Who believes Jason Garret is a better coach? "We Do"

The Dallas Cowboys are a funny team. No team in the league has more polarizing figures than Dallas. From Jerry Jones down to Tony Romo, you either hate them or love them. The head coach isn’t far away from that distinction. When he took on the job as head coach, his potential to freeze his own kickers or mismanagement of the clock worried many Cowboys fans for the first three years of his tenure. Fans and media members alike rolled their eyes when Garret would babble on about the process and the right way to build a team. Nobody believed that the red-headed genius from Princeton could resurrect the Cowboys’ glory years. Then last season happened and it is a whole new ball game for Coach Red.

Entering the 2014 season, I was on the fence with Garrett. Like others around me, I couldn’t trust him as a play-caller anymore. He became very predictable and the offense started to bog down. The Dallas offense in 2013 was ranked 16^th in total offense. It was getting pretty bad and nobody believed Garrett had the answer to fix things.

Yet he did. He brought in his own offensive coordinator and focused solely on being a ‘walk-around” head coach. The changes were felt immediately. The team had an identity of running the football, playing tough and playing with discipline. The mantra became “Finish the Fight”.  It helped the team win 12 games and was a “non-catch” away from the NFC championship game. Clearly something changed with Coach Red.

Now he has a bigger challenge in front of him. He no longer has running back DeMarco Murray leading the charge. Now he has three very volatile players added to the defense. The schedule is tougher this year. The expectations are higher than ever before.

Yet Coach Red sticks to his guns. Nothing changes for the Cowboys.

How does he handle the pressure of expectations from last season? He got a little help from the U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Her story has given Garrett the mantra for his team to follow. “We Do”.

“For her to share that idea that we’re not going to let other people outside us define us, we’re going to define ourselves by what we do and what we say and don’t say and how we present ourselves each and every day, that’s a message that we’ve shared with our team and it’s something I think is really important in life for individual people and certainly good for football players, coaches and a football team,” Garrett said.

The above quote is just another piece of proof that Garret isn't the same man that took over the team back in 2010. It is enjoyable to see a coach mature over the years and Garrett has done that. He saw that one way wasn't working and changed for the better. He sacrificed his ego to help the team win. In the process he went from an "offensive guru" and became a true leader. The team has bought into Garrett and so should we.

“We do” is now the new team mantra found on many of the player's t-shirts. Will it help them get to a Super Bowl? Who knows? But clearly, Garret is making a mark on this team. Now when he talks about a process, fans and media members are a bit more appreciative of the phrase.