Dallas Cowboys: Passionately Outcoached Again vs. the Lions

Where do we begin…

photo: Sports Grid.com

The Dallas Cowboys have been outcoached time and time again in the past, but the outcoaching has reared its ugly head once more. The Boys normally find a way to lose with Tony Romo making a bad throw at the end or poor clock management. You can’t blame this one on Romo.

I truly believe that Cowboys have two major issues that have been brewing for the last five or six years. These two issues are (1) the passion of the players and (2) the head coach.

The Passion of the Players

Outside of Dez Bryant and Jason Hatcher, most of the players for the Cowboys do not show much emotion. I have no problem with different personalities, but I have a problem with a team that wants to quite a guy like Dez for getting upset when his team is about to lose when they should win. The Cowboys were leading with 1:24 left in the fourth quarter. The Lions only had two time outs. The Boys were only able to move the clock down to 1:07 before they punted.

The Boys were only able to waist 17 seconds that’s all. When the Lions got the ball and began moving the ball down the field, Dez got upset at the situation. His teammates were trying to calm him down, but no one else seemed to be upset that the Cowboys were about to lose. I am in know way saying other players should be getting upset, but more players need to step their game up along with the coaching staff.

Too often the players are too lacks when it comes to getting to the line of scrimmage when the clock is running down or playing not to loose instead of playing to win. When games are on the line the Boys lack the passion to do whatever it takes to win football games. Most of this is the lack of hunger inside of the player, but much of it has to do with being prepared also. This brings me to the head coach.

The Head Coach

This is only my opinion of the situation...
Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett has a set game plan each week and I think he is the ultimate game preparations guy with the X’s and O’s. What I mean by that is he can study a team and help his team prepare for each and every game. The continuous problem I see is in game management. It seems that Garrett cannot adjust to what is happening inside of the game.

Each game Garrett may have his plays scripted for each and every quarter without adjusting his script. The only time Garrett has adjusted his script is when someone gets hurt during the game. This situation forces Garrett to change. If there are no injuries, Garrett sticks with his original game plan.

Every media outlet made a huge deal of wide receivers of Dez Bryant comparing himself to Calvin Johnson this week leading up to the game. When the smoke cleared, Johnson had a historic game with 329 yards receiving. This was the second most receiving yards in league history, according to NFL.com. Take a look at the stats between the two receivers:

NFL.com

Wide Receivers	Dez Bryant	Calvin Johnson
Catches	3	14
Yards	72	329
Touchdowns	2	1
Average Yards Per Catch	24	23.5

The difference the between the two receivers in this game was the amount of times each man touched the ball.

Dez was so upset in the first half with his coaching staff that he began to voice his opinion loudly about not getting enough touches. As soon as he voiced his opinion he made a spectacular one handed catch in the endzone for his only catch of the half.

Only when Dez got upset did the plays start going to him. I think this is a product of Jason Garrett outcoaching himself. The way the game was called on the offense and defense, it looked like Garrett was afraid of two things…double coverage Dez would attract on offense and how Calvin Johnson would beat the Boys defense.

Either way, there was no faith in either. How could Dez only receive three targets the whole game? Was coverage that good? I have seen Aaron Rogers of Green Bay find Jordy Nelson time and time again when other receivers were hurt. I used to watch Tom Brady throw to Wes Welker when defenses knew who would get the ball.

If the offense could have targeted Dez more early in the game or as much or even with half of Calvin’s catches, the Boys would have won this game by 10 points. As Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News stated, "The Cowboys played better defense against Dez than they did against the Lions".

In my opinion, Calvin is king of the receivers at this time, but Dez is right there behind him.

Conclusion

The team has no real leaders with only a few passionate players. Garrett creates no offensive schemes to utilize mismatches. A few weeks ago the Chargers used Danny Woodhead out of the backfield to create mismatches against the linebackers of Dallas and it worked for two touchdowns. Dallas rarely creates mismatches.  

Garrett sticks with his safe week-to-week game plan that makes him an AVERAGE coach. With no passion to win from players when needed and a safe game plan from the coach, the Boys are 4-4, which is .500 or AVERAGE.

Plus, the NFL loves to see close division races like the NFC East at the end. It makes for better Hollywood endings with ratings. It’s not the end of the world Cowboys fans, but something needs to change and I don’t think a trade is the answer.

Good luck with the second half of the season Cowboys.