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Jason Garrett deserves blame for Cowboys' horrendous offense
Jean-Jacques Taylor
ESPN Staff Writer
IRVING, Texas -- Jason Garrett, hired by the Dallas Cowboys as an innovative offensive mind and play-caller in 2007, coaches the NFL's most pathetic offense.
The San Francisco 49ers have scored fewer points and the Indianapolis Colts have totaled fewer yards, but neither of those bad offenses had three offensive linemen named to the Pro Bowl, tight end Jason Witten for 16 games and Dez Bryant for 10 games when the playoffs were still a possibility.
No offense in the league has done less with more than Garrett’s group. The numbers that matter most to Garrett are worse than pathetic.
The Cowboys have scored just 252 points, 31st in the NFL, and they rank last in the NFL in red zone touchdown percentage (41.4) and pass plays of 20 yards or more (32).
This is the worst offense since Jerry Jones brought in Garrett as offensive coordinator. Garrett had never been in charge of an offense that had scored fewer than 361 points before this season. The past two seasons, the Cowboys scored 439 and 467 points, respectively.
Sure, Scott Linehan calls the plays, but this is Garrett’s offense and he deserves the credit when it works and the blame when it doesn’t. Linehan isn’t doing anything with the offense or play selection that Garrett doesn’t want.
The obvious answer to the issues -- the easy one -- is that Tony Romo has started and finished just two games, and the Cowboys won both of those.
So what?
If Garrett’s offense can’t function without Romo under center, where he excels at consistently getting the offense into the best possible play, then it’s worthless.
Garrett loves to say the Cowboys’ offense is flexible, able to take advantage of any matchup created by a formation. But it’s a timing-based scheme that is based almost entirely on a receiver or running back winning a one-on-one matchup.
That’s great when Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith and Jay Novacek are the epicenter of the offense. And it’s fine when Romo, Bryant, DeMarco Murray and Witten are the central figures in every game plan.
But we’ve seen what happens when the Cowboys don’t have a significant skill advantage at receiver, running back or quarterback: The offense becomes abject.
We’re talking about a unit that has failed to score more than one touchdown in each of the past seven games.
Kellen Moore is the fourth quarterback the Cowboys have used this season, and despite all of the hype surrounding the 6-foot, 200-pound lefty with a storage unit of intangibles, he has been the worst of the bunch through six quarters.
Optimists see glimmers of potential and hope, while realists see a dude with a pop-gun arm who can’t consistently throw the deep outs, which are fundamental to this offense’s success.
He’s probably good enough to be a solid No. 3 quarterback, but he’s probably not good enough to be the backup on a team on which you have to expect a starter such as Romo to miss a few games per season.
The Cowboys are 1-10 when someone other than Romo starts this season. It’s enough to make you wonder about the fate of the franchise when Romo eventually retires.
It’s not like Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassel or Moore have showed vast improvement under Garrett, Linehan and quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson.
Each regressed, though Weeden managed to end his 11-game losing streak as a starter Sunday, when he led the Houston Texans to win over the hapless Tennessee Titans. Dallas released Weeden in November and Houston picked him up.
For now, Garrett has no concrete answers for why the Cowboys' offense has been so bad. He blames inconsistent execution and the lack of big plays.
When he sits down with Jerry Jones after this wretched season ends, he needs to have a better answer. Jones has spent too much money and too many draft picks on the offense to have the league’s worst unit.
Jean-Jacques Taylor
ESPN Staff Writer
IRVING, Texas -- Jason Garrett, hired by the Dallas Cowboys as an innovative offensive mind and play-caller in 2007, coaches the NFL's most pathetic offense.
The San Francisco 49ers have scored fewer points and the Indianapolis Colts have totaled fewer yards, but neither of those bad offenses had three offensive linemen named to the Pro Bowl, tight end Jason Witten for 16 games and Dez Bryant for 10 games when the playoffs were still a possibility.
No offense in the league has done less with more than Garrett’s group. The numbers that matter most to Garrett are worse than pathetic.
The Cowboys have scored just 252 points, 31st in the NFL, and they rank last in the NFL in red zone touchdown percentage (41.4) and pass plays of 20 yards or more (32).
This is the worst offense since Jerry Jones brought in Garrett as offensive coordinator. Garrett had never been in charge of an offense that had scored fewer than 361 points before this season. The past two seasons, the Cowboys scored 439 and 467 points, respectively.
Sure, Scott Linehan calls the plays, but this is Garrett’s offense and he deserves the credit when it works and the blame when it doesn’t. Linehan isn’t doing anything with the offense or play selection that Garrett doesn’t want.
The obvious answer to the issues -- the easy one -- is that Tony Romo has started and finished just two games, and the Cowboys won both of those.
So what?
If Garrett’s offense can’t function without Romo under center, where he excels at consistently getting the offense into the best possible play, then it’s worthless.
Garrett loves to say the Cowboys’ offense is flexible, able to take advantage of any matchup created by a formation. But it’s a timing-based scheme that is based almost entirely on a receiver or running back winning a one-on-one matchup.
That’s great when Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith and Jay Novacek are the epicenter of the offense. And it’s fine when Romo, Bryant, DeMarco Murray and Witten are the central figures in every game plan.
But we’ve seen what happens when the Cowboys don’t have a significant skill advantage at receiver, running back or quarterback: The offense becomes abject.
We’re talking about a unit that has failed to score more than one touchdown in each of the past seven games.
Kellen Moore is the fourth quarterback the Cowboys have used this season, and despite all of the hype surrounding the 6-foot, 200-pound lefty with a storage unit of intangibles, he has been the worst of the bunch through six quarters.
Optimists see glimmers of potential and hope, while realists see a dude with a pop-gun arm who can’t consistently throw the deep outs, which are fundamental to this offense’s success.
He’s probably good enough to be a solid No. 3 quarterback, but he’s probably not good enough to be the backup on a team on which you have to expect a starter such as Romo to miss a few games per season.
The Cowboys are 1-10 when someone other than Romo starts this season. It’s enough to make you wonder about the fate of the franchise when Romo eventually retires.
It’s not like Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassel or Moore have showed vast improvement under Garrett, Linehan and quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson.
Each regressed, though Weeden managed to end his 11-game losing streak as a starter Sunday, when he led the Houston Texans to win over the hapless Tennessee Titans. Dallas released Weeden in November and Houston picked him up.
For now, Garrett has no concrete answers for why the Cowboys' offense has been so bad. He blames inconsistent execution and the lack of big plays.
When he sits down with Jerry Jones after this wretched season ends, he needs to have a better answer. Jones has spent too much money and too many draft picks on the offense to have the league’s worst unit.
