Monday, September 28, 1998

Garrett does not come through as Cowboys lose

By NICK GHOLSON

Scripps Howard News Service

IRVING, Texas - As a quarterback in the NFL, Jason Garrett has never been anything but below average. . Face facts. Garrett couldn't be a No. 1 quarterback on any team in this league - including the Detroit Lions and Washington Redskins, neither of whom seem to have a clue about what. a starting quarterback even looks like.

Garrett couldn't even make the No. 2 spot on most rosters. And if you've been watching the NFL much lately, you know that's not saying much. No, Jason Garrett is just what his nickname - "Rudy" - says. He's a really nice guy who gives you everything he has got. Only trouble is, he hasn't got all that much.

A No. 3 quarterback for five years with the Cowboys, Garrett was promoted to No. 2 this season for several reasons. One, he works cheap. Two, there aren't many good No. 2's out there. Three, starter Troy Aikman came into this season not having missed a start since 1994. And four, he was 2-0 as a starter, including a brilliant 42-31 come-from-behind win over Green Bay on Thanksgiving Day 1994.

That 311-yard Thanksgiving Day pass performance has always been, in my opinion,. a huge overachievement. It's like the weekend golfer who shoots 85 every Saturday, then all of a sudden one day somehow shoots even par.

"Well," you ask, "what about last Monday night?" The Cowboys didn't beat the New York Giants 31-7 because Jason Garrett was the quarterback. They beat the Giants with a smothering defense, a mistake-free offense and a whole lot of Deion Sanders.

They got two out of the three here Sunday afternoon. The defense gave up just one touchdown, and Sanders provided a 60-yard punt return. But two out of three wasn't good enough to avoid losing 13-12 to the Oakland Raiders.

What was missing was the mistake-free offense.

When the Cowboys start Garrett, like they have the past two weeks in place of the injured Aikman, they don't ask him to go out and win games, just go out and not lose them.

They know his physical limitations, but they also know he has a diploma from Princeton and is a pretty smart guy. So, all he is asked to do is play smart. Most of the time Garrett does just that. Up until his last throw of the third quarter Sunday, he had thrown 141 passes for Dallas and only had one picked off.

But in the final 18 minutes against the Raiders, he threw two interceptions that cost the Cowboys dearly.

The first one came when Dallas seemed to have a full head of steam and was driving for a tying touchdown late in the third quarter. On second-and-goal from the 7, Michael Irvin cut inside and was standing in the end zone when Garrett threw outside and into the hands of Charles Woodson.

"It was a miscommunication, but he (Irvin) was right, and I was wrong. I made a poor throw. If I had thrown the ball inside, I think we had an opportunity for a score," Garrett said.

For the second straight week Garrett and Billy Davis hooked up on a long pass that was more Davis than Garrett, as the Cowboys pulled to within 13-10 late in the game. At the Raiders' 43 with 1:40 to play, they were only about 15 yards away from a potential tying field goal. Garrett, however, went for it all. Out of the shotgun, he went deep to Davis on a post route but unwisely threw into double coverage by cornerback Eric Allen and free safety Eric Turner.

Turner's interception ended Dallas' hopes for a 3-1 start. It was just a misread by a backup quarterback.

"I thought I had a coverage where Eric Turner the safety was going to settle a little bit on that side," said Garrett, who also had a couple of other shorter options to Irvin or Sanders on the play. "I thought I had the coverage I wanted, but he did a good job of seeing it and reacting back to it. Obviously it was another poor decision ".

Some teams in this league are good enough overcome a couple of bad plays. like these. . At this point in time, however, the Dallas Cowboys aren't one of them.

(Nick Gholson writes for the Wichita Falls Times Record News in Wichita Falls, Texas. )