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Who Wants To Bet The Dallas Cowboys Will Finish 8-8?
Published by MoonDog on December 14, 2009
The Dallas Cowboys lost to the San Diego Chargers 20-17 on Sunday in a game that proved to be a microcosm of the team’s past December failures.
When Dallas had opportunities to score, they failed. When the defense had to make a stop, they failed. When offensive coordinator Jason Garrett had a chance to call an innovative play, he failed.
After the Chargers took a 10-3 lead with 10:18 left in the first half, Dallas put together an 11-play drive to the San Diego 4. On first and goal, Garrett called a dive play off right guard with running back Marion Barber gaining 3 yards.
On second and goal from the 1, Garret called Barber’s number again on a dive play off right tackle for no gain. On third and goal, Garrett called a dive play off right guard with Barber getting stopped for no gain.
With Dallas deciding to go for it on 4th down, you’d think the proceeding three plays with Barber trying to run it in behind the right guard would have provided enough evidence that perhaps a different type of play should be called.
But this is Jason Garrett, boy genius, or at least he’s a genius in the mind of Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones. A genius wouldn’t have called consecutive dive plays on the goal line, much less three times in a row.
Dallas RB Marion Barber Gets Stuffed at The Goal Line
So on 4th down after three failed attempts at running Barber over the right side and the Cowboys only one yard away from tying the score, Garrett digs deep into the play book and dials up…another dive play over the right side with Barber getting thrown for a one-yard loss.
Ridiculous doesn’t begin to describe Garrett’s play calling. Stupid would most certainly be a more accurate description.
In a nutshell, those four plays on the goal line summed up why Dallas continues to fail.
Take nothing away from the Chargers, a team coached by former Cowboys assistant Norv Turner who ironically was among the finalists for Dallas’ head coaching position in 2007 after Bill Parcells resigned.
Where the Cowboys failed on Sunday, San Diego excelled. When the Chargers needed a first down, they got it. When they needed individual players to step up or a total team effort, they got it.
When San Diego had the ball at their own 11 with 9:13 left in the fourth quarter and leading by seven, the Chargers drove the ball 73 yards on 15 plays, burning 7:17 off the clock and kicked a field goal to ice the game.
Just last week the Cowboys were 8-3 and in control of their destiny. But after a 31-24 loss on the road against the New York Giants and Sunday’s loss to the Chargers, Dallas (8-5) is clinging to the last wild card spot in the NFC. But that won’t last for long.
To make matters worse, Dallas must travel to play the undefeated New Orleans Saints next Saturday night in a game they absolutely must win – but won’t.
The Cowboys won’t win not so much because the Saints are clearly the better team, but because Dallas doesn’t have the heart, the metal and physical toughness or the coaching to get a win.
After the Cowboys fail against New Orleans they’ll have to face the Washington Redskins on the road. Despite all the woes Washington has had this season, the Redskins will find a way to beat their hated rivals and all but end the Cowboys playoff hopes.
By the time Philadelphia visits Dallas in the last game of the season, the Cowboys will be wondering why they can’t get the job done in must-win games in December, when the toughest teams – the teams that want it most – find ways to get it done.
The Cowboys can look well into their past for the answers, well beyond this season and last, when December proved to be their undoing.
The Cowboys ceased being those feared Dallas teams of the 1990′s a long time ago, even though it’s an organization that acts like it remains one of the best in the NFL.
No, these Cowboys haven’t been able to recapture that same magic since Jimmy Johnson quit because of Jerry Jones running his big, egotistical mouth and they never will.
The foreseeable future isn’t very bright, with the 2009 season finding the Cowboys finishing with an 8-8 record and out of the playoffs again.
The long-term future isn’t much brighter either, because Jones will fire Wade Phillips and replace him with yet another “yes” man or even worse, with boy genius Jason Garrett.
Dallas’ failures will continue because the problems this organization has starts at the very top and trickles down, and until Jerry Jones figures that out the Cowboys will never get back among the elite teams in the NFL.
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Tagged with: Chargers, Cowboys, Dallas, Dallas Cowboys, Fail, Failures, Football, Jason Garrett, Jerry Jones, Jimmy Johnson, Marion Barber, National Football League, New Orleans Saints, New York Giants, NFL, Norv Turner, Philadelphia Eagles, San Diego, San Diego Chargers, Wade Phillips, Washington Redskins
