The best teams use the bye week, no matter how early or late in the year it may come, to refocus their season and pick up a win the following week. Bill Belichick and the Patriots do this better than anyone.
Jason Garrett did not have the same post-bye success in his first seasons with Dallas but has turned it around to pick up road wins against the Giants the last two seasons.
A week 11 bye last season had the Cowboys at 7-3, staring down two pivotal NFC East games in November with the Giants and Eagles. In a game remembered for Odell Beckham’s world stopping catch, it was Dez Bryant that found the end zone when it mattered – catching a 13-yard score with just over a minute left for the win.
The Cowboys won by three, 31-28.
Dallas would go on to lose to the Eagles on Thanksgiving on a short week, but string together wins against the Bears, Eagles on the road, and Colts to win the NFC East.
The previous year, the Cowboys had the same week 11 bye to prepare for a trip to MetLife Stadium. However, they entered this one at a mere 5-5. It was another three-point win that would give the team a breath of life.
Romo methodically drove the team downfield in the fourth quarter, converting two third downs, to set up Dan Bailey for a game-winning field goal. Final score, 24-21.
The win moved the Cowboys into a tie for first place in the division. They would later lose to the Eagles in week 17, giving them the divisional title.
Reeling from three straight losses, it will be up to Jason Garrett to prepare this team once again for a trip to MetLife Stadium after the bye week. If he can improve to 3-0 in this situation, it would put the Cowboys back to 3-3 to return home and face the Seattle Seahawks.
It would also give the team an enormous 3-0 head start in the NFC East this season.
The Giants will be returning home to play this game after a Monday night matchup in Philadelphia.
So Garrett is 2-0 at the Giants coming off a bye week. That’s nice, but so what? He had never lost three straight as a head coach until Sunday, and we all know how that ended. The Cowboys need a win Sunday; history and streaks don’t matter.
I agree on the so what mentality but not for the reason you pointed out. In Garrett’s time as head coach in Dallas, he’s had a lot of success with halftime adjustments. So far that hasn’t been true of the 2015 Cowboys before Dez and Romo got hurt even. Looks like he’s shaking things up during the bye so hopefully he finds his mojo again with a few good calls, like the change at QB. Not that Cassel is a great QB, but something needs to change.
While I agree that pattern analysis is often worthless, Bryson raises a good point that he has been successful making changes in the past – and this is certainly a move he needs to have work out.
I hope you guys are right. But for three weeks now, whatever “changes” he made didn’t work. The only difference I see this time is, he has an extra week to prepare. I hope that’s enough for him to uncover a winning formula. “Next man up” and “nameless, faceless opponent” don’t seem to be working.
There are teams with five and six wins. There are a couple three with four wins.
Dallas has two wins, that came a month ago. Yes, the Cowboys have gone a MONTH without a win. Teams who do that don’t win Super Bowls.
If Dallas loses this game, still with rested Green Bay and Seattle games still looming, the season is virtually over.
If this season ends up being nothing, Garrett needs to be fired. It’s bad enough that he’s wasted the primes of two of his best players (Romo and Witten), but he hasn’t shown much if any upward arrow trend as a coach. Let’s be honest here. Garrett doesn’t ‘win’ games as a coach. Not only does he not win games as a coach, but he’s even blown winnable games.
Enough’s enough.
I agree that this is as close to a must-win as the Cowboys can have this early in the season. We need to build that 3-0 divisional record.
As for Garrett, I feel it is unfair to pinpoint him as the sole force behind potentially “wasting” the careers of Witten and Romo. You are correct in the fact that he is not a guy that other team’s would bring in because he will lead them to wins.
For the Cowboys’ purpose though, he has served as a nice figurehead and manager of this team.
Ever since Wade Phillips was fired I was advocating a coach that was purely motivational and could oversee everything while not having a lot of direct power on an aspect of the game. Once Garrett lost play calling abilities, he became just that.
The bottom line is that a win against the Giants would go a long way, and I am excited to see the return of Randy Gregory cement a defensive line that could terrorize Eli.