Nothing left for Jerry Jones to do but fire Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett
There is nothing left for owner Jerry Jones to do.
And everyone knows what needs to be done.
Coach Jason Garrett has to go.
It may not make a difference now, following Thursday’s 26-15 loss to the Buffalo Bills in what was simply an embarrassing performance on Thanksgiving Day, but it must be done.
The coaching was bad.
But the players were awful as well, as they opened the game with an easy 75-yard touchdown drive, only to give up 26 straight points to the Bills (10-3), whose victory against the Cowboys was their first win over a team with a winning record all season.
Moving on from Garrett could at least give this lifeless team a kick in the butt with four games left.
The Cowboys (6-6) remain in first place in the NFC East, and the playoffs are still possible with the Philadelphia Eagles (5-6) also floundering.
But there is no reason to believe that anything else will make a difference.
The Cowboys still have no wins over a team with a winning record.
But it’s more than what’s going on now with a Cowboys team that seemingly quit on Garrett for the first time since he took over as coach midway through the 2010 season, after a blowout loss to the Green Bay Packers when they quit on Wade Phillips.
What goes around comes around.
But an emotional and disappointed Jones emerged hollering and screaming in the Cowboys’ postgame locker room and said he will keep Garrett until the end of the season, no matter what. He is not going to make a coaching change because he still believes in a miracle finish.
“I’m looking ahead at another ballgame,” Jones said. “I’m looking ahead at winning four or five straight. Five straight and helping write a story they will talk about, how it looks like you’re down and out. And I mean that. That’s the way that I’m operating. Every decision that I make over the next month will be with an eye in mind to get us in the Super Bowl now. I would normally say, ‘You’re really smoking something.’ I normally would say that, but I know the room. I see the room, and I’m the one that OK’d and put the coaches in that room in there. I believe in this group.
“We have still got a chance, and it’s really because of the makeup of these guys. You can call that an indication of just how much I know.”
The reality is that it is all pointless to keep Garrett and expect a turnaround over the last month from a Cowboys team that has no wins over a team with a winning record and has now lost six of last nine games since a 3-0 start to the season.
The facts are that Garrett is in the last year of his contract, and there will be no extension after the season.
Moving on now will at least let the players know there is a standard, and that the continued passivity and mediocrity that typified Garrett’s time with the Cowboys will no longer be accepted.
More than anything, it might prevent the mess that showed up on Thanksgiving from happening again over the final month.
Defensive tackle Michael Bennett tried his best after the game, yelling at his teammates in the locker room to stay together.
Maybe it should have been at the outset.
The Cowboys opened the game with a beautiful and seemingly easy 75-yard touchdown drive, capped by an 8-yard pass from Dak Prescott to tight end Jason Witten.
It was just their second opening-drive touchdown of the season. The other came on a short field after a turnover against the Eagles.
But this was positive. The Cowboys finally got off to a fast start. This was going to make a difference and prove that Jones going scorched earth following last Sunday’s loss to the New England Patriots paid dividends.
Garrett looked like a new man as well, going for it on fourth and 1 from the Cowboys’ 19 early in the second quarter.
Prescott got it on a sneak.
But it proved to matter little.
The Cowboys punted a few plays later and then gave up an 85-yard scoring drive, capped by a 25-yard pass from quarterback Josh Allen to receiver Cole Beasley, the former Cowboy who scorched his old teammates with six catches for 110 yards.
The Cowboys simply started going in reverse from there.
A horrible screen pass from Prescott was intercepted on the next series by defensive tackle Star Lotulelei.
Prescott fumbled on the next series after a sack, which the Bills turned into a trick-play touchdown pass from receiver John Brown to running back Devin Singletary.
The Cowboys got the ball back with 1:52 left in the half.
But this potential scoring drive was the Keystone Cops from the coach to the quarterback to the kicker.
Prescott threw an interception on the first play, but it was nullified by a defensive penalty.
A pass to Elliott on the second play nearly turned into an interception after he bobbled it.
Prescott eventually got the Cowboys to a first down at the 31 after a few completions, but that was offset by Garrett’s decision not to use a timeout to preserve time.
Instead of throwing to the end zone, Prescott threw twice underneath to set up 35-yard field goal by Brett Maher, who missed it.
The Cowboys trailed 13-7 at halftime.
The team had not won a game all season after trailing at halftime.
Nothing changed that fact in the second half, as the Bills scored 10 points in the third quarter, including a walk-in touchdown by Allen that had all the makings of the Cowboys’ defense quitting.
It was 26-7 in the fourth quarter before Prescott tossed a 15-yard touchdown pass to Ventell Bryant and threw the two-point conversion to Jason Witten with 4:01 left.
It didn’t matter.
Just like Prescott’s 355 passing yards and two touchdowns didn’t because he also had two turnovers, an interception and a fumble. Another fumble was recovered by tackle Tyron Smith.
“Not good enough,” Prescott said of his play. “Simple as that. Turnovers, just mishaps. I can’t do that.”
The defense gets no pass for its play, as Allen was an efficient 19 of 24 for 231 yards with a touchdown and no turnovers. The Bills also rushed for 124 yards.
“Obviously everyone was disappointed. Unfortunately we didn’t do enough to win the ballgame,” Garrett said. ”Everyone puts so much into it; we didn’t get the job done.”
Keeping Garrett as coach doesn’t matter. It’s going to happen eventually.
Fire him now.
This story was originally published November 28, 2019 at 7:07 PM.
