Jerry Jones had great news for Dallas Cowboys’ head coach Jeff Garrett and horrible news for the fan uprising that wants him gone. When asked if Garrett’s job is in danger, Jones responded by saying, “No. We’re just getting started here.”

That will probably send many fans screaming to their keyboards in anger, demanding Garrett’s head and wishing Jones would just go away. The thing is it won’t happen. Jones is here to stay. He took over the team and fired a legendary head coach in 1989, bringing in a college coach to take his place. That coach exceeded all expectations and led Dallas to two Super Bowl victories.

When Jimmy Johnson left, the team fell short the next year and a new head coach, another former college coach, came in and brought in just the right replacements to win a third Super Bowl. Since Barry Switzer left, no one has been very successful in Big D.

Chan Gailey arrived and did decent but was cut loose too early and Dave Campo drove the team to the depths of the NFC. Troy Aikman retired and Dallas found no one worth taking his place. Bill Parcells came in and did a decent job but he couldn’t even bring them back. Wade Phillips did the best of any of them when he finally found a franchise quarterback in Tony Romo.

Then, in the middle of a disastrous season, Phillips was let go. I don’t know if he should have taken the responsibility for the season. Dallas was coming off their best season since the Super Bowl years and was playing with a backup quarterback. However, Phillips was gone and Jason Garrett took over. Garrett finished the season with a 5-3 record and came into 2011 as the new head coach.

Now, with Dallas sitting at 7-6 and tied for the lead in the NFL East, everyone wants Garrett fired and Tony Romo chased out of town. This could only happen in Dallas. If the Cowboys fall completely off the boat in the last three weeks and lose two of the three final games, Jones might change his tune. Otherwise, it is a wait and see attitude in Dallas right now.

Jason Garrett and Tony Romo have the Cowboys in position to fight for the NFC East title. The doomsday button should not be pushed yet.

Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Dallas Cowboys’ fan since he was a child. His favorite players range from Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett to the Triplets of the 90s and he enjoys talking about all Cowboys’ related news, good or bad

Source: NFL.COM

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While the
New York Giants
and
Dallas Cowboys
both lost last weekend, the damage by those defeats can easily be mitigated thanks to what’s at stake this weekend.

The Giants will try to end a four-game losing streak Sunday night on the road against the Cowboys as these rivals play for
the NFC East lead.

Dallas (7-5) leads New York (6-6) by one game. The Giants led the race by two before their slide.

The Cowboys had their four-game win streak snapped thanks to mistakes that included poor clock management in last Sunday’s
19-13 overtime loss at Arizona – a defeat that cost them a chance to clinch the division this weekend.

“Most importantly, we have to put this one to bed and go to the next one,” coach Jason Garrett said.

The Giants, meanwhile, seem buoyed despite last Sunday’s 38-35 last-second loss to Green Bay. After giving the unbeaten Packers
their toughest game, New York is looking forward to the chance to move back into first place.

“The mindset is looking ahead,” quarterback
Eli Manning
said. “It doesn’t matter what you’ve done last week or what your record is. It’s what you’re playing for, who you have this
week. And you have Dallas, Sunday night football, that’s a big one.”

These teams’ quarterbacks are having similar seasons. Manning has a 96.0 passer rating, 23 touchdowns to 11 interceptions
and 3,705 passing yards.
Tony Romo
owns a 97.3 rating with 22 touchdowns to nine interceptions and 3,325 yards through the air.

“I think everyone knows this is an important game and you have to play the best football this time of year,” Romo said. “We’re
going to go out there and give great effort and be ready for a great challenge in the Giants.”

Each passing game could get a boost Sunday.

Receiver
Mario Manningham
, out the last two games with a sore knee, could return for New York. Manningham has three touchdown catches in his last four
games against Dallas and would complement a group that includes
Hakeem Nicks
and
Victor Cruz
.

Cruz is fourth in the league with 1,076 receiving yards after three straight 100-yard efforts.

Cowboys star receiver
Miles Austin
and blocking fullback
Tony Fiammetta
returned to practice Wednesday and both are expected to play. That should provide help to an offense that has produced three
touchdowns over the last two games.

“We feel like we have a rejuvenated offense,” receiver
Laurent Robinson
said.

The Giants had some changes on their offensive line last week with
Kevin Boothe
replacing
David Baas
(neck) at center and
Mitch Petrus
entering at left guard. Dave Diehl had already replaced the injured
Will Beatty
at left tackle.

Diehl is accustomed to that spot from years past, and could renew his battle with linebacker
DeMarcus Ware
. Ware, who leads the NFL with 15 sacks, sat out practice Wednesday with a stinger.

“That has always been a great matchup and there have been some other ones all across the board on both sides of the ball,”
Garrett said. “That is certainly one of the subplots of the game and we are excited to see how it plays out.”

No NFC team has more sacks than the Cowboys’ 35, and the Giants are close behind with 33.

