The reason Jerry Jones hired Jason Garrett is no more

News out of Mobile, Alabama is that Dallas Cowboys head football coach Jason Garrett is no longer the team's play caller.

BACK PAT ALERT: Two months ago I - and a few others - predicted that if the Cowboys' missed the playoffs their primary "big" offseason changes would be to fire defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and to strip Jason Garrett of play calling duties and hand those to offensive assistant Bill Callahan.

Time to go to Vegas and put some of this genius to work.

As expected, Jerry Jones and Coach Process have "agreed" to let Callahan call the plays.

This is how the conversation went down:
Jerry Jones: "Jason, we're going to have Bill Callahan call the plays next season."
Jason Garrett: "Excellent decision, sir."

This is not the world's worst decision, but it is rather ironic.

Shortly after Bill Parcells resigned as this team's head coach in January of 2007 the first person Jerry sought was Miami Dolphins' quarterbacks coach Jason Garrett. Then Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga did not want to just let Garrett go. In fact, he didn't have to let him out of his contract.

"It was under the caveat that he’d call the plays," Jerry Jones told me at Cowboys' training camp in 2007. "Wayne said, ‘I really want him to be the coordinator. I really want him to be the play-caller. If so, I’ll let him come down there.’"

Jerry specifically hired Garrett away from the Dolphins to be his team's offensive coordinator and to call the plays. Today, he wants someone other than Jason Garrett to call the plays.

 

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What Monte Kiffin needs

So the Dallas Cowboys are hiring loooooooooooooong time, veteran, grizzled Monte Kiffin to be their next defensive coordinator.

It is ironic that the reason Jerry Jones specifically hired Wade Phillips to be his head coach in 2007 was to run an execute a 3-4 defense. Now? That same 3-4 apparently sucks - Kiffin is going to the 4-3.

This is the same scheme Mike Zimmer ran for the Cowboys for forever, until Bill Parcells told him to adopt the 3-4 back in 2004.

Monte Kiffin, Wade Phillips, Mike Zimmer, Dave Wanstedt, Rob Ryan ... the names all change but the basic premise and rules apply - these guys need players to make a 4-3, 3-4, Tampa 2, 4-6 or whatever other scheme look good.

By season's end, the Dallas Cowboys didn't have enough good players who could generate enough negative plays to make a difference on defense. This is why Rob Ryan got canned. It's all about players, people.

If the Cowboys do not solve their problems up the middle, they're screwed. 

Jay Ratliff has to be healthy, that's assuming he returns. Josh Brent was developing into a major log-jam in the middle, but that's done. Jason Hatcher is built more like an end, but he would be a tackle in this scheme. Sean Lissemore looks like he may be a decent tackle, and Tyrone Crawford could have a future as a 4-3 end.

Sean Lee and Bruce Carter have to be healthy for all 16 games. The Cowboys have not received any significant plays from either safety position since Roy Williams was a rookie. 

DeMarcus Ware is not going to be a pass rusher almost exclusively. He was a defensive end in college, which was a long time ago. We may be witnessing the end of his prime years regardless of scheme.

The team has not made a decision on Anthony Spencer; he also was a defensive end in college. 

Kiffin is a good coach, but he is no different than any other coordinator - if he doesn't have players, it doesn't matter.

 

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Score! A.J. McCarron's girlfriend says her boyfriend wants to play for the Cowboys

A.J. McCarron is a quarterback for Alabama. He just won a national title. Blah blah blah, something something, sports sports. 

The good great news as it relates to the greater Fort Worth-dallas area is that his girlfriend said he wants to play for the Dallas Cowboys, which is the ideal excuse reason to put up a picture of Katherine Webb. 

Webb, who is the new love interest of Brent Musberger, Darnell Dockett and roughly 85 trillion men who watched the BcS title game on Monday night, said in a recent interview with Esquire that McCarron has his eyes set on the Cowboys.

Webb said: "I’m working with his publicist trying to handle all of this media madness right now. And A.J. really wants to play for the Dallas Cowboys, so we’ll see what happens."

