Dallas Cowboys: Stubborn to the Bitter End
23 hours ago
by Daniel Ruppert
With the stories surrounding Jason Garrett and the Tavon Austin punt return for the Dallas Cowboys, it shows Garrett will be stubborn until the end.
With the Dallas Cowboys chance of winning the game against the Minnesota Vikings dwindling, the Cowboys were poised to get the ball back. The punt came down and Tavon Austin called for a fair catch. Looking back at the footage, there could have been and should have been a return. Instead, Jason Garrett watched Austin call for a fair catch, which essentially threw out any hope outside of a Hail Mary.
Going back and watching the kick, one thing you will see is Jason Garrett on the upper left of the screen with his hands on his knees. When asked about the kick return he threw it on a decision of Tavon to fair catch. Garrett said that he gave Austin direction to only fair catch if there was no return available. We found out later, Garrett gave unclear directions to fair catch the ball either way.
Later, Garrett walked his comments back a little by saying that “they” weren’t clear enough to Austin. Essentially, Garrett tried to throw it back to Austin and a lack of communication. Never once throughout the day, for any of the bad decisions, did Jason Garrett assume any responsibility. The kick was just one example.
A few weeks ago, Jason Garrett was on the radio and in an interview was presented with the statistics of how often the Cowboys ran on first down. Garrett directly said he didn’t believe the stats were correct. Once again, when asked this week, Garrett tried to downplay the statistics and didn’t believe they were fully correct.
Ask anyone who has interviewed Jason Garrett and they will tell you he is fairly stubborn. He holds onto what he feels with a vice-like grip. He will fight it out to the end for what he sees as his truth. Right or wrong, it is his personality to hold onto his statements and views. Listen to enough press conferences and interviews, you can basically answer before he does.
For all of the good Garrett does with getting guys to like and play for him, he negates a lot of it with a stubbornness that has hurt the team on multiple occasions throughout the years. Sometimes, that stubbornness has worked well and has been a necessity. Other times, it has been a sticking point for why many feel Garrett needs to be replaced.
The Cowboys ran the ball two times inside the 10, when the Vikings were having trouble stopping the pass. Garrett’s reason? Balance. That same stubbornness has shown up throughout the years, against Atlanta being an example many remember off the top of their heads. He will blame execution but in this day and age of the NFL, you have to be able to adjust if the execution isn’t there.
Nothing shows such a stark contrast to today’s NFL and the way Garrett coaches then what Kirk Cousins said about the Vikings plan when Adam Thielen wasn’t playing. Cousins said, “we had to reinvent ourselves.” Even Jerry made sure to point to Mike Zimmer has a good coach in an interview. When was the last time Garrett reinvented anything due to injury?
It looks like the sun is setting on the Jason Garrett era. Unless the Cowboys make a run into the post-season and make the NFC Championship game the Cowboys will be looking for a new coach next season. My guess is, Jason Garrett will be stubborn until the end.
