Somehow Jason Garrett continues to serve as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys despite his team’s struggles. Will anything ever force him out of his job?
During the Dallas Cowboys latest defeat, social media was alive with questions about the job security of head coach Jason Garrett and offensive coordinator Scott Linehan. And rightfully so. Even with the bye week to prepare, his team came out against the Tennessee Titans on Monday Night Football and looked completely unprepared.
Once again, they couldn’t put points on the board, even when gifted with short fields. Dallas should have put up at least 17 points in the first quarter alone, but a missed field goal and a terrible interception at the goal line left them up just 7-0 after one quarter.
From there, the Titans controlled the game and went on to win 28-14. Throughout the night, ESPN commentator Jason Witten — the former Cowboy — was highly critical of the offense and even said nothing comes easy with their scheme. Booger McFarland added plenty as well as he lit into Scott Linehan’s horrific play calling.
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To be fair though, not all of this disaster was on Linehan. The defense was just as much at fault for this epic failure.
Somehow, even with 15 days to prepare, the players seemed to have no clue that Marcus Mariota often uses zone read concepts. Every time he faked a handoff, they bit hard and gave up chunks of yards through the air or on the ground. And forget covering the screen pass, because they were inept in this area.
They also found constant mismatches where linebackers like Sean Lee or Leighton Vander Esch were covering receivers like Taywan Taylor. This is due to the Tampa-2 scheme run by Rod Marinelli allowing for team’s to dictate their own mismatches to exploit.
Even more infuriating was the coverage on third-down. It didn’t matter if it was short yardage or third-and-a-mile, the Titans converted with ease — often tricking the defense with play action and quarterback runs, you know, the stuff Dallas should be doing with their mobile quarterback.
Fingers are pointed at Marinelli for these huge defensive gaffes, but the real problem is the man in charge. Jason Garrett continues to lead his team on a roller coaster of highs and lows. They can get a big win one week, only to look like a team in complete disarray the next. Sadly, the dysfunction is showing through more often and the wins aren’t coming at all.
While watching the dumpster fire is tough on fans, even more difficult is hearing owner and general manager Jerry Jones continue to say Garrett is fine and won’t be leaving soon. Every year he says this, and every year he means it — even when Garrett is thoroughly outcoached by rookies like Mike Vrabel of Tennessee.
Heck. there have even been whispers that an extension is in the works for the Dallas head coach.
The Cowboys are a mess and nothing is going to change as long as Jones keeps allowing mediocrity to be accepted. If Monday’s pitiful performance wasn’t enough to get Jones to start to turn on Garrett, it’s time to ask if he will ever be held accountable.
Dallas fell to 3-5 on the season and fans are sick about it. Unfortunately, things likely won’t get much better and change doesn’t appear to be on the horizon.