Click here for the rest of this amazing interview with Esquire.

This is potentially a massive win-win for the Cowboys. McCarron skips his senior year to make himself eligible for the draft. Then Jerry Jones drafts McCarron, under the guise of "developing" a passer to eventually replace Tony Romo; McCarron arrives with Webb for the first ever introductory press conference for a fifth round draft pick, which Brent Musberger emcees.

McCarron rides the bench, while Webb becomes the NFL's first official team Victoria's secret model; this assuming she is comfortable wearing next to nothing in full view of millions of people. She may not be cool with that. 

 

 

 

 

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Blame football for this RG3 mess

Gotta hand it to Washington Redskins coach Mike Shanahan for having the vision to throw his one-legged franchise quarterback back into the wildcard game against the Seattle Seahawks. Who cares if Robert Griffin III could barely move? This was a wildcard game.

We know how this story has ended, or at least evolved. RGIII is having surgery on Wednesday morning to repair tears in his lateral collateral ligament and to have his ACL examined. The timetable on his return is nine to 12 months. Don't be surprised if RG3 returns sooner, as Vikings running back Adrian Peterson did this season after he ripped his ACL late last season.

Younger guys have a tendency to heal quicker. For RG3's sake, let's hope he does. He is a good pro, and good for his sport.

Football players suffer injuries all the time, and they know the risks involved even if they never think it's never going to happen to them.

Most of the criticism today, and there is a lot, is aimed squarely at Shanahan for putting RG3 back on the field against the Seahawks. He deserves his share of the blame. So does RG3.

I blame the sport. 

This whole situation confirms our worst fears about contact sports, especially football - Coaches will put a player's health in jeopardy because they don't want to jeopardize losing a game, and in turn the player will consent because he doesn't want to lose his job. It is this same mindset that has players routinely lying about concussions, or the state of their overall physical health when they are playing.

This begins in high school and does not end until a player's career is over - "Coach, I'm OK. I can go."

RG3 was in no threat of losing his job, but he wanted to push through. It's admirable, right up to the point when it's stupid. Playing in a wildcard game against the Seahawks was not worth the risk.

It shows you how powerful Dr. James Andrews is that he openly questioned Shanahan for letting him play despite the bad knee.  Shanahan said Andrews cleared him, which the doctor denies. Whom do you believe? Most doctors who are receiving a check from a team would NEVER openly say such things against the mighty head coach.

If RG3 returns to form this story will fade. Until that day happens, Shanahan is going to face a lot of deserved criticism, RG3 will be lauded for his toughness, and the Washington Redskins will pray to any God it can find that their franchise QB will be the same guy.

Meanwhile, don't expect what should be yet another cautionary tale to change anything. 

 

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Jason Garrett, you're next

Down goes running backs coach Skip Peete. Now gone is defensive coordinator Rob Ryan.

It may not actually yield the desired results, but this is the Dallas Cowboys doing uncomfortable.

Despite his colorful personality and fantastic interviews, Ryan's defense never matched his mouth. The Cowboys' defense under Ryan seldom won games, and struggled to make impact plays to change direction games.

This all but guarantees that if the Cowboys do not have a good season in 2013, the next man down will be head coach Jason Garrett. Once of the top coordinators is canned, the next man up is the head coach.

Ryan is now 0-for-8 in his attempt to have a winning record as a defensive coordinator.

Head coach Jason Garrett said in a statement: "I want to express my appreciation to Rob for all of his efforts and contributions to the Cowboys over the past two years. At this time, the decision has been made to move forward in a different direction philosophically on defense. I have an immense amount of respect for Rob as a person and as a football coach and I wish him and his family the very best."

Do not be surprised if the Cowboys finally go away from the 3-4 defense that Bill Parcells installed in 2004 and adopt the 4-3.

Was it Ryan, or the players? Go with the latter. 

Ryan's defense lost Jay Ratliff, Sean Lee, Bruce Carter, Orlando Scandrick, Barry Church, Kenyon Coleman, Josh Brent to season ending injuries. Had those players - specifically Brent, Lee and Carter - remained healthy the results would have been different.

