Getty Jason Garrett, Jerry Jones
Let’s cut to the chase: Jerry Jones will sooner allow Jason Garrett’s contract to expire before he terminates his hand-picked, decade-old experiment.
The vote of confidence — if you could call it that — comes two days after the Dallas Cowboys‘ owner went scorched earth on Garrett and his assistants following the team’s 13-9 loss to the New England Patriots. Jones expressed deep-seated frustration that a Super Bowl-caliber roster, which he personally assembled and (over)paid for, is being wasted by coaching that borders on incompetent.
“With the makeup of this team, I shouldn’t be this frustrated,” he said Sunday after the game.
But Jones didn’t back down from his original remarks, either. Especially the ones concerning special teams coordinator Keith O’Quinn, whose unit stumbled and bumbled its way — and chiefly contributed to — Dallas’ bitter defeat at Foxboro.
“The same way that I felt then,” Jones said on The Fan, per the team’s official website. “When you’re general manager which I am, those coaches are out there at my ultimate decision. And so just as I should and do expect our fans to when asked in a situation like that questions regarding how we perform. It’s very much within my realm or purview, if you will, to basically not only be standing there as an owner but be standing there as the general manager that put the staff together to begin with.”
In fact, Jones left the proverbial door cracked open for Garrett’s eventual ouster, which becomes an inevitability if the 6-5 Cowboys don’t qualify for the playoffs. Put another way, he essentially confirmed that Garrett is coaching for his job over the final five weeks.
“At the end of the day, the buck stops with me. … I’m highly critical and I’m continually evaluating the performance of everybody involved with the game,” Jones said.
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Jerry Looking Forward to Buffalo
Let’s not act as if the sky is falling. The Cowboys remain atop the NFC East and control their own destiny over the last month of the regular season. They have a prime opportunity to remove the bitter taste from their collective mouths thanks to a short week and their Thanksgiving afternoon home matchup against the 8-3 Buffalo Bills.
Beat the Bills, and the Pats loss is quickly forgiven. Move to 7-5, and take firm control of the division lead while reinstilling confidence in a spiraling squad. Jones, for what it’s worth, is ready for retribution.
“Let’s start right now, which everybody wants to see, and that’s come out here and play very well against an outstanding Buffalo team,” he said, via the team’s website. “We’ve got a chance to get this taste of our mouth by playing well against Buffalo.
“We’re in position (where) we lead the East. We can play better. We are prepared to address the nuances or subtleties or however you want to describe them, we’re prepared to take advantage of the detail that it takes to win a football game.”
Garrett Responds to Harsh Criticism from Jones
Given the opportunity to quell his frustrated boss’s anxieties — some accountability would be a start — the ever-embattled Garrett, temperature rising on his hot seat, instead stuck to the status quo. By going full Jason Garrett.
“We just got to focus on coaching as well as we can and playing as well as we can,” he said Monday, per The Athletic, a day after Dallas snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against the Patriots. “There certainly were some things in the game that we have to get better at. We’re going to work on that as a staff and as a team.”
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Follow Zack Kelberman on Twitter: @KelbermanNFL