Cowboys' Garrett Appears Set To Take Over

DALLAS (105.3 THE FAN) - It's done.  The Cowboys' woeful season at least ended on a high note this afternoon in Philly and now comes the speculation on Jason Garrett's future.

Garrett finishes his test run with a record of 5-3, which is good enough to get the job.  Make that deserve the job.  I still believe that as the last half of the season under Garrett continued, we (the media and the fans) both changed our expectations of what Garrett was supposed to accomplish.

Remember after the Wade Phillips firing and the nightmare in Green Bay?  The widespread belief was that Garrett might win 3 of the 8 games remaining.  Nobody gave them a chance of winning the road game against the Giants.  Mission accomplished.

Then came the win against Detroit, followed by the Thanksgiving Day loss to the Saints.  If only Roy Williams had held on to the football, the Cowboys would have been 3-0, then 4-0 after the overtime win against the Colts.

The Cowboys then took the Eagles to the wire and lost because Michael Vick proved once again he is the NFC's MVP.  Yes, the Redskins game almost got away from them in the 33-30 victory via one of David Buehler's two game winning field goals, but it was followed up by a split with the Cardinals and Eagles to close the season.

Simply put, the Cowboys were fairly close to running the table in those eight games, and played with much more effort.  It's hard to believe that in mid-season, Cowboys fans were just hoping that the games were interesting in the fourth quarter.  That's how bad it had become.

So think of it this way.  Had the Cowboys played that way during the course of the entire season, they would have been right in the thick of the playoff race.....without Tony Romo, and with a defense that gave up the most points in Cowboys history.  There is no question that Garrett's ways rescued the team from itself.

Jerry Jones has seemingly played all sorts of head games with the media over just what his plans are.  Or maybe he just had difficulty trying to figure out how to do the politically correct thing while avoiding a fine from the league for violating the league's Rooney rule.  Whatever way you slice it, expect an announcement some time this week that Garrett will return as head coach.

League rules allow other teams to contact him about various openings when the interim tag has to be removed beginning tomorrow.  Players will report in the morning for post season physicals and to say goodbye to a forgettable season.  But considering Garrett's 5-3 record against a schedule that featured four games against playoff teams, and the New York Giants on the road, I can't imagine another coach coming in and doing a better job with less to work with.