The Cowboys defense finished ranked 19th in the NFL. There were some massive holes that Ryan had to try to mask, namely a weak defensive line and zero plays from either safety position.

Reasons, excuses ... who cares? Coaches and coordinators get fired after 8-8 seasons in the NFL. 

The results weren't good enough, leaving Ryan without a job.

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FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! Cowboys continue spree of "uncomfortable" by going after local ice hockey team

Less than 24 hours after the Dallas Cowboys began this offseason of "uncomfortability" by finally firing reason No. 1 the team finished 8-8 - canning running backs coach Skip Peete - the team went after the Dallas Stars professional hockey club.

A Twitter message from the Dallas Cowboys this morning read, "Similarly in the category of nobody-cares…the NHL is back!"

YEAH! We may suck, but you suck worse.

Me thinks the Dallas Cowboys read my column this morning about the state of the NHL, which has just this perception - that nobody cares (No, I don't think they read it).

The Stars responded in turn by tweeting, "At least our #9 got the job done". Attached to said Tweet was a picture of Mike Modano holding the Stanley Cup, back in 1999.

Well played. Well played. A 10-year-old fondly remembers that moment.

The Cowboys realized the boo-boo and issued an apology that read, "our sincere apologies for the inappropriate tweet posted accidentally to our account. Good luck this season".

The Stars in turn accepted said apology.

Also of note from the Twitter world - Channel 8 veteran sports reporter George Riba Tweeted this this morning: ""Stars room is where u find players who want to talk. Cowboys open room - players go eat & lift weights"

What do both have in common? Neither team makes the playoffs.

Nothing the Dallas Cowboys Tweeted was incorrect.
Nothing the Dallas Stars Tweeted in turn was incorrect.

Just Truth Tweets.

 

@MacEngelProf
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How the Dallas Cowboys had a role in Ray Lewis' retirement

This morning one of the best defenders in NFL history announced that he will retire - Ray Lewis has said he is done after the playoffs. Click here for the story from the Baltimore Sun.

Lewis' name should be with Lawrence Taylor, Dick Butkus and Mike Singletary as one of the best linebackers to ever play.

Lewis has played 17 NFL seasons, but if there is one thing his last game - against the Dallas Cowboys on Oct. 14 - suggested was that Ray-Ray was just about done. No shame in that, considering he is a 37-year-old man. He may be as inspiring as any NFL player in recent memory, but on the field the body could no longer do what the mind wanted. It happens.

Lewis suffered a torn triceps injury against the Cowboys that afternoon that forced him to miss the remainder of the regular season. He plans to play against the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC playoff game this weekend.

What we saw against the Cowboys that day was that he could still make tackles, but he was not contributing the types of plays he was known for - sacks, tackles for a loss, forcing fumbles. The Ray Lewis impact was gone.

Lewis had 14 tackles against the Cowboys that day; the Cowboys, however, ran for 227 yards as both DeMarco Murray and Felix Jones each had over 90 yards.

In the end, Ray Lewis was a "victim" of the absurdly high standards he set over his career.

 

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What Tony Romo could learn from RG3

(Have to give this to Star-Telegram's Clarence E. Hill jr. (Twitter - @Clarencehilljr) for this one ...)

If you want to see the difference between Robert Griffin III and Tony Romo just look at their interceptions. The rookie season is when NFL quarterbacks enjoy a grace period of being able to toss picks right and left (Peyton threw 28 as a rookie; Elway had 14 against 7 TDs; Andrew Luck has 18). Even as a rookie, however, RGIII never throws interceptions.

He never has. He either runs, or eats it. He seldom forces the ball.

In 393 passing attempts this season with the Redskins, RGIII threw 20 TDs and was intercepted five times.

Now go back to his days at Baylor and RGIII never threw interceptions.
2008: - 15 TDs/3 interceptions in 267 attempts.
2009: - 4 TDs/0 interceptions in 69 attempts (injury cut short his season).
2010: - 22 TDs/8 interceptions in 454 attempts.
2011: - 37 TDs/6 interceptions in 402 attempts.

