Dallas Cowboys' Head Coach Jason Garrett Gets Wrong Message From Super Bowl XLV

I’m afraid that Super Bowl XLV will always be remembered for things like bad weather, displaced fans, pathetic half-time shows and National anthems, poor officiating and so forth. Not too much has been said about the actual game as it was played between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the victorious Green Bay Packers.

The scoreboard tells us that unlike in passed eras, this was a very good football game—or at least it was close and competitive. In other words, nobody came close to breaking 50 points or nine turnovers or anything like that. But that’s about where the admiration stops.

To me, the single biggest fear is that the wet-behind-the-ears Jason Garrett, about to embark on his first season as an NFL head coach, got the worst possible message from this years’ Super Bowl. We can safely assume that he did, indeed, watch the game, right?

Of course he did.

Much was said going into this contest, in Cowboys circles anyway, about the fact that Dallas was looking at not only two historic franchises that have tormented them in post-seasons passed, but also that America’s Team was looking at what it could or should be.

Even I pointed out the idea that Dallas should really be examining the personnel employed by both the Packers and the Steelers in their respective 3-4 schemes. Many others did the same, and based on the stats, I can’t quite say that the Cowboys learned anything new. The Packers defense won the turnover battle which was easily the deciding factor in the game.

How do you explain how the defense, which held its opponent to only 50 yards rushing, and also came out ahead in time of possession, lost the game?

Turnovers.

But what about offensive lessons? This is where it gets discouraging.

Garrett has already illustrated, as an average at best offensive coordinator, that running the ball isn’t exactly a priority. Garrett prescribes to the idea that passing the football anywhere from 35 to 50 times per contest is the best way to travel, especially with as little blocking as possible.

Yet, in Super XLV there was Aaron Rodgers hoisting up the Lombardi Trophy and MVP honors after going 24/39 for 304 yards and three touchdowns.

Understand this much: the Packers should have probably lost the football game even despite the fact they were the better team. Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy came in with a game plan that almost cost him a championship.

The Packers, despite rushing for 4.7 yards per carry, only bothered to hand the ball off 11 times. This is fundamental retardation at its finest and Vince Lombardi has to be rolling in his grave. It’s one thing if you rushed the ball only 11 times because you couldn’t get more than three yards per carry, but that wasn’t the case for Green Bay.  

With just one less turnover, the Packers lose this game. With two less turnovers, the Cheese-Heads might have been beaten soundly in Arlington, Texas.

Is this really the message Garrett needed to see? Well, if he sees the entire message then yes.

No, your quarterback should not be expected to throw the football 39 times in a game, at least not if you expect him to remain healthy and you want to win most of your games.

Recent Super Bowl history illustrates my point, as does the fact that, believe it or not, Rodgers didn’t even have the most passing attempts in Super Bowl XLV. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger actually hit the 40 mark despite those rushing yards.

I’m telling you, those turnovers will kill you.

Let’s look back ten years at just the passing attempts taken by the two starting quarterbacks in the Super Bowl—and also the result.

Super Bowl XLIV: Brees 39 / P. Manning 45. Saints win.

Super Bowl XLIII: Roethlisberger 30 / Warner 43. Steelers win.

Super Bowl XLII: E. Manning 34 / Brady 48. Giants win.

Super Bowl XLI: P. Manning 38 / Grossman 28. Colts win.

Super Bowl XL: Roethlisberger 21 / Hasselbeck 49. Steelers win.   

Super Bowl: XXXIX: Brady 33 / McNabb 51. Patriots win.

Super Bowl : XXXVIII: Brady 48 / Delhomme 33. Patriots win.

Super Bowl XXXVII: Johnson 34 / Gannon 44. Buccaneers win.

Super Bowl XXXVI: Brady 27 / Warner 44. Patriots win.

Super Bowl XXXV: Dilfer 25 / Collins 39. Ravens win.

Now, only once over the last decade has the winning quarterback made more passing attempts than his counterpart, that being Peyton Manning over Rex Grossman in Super Bowl XLI. Then again, who in their right mind would want Grossman relinquishing possession of the football very many times in the first place? In conclusion, Chicago was at a “slight” handicap as far as the quarterback position in that game.

Also, only once in the past decade has the winning quarterback tossed the ball up over 40 times, that being Tom Brady in Super Bowl XXXVIII against Carolina. But given the known history of New England head coach Bill Belichick, one can only wonder how his quarterback gets away with 48 pass attempts, along with an interception, somehow hogs the ball for 38:58 … and only wins by three points?

Videotape anyone?

You’ve heard the saying “when you throw the football one of three things can happen and two of them are bad”, right? That reference is to completions, the positive, against incompletions or interceptions, obviously the negatives.

I say this: When you throw the football one of seven things can happen and six are bad. See, I include other negatives like holding calls, false starts, sacks, quarterback hits.

Of course you have to throw the ball in the NFL. Defenses are just too good not to. But this growing trend of air-it-out across the NFL is really creating a stupid looking product that often costs the better team the chance at victory because of all of those negatives that are so prominent now.

Go back and watch any classic football game prior to 2001. It’s almost like watching a different game entirely. Yet football at the highest level of play knows better than this.

Garrett, as we’ve seen all too often over the four years he’s been around, will have possessions where he didn’t run the ball once.

He’ll have a particular half in which he runs the ball only three or four times. And when he’s trailing by as many as three points, he just loves to abandon the running game completely as though he’s down by three scores with eight minutes left to play.

The NFL is a copy-cat league and has been for many years. But it’s one thing to copy something like the West Coast offense, a system brought to fame by Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers some 30 years ago. And it still works to this day.

But it’s another thing to copy stupid football, like the kind we saw from the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV.

If Garrett learned that throwing the football 40 times will almost certainly cost you a championship, then it is a lesson learned.

If Garrett learned that throwing the football almost 40 times will win you a championship, then the Dallas drought will continue.