Why Jason Garrett, Not Tony Romo, Is Holding Dallas Cowboys Back

Over the past few seasons, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo has been accused of holding the team and franchise back by his uneven play, particularly in big games. But as we saw during Sunday's 19-13 debacle of an overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals, it may actually be head coach Jason Garrett who derails the Cowboys this season.

For those who didn't see the game, Garrett's clock management at the end of the game fit somewhere between puzzling and asinine. With the game tied at 13 and his team driving for a winning score late in the fourth quarter, Garrett refused to use one of his two remaining timeouts to stop the clock and possibly run more plays to set up a closer field-goal attempt.

When Romo completed a pass to the Cardinals' 31-yard line with 31 seconds left, rather than use one of the team's two timeouts, the Cowboys lined up and spiked the ball. It took much longer than it should have for the team to line up correctly and when Dallas finally got the clock stopped, there were just seven seconds remaining. With proper clock management Dallas could have easily run two to three more plays and still had time to line up for a game-winning field goal.

But that wasn't even the bad part. Then when kicker Dan Bailey lined up for a 49-yard field goal, Garrett inexplicably called a timeout just before the snap. Bailey banged the kick through the uprights, but obviously it didn't count. Garrett claimed he called the timeout because the play clock was down to six seconds.

Well, he effectively iced his own kicker as Bailey's second attempt fell short and went left, thus sending the game to overtime.

The Cowboys obviously lost in overtime.

How an NFL head coach can botch clock management that badly is really beyond me. The Cowboys are now 7-5, and while they are a game ahead of the 6-6 New York Giants for first place in the NFC East, the playoffs aren't a guarantee at this point. If a bad loss to the Cardinals keeps Dallas from the postseason, Garrett will have a lot to answer for.