Final Six Games Will Decide Garrett’s Fate?

The Cowboys have had a quiet bye week; no contract extensions and no coaching extensions were to be had.

These final six games are also going to decide the fate of Jason Garrett. He will either do enough to earn a contract extension at the end of the season or the Cowboys may go another route if they fall short of the playoffs.

One has to wonder what Jerry has set for the threshold. I don’t think 8-8 and no playoffs will keep Garrett around, even as much as Jerry likes Garrett. 8-8 for a 4th consecutive season would not make sense. Another 8-8 season would mean the coaches failed and Garrett is atop that list.

At 7-3, the Cowboys are in position and in control of their destiny for a playoff spot.

Could the Cowboys lose all six games and finish 7-9?

I doubt that, but we’ve seen crazier things around here, and that record would surely close the casket on Garrett coming back in 2015.

For me, I am pulling for Garrett to win more  than 8 games and I’m pulling for us to get into the playoffs because I think we have the right offense to make some noise in the playoffs.

The defense is what still concerns me and this is why I likened this version of the Cowboys to 1991. We went 11-5 from 7-9 the previous season. We lacked the pass rush back then as we do now, and Charles Haley in 1992 was the final piece.

I would be happy with 11-5, and the playoffs this year. But things are starting to get scary when you look how tight the other conferences are getting and then we have the lowly NFC South with a 4-6 division leader right now. I feel that another good team with a solid record is going to be left out of the playoffs this year. It’s very possible that a 7-9 or worse will get that division leader into the playoffs.

Can you imagine if the Cowboys finally got over the 8-8 hump and went 10-6 or 11-5 and missed the playoffs and a sub-.500 team got into the playoffs? That would be brutal, but would you fault Garrett in this scenario? Would Jerry bring back Garrett to see this thing through? I think Jerry would bring back Garrett to see what this team can do in 2015 and beyond. Let’s hope that scenario does not happen.

It’s the Division or Bust

Let’s face it, the contenders in the NFC East are the Cowboys and Eagles, the other two teams are a mess and may be too dysfunctional to recover.

Cowboys final six: @Giants; Eagles (Thanks); @Bears; @Eagles; Colts; Redskins

Eagles final six: Titans; @Cowboys; Seahawks; Cowboys; @Redskins; @Giants

The Cowboys need to sweep our division rivals and hope the Eagles slip up down the stretch. I like our odds with Romo at the helm over the Eagles with Sanchez, and if I’m the Eagles I’m nervous about Sanchez down the stretch. We did a nice job defensively last year against the Eagles with Kiffin running the worst defense in the league, so with our improved defense under Marinelli, I expect us to stifle the Eagles once again. We shall see.

My predictions on final six games:

@Giants – WIN

Eagles – WIN

@Bears – WIN

@Eagles – Loss

Colts – Loss

Redskins – WIN

11-5 and playoffs.

I want to see the Cowboys come out Sunday night against the Giants, hungry and taking names. Let’s start this stretch with some ferocity.  As for the scheduling, the thing that concerns me is the turnaround time for the Cowboys between this coming Sunday night up in NY and then playing again in just 4 days. The NFL really screwed us on this deal.

How do you think the Cowboys will finish the year?