Cowboys coach Garrett faces tall order in overcoming Jerry Jones curse

FORT WORTH, Texas -- When it comes to football, you'd never want to be in agreement with Mr. Jerry on basically anything.

We all think - no, we all "know" - he's a football idiot, and we know this because it was 16 seasons ago when the Cowboys bumbled their way to the last Super Bowl win (thanks again, Neil O'Donnell) with the final remnants of Dynasty Days superior talent.

But since 1996:

Two playoff victories. An overall record of 130-127. Mediocrity, Inc.

The one and only constant in that entire time:

Mr. Jerry, owner, GM, and the man who reminds us he's in total charge of "everything".

But no, I'm not wasting your time or mine this morning with yet another rampage on the stupidity of Jerry as our local "football guy." That's a given. It's also a given nothing will change.

Instead, however, I'm here today to agree with Mr. Jones on something he uttered to the media late Sunday evening in the Meadowlands minutes after another season had come crashing down on the Cowboys.

"This is one of my biggest disappointments in football, period," Jones said of an 8-8 team that failed to make the playoffs because it failed to respond, first, in the month of December, and lastly, in a Game 16 playoff-type situation against the Giants.

Of course, the "one of" comment does cover a lot of years and a lot of disasters for Jerry. There's been so many, what measuring stick does he use to rank them?

But still, I'm in agreement with Jerry. Going back to 1989, and the beginning of the Jones Era at Valley Ranch, I'd say 2011 is No. 2 on the most disappointing season list, second only to 1994.

Coming off back-to-back Super Bowl championships, the Cowboys of '94 were clearly the most talented team in the NFL, yet were ousted by the 49ers in the NFC title game.

OK, this current club wasn't worthy, talent-wise, of washing that club's jocks, but the one name, besides Jerry Jones, that can be linked to both teams is Jason Garrett.

From the backup quarterback nearly two decades ago, to the first-year head coach this season, I thought, finally, Garrett could be, would be, the long-awaited answer.

Admittedly, however, that answer is now much more murky than expected, at least expected by me, although the e-mail critics will say I was duped because Garrett had "failed" as an offensive coordinator, so why expect anything else as a head coach.

Granted, this was not a good season for Garrett. Really, I expected a Harbaugh-impact as was seen in San Fran. I was confident in that. I was wrong.

Jason wasn't awful, but he wasn't the "it" coach he appeared to be after that half-season stint as the interim head coach a year ago.

We all knew when Bill Parcells was here, his tenure would be no more than five years and it turned out to be four seasons. With Garrett, and his ties to the organization and his ties to, yes, Jerry, the long-term expectations were definitely there.

But there turned out to be nothing different about this Cowboys team from what we've come to expect. The same mistakes and blunders throughout the season, and the same kind of December stretch-run fade as in the past, marked Garrett's first season.

Even if "the coach didn't have 'em ready to play" is a catch-all criticism in sports, Sunday night's lack of competitive coconuts in the first half, and the quick 21-0 deficit, was such a disgrace it has to be a reflection on the head coach, deserved or not.

Garrett will get another chance, of course, but you also have to now wonder why next season will be any different.

In his Valley Ranch seasonal wrap-up session Monday with the local media, Jason was in a full-blown spin mode, claiming the major accomplishment in his first year was getting "the program going in the right direction." He added that 2011 had been about "the growing pains."

Honk, if you saw the right direction happen. Me, I saw the same ol', same ol' happen.

As stated here many times before, being the head coach of the Cowboys is only about 40 percent football expertise. The other 60 percent is "handling Jerry."

This is the one area why I thought Garrett could make a difference, the one area where Jerry would treat Jason, who is almost family, with the proper respect even though we all know Jerry has no respect for the position of head coach.

Unfortunately, not even that happened for Garrett. Jerry publicly punked even Jason a couple of times, and Jason left himself open for that punking with his decision-making, such as the final minute of regulation in Arizona.

None of this leaves us with a particularly good feeling about where Garrett and the Cowboys go from here.

I'm being told by Cowboys insiders that I'm overreacting in my disappointment over Garrett's first season. Hopefully, those insiders are right, and maybe, yes, my first-year expectations for him were too lofty.

Meanwhile, however, I'll have to agree with Mr. Jones. This season ranked right up there with the biggest flops of the past two decades, simply because nothing changed with this team.

If, as hoped, Jason Garrett can eventually overcome the ongoing football curse of Jerry, the head coach needs to start first thing this morning.

Jason has lost miles of valuable ground over the past month. Admittedly, I didn't see that coming. I saw change coming. And nothing changed.

The Cowboys were still a dumb, rudderless team that couldn't even win a real bad division.

Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5694144696

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