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Originally Posted by alexamenos
I don't think that's fair -- Jason's job thus far has been very much an x's and o'x thing, and the problems on this team run much deeper than x's and o's. We can pick nits with his x's and o's all day, but the Cowboys have had a couple of top 3 offenses in total yards (and it's hardly his fault the cowboys have practically led the league in worst field position for the last several years).
As for Gruden....he was great in Tampa Bay for one year when he had a defense which had been assembled by Tony Dungee (an excellent talent evaluator in my view), but that team went into the shitter the longer Gruden hung around--the guy barely had a 500 record whilst in Tampa.
Point being, it's hardly a given that Gruden will be a signficant upgrade over Wade. His chief pluses are that he won a Super Bowl with a team assembled by Tony Dungee and he's the devil we don't know. If Garrett looks to be doing a good job as the *HEAD* coach between now and early January, then I think Jerry has to Jason's demonstrated performance with this team ahead of what somebody else did with another team nearly a decade ago.
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First of all, it is Dungy (sorry, had to). Second of all, we won 13 games after Bill left and that was not because Wade won with Bill's players, but because Wade was exactly what the team needed - someone to loosen the reigns a little bit after several years of a grouchy old man constantly bitching at them (as one player put it, you didn't know you won after a win with Bill). Our same team that struggled with Parcells thrived under Wade and it was because they felt like free men.
Gruden played that same role in TB - they needed a guy to get in the faces of those very talented players who had been somewhat coddled and he did just that and fired that team up and they played to their potential. TB's defense took Gruden's personallity on the field and it was very successful but they got old fast and Gruden didn't have the support financially that he will have in Dallas to keep their talent pool going. He won with a defense that was out of this world but he never did have even close to the kind of talent offensively that we have now.
We need that exact same fire now from whoever coaches us. We had a guy that, personality-wise, is just like Dungy. Now we need a guy that, personality-wise, is just like Gruden (or preferably IS Gruden). Every few years if you have a guy that is ALL one personality (ALWAYS pissed and in your face or ALWAYS nice and never pushes you) you have to change coaches. Gruden isn't nearly as bad as Parcells regarding being grumpy (and Cowher is even better) so I am not nearly as worried about that happening as fast as it did with Parcells. I likewise don't care if it does happen again in 5 years - we have about that long of a window anyway with Romo.
So why not Ginger? He is part of this same failure and the guys know that. You bring in a past Super Bowl champion with as much respect as Cowher and Gruden require and you have some seriously amped and ready-to-play guys that will respond to being challenged. Should it take that? No, but that seems to be the mindset of this team. I have said it all year long. We are dumb. Dumb. We are defeated men being coached by a defeated man (at least to the 53 suiting up). They should all play their hearts out every single snap, but it isn't happening and I don't see that changing with Ginger coaching us.
Besides, if you are basing your desire to keep Garrett on wins and losses with Kitna guiding our offense, numerous injuries, a poor line, and an even worse secondary - you will be on my side soon enough. These final 8 games have 2-6 written all over it. I say lose as many of the next 8 as you can, get great draft picks for next year, sign some talent in the offseason, and provide the leadership that you know can properly steer a ship while you have the next few prime years of Romo. Doing that to me is much better than gambling that a young coach can turn into something special. Maybe he can, but do you really want to bet the prime years of this team's catalyst on that? I don't, primarily because this year showed me that poor leadership trumps talent. I hope Jerry doesn't want to take that bet either.