America's Team? Can the Cowboys Survive Jason Garrett and the Failures of 2010?

I have felt for a long time that it was the inexperience and immaturity of Jason Garrett that was holding the Cowboys back.

Since being named as the Cowboys offensive coordinator even before Wade Phillips was named as head coach, the Cowboys offense has seemed to be "hit and miss".

In the first eight games of 2010, it was mostly "miss". Sometimes I found myself wondering if he even had his eyes open.

His sporadic play calling often times more resembled a child playing video football than that of an NFL coordinator.

Each time the Cowboys have seemed on the verge of greatness, it has been the offense that was a no-show as Garrett would abandon the running game, and the ensuing pass happy offense would result in turnovers, sacks, and drives that repeatedly stalled as the Cowboys closed in on the red zone.

With the back of the end zone limiting the routes of receivers, the Cowboys have struggled to put points on the board. Add to that the kicking woes that have haunted the Cowboys since Bill Parcells years in Dallas, and the Cowboys scoring would all but disappear.

In 2010, Garrett's offense took impotence to a new level in the first eight games of the season, and the result was the loss of the entire 2010 season as a 1-7 record cost Wade Phillips his job, though Garrett was named interim head coach.

Jason Garrett was the only man in Dallas that benefited from the Cowboys meltdown in 2010 that may have caused more damage than owner Jerry Jones realizes.

The latest stats from one outlet, NFLShop.com, is reporting that the Pittsburgh Steelers memorabilia and other merchandise is the top seller for 2010. While this is only one outlet, it is a nation-wide seller of online merchandise for the NFL, and could spell hard times for Jerry Jones and the Cowboys franchise if the trend were to continue across the nation as fans grow weary of the repeated humiliations that occur when the Cowboys vaunted offense fails to show up for a game.

The Cowboys are still number two, still ahead of last year's Super Bowl champions, the Saints.

Life-long Cowboys fans have weathered year after year of disappointments since the 1995 Super Bowl Champions, but there is more to the story than just one disappointing year.

For the first time that I can remember, the Cowboys franchise is beginning to lose their allure. Once symbolizing the best of what Americans want to see in their heroes, the Cowboys have been repeatedly humiliated on national television- embarrassing their fans as well as their franchise.

From the ridiculous call for a pass play at the end of the first half in Washington, to the lethargic offense in Green Bay that forced the Cowboys defense to play an entire game by themselves, Garrett's leadership of the Cowboys offense has more resembled that of someone without proper knowledge and teaching than that of a professional coach.

How many humiliations can Jerry Jones ask Cowboys fans to endure, and still remain loyal? It seems that he willingly turns his head at the immaturity of Jason Garrett, and seemingly has no concern that his once proud Cowboys franchise has been reduced to being the punchline of jokes in the NFL.

The naming of Jason Garrett as the next head coach of the Dallas Cowboys was a slap in the face to football fans across the nation who really understand the game and the way it should be played. Garrett's pass happy approach to start the season and abandonment of the fundamental principles of offensive coordination were enough to cost the Cowboys seven losses out of eight games.

And then, as if we didn't know any better, Garrett implemented a balanced, disciplined, well coordinated attack only after he is named interim head coach.

How dumb does Jerry think Cowboys fans are, that we can't see what happened?

And the sad part of it all is that once again the Cowboys have nearly wasted a window of opportunity with a group of players that Jerry hired Bill Parcells to assemble and teach- and now four years after Parcells is gone, the offensive line is aging, the quarterback has been questioned as to his game management skills, and we no longer have a defensive coordinator that is arguably the best in the NFL.

I never thought that Wade Phillips had the demeanor to be a head coach, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Some men just don't have that, and it's not an insult to say that. Phillips was nothing short of an NFL leader as a defensive coordinator, and justifiably a well respected and well thought of man.

And, looking at Phillips record over the three and a half years in Dallas, not many coaches can do better.

The way the Cowboys were set up was for Phillips to run the defense and oversee special teams, while Garrett ran the offense with full control of how it operated. Garrett was in essence already making preparations to become the head coach of the Cowboys, and was paid like one.

And, it would have worked if the offensive coordinator had been NFL caliber. The Cowboys have assembled the most talented roster in the NFL, and when they are coordinated properly they are as tough as any team in the NFL.

