As the Cowboys fall to 6-6 with an embarrassing home loss on one of the biggest days of the year, the question becomes whether owner Jerry Jones will fire coach Jason Garrett.
His contract expires after the current season, and Jones’ comments in the aftermath of Sunday’s loss to the Patriots made it clear that Garrett won’t be back without a playoff berth, and possibly without a deep playoff run. Losing the first game after Jones threw down such a clear and obvious gauntlet to Garrett could be the thing that gets ownership to choose to try to salvage the season with an interim coach.
And that’s what Jones needs to decide: Can someone like Kris Richard apply the kind of fire that clearly was lacking on Thursday over the course of the final four games of the season? The Cowboys are sufficiently talented to turn it around, to get to the playoffs, and to win once they get there. Their failure to respond after Jones put Garrett on clear notice strongly suggests that nothing better than today should be expected over the final quarter of the season.
Either way, it’s worth paying close attention to anything and everything said and not said by Jerry and Stephen Jones after this one ends and tomorrow morning.