T.O. rips Dallas coach to shreds, 'mind-boggling' Garrett still has a job
With the possible exception of Jeff Fisher, no coach in the recent history of the NFL has held a job for longer while accomplishing less on the field than the Cowboys’ Jason Garrett.
And NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens, who got run out of Dallas in 2009, had plenty to say about Garrett on KRLD-FM’s “K&C Masterpiece” morning show in Big D Wednesday.
T.O. wasn’t just salty; he was Lot’s wife.
“When you really look at it, it doesn’t make sense for Jason Garrett to continue to have his job,” Owens said. “The Cowboys are not really expanding or not really progressing with the organization, even as a team, under his coaching tenure there.”
He also pointed out that he’s not the only wide receiver Garrett has blamed when things went south.
He specifically singled out Dez Bryant, who he said was being scapegoated for the poor state of affairs in Dallas, while pointing out that not enough criticism is being leveled at Garrett.
What’s more, on USA Today’s Sports Pulse, he argued that Garrett is specifically responsible for the team’s poor performance by being a lousy football coach.
“You look at guys like (Patriots head coach Bill) Belichick, they make in-game adjustments,” Owens said. “Garrett made halftime adjustments, but by halftime it may already be too late and the other team isn’t going to come out in the same coverage in the second half.”
Owens also ripped Garrett for not listening to his players. When the wideout saw things in the defense that could be exploited “on the next series or in the next quarter,” he said Garrett wouldn’t listen.
Which, ultimately, would explain the Cowboys’ mediocrity both on a micro level — it is hard to win games when you get out-coached — and on a macro level: The team’s reputation for starting strong and finishing 8-8 is everyone’s favorite Jason Garrett joke.
Owens even compared Garrett to Dwane Casey, the coach of the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, who was given his walking papers after Toronto surrendered meekly to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers despite having both home-court advantage and, at least on paper, the vastly superior team apart from LeBron’s presence.
And considering that the Cavs beat the Pacers only because of a missed goaltending call in Game 5 that the league even admitted it got wrong — had the refs gotten that call right, Indiana would have won the series in six games — and currently look utterly lost against the Boston Celtics as they trail 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals, Casey looks like a coach who couldn’t adjust.
Owens insinuated a relationship between Garrett and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones that is ultimately detrimental to the team’s success, pointing out that Wade Phillips was fired despite “not having a losing record.” (That’s half true: Phillips is 83-61 in the regular season as a head coach but was fired in 2010 when the Cowboys started 1-7 and had just been smashed by the Packers 45-7.)
Returning to the Casey comparison, Owens said: “He was voted unanimous coach of the year, has taken Toronto to the playoffs, had three straight years of winning 50-plus games and then they don’t make it beyond what the expectations are within that organization and he gets fired. And then you have Jason Garrett, who has no accomplishments, not even close to that, and he continues to still have a job.
“It all boils down to players being the scapegoat for his inability to lead the team as he should. For me, it’s mind-boggling. I don’t understand it. And I think Jerry (Jones) — again, he’s the owner at the end of the day, he has to feel good with himself about the decisions — but I just don’t understand why this guy still has a job.”
Garrett is 67-53 in 120 regular-season games as the Dallas coach; he is just 1-2 in the playoffs and has yet to reach the NFC Championship game. The Cowboys have missed the playoffs in five of seven years Garrett has been head coach.
So does T.O. have a point? With the Cowboys mired in perpetual mediocrity, the only constants have been Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett, so it sure looks like it.
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