Former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson: 'I look for Jason Garrett to be there for quite a long time'
By Brad Townsend , Staff Writer Contact Brad Townsendon Twitter:@townbrad
Jimmy Johnson's airtime on Fox has been significantly reduced this season, because that's how he wants it to be, but when he does air his opinions, especially about the Cowboys, it's not hard to imagine viewers all over America leaning closer to the TVs.
You know, kind of like those 1970s EF Hutton commercials.
Sunday's Fox pregame show is tailor-made for Cowboys discussion, what with two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Johnson, former 1310 "The Ticket" host Curt Menefee and longtime North Texas resident Terry Bradshaw on the set.
On Sunday morning, with the Cowboys at 2-3 entering today's home game against Jacksonville and fans still bemoaning last week's overtime loss at Houston, Menefee fired a point-blank question at Johnson:
"Jimmy, I want you to look big-picture here with Dallas. Forget the going-for-it-on-fourth down there. A lot of people are saying, 'Maybe the time has run out on Jason Garrett there with the Cowboys.' Do you think he's there long-term?"
Johnson, 75, made a frowny face and tilted his head to the left. Then he gave an emphatic answer that no-doubt made a sizable portion of Cowboys fans cringe.
Johnson: "Well, first of all, I didn't agree with the decision to punt the football on fourth down. But the key for Jason Garrett is his relationship with the owner, Jerry Jones. And I think that's very good. You say, 'Well, he's only won one playoff game in eight years.' Well, they had a great coach there, Bill Parcells. He didn't win any playoff games, so that's not a factor.
"The whole thing is "Are they going to get better?" And I think they will."
Really? Apparently, the great Johnson sees possibilities in this Cowboys team that fans and reporters simply aren't seeing. Johnson lifted his right hand and began counting reasons on his fingers.
"I know (Dak) Prescott can play much better than he's played the last couple of weeks. I know they're going to get healthy. They're going to try to go out and get 'em a receiver.
"They will be better. I look for Jason Garrett to be there for quite a long time."
Bradshaw: "Jerry likes Jason."
Johnson: "He likes him."
Bradshaw: "And that's the most important thing. None of this other stuff matters."
Menefee: "He doesn't want to fire him."
Not surprisingly, over on CBS's NFL Today, the Cowboys were a topic of lively discussion. Why? Because they're the Cowboys. And because CBS is airing today's game against Jacksonville.
Bill Cowher, Phil Simms and Nate Burleson weighed in on Dallas' offensive woes and then Boomer Esiason concluded the discussion by, well, lowering the boom on Garrett and Prescott.
Cowher called the Cowboys a one-dimensional team that lacks playmakers and play-calling creativity.
"When you're one-dimensional, you're easy to defend," he said.
Simms: "They've thrown fewer 20-plus-yard passes than any team in the league." He added that Dallas has no wide receivers who can create separation and said it's incumbent on the coaching staff to implement "movement, creativity, deception. These are things to slow defenses down. The Cowboys don't do it."
Burleson: "I'm going to take a stand that not too many people are saying about the Cowboys. And that's that they have enough. I'll disagree with you and say they have playmakers.
"Dak Prescott is an absolute monster, when he goes out there and throws a TD and zero interceptions he's 18-0. They know they have the best running back in football when he gets going. And the wide receivers: Cole Beasley, when they were 13-3, he was their leading wide receiver. Hurns is a 1,000-yard receiver once before. You've got Gallup who has shown flashes. There's different individuals who can make plays for this team.
"I'm just looking for them to be creative. So I'm not going to call out my former coach, Scott Linehan, but I'll challenge him and say, 'Scott, let's go in and dig into that Trick-or-treat bag. It's almost Haloween, let's show people that this offense can get creative.
Esiason (shaking his head): "You know, there's not enough time to do that. We all know that. There's just not enough time in a week to get something like this done.
"At the end of the day, I put this on Jason Garrett. He had a chance to win a game last week by being aggressive. He wasn't. That was a seminal moment for them. And I think the inaccuracy of Dak Prescott is hurting those receivers downfield, as well."
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