The one thing that has always saved Jason Garrett with the Dallas Cowboys is the respect the players have for him but on Sunday, that admiration was questioned
Jason Garrett has spent a lot of time as a member of the Dallas Cowboys. As a player, he was there from 1993 through 1999, serving as a backup quarterback to Troy Aikman. He even turned in a memorable Thanksgiving Day performance back in 1994 when he defeated Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers.
He returned in 2007 as the offensive coordinator and was actually hired before the team named Wade Phillips the head coach — which all but guaranteed Garrett would take over for Phillips one day. That day came midway through the 2010 season and Garrett has held the title of head coach ever since that day.
It hasn’t been smooth sailing since then as Garrett has struggled with consistency throughout his career and is now 80-62 overall in the regular season and just 2-3 in the playoffs.
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Making the postseason only three times in his first nine seasons is bad enough, but Garrett has also failed to make it past the divisional round each time. The fact that he can’t seem to get past this hurdle has continually caused his job security to be questioned, but every time that happens, team owner Jerry Jones comes to his defense.
Jones, who hand-picked Garrett for this role, continues to defend his coach even after their frustrating loss to the New York Jets who were 0-4 heading into the weekend. When asked about the job security of his coach, Jones tried to spread the blame across the board.
"“I’m going to be very trite. I was a lot happier with what he had done the first three games than what’s happened the last three games,” Jones said of Garrett via Todd Archer of ESPN. “But the big thing I want to say is it’s not just him. This is across the board. That had a lot of input out there tonight to get in that spot.”"
Jones then went on to say that anyone betting on Garrett being fired in-season would lose their money. As of now, he probably means that, and it’s the right decision.
Despite their three-game losing streak, Dallas is still tied for first place in the NFC East with the Philadelphia Eagles and they’re currently 2-0 in the division. They also play the Eagles next week before heading into a bye week. Win that game and they’re set up for success following the bye. The question is, can they pull this win off?
One thing Jones is quick to point out when it comes to Jason Garrett is how the team responds to him. No matter what their record has been in the past, the players on the field would run through a brick wall for him and their admiration for their boss has always been evident.
With that being said, Sunday may have shown us the first crack in that armor. Trailing 24-16 with just over three minutes to play, Garrett tried to high five members of the team as they came off the field following a field goal by Sam Ficken of New York.
Player after player walked by Garrett and none of them acknowledge the coach. Roughly four players are seen passing him without exchanging high-fives, which is a bad sign for a guy who is normally so well respected.
Maybe it was just a coincidence but this clearly isn’t the norm with Dallas. Time will tell if it was meaningful or not. If these players just didn’t see him reaching out, there should be no problem and the Cowboys will come out swinging in Week 7 against Philly.
However, if they really have started to tire on the coach and his game plan — which can be frustrating at times — that too will manifest itself in the coming weeks. And if Garrett has lost his team, Jerry Jones might finally have to admit he was wrong back in 2007 when he anointed Garrett as the next Tom Landry.