Jerry Jones: We never contemplated demoting Scott Linehan during bye, Lincoln Riley stuff is “totally speculation”

You might remember hearing something about the Cowboys discussing either firing offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, or at least demoting him from play-calling. There were reports on Sunday morning, pre-Eagles-beatdown, that either before the 2018 season began, or during the recent bye week, Jason Garrett was deciding whether to either fire or demote Scott Lienhan.

Linehan certainly has his contingent of critics among the Cowboys faithful, so this news gave them hope that it could still happen in the near-future while simultaneously leaving them with a case of “what could have been” if the Cowboys would have just gone ahead and done it. After all, the Cowboys season was on its way to a crash landing. That was pre-Eagles.

Now, there are still those that may want to fire some combination of head coach/offensive coordinator/entire Cowboys organization, but it looks like that is all on hold for a week. That’s what happens when you get a win and put yourself back on the outskirts of playoff possibilities. Hey, let’s get on a win streak and forget those pesky coaching questions. It’s a logical feeling, keep winning and things can change, that’s just life in the NFL.

Anyway, back to those reports that the Cowboys discussed firing/demoting Scott Linehan over the bye week. Jerry Jones wants you to know that never happened.

That’s what happens when you win. You can say you never even thought about changing coaches, or changing players, or changing anything. Jason Garrett always preaches staying the course and just focusing on doing what you do, and doing it better.

On the other side of things, the Cowboys did shake things up during the bye when they traded for Amari Cooper and fired Paul Alexander. It’s hard to believe that a conversation about Scott Lienhan and his play-calling didn’t come up, at least somewhat. Maybe it never rose to the level on thinking about making big changes to his duties, but please, tell me that top management at least discussed that particular issue on offense. And this comes from someone who doesn’t think Linehan is the major issue on offense, just a contributing factor. Everything on an offense has to work together, so it’s hard to separate out just one thing. In the Cowboys case, though, the major issue over the last 16 games or so is the play of the quarterback, although he seems to be improving again. All of that, of course, is in the eye of the beholder and some assert that Linehan is the one killing the offense.

Back to the coaching rumors from Sunday morning. That other part of the report on Sunday morning, the one about the Jones father and son combination having an “affinity” for Lincoln Riley? Jerry says that is made up, too.

Ah, winning. It’s all good. Of course, Jerry probably would have said pretty much the same thing if Dallas had lost. But maybe not with the same conviction. Jerry Jones is a human. When things are going wrong in a human’s life they generally think about all the ways they can fix it. He’s thought about life without Jason Garrett or Scott Linehan. He’s thought about Lincoln Riley coaching with a star on his visor. It would be criminal if he hadn’t.

He’s not going to tell us that, though. And he shouldn’t. After all, the Cowboys are on a winning streak... the Cowboys are coming off a win, and they are still believing in the playoffs. Might as well play 2018 out until the end. Then we can talk about Lincoln Riley.