New York’s rushing defense is 23rd in the league, allowing 127.0 yards per game. The Giants will get their first look at Cowboys
rookie
DeMarco Murray
, who averaged 108.5 yards rushing during the win streak before being limited to 38 last Sunday.

“I think they are averaging 114 yards a game rushing,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. “They are doing some good things with
the run game.”

The Giants remain last in the league in rushing with 83.8 yards per game. They reached 100 for the first time in four games
last Sunday as
Ahmad Bradshaw
returned after missing four straight with a broken bone in his right foot.

New York’s depleted secondary received good news on safety
Kenny Phillips
, who left the Green Bay game with a knee sprain but could play.

These teams split notable meetings last season.

Romo’s season came to an early end with a broken collarbone due to a hit by
Michael Boley
in last year’s 41-35 home loss to New York – part of a 1-7 start that led to the dismissal of coach Wade Phillips.

Garrett had a memorable debut as interim coach, guiding Dallas to a 33-20 victory at New York in the last meeting Nov, 14.
2010.

Their upcoming clash Jan. 1 in the regular-season finale has the chance to be even more dramatic.

New York has won both previous matchups at Cowboys Stadium, where Manning has six touchdown passes, three interceptions, a
68.5 completion percentage and 636 passing yards.

In 1998, the Dallas Cowboys were looking for a new head coach to replace Barry Switzer. Switzer took over the team after Jimmy Johnson left and won a Super Bowl title in his second season there. After the 1997 season saw Dallas drop to 6-10, Switzer resigned.

Dallas went with Chan Gailey, the offensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1996 and 1997, moving up from wide receiver coach, a position he held since 1994. During his time in Pittsburgh, the Steelers won their division all four years and made one Super Bowl appearance, which they lost to Switzer’s Dallas Cowboys.

Gailey took over the slumping Cowboys in 1998. After Switzer’s final six win season, Gailey won the NFC East in his first season as Dallas’ head coach and made the playoffs both years he served as the Cowboys’ head coach. Dallas did not win a playoff game under Gailey and Jerry Jones fired him after his second season.

After Gailey left, Dave Campo took over and the Cowboys suffered through three consecutive five-win seasons. In hindsight, getting rid of Gailey doomed the Dallas Cowboys to mediocrity. Legendary coach Bill Parcells came in for four seasons, followed by Wade Phillips.

Meanwhile, Gailey moved on. He served as the Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator for two seasons before taking the head coaching job at Georgia Tech, where he led the Yellow Jackets to six straight bowl appearances. Gailey continued to prove that teams could win under him and the Kansas City Chiefs gave him a chance to coordinate in the NFL again in 2008.

By 2009, new head coach Todd Haley relieved Gailey of his duties and he left football until the Buffalo Bills called him in 2010.

On Sunday, Nov. 13, Dallas welcomes Chan Gailey and the Buffalo Bills to Texas, where he has Buffalo at a 5-3 record. It is interesting to see him headed back up again as Dallas meets him this week. With the way the Cowboys franchise has struggled over the last decade, it is a curiosity to see what Gailey could have accomplished with the team.

Author Shawn S. Lealos has followed the Dallas Cowboys since he was a child, his favorite players range from Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett to the Triplets of the 90s. Through the great years of the ’90s and the hard times of the ’80s, Shawn never turned his back on America’s Team.

Source: Dallas Cowboys website

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Say this much about the Dallas Cowboys under Jason Garrett: They sure don’t get blown out.

Then again, they don’t blow anyone out, either.

Over their past nine games, the Cowboys have won or lost by a field goal every time. It’s the longest such streak in NFL history — by three, of course.

Dallas is 5-4 in this white-knuckle stretch, having won the past two. The way wounded quarterback Tony Romo and rookie kicker Dan Bailey combined to pull out both wins shows that this club is becoming comfortable dealing with adversity and late-game pressure.

It’s good for ratings, but not necessarily Garrett’s vocal cords. His voice was raspy following an 18-16 victory Monday night that featured six field goals, no touchdowns and, most of all, a 2-1 start that guarantees the Cowboys won’t repeat their toxic 1-7 start from last season.

Dallas also can savour its first winning record since the end of the 2009 season, and being part of a three-way tie atop the NFC East.

“When the whole season ends up getting written and the book’s done on the year, they don’t ask you what happened in week two or three or four or six, why you lost or won. It’s a ‘W’ or an ‘L,’” Romo said. “Some are ugly. Some you win going away. But at the end of the year, you need the wins. Tonight was a great example of us keep grinding, keep going forward.”

Learning to win is a step in the evolution of every team, even this group filled with veteran leaders.

The Cowboys showed they’d forgotten how early last season, when close games kept turning into losses. The constant losing eventually broke their spirits and lopsided losses followed, so many that owner Jerry Jones fired coach Wade Phillips.

Garrett took over and immediately started changing the club’s culture in big and small ways. The biggest is that they went 5-3 the rest of last season, and that they’ve picked up where they left off this season.

The weird part is their knack for keeping every game close. The NFL hasn’t seen anything like this since the Raiders had a six-game stretch at the end of the 2004 season, and start of 2005.

