Jason Garrett says players haven’t quit; played hard, didn’t play well against Bears

[Rowdy]

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It may be a fait accompli that Jason Garrett’s nine-plus years as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys will come to an end at the conclusion of this season. Back-to-back losses to the Buffalo Bills and Chicago Bears have only further illustrated how poorly a supposedly talented Cowboys team is performing this season.

But Garrett refuses to believe that he’s lost the team he’s trying to navigate to a NFC East title amid a three-game losing streak that dropped the Cowboys to 6-7 on Thursday night.

“I don’t believe that,” Garrett said when asked if the players have quit postgame.

“I think we played hard. We didn’t play well. We didn’t play well enough. And at different times we did some good things, but on an overall team basis, we didn’t play consistently well enough. Give the Bears credit, they did what they needed to do to win the game and we did not.”

Dallas has come out of the gate strong the last two weeks with lengthy opening drives for touchdowns before going for a tailspin the rest of the way. A 7-0 lead turned into a 26-7 deficit at the hands of the Bills while a 7-0 lead became a 24-7 Bears lead Thursday night in Chicago.

“We have to be tougher handling the adversity of the game,” Garrett said. “The best players on the best teams are able to do that. It’s the National Football League. There’s adversity waiting for you every time the ball’s snapped. The guy across from you is a really good player.

“And at different times in this game, I thought we did a good job executing, moving the ball, making symptoms, whatever. And then at different times we didn’t. We have to do a better job of it, have some success, stop it. Come back to our execution, somehow, someway make a stop, get off the field, somehow, someway make a play, keep the drive alive. We didn’t do that consistently well enough tonight.”

Jerry Jones said that Garrett and the whole coaching staff will coach the team’s next game against the Los Angeles Rams next week. Garrett was asked if the uncertainty of his job status is causing distractions at this point. He replied that it’s not something he can concern himself with.

“I can’t speak to that,” Garrett said. “The most important thing we have to do is learn from this game and get back to work. We’ll be off this weekend because of the Thursday game and we’ll get back to work on Monday with our players. Our eyes will be forward and learn from the experience and move on, get ready for the next challenge.”