But it is the offense that has failed to show up in critical games since Garrett became the offensive coordinator. In 2007, the Cowboys blew home field advantage throughout the playoffs in the first game against the eventual Super Bowl champion Giants when the run game disappeared mid way into the third quarter. Down 21-17, Romo passed , passed, and passed- and each drive was a symphony of near misses, culminating in an incompletion in the end zone as the Cowboys couldn't muster a score.

In 2008 the Cowboys needed only to defeat the Eagles to be in the playoffs, and the result was another pass happy attack that resulted in a 44-6 drubbing at the hands of Donovan McNabb and the Eagles. It was yet another humiliation at the hands of the Eagles that Cowboys fans were forced to endure.

In 2009 the Cowboys were on the verge of collapsing once again after a loss to San Diego put their record at 8-5 with three games to play. The remaining three games were against the undefeated Saints, the Redskins, and the Eagles. With the Cowboys barely defeating the Redskins by a score of 7-6 in their previous meeting in Dallas, event the easiest of the three games seemed a daunting task.

Garrett's stock was at a low point, and had the Cowboys missed the playoffs again in 2009, he likely would have been replaced at the end of that season. The 2010 Cowboys and their fans would have been better off if he had.

However, for the first time, Garrett then found the value of the run game. It was actually in the loss to San Diego that the Cowboys fastened up their chin straps and mounted a physical drive with their massive offensive line that pushed the Chargers down the field. Only failed attempts by Marion Barber in short yardage cost the Cowboys the game, but Garrett had found something.

For the rest of 2009, it was a powerful run game by the Cowboys that took their offense to a new level- and then the passing game opened up as well, as opposing defenses struggled to cover both the pass and the run. The Cowboys marched over the previously unbeaten New Orleans Saints, the Redskins folded under the weight of an impending coaching change, but it was the Eagles who felt the wrath of an offensive resurgence that finally had the Cowboys offense playing to the level Cowboys fans expect from this once proud franchise.

The Cowboys rolled over the Eagles twice in a row- winning the NFC East with the first victory and then the first playoff game since December 28, 1996 the following week, and the Cowboys powerful run game was a driving force. The Cowboys racked up 178 yards on the ground in the first meeting, and then 198 in the second meeting, destroying the Eagles in both games.

But in Minnesota, that power run game disappeared. Minnesota's linebackers gave their fans all kinds of reasons to cheer as they harrassed Tony Romo all game long, forcing 4 fumbles and one interception. The result was a 34-3 embarrassment that saw Brett Favre finally enjoy playoff success against the Cowboys. It would be Favre and the Vikings who would play the Saints for the right to go to the 2009 Super Bowl, instead of a Cowboys team that had already convincingly defeated them.

So, with all of that being said, Cowboys fans had good reason to believe that 2010 would be the year that the Cowboys returned to the elite status in the NFL that made them America's team. Instead, they were greeted from the outset of 2010 with an impotent offense, and a humiliating play call on opening night in Washington D.C. that would symbolize a myriad of things to come.

Garrett's refusal to return to the philosophies of a power run game, while he called 50 passes a game would not cease until the last breath of hope for the 2010 season was done, and the Cowboys were humiliated once again in front of a national audience on Sunday Night Football in Green Bay , Wisconsin, where he called pass after pass, and provided the Green Bay Packers the key source of fuel as the Cowboys suffered the worst loss in their 50 year history.

But the next week, after Wade Phillips was fired, and Garrett had secured the job he had always wanted, that powerful run game returned, and he would stick with it long enough to garner enough points with Jerry Jones to make sure that he was named the next head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

How long will die-hard Cowboys fans stay with the team that has repeatedly humiliated them? I don't know. Jerry Jones must recognize that there were qualities that Americans identified with that made them "America's Team"; and he has to wonder where those qualities have gone to when something happens like what we saw from them this year.

But for a team that has symbolized the best in what Americans love in a hero, what does it say that the man who ran the offense that cost them the entire 2010 season is just about the only man who benefited from that disaster?

And how can the Cowboys continue to symbolize greatness, when it was impotence and immaturity that helped their new head coach gain the position he always wanted?

Something to think about.

And that's the bottom line.