Cowboys Coaching Rumor Mill: Tough Talk from Eagles, Denial from Garrett and a Truth about OU's Lincoln Riley
FRISCO - The Eagles coach is talking tough. The Cowboys coach is talking in platitudes. And the coaching buzz in Dallas is all about Lincoln Riley of the University of Oklahoma.
That's the three-pronged fallout of a football weekend that saw:
*Coach Doug Pederson's Philadelphia Eagles lose to drop to 3-3 with a loss at Minnesota as they start a week of preparation for next Sunday's road game at Dallas.
*Coach Jason Garrett's Dallas Cowboys drop to 3-3 as they attempt to recover from an embarrassing debacle of a loss at the New York Jets, an outcome that has turned up the public's temperature on Garrett's hot seat.
Coach Riley's OU team outplay the University of Texas at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, raising his profile as a prospective replacement for when Garrett's time runs out.
The most outrageous of the three situations emerges from Pederson's appearance on WIP on Monday morning, during which he announced that his Eagles will "win that football game, and when we do, we're in first place in the NFC East.''
The math is right; the winner of the game will have first place in the division all to themselves. ... as ugly at it presently seems for both clubs.
“I know the sky is falling outside,” Pederson said. “It’s falling and I get that and the fans are real. We’re going down to Dallas, our guys are gonna be ready to play. And we’re gonna win that football game and when we do we’re in first place in the NFC East, we control our own destiny, we’re right where we need to be. Has it been perfect or beautiful or all of that? No. But all we need to do is try to be 1-0 this week, beat the Dallas Cowboys, we’re in first place.”
Of course, the same is true for the Cowboys. Garrett is aware of that. What he's pretending to be unaware of his any disgruntlement over his supervision of a team that has lost three straight.
"Are you concerned about your job?'' "Shan & RJ'' asked him on Monday morning on 105.3 The Fan.
"I don't really think about that,'' answered Garrett.
Of course, the Joneses do think about it. Despite the respect and affection they have for the long-time coach, he is working without a contract extension right now and all the ramifications of that are very real.
We asked Jerry about the Garrett issue in New York immediately after the 26-24 loss to the previously-winless Jets.
"I was a lot happier with what he did the first three games (all wins).'' he said, managing a smile, "than what's happened in the last three games. But ... it's not just him. It's across the board.''
Would stealing Lincoln Riley from OU fix everything "across the board''? It'd be premature to do that. But it's not premature for Cowboys Nation to be buzzing about it. At the moment, we shouldn't waste too much time on "sources'' connecting Riley to the Cowboys; it's enough to know a fact: Riley and Cowboys COO Stephen Jones are friends. So amidst the tough talk here and the platitudes there, in the middle exists a simple truth about a guy who was the hottest coach in town over the weekend.