That is 98 TD passes and 22 interceptions in 1,585 attempts since 2008.

Tony Romo? Different story. The man is not afraid to throw the football on the football field, which at times has been a detriment to his team.

2000 Eastern Illinois - 27 TDs/12 interceptions in 278 atts.
2001 Eastern Illinois - 21 TDs/6 interceptions in 207 atts.
2002 Eastern Illinois - 34 TDs/16 interceptions in 407 atts.
2006 Cowboys - 19 TDs/13 interceptions in 337 atts.
2007 Cowboys - 36 TDs/19 interceptions in 520 atts.
2008 Cowboys - 26 TDs/14 interceptions in 450 atts.
2009 Cowboys - 26 TDs/9 interceptions in 550 atts.
2010 Cowboys - 11 TDs/7 interceptions in 213 atts.
2011 Cowboys - 31 TDs/10 interceptions in 522 atts.
2012 Cowboys - 28 TDs/19 interceptions in 648 atts.

The moral of the story - Don't throw interceptions. It can only hurt the ballclub.

 

 

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Texas Tech at TCU tops best games of 2012 in FW/d

The one thing we can never get enough of is lists. A list of our favorite songs. The best Nicholas Sparks novels. The top 10 Rocky movies.

The end of the year brings the trite, mail-it-end look back at the year that was. Because The Big Mac Blog loves cliches as much as the next, here is a look at the best games of the year. I tried to spread the wealth ...

1. Texas Tech 56, TCU 53 (3 ot); Oct. 20, 2012.
Hands down the most entertaining game of the Big 12 season. 
In TCU's first year of the Big 12, the Frogs led Tech by five in the fourth quarter before the Red Raiders rallied to take a 10-point lead with 4:06 remaining.
TCU managed to tie the game with 18 seconds lef that set up one of the more entertaining series of overtimes you could watch.

2. Cowboys 27, Steelers 24 (ot); Dec. 16, 2012.
Tony Romo played one of the best games of his career as the Cowboys rallied to win a game they trailed by seven points in the fourth quarter.
Romo passed for 341 yards and two touchdowns, one to the busted-fingered Dez Bryant.
The Steelers weren't as good as advertised but this was a highly entertaining game and offered the Cowboys at their best. 

3. Texas Rangers 11, LA Angels 10, (10 innings); Aug. 1, 2012
The Angels led 7-1 after four innings. The Rangers scored four in the fifth, and runs in the eighth and the ninth to send the game into extra innings. The Angels scored three times in the top of the 10th, but the Rangers scored four runs in the bottom of the inning, the final two on an Elvis Andrus single.

4. Texas Rangers 10, Baltimore Orioles 3; May 9, 2012
Josh Hamilton hit four home runs. 

5. DeSoto 49, Southlake Carroll 45; Dec. 8, 2012.
In the 5A quarterfinals, DeSoto trailed by 18 points in the first half before taking the lead. Carroll QB Kenny Hill was stopped on consecutive running plays from the 1-yard line, the final as time expired.  

6. TCU 20, Texas 13; Nov. 22, 2012.
Easily the biggest win of the year for TCU as the Frogs won on Thanksgiving night in Austin. The Frogs forced four turnovers, including the game-clinching pick by Sam Carter with less than two minutes remaining.

7. Oklahoma 63, Texas 21; Oct. 13, 2012.
The game was boring as hell but there was so much comedy and amazement to watch Bob Stoops' Sooners put yet another nasty beatdown on Mack Brown's Longhorns at the Cotton Bowl. It truly was watching a train wreck.

8. Dallas Mavericks 101, San Antonio Spurs 100 (ot); Jan. 29, 2012
This was before the Mavericks completely crashed in the playoffs and was Jason Terry at his best. He hit a 15-foot game-tying shot to tie the game with 1 second remaining and send the game into OT. Terry finished with 34 points.

