5 Things Left To Wonder After Cowboys 27-26 Loss To Cardinals

Is it possible that you’ll hire someone else to shop for the groceries?

No, I’ll shop the groceries

Yay!

At least that was on my Christmas list…

with another Cowboys fan during which we discussed different aspects of the game as they happened, and he and I were both speechless over that one. Me: “What the hell was that?” Him: “I don’t know.” I keep saying that Jenkins should be kept around and coached up, but, at this point, I’m not so sure.

Ditto Spencer. The guy just looks clueless out there; he can’t stop the run, and he can’t get to the QB. Why are the Cowboys paying him?

Colombo and Davis? Again, I have no answer, but that may have been the worst performance I’ve ever seen by Colombo, and that includes the debacle at Minnesota last season. Any QB to Witten is money, but it’s irrelevant if we have to have two tight ends in to block every play to keep said QBs from getting killed. Thank you, JJ, for assuming that you’d have Romo in all season making those bozos look better than they are. Now you’re down to a virtual rookie facing the Eagles next week.

Bueller just depresses me. Right when I think he’s finally got it, he proves me wrong. Misses an extra point and then kicks it short on the ensuing kick off. No words. At least he had the good sense to look devastated over what he wrought.

JG has his work cut out for him. I maintain that this team doesn’t need to be blown up, but Mr. “I Won’t Fire Myself” needs to bring a far more critical eye than he has up to now deciding who stays and who goes. Who goes may have to include a couple of wasted first rounders on D, and it definitely includes half of the O line.

always confuses me. I wonder, is he so smart that he intentionally speaks in circles to avoid answering tough questions or is he simply senile.

Or he may be just drunk . . . .

to think Jerry can buck history and hire a SuperBowl winning coach just to tempt fate. He’s tempted fate the last few years by not drafting to find starters and allowing his team to get old in the wrong places. New England got it when they realized you win with youth in today’s NFL, not age. While experience comes with age, if youth can run around you, knowing that they will run around you isn’t the experience you are wanting.

Is it possible the NFL has passed Jerry by? Or has he ever gotten it right. Even in the early 90’s, they missed on some of their draft picks. They weren’t perfect back then either. Now, he thinks he can hit on a draft pick whenever he wants and we can all see that’s not the case.

I weep for Tony’s health next year if we don’t fix a lot of problems. I weep for the organization if Jerry doesn’t understand that keeping aging veterans at spots that scream for youth is a bad idea.

But hey, look at the potential blunder of all time: He let’s Jason Garrett go to another team while he hires a former SuperBowl head coach who quits in three years with the team in worse shape than it is now and Jason Garrett celebrates his first SuperBowl with (insert team here).

the man is a “snake oil salesman” of the highest caliber.
has the uncanny ability to speak out of both sides of his mouth at the same time.
i really fear that things will get worse under his continued ownership.
i was sold on coach Garrett getting the HC job on a permanent basis but after watching the inconsistent play from this team im no longer so sure.
whoever ends up as the Coach in 2011 he must gut this team,too many players going through the motions and not playing up to their contracts.

At first i wondered how someone who went to princeton, when finally able to put his stamp on the team, wouldn’t do the obvious things like bench spencer, jenkins, and barber, and put the younger Sam Young in for Colombo (not that young would be better but at least he would suck and be learning as suck and be getting worse).
Then it occurred to me, he has the same disease wade does, his stamp was already on this team. He didn’t make the changes because he likes spencer, jenkins and barber, colombo, and even bigg davis for that matter. He likes having these under performing players start, believing they will eventually come around. AFTER a 1-7 start, all he did was change the practice routine and that was positive. But if you don’t bench under performing unfocused players, you lose all of your credibility, and the penatlies and poor play will start up again.

My biggest problem with Garrett though, is that he is very weak talent evaluation wise. Felix is an okay player, but garrett preferred him over, chris johnson, ray rice etc. He prefers barber over T. Choice. He appears to have not pushed for a new offense line this of season, as he won’t even bench the under performing starters. He probably advised jerry to trade for Roy Williams. Do we really want a coach with a poor record in talent evaluation as out head coach. Maybe in a situation with a strong GM who can do the talent evaluatng for him is where he belongs. THIS team needs some one who is not afraid to sit players no matter how much they make or where they were drafted. This team is embarrassing because the players that play the best don’t start. Obvious examples: Jenkins over Scantrick, Barber over Choice, Roy over Dez. Many attribute this to Jerry meddling, well may be it’s not jerry (we better hope an pray it’s not). May be the truth is that Garrett sucks as a talent evaluator. The biggest starts on this team were drafted by Bill Parcells, not Wade, not Garrett. Romo, (would romo have ever started under garrett?) D. Ware, Ratliff, Witten all were from the Parcells era. Free and Austin were disturbing in that they ONLY started after other players were injured. Austin clearly out played R. Williams, but didn’t start and if Roy didn’t get hurt, he may never have got the chance. Free only started due to a colombo injury, what if colombo never got hurt? it’s disturbing that Garrett can’t identify the best players on his own team. I can’t see how you trust him to find player outside the team in the offseason.