“Two out of three games in the NFL last year were within one score in the fourth quarter,” Garrett said. “We play a lot of those games. You have to understand and you have to believe you can make the plays when necessary.”

Dallas has done it all in this brief season — blow a big lead, wipe out a big deficit and play a nail-biter.

The Cowboys had a chance to pull out a stunning, convincing victory over the Jets in New York in the opener, but a pair of awful decisions by Romo turned a 14-point lead into a loss. It was the first time in franchise history that Dallas had ever blown such a big, late lead, putting some skeptics on an early collapse watch.

Predictions of doom seemed to be playing out when the Cowboys were losing by 14 early, and by 10 late the following week in San Francisco — especially with Romo breaking a rib and Felix Jones separating a shoulder in that game.

Yet both played through pain and Dallas managed to get a tying field goal from Bailey at the end of regulation, and another in overtime for the win.

The pressure of those kicks was immense for an undrafted rookie who’d missed a mere 21-yarder on his only other try, way back on the game’s opening drive.

While Monday night can’t top the drama of that win, it was intense.

Dallas struggled to run and centre Phil Costa even had trouble snapping the ball to Romo. Add in some poor route-running and a plethora of players playing in pain or out with injuries, and it’s understandable why the Cowboys never reached the end zone.

They never trailed by more than a touchdown, but they only led by a field goal for 2:25 late in the first half, until getting the winning kick — Bailey’s sixth of the game — with 1:42 left.

The defence was stout all night, keeping the Redskins to only one touchdown and three field goals, then came up with a turnover to end Washington’s final drive.

It’s too early to gauge the quality of Dallas’ two wins. But the early indications are that they’re pretty good. San Francisco and Washington haven’t lost to anyone else, and the Jets are 1-1 in their other two games.

Maybe Dallas’ next game will help clear things up.

The Cowboys will again be at home, against the unbeaten Lions, the conference’s up-and-coming darlings.

Dallas will still be banged up because of the severity of the injuries and the slightly shortened week of recovery. They also will be going into their bye week, so players know relief is on the way.

“We feel like we are a really good team, but we have to go show it and play it,” tight end Jason Witten said. “It’s starting to come. We feel the confidence coming, and we just have to keep it going.”

In the NFL, “winning ugly” is a common experience. Fans hate it but coaches love it. In the case of the Dallas Cowboys, “winning ugly” sums up Monday night.

Before we write off Tony Romo, again, as just another mistake-prone quarterback who looks brilliant one play and silly the next, consider that he essentially beat the Washington Redskins single-handedly behind a wretched offensive line, depleted receiving core and bruised running back. Oh yeah, he has a broken rib and a punctured lung.

In our fantasy-football-obsessed world, we tend to focus on statistics as the barometer of a player’s performance, especially a quarterback’s. If you do that for Romo, then he was rather ordinary Monday, throwing for 255 yards, one interception and zero touchdowns.

But for the second week in a row, the 31-year-old willed Dallas to victory, while wearing a motion-limiting vest. It wasn’t sexy to watch, but a gutsy performance was exactly what his team — no, what his franchise — needed. Let’s not forget that the Cowboys organization with just one playoff win in the last 15 years. For all the glitz and glamour of “Big D,” for all the hype around the billion-dollar stadium, “America’s Team” has offered one colossal disappointment after another since the mid 1990s.

The game Monday night, when seemingly everything was going against Dallas, was precisely the type of game it would have lost in the past. Former head coach Wade Phillips made it a habit to lose these games, as did his predecessors Chan Gailey, Dave Campo and even Bill Parcells.

The ability to win ugly is what makes the Cowboys especially scary this season. While Washington surely isn’t Pittsburgh or Green Bay, it is a markedly improved team capable of making a run at the NFC East. Philadelphia is 1-2 and quarterback Michael Vick is already complaining, while the New York Giants — fresh off a monster win over the Eagles — have a patchwork secondary and injury-ridden receiving core themselves.

Dallas, meanwhile, will get healthy. Receivers Dez Bryant and Miles Austin give Romo one of the most devastating 1-2 punches in the league, with Bryant the playmaking burner on the perimeter and Austin the possession genius. Running back Felix Jones clearly demonstrated he still has the dramatic burst of speed that made Marion Barber expendable this off-season.

The big question mark is the offensive line, which looked downright awful against the Skins. Center Phil Costa had three fumbles and a barrage of bad snaps, while Doug Free looked completely overwhelmed at left tackle. But this is a young line, and adjustments will be made. If they can just be average, Romo — with one of the quickest releases in the league — will make do.

An 18-16 win on “Monday Night Football” wasn’t pretty and not what owner Jerry Jones pays for, but it was a benchmark. For the second consecutive week, Dallas played poorly and won.

Just as I wrote before the season started, watch out for them ‘Boys.

Ed. Note: Originally, this text ran as: Dallas being “one colossal disappointment after another since the early 1990s.” The correct version is mid 1990s.

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