The Cowboys Play-Calling Predicament

The Dallas Cowboys hosted a press conference last Tuesday afternoon, and when Jason Garrett was asked about Bill Callahan calling the plays, he responded saying it was a “collective decision.”

This collective decision could be either beneficial or detrimental to the team. Garrett could see this has a relief, and not having to deal with criticism and pressure on his shoulders to manage the clock while trying to coach, organize his team, and call the right plays.

Jimmy Johnson suggested this midway through last season, to relieve some pressure and responsibility off of Garrett’s shoulders so he could focus on other responsibilities. If anyone knows Garrett, it is Johnson, and he always says Garrett tends to outthink himself.

However, Garrett could also see this as a way of Jerry Jones not committing and trusting Garrett, but instead slowly taking away his responsibilities and then leaving his confidence in coaching extremely low. It could be a horrible mind game, and we all know Garrett can overanalyze things, so that would not be good.

Side note: I still think Romo needs a stronger role in being the general on the field and calling the plays with a no huddle offense, especially during crunch time. Maybe Jerry Jones can incorporate more responsibilities for Tony Romo instead of "babying" him. At the end of the day, Jones is the "coach/GM/owners." He gave him a monstrous contract, lets see it hold some weight. 

This decision was supposedly decided in January. Now, it surprises me that he said it was a collective decision, because knowing Jerry Jones…what he says goes. I mean obviously he is the boss, but typically he is not very open-minded nor does he negotiate. When Jerry starts changing things with the head coach of the Cowboys expect things to get dicey. 

Without a doubt, we witnessed how bad Garrett is when it comes to managing a game. He got plenty of practice, seeing most of their games were barely won in the last few minutes. I cannot remember the last time they “easily” won a game. I believe this will be hard on Garrett. It is like your parents saying your curfew is 12:00 your junior year, and then your senior year it is 11:00. It is hard to take a responsibility away from someone that had it to begin with, because you feel like you are being punished.