Thus, we need a new coach, one preferably with good talen evaluation skills. (not a believer in cower unless he’s bringing Dick Lebeau with him).

Look it up in The Devil’s Dictionary. It’s an Ojibwa word meaning “disaster, an unexpected afflitction that strikes hard.” Except that this affliction wasn’t altogether unexpected.

It all goes back to the 1994 Conference Championship at San Francisco. The referees refused to call pass interference against Deion Sanders on Michael Irvin multiple times, including in the end zone. They make that last call, and Dallas has possession at the 1, the Cowboys score, momentum, and the outcome would have been different. But the reality is that there was no way the NFL was going to allow Jerry Jones to win three Super Bowls in a row, especially not with the third having Barry Switzer coach the team. That’s why the changed the rule to award the trophy at the stadium, instead of a week later as it always had been previously.

So Jones goes out and signs Sanders to an exhorbitant contract to steal him away from the 49ers. Jerry and Stephen actually almost came to blows over that decision, because Stephen was concerned about the salary cap implications. Yeah, the Cowboys won the Super Bowl that faithful year, but not at a cost. Sanders’s contract caused 16 veterans, whom Jimmy Johnson had drafted and developed, to flee in free agency because Dallas couldn’t afford to pay them what they were worth. Thus, the inevitable decline began. The Cowboys won one playoff game in 1996, then fell to 6-10 the next year.

Jones failed to address the offensive line then, which resulted in Aikman getting beat up and forced into early retirement. He also failed to address the quarterback position afterwards. Along the way, a series of bad drafts, idiot trades, failed free agents, and poor coaching hires led to momumental collapse. The team did not win a single playoff game, or posted losing seasons, through four coaches—Gailey, Campo, Parcells, and Phillips, until finally managing to win one last year, only to be completely destroyed in the divisional round. That was followed by a sinkhole season to 5-10, soon to be 5-11.

As to Garrett, yeah, he does have several family members in the organization. His brother is the tight ends coach, although he hasn’t managed to do much with Martellus Bennett. Another brother is the director of pro scouting. I wonder what his influence was in recommending the Roy Williams trade, which has proven to be an utter failure. And Jason, well, let’s just say I remain unimpressed. His pass happy offensive scheme scores a lot of points, and ends up losing winnable games because he doesn’t know how to establish the running game.

This coaching staff, Garretts hired before Phillips, who brought in Stewart who was subsequently fired. Read, who was subsequently fired and replaced by DeCamillis. Campo, Houck, Sherman, Wilson, all were brought in by Jones. But look at who either left or were driven off over the last five years—Zimmer, Payton, Haley, Sparano—not to mention who wasn’t brought in. Jurazcek has been around for 20-odd years, but at some point you have to question the strength and conditioning program, since the players are constantly gassed by the fourth quarter.

Let’s talk about piss poor general management. As long as Jerry Jones is large and in charge, this team will never win another championship. I don’t care how “mad as hell” he gets.

Garrett is not the solution, but part of the problem. He’s never built a coaching staff, not that he will be allowed to under Jerry. He performs poor personnel evaluations, does not game plan strategically or play call effectively, much less make in-game adjustments or manage the clock well.

Jones’s problem is that he is too enamored of what he presumes to be talent, but he’s not a good evaluator of talent. (It’s not talent if it doesn’t perform.) He wants the head coach, regardless of who it is, to start the players he pays the most to. I mean, he brought in T.O. over the objections of Parcells. So do you really think Garrett has any choice to start Choice over Barber, Hurd over Williams, Young over Colombo, Scadrick over Jenkins, anybody over Ball?

Whangdepootewanah. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. Frankenstein is not the name of the monster. It’s the name of the mad scientist.

is it Jerry’s fault or Garretts fault? I’m confused. Doesn’t matter either way. Right now, this team sucks. Last year, same players, same everything, this team was pretty darn good. This whole season is unexplainable.

