Very few, if any, starters will play tonight in the Dallas Cowboys' preseason finale. This means there probably won't be another situation where Jason Garrett can make the same impact he did when he benched DeMarco Murray for three series on Saturday.
In the 24-18 win over Cincinnati, Murray missed a block on the Cowboys' first offensive play and fumbled after not carrying the ball the correct way later in the quarter. Murray was pulled and Phillip Tanner ran with the first-team offense for the remainder of the first half.
On Tuesday, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones was asked if he would like to continue seeing Garrett hold players accountable to the level he did with Murray.
"Absolutely," Jones said. "I have no issue with that. I think Jason's a great football coach. I think we're lucky to have him. I think he gets better every year. I certainly support him.
"I know Jerry supports him in what he's trying to get done with this team to make them more accountable and do things that will make the difference in finishing 8-8 vs. getting in the playoffs and making noise and ultimately winning a championship."
Benching a starter during the team's most important preseason game was Garrett's way of sending a message to not only Murray but the entire team. Perhaps that's an example of Garrett transitioning into more of a walk-around head coach and not a head coach who also has to be focused on offensive play-calling.
"I think it allows you to think about things like that," Jones said. "I think that was some of the things we talked about. Obviously when you're the offensive coordinator that's a lot of responsibility. You're thinking about the offense and what the next play is. When you're able to think about the whole team, and it's something obviously that we were looking at because we're looking at ways to get better.
"We can do better as an organization and I think that can be an example of what a coach can do when he can think of some of the smaller things."
Follow Jon Machota on Twitter: @jonmachota
