we said ‘take it down to four seconds and bang the timeout.”

Un-piled? Where exactly did Garrett see a pile? There was never any pile after the Bryant completion.

“The urgency to get back is critical in that situation,” Garrett said. “We have to do a better job in that situation, and it starts with me.”

There was no urgency from anyone. That is the main concern. Why did it seem like everyone was looking towards the sidelines for what to do next?

“They chose to bring pressure and we got the ball out quickly to Dez,” Garrett said. “The initial thought process was try to get everyone back on the line of scrimmage as quickly as we can and, at minimum, clock the ball. And if everyone gets back quickly, we can call a play and then we’ll save the timeout for the final kick. Having said that, when you have those combinations up and you have some people running away from the line of scrimmage, it’s going to take them longer to get back. When I look at that as a coach, I say, ‘OK, I like the answers, but one of the issues is we have two receivers running vertically down the field and it’s going to take too much time for them to get back.’ So that’s my responsibility. I made that play call and I’ve got to do a better job of that.”

“You keep working on it and keep learning from it,” Garrett said. “I think we won four of five games last year in the last second or overtime, in similar-type situations, so the idea is to handle them that way every time. Those guys get paid on the other side too, and we’ve got to make sure we handle situations when we think we're going to be able to get this. To be able to make a good play, you have to respond better. The more you put your team in that situation in practice, the more you learn from not only your game experience, but the situations that happen around the league, the better your going to get at it.”

Right now the Cowboys are 2-3 and are last in the NFC East. Next week they travel to Carolina in what can only be seen as a must win game. Falling to 2-4 will be crushing for the Cowboys with teams like the Giants, Falcons and Eagles coming up.

At this point I don't see Garrett progressing as a head coach. Maybe he will, but how many more games will the Cowboys lose at the expense of Garrett not doing a better job when it comes to clock management. Maybe Garrett was Princeton material, but right now I don't think he is NFL head coach material. I was going to say that I don't believe Garrett is in any jeopardy of losing his job after this season if it ends badly, but after reading Jerry Jones latest quote I'm not so sure anymore.

“We know that you want your team as healthy and as in sync as it can be as we get on in to the end of the season. We know that we’ve played one division game and won it. We’ve got those guys, the Giants, coming back in here. We know that’s going to be a big game for us. All of those things give us a chance to take a team that is evolving into — if you look at the pluses yesterday — evolving into a team that can be a team that can compete for the championship. Not next year, this year.”

Wait, compete for the championship this year?

“Correct,” Jones responded. “Correct. Let me emphasize that. I’m not into everybody getting better, learning for years to come. It’s this year.”

Like I said in my last article, there is a common thread over the last few seasons as players and coaches continue to say they need to learn and get better. At this point I'm still waiting for that to happen and I guess so is Jerry Jones!

A new season brings the same old story for the Cowboys

So who are the 2012 Dallas Cowboys? Currently they sit at 2-2 after a Monday Night beating by the Bears 34-18. They now enter their bye week with games against the Ravens, Panthers, Giants, Falcons and Eagles coming up. With the way they are playing they could easily go winless against those teams as they go into the middle of November.

Once again I find myself scratching my head trying to figure this team out. I have the same questions I've had every season since 2008. They are the model of inconsistency. They go out week one and play a great game against the defending champion Giants and then go to Seattle and get crushed. Then they win a close game against the Buccaneers and then of course the loss to the Bears last night. Once again it looks to be another roller coaster season for the Cowboys. Are they just an average team with a few above average players who have a good game every now and then? Maybe they are just not good enough to deal with the elite teams in the NFL on a weekly basis.

What is wrong with this team and why do they seem to go through the same things year after year? Other teams in the league seem to put everything together with far less talent. Is it the players, coaches, owners?? Is it a combination of everything in the Cowboys organization? What is certain is that there is a black cloud hovering over this team that just won't go away. As a fan I can only write about what I see and what I've seen are the same things that have plagued the Cowboys year after year recently. It just always seems to be the same story with this team as each season passes.

Here is what I see from the Cowboys. And keep in mind this over the last five seasons, not just this season...

- Lacking intimidation on offense, defense and special teams

- Conflicting comments coming from the head coach and the owner as well as players

- Unable to play four quarters consistently

- Dropped passes

- Penalties

- Over throws, fumbles and interceptions

- Lack of focus

- No imagination on offense

- No identity on offense

- Confusion on defense

The 2012 season can easily spiral out of control in the next month and a half. I understand that many teams go through a lot of the things that I have listed above about the Cowboys, but I've also seen a lot of those teams work through their issues and move on to compete for championships. With the Cowboys it's always the same old story. Learn from things that happen, improve and get better is what the team says. But how many years can that be said before they finally learn and get better? When is it time to do it instead of saying it year after year? I for one am sick and tired of it being said over and over again. What is stopping this team from getting over the hump and competing for a championship?

I just don't know and I won't pretend that I do. What I do know is that as a fan it's beyond frustrating to watch the Cowboys play the same way in recent years and then be told that they will learn from what is happening, they will get better and they will make sure it doesn't happen anymore. Enough already!!! It's like swinging a hammer and hitting your hand. You know it hurts every time you hit your hand and you express that something needs to be done about it, but you keep doing it. When does it finally get through to you that maybe, just maybe if you stop hitting your hand then it will stop hurting!!

Just look at some of these quotes I found over the last few seasons. It may seem that I'm picking on Romo considering most of the quotes are from him, but I'm not. It just seems like he is the main player who keeps saying it.

After losing to Chicago 34-18 this season.

“I’m going to have to reassess a couple of things that are happening and make sure that they don’t happen again,” Romo said. “We just have to make a conscious effort to make sure and control that aspect, and saying that I can’t try to do too much. I think that I tried to do that tonight, and going forward, I just have to do my job and I will.”

After losing to Seattle 27-7 this season.

“You’ve got to be able to learn. This is all part of that process. Coach Garrett said it today, today’s an important day of never really getting too high after a big win or too low after a loss. You’ve got to be critical of yourself, evaluate it – win or loss – and get better.”

After losing to New England 20-16 in 2011.

"This team is continuing to grow and get better," Romo said. "We just need to finish a game like today and we will I think."

After losing to Detroit 34-30 in 2011.

"Today and over the next week or two, it's going to be difficult to look back at it, but at some point here, we're going to move on," Romo said. "There's a lot of guys doing a lot of good things. We'll evaluate it and get better from it."

After losing to the Giants 33-31 in 2009.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't able to play up to the level the rest of the other guys did," Romo said. "I have to get better at the mistakes I made and I will."

This is just a small sample, but it's something that has bothered me the last few years. It's almost like the movie Groundhog Day. It's the same story over and over again and it gets to be too much after a while. I want nothing more than for the Cowboys to achieve greatness again. It's been too long since the glory days when the Cowboys won three Super Bowls in four years back in the 90's. After the Cowboys bye week the next five games will tell a whole lot about how the 2012 season will play out.