Really good point on the coaches that we have let get away. But, Sparano is on the verge of getting fired, Zimmer is having a tough time with the bengals. But who doesn’t have a hard time with the bengals. I love me some Zimmer though. Keep him in mind for DC next year.

The only problem with Zimmer is that he’s a 4-3 guy and that complicates the transition to a new defensive scheme in a lockout year where all or part of the offseason may be lost. Some of the players on defense look confused enough as it is.

If you spend most of your life, literally working for yourself, than the mirror is the thing you have to get straight. And you gotta do some changing, you gotta reevaluate and rethink. And we’re at that particular time.

Gives me hope the conditions of Jerry being in his own Mephistopeles’ tempest (devil storm) exist within him. (sorry to name drop)

Doing something that’s never been done before. You know, there’s never been a head coach that won a SB with one team, that won it with another? Never. A Super Bowl.

I love DeMarcus, but does he ever try to inflict pain?

i agree with this, i would love some killer instinct on him but he’s just too nice, he wouldn’t try to hurt a professional mate, still i would not change him for other linebacker, DWare is the best

Recieved a miles austin jersey and tickets to the game.

Austin scored and i was cheering with all the cowboys fans. (there were more of us then cardinals fans)

a few minutes later i was left speechless in the stands. And also wondering
what the hell was brooking doing on the field of 4th and 15??

Do you really think that in one week changing meeting time, mandating pads in practice and instituting a dress code changed this team around? Please.

Yeah, Garrett got his first win against New York. Do you think that was because the players were suddenly motivated to win for him? That they were fearful for their own jobs after seeing the head coach fired, because they didn’t show up the first two games, then quit for five after beating lowly Houston? Maybe it was because they knew they had totally embarrassed themselves. Or was it because the Giants underestimated the Cowboys, who had been totally destroyed by Green Bay the week before, and thus were ripe for a loss.

Then Dallas beat Detroit, not small feat that. Lost to New Orleans, and beat a woefully injured Indianapolis team. The Cowboys played the Eagles hard and lost, then allowed the Redskins to take them to the wire, with Rex Grossman starting his first game in years. Only to then crater against the Cardinals, starting a rookie third-string quarterback from some unknown college who had never thrown a touchdown in the NFL before. But he threw a beauty against Dallas.

The Arizona Cardinals, they had just lost to Carolina the week before. Perhaps the Cowboys underestimated them, just like the Giants underestimated the Cowboys six weeks before.

Still, that does not explain why all of the problems that haunted Dallas in the first half of the season reappeared. Where was the preparation? Where was the discipline? Where was the execution? Slips, drops, tipped passed, interceptions, missed blocks, whiffed tackles, sacks, blown coverages, mental mistakes, penalties, errors, inconsistent kicks, name it. Game planning, play calling, clock management were as questionable as they have been all year.

Suddenly that 4-3 record doesn’t really seem to be as good as it appears. How could it? Garrett had just as much a hand in the prior 1-7 record as Phillips did.

Question. Why do you think Dallas rushed for 183 yards, because Garrett miraculously discovered how to establish a running game? No, it was because when McGee came in to start the second half, Garrett called more running plays to protect him.

Second Question. Why, if in the first half, when the offensive line was getting manhandled and Kitna was getting beat up, didn’t Garrett call more running plays to protect him? Oh, yeah, that’s right, failure to make in-game adjustments. Well, now Kitna is injured, like Romo before him.

On the Cowboys’ first two series, Garrett called short out routes to the sidelines. Those are the most commonly intercepted routes in the NFL. Yeah, Austin slipped and Williams took his eyes off the ball, doesn’t matter. They shouldn’t have been running those routes to begin with, not at that time and not in that situation. Both were returned for touchdowns, and suddenly Dallas was down 14-0 in the first seven minutes. That’s the game right there. I’d call that bad game planning and poor play calling. They should have been running the ball.

Oh, yeah, that’s right, I forgot. Garret doesn’t know how to formulate a running game to set up the pass, only a passing game to set up the run. But then I guess they don’t teach FOOTball at Princeton.

I get it now. You’re a Garrett fan. I’m a Cowboys fan. I want what’s best for the team, and I haven’t seen anything to suggest he’s it.

but he has got to stop interviewing. I know he never will, but it’s just getting sad listening to him give responses that are either confusing, embarrassing, or just stupid. All this talk about going with a Super Bowl winning coach is beyond moronic. That should not be a hiring point as he suggests it might be. All in all, I don’t even know where to start anymore with Jerry.