Dallas Cowboys: Will They Keep Jason Garrett or Wade Phillips?

According to a report on ESPN, the Baltimore Ravens have asked Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett to be their new head coach after they fired Brian Billick for being out of his league and living on undeserved accolades from years ago. Word on the street says that Garrett has yet to make a decision.

I have a feeling he won’t have to: Jerry Jones will offer him the head coaching job with the Cowboys if he will stay on, firing Wade Phillips in the process.

Now, this is all on gut feeling and I know there are others out there who feel the same way, especially after the Cowboys became the first top NFC team to lose in the Divisional round of the playoffs in modern-day NFL history. Someone has to pay for that, and the top man has proven himself to be, like Marty Schottenheimer, a postseason loser.

Phillips is now 0-4 in the playoffs. Marty has won five games in the postseason, but he has had 18 chances – and two of those wins came with Joe Montana and Marcus Allen playing together for the Chiefs. I have those games on tape and I am pretty sure they just stopped listening to Marty in order to win. If that was the case, Schottenheimer has not won a playoff game on his own merits since 1990. That’s only 18 years, right? Yeah, he’ll get another chance real soon. Madness.

Even Phillips has admitted that he was surprised to get another shot at being an NFL head coach after his sessions of futility while masquerading as the head coach of the Denver Broncos and Buffalo Bills made it abundantly clear – apparently to anyone not named Jerry Jones – that giving Wade Phillips command of an NFL team is simply to watch the Peter Principle play out before your eyes. It is a waste of the talents of people like Tony Romo and Terrell Owens, and no one wants to see Owens all teary-eyed. (By no one, I mean everyone except Cowboys fans; and I especially mean fans of the 49ers and Eagles.)

The article linked to in the previous paragraph talks about Norv Turner, the first-year head coach in San Diego, who is going to give an excellent example of an entire team displaying the meaning of the Peter Principle when the Chargers visit New England this weekend to play the undefeated Patriots on their home turf, Gillette Field.

Still, hats off to Turner for getting his team into the AFC Championship game. He has made some great calls in these playoffs and pretty much everything has panned out very well for him. Color me surprised, but happily so. I love being wrong about someone sucking. I want everyone in the NFL to be great. How could you not, as a fan?

Anyway, read what 41 Miles To Freedom says about the hiring of Wade Phillips in Dallas back in July of last year and you’ll get a glimpse into the thought processes that can sway an otherwise sound mind into the illogical notion that, “Hey, maybe Phillips will do just fine.”

So, now Jerry Jones has two choices, really. Both of which will cause him at least a measure of stress and losing face. He can keep Phillips and lose Garrett in the process; a decision that will bring the ire of intelligent football fans from throughout the Lone Star State. Or, he can cut Phillips and make Garrett his new head coach; in effect admitting that he should probably have hired Garrett instead of Phillips last year.

While the second option will placate the fans, at least for now – such a fickle bunch are they – perhaps Jones is smarter than we know. It is entirely possible that, like the four other head coaches mentioned in this piece, Garrett will not be a good head coach and Jones knows this. After all, not many people have been around football and management as long as Jones. (Don’t bring up the obviously insane Al Davis.)

Still, Garrett would only have to be better than Wade Phillips to be the better choice and that can’t be all that hard. Phillips seems to have brought the fun back to the Cowboys and Garrett is given tons of credit for bringing their level of play up a notch. Solution: Keep both, but have Phillips as a sort of team leader / cheerleader-type thing.

This story should be interesting however it plays out.

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Monday Night Football Predictions – Broncos at Chargers

The San Diego Chargers have more to play for in Week 17 of the 2007 NFL regular season than they would like. But, considering the fact that ten weeks ago it looked like they would fall prey to Norv Turner’s lack of coaching abilities, they should just be happy that they have a division crown and a chance to be in the playoffs at all. It will be a testament to the futility of having Marty Schottenheimer on the sidelines in a playoff game if the Chargers manage to win even one postseason matchup this year.

The biggest reason the Chargers have to win this game is to try to avoid having to meet the Jacksonville Jaguars in their first playoff game in January. They would much, much rather have the Titans – who are in the postseason, somehow, with a victory over the Indianapolis Colts backup squad next Sunday night – or the Browns, who are in the playoffs no matter what they do next week; the Browns need the Titans to lose to make the playoffs.

The Denver Broncos will finish the season in a disappointing fashion, but hardly unexpected. Quarterback Jay Cutler might have the goods and he might not, but it was obvious from last year’s pretty decent performances that he needs a bit more time to develop before we are to know for sure.

The Yardstick for this Monday Night Football game favors the Chargers by eight points, at the time of writing.

Upset Week in the NFL

Lots of upsets this week, starting with the Thursday night game when the Houston Texans beat the Denver Broncos 31-13, then continuing last night when Shaun Hill stepped up in his first NFL start to lead the 49ers to a 20-13 victory over the Bengals. The Yardstick had called for three- and seven-point wins for the Broncos and Bengals, respectively.

Today, the trend went on.

The Panthers beat the NFC West-champion Seahawks 13-10, an indication of the weakness of the NFC West division in general. Then, the Miami Dolphins scored on a 64-yard toucgdown pass by Cleo Lemon in OT to beat the Ravens and grab their first victory of the 2007 NFL season. Should Billick be fired?

In Pittsburgh, in the wind and snow, the Jacksonville Jaguars ran the ball down the throats of the supposed best defense in the NFL and beat the Steelers at Heinz Field 29-22, making things very interesting in the AFC North, as Cleveland held off the Bills 8-0. The Browns and Steelers now have 9-5 records at the tyop of their division, with Pittsburgh having a leg up in tiebreakers.

Oh yeah, and Brett Favre is now the leading passer in yardage in NFL history, surpassing the record owned by Dan Marino today in a winning effort as Green Bay manhandled the Lambs in St. Louis.

Surprising Underdogs?

Early week breakdown of some of this week’s NFL games:

New England at Indianapolis – The Yardstick, as of Thursday evening has the Pats favored to win by at least a field goal. It looks like more people are believing the Colts will be able to stay with New England as the week goes on. Last I checked, the Patriots were favored by at least 6 points. I have a sneaking suspicion that this game won’t be nearly as close as some think. Undefeated Super Bowl champions as underdogs? That is something I never expected to see.

Denver Broncos at Detroit Lions – Who, besides Jon Kitna, would have thought that the Lions would be favored in this Week 9 matchup at the beginning of the season? Amen to that. The Yardstick syas they should win this one by at least two points. What a fall for a Denver team that many had picked to be in the top few teams in the NFL.

Bengals at Bills – Another crazy, crazy situation. The Bengals have some of the best offensive players in the game, and the Bills…well, don’t. Yet there is no consensus on this game as of yet. That’s right, the Yardstick is reading EVEN as of this writing, and the Bills actually could win this game.

Seahawks at Browns – Aside from their 2005 season, when they got things together and went all the way to the Super Bowl, Seattle has been a horrible road team for a long time. Still, for the Browns to be favored on the Yardstick by three points has to be a pleasant shock to Browns fans all over this great, big world.

Those are just a few of the games going on this week, but the ones that caught my eye as possibly being a bit of a surprise for now. There’s still lots of time, though, and these Yardsticks will most likely change as Sunday draws closer.

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