What A Difference A Year Makes For Cowboys Head Coach Jason Garrett

It has been obvious to readers of Blogging The Boys that the writers on this site have long stood behind Jason Garrett. That is not to say that it was always easy for any of us to do; many times we found ourselves as frustrated with the consistent lack of success as the team floundered along at 8-8 for season after season. From our perspective, we were seeing progress in many things, but we were not seeing wins. Still, most of us liked what we were seeing.

It did not matter where you turned last season. Everyone with a voice seemed to be forecasting doom and gloom for the Dallas Cowboys and with that would come the moment that many had been calling for all along. Jason Garrett would have his own encounter with the Turk.  It had reached the point to where a  Las Vegas sports book was giving 2:1 odds that not only would the Rooster be fired in 2014, but that he would be the first head coach to be let go by his team. Heck, even Rex Ryan (at 10:1) was being given a better shot at survival.

With team owner Jerry Jones being known for his willingness to let the ax fall on coaches who failed to meet his expectations, very few could see a possibility that the head coach would survive another season. The team was coming off a dismal year on defense and then it lost DeMarcus Ware for financial reasons. Few saw any hope of progress and many were speculating on the team regressing. There would be no joy in Mudville, for the 'Mighty Casey' was doomed to strike out.

BTB writers, and some readers, were not the only ones to see something other than the end of the Garrett era. Jones himself had totally bought in to what his coach was doing, and he remained firmly entrenched in Jason's corner. That faith, and not ours, was what ultimately won out. Thanks to the confidence his boss had shown, Garrett was able to continue to rebuild the Cowboys in his vision. More changes were made in the way things were done, the coach brought in more of his own people. In spite of what the naysayers were forecasting a strange thing took place. The Cowboys began to win. Not one or two games in a row. Dallas went on a tear. When the final minute wound off the clock on the regular season the Dallas Cowboys were 12-4 and tied for the best record in football. They won the NFC East, they won in the playoffs, and were it not for one of the most questionable calls/rules in the game the team might have been playing for a trip to the biggest contest in American sports.

Take a look around sports media today: when was the last time that you heard that Jason Garrett was going to be fired? Far from being let go, the Jones family rushed to get Garrett and his top assistants under contract once the season ended. The master plan was paying tangible dividends for the Cowboys. The time that the team's coach had invested in a complete overhaul of the franchise was no longer a millstone around his neck but a foundation for a future of success. For Jason Garrett, what a difference a year makes.