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Jason Garrett’s decision to punt on 4th and 1 from the Houston 42-yard line on the first possession of overtime might be a significant one when people look back at Cowboys history.
It’s hard to rationalize why Jason Garrett punted despite of having one of the league’s best offensive lines and running backs, and quite frankly it shouldn’t be rationalized. We’ve seen tough times and rough moments for Garrett before, but this one might be a little different.
Jerry Jones publicly contradicted Jason Garrett’s decision
It’s been said many times that Jerry Jones has cried only twice since owning the Cowboys, the 1994 NFC Championship Game and the inaugural contest against the Texans in 2002. Losing to the team’s self-assigned little brother has to be embarrassing, especially when the Cowboys literally punted the game away.
If you ask Jason about his decision he’ll tell you that it was “a long one” to consider in terms of the yard, but that’s not how Jerry feels. What’s important to note here is that not only does Jerry Jones feel opposite of how Jason Garrett handled something as the head coach of the Cowboys, but he’s telling the whole world about it.
Jerry on OT punt: Again, we were being outplayed there, not out of effort but we were being outplayed. It's time for risk at that particular time. That's not 2nd guessing. ...But we're all extremely disappointed.
— Kate Hairopoulos (@khairopoulos) October 8, 2018
The Cowboys are only 2-3, but it feels like they haven’t won a game this season. Again consider that they just lost in one of the places where they cannot (from a reputation standpoint) lose, and they lost because of the decision-making of Jason Garrett.
For years now (literally) we’ve seen Jerry Jones publicly defend Jason Garrett. For crying out loud Jerry was asked if Garrett was on the hot seat during the team’s introductory press conference in Oxnard and responded that he wasn’t. The fact that Jerry would come off the top rope and not only contradict Garrett but note that the Cowboys were being outplayed cannot bode well for the future of somebody.
Who will that somebody be? It’s hard to tell. The Cowboys offense has been performing so poorly, but Jason Garrett has continued to express believe in its coordinator Scott Linehan. Reading between the lines though, more importantly reading the Jerry speak, we are officially at a place where the man in charge is not happy.
This loss has a different feel to it, a different level of low. This loss feels like the inaugural one in Houston coupled with those that Wade Phillips captained down his final stretch in 2010 (coincidentally Wade beat the Texans in Houston). For Jerry Jones to knowingly and consciously say this when the obvious nature of it is so polarizing implies that he is fed up.
What will that boiling point yield? Who knows.