FanPost

The Benching of Murray: Garrett leaves his mark

Good coaching is one of the things that is really hard for a fan to spot. Most of the coaches real work happens before the games behind closed doors. It's a lot easier to credit the player for great execution than see a well designed game plan. That's why I think Murray's teaching moment was important to us as fans. This is a little moment where we can see the veil come down and know how Garrett is handling the team.

No, it wasn't quite the equivalent of Witten running down the field with his helmet off, but it's about as close as coaches get to a memorable moment. It's endeared him to me as a coach, and I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate how important that is. There a number of facets that made it memorable for me and I'd like to point some of them out.


Garrett has control

I think this, more than any single moment, will help solidify the image of Jason Garrett as an authoritative head coach who is not overshadowed by the meddling "coach Jerruh". I think we can look forward to this meme dying and I'm happy about that.

We have depth at running back

Think back to last year and how unthinkable this might have seemed. We were all hoping and praying that Murray would stay upright because we knew that our run game was basically nothing without him. Now we are in a position were Murray has to know that there are folks behind him who can get the job done.

Murray responded!

Murray probably got a little mad, his pride was probably dinged. But he came back in, ran with a vengeance, and made a statement about his ability to be the lead horse. It didn't just satisfy the fan's urge to see punishment for bad ball handling, it was a motivation technique that seemed to work. The reason that Murray responded is:

This team is Garrett's team: it's full of RKG's

Murray is a Garrett draft product. This team is starting to fill up with his guys who put their ego aside and excel when they are pushed that Garrett did last night. As Dez Bryant said, this team is just a little bit more mature and everyone is understanding their role as a team member

I don't know what Garrett's legacy will be as head coach yet, it takes a lot more to win than just being able to instill discipline. But I do know I will look back on that moment as the key point when we could all see for ourselves that he's molding these guys into a real team.

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