The owner of the Dallas Cowboys did the inevitable, appropriate and humane thing yesterday and fired head coach Wade Phillips after Sunday night’s absolutely embarrassing loss to the Green Bay Packers.
It had become abundantly clear after the first few games of this season that the team was not listening to their leader and the guy who was supposed to be directing everyone was himself directionless.
Change was clearly needed and now offensive coordinator gets the interim tag and an eight-week job interview of sorts. How he fares the rest of the way through this tumultuous season will show the Cowboys and other potential employers if he can be a coaching golden boy like everyone thought he could be a few years ago.
Don’t forget, the Ravens and Falcons reportedly both offered him their head coaching jobs before Dallas decided to keep him and make Garrett one of the highest paid coordinators in the league.
Here’s the sad part for Garrett though: What are the chances that this team is going to respond to him when it’s basically going to be a status quo with him in charge? Is he going to run the same offence that he has had all season differently? Why would he change his style of coaching that he used for the past four seasons? This job interview could turn really sour, really fast.
Garrett also faces a huge test in his first game at the helm: Visiting the New York Giants. Lucky for him, the Giants are actually a better road team than a host.
I also must apologize for calling out Phillips about the non-challenge on Sunday night, apparently he had mismanaged away all of the team’s timeouts before that.
Good luck in the UFL, Wade. It’ll be a long time before you’re on NFL sidelines as a head coach again. (But defensive coordinating isn’t out of the question somewhere…)
This week: 8-4-1
This season: 69-56-5