9. Dallas Stars 3, Vancouver Canucks 2 (ot); Feb. 26, 2012
Before the Stars fell apart to miss the playoffs yet again, they rallied for this impressive win against a good Canucks team. The Stars were down 2-1 with less than one minute remaining before Mike Ribeiro scored to tie the game. In overtime, Loui Eriksson scored the game winner.

10. Cowboys 24, NY Giants 17; Sept. 5, 2012
In the NFL season opener, the Cowboys defeated the defending Super Bowl champions in what would be arguably their most complete win of the season.
Romo threw for 307 yards with three touchdowns; Kevin Ogletree caught eight passes for 114 yards with two TDs; DeMarco Murray rushed for 131 yards.

 

 

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Tony Romo should look elsewhere & other genius observations

LANDOVER, Maryland - Tony Romo has one year remaining on his contract, but the time has come for him to move on.

This offseason is normally the time the Cowboys give potential free agents an extension, but this should not be one of those times. He has been the starting quarterback of this team since the middle of 2006, and by now the Cowboys know. This is who he is.

After watching Romo throw three interceptions against the Redskins in the season-ending 28-18 loss here on Sunday night, the evidence has now reached the "overwhelming" stage. He will be 33 in April of '13, and still has a few good years left but at this point he needs to go to another team that needs a quarterback.

The guy can play, but you have to wonder if even he isn't so tired of this story that he is ready to pull the trigger to see if the results will change.

Other astute observations from D.C. ...

1. The lines of the Cowboys have serious issues. The offensive line is limited; Tyron Smith may be fine at left tackle, but it looks as if the Cowboys are ready to write off Doug Free. The interior of the line is just -ish.
The defensive line is just as average. After basically missing the whole season with an ankle injury, Jay Ratliff may be cut. Josh Brent is gone. As a player he was developing into a solid stuffer. Sean Lissemore and Tyrone Crawford may eventually be OK, but this line has to start making some plays.

2. At one point in the fourth quarter the receivers were Cole Beasley, Dwayne Harris and Kevin Ogletree. Injuries to Miles Austin and Dez Bryant made this scenario a necessity.
Ogletree was too erratic this season, but Harris is a major find both as a punt returner and a third receiver.

3. Have Jason Witten and DeMarcus Ware wasted their best years? Probably. Witten just had the finest regular season ever for a tight end, but he has been in the league for 10 years. He can likely continue to put up good numbers for a few more years, but you can't expect any more 100-catch seasons like this.
Ware will be 31 next year and you have to think he has two more years of high quality plays left in him. 

4. Robert Griffin III is hurt. Griffin was wearing a heavy brace over his right knee on Sunday night, and he was not moving the same. Regardless, he still ran six times for 63 yards and threw for 100 yards on 9-of-18 passing.

5. The Redskins swept the season series against the Cowboys for the first time since 2005. Good timing.

6. Dez Bryant is a man, man baby. But he is fragile? This is a tough human being. He had the broken finger that is going to require surgery, probably this week. And he had to leave Sunday night's game with a bad back. 
In his third season in the NFL, Dez developed into a top No. 1 receiver. But you ever notice how often he is always addressing some type of injury?

7. Miles Austin was this team's most disappointing skill position player. He had 66 receptions for 943 yards this season, hardly awful, but the Cowboys needed more from him. Austin is not 30, and he has demonstrated he is a legit threat. He needs to stay healthy, which does not get easier as you turn older, and he has to make bigger plays.

8. Reasons to be optimistic - Sean Lee, Bruce Carter, Morris Claiborne and Brandon Carr should be the core of what can be a pretty good defense next season.

9. RB Felix Jones and CB Mike Jenkins are gone. Jones is the portrait of why never to select a running back in the first round of the draft, unless his name is Adrian Peterson. Both Jones and Jenkins were first round draft choices by the Cowboys in 2008. And it looks like both will be gone before the start of the '13 season.
To have neither of your first round picks from that draft, and but one playoff win in their careers here, is a waste.

10. The Cowboys deserved to finish 8-8. The line between 10-6 and 8-8 is scary thin in the NFL, and the Cowboys were never good enough to seperate themselves even slightly because this is what erratic teams do - finish .500.

 

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