Jerry "Reisman" Jones

In the mid 60s, E.M. Nathanson wrote a book about misfit G.I.s in prison given a chance at freedom called Project Amnesty. The premise was that the soldiers were given the option of staying in prison to serve their sentence or going on a suicide mission. Knowing that most of the convicts had little to no aspirations to perform a sacrificial patriotic act, they were given an incentive. If they lived, they would go free. The book was called The Dirty Dozen.

The formula is pretty standard. The dozen don’t like each other. They don’t like their commander. They don’t like any other officers or military units. There is a singular moment in which they bond. They form an efficient unit. They value the mission over themselves.

At least, the sane ones do. There is a character in the book named Samson Posey who basically wears a loin cloth and paints his face in tribute to his Native American heritage on the night of the attack. Posey was a bear of a man who didn’t retaliate until poked and prodded. His crime was a single punch that killed a man. But Posey was not the problem. He was completely stable compared to Archer Maggott.

Maggott was a racist bible quoting simpleton. He demeans the minority soldiers and is way more off kilter than most.

In the middle of the mission, Maggott loses it. He endangers the mission by leaving cover before others are in place.

The Dallas Cowboys met their own Archer Maggott. His name is Alex Barron.

Alex Barron was also in a prison of sorts known as the 2005 – 2009 St. Louis Rams. The proficiency of those teams was affected in no small part by Barron’s league leading 34 false start penalties in his last four years. Barron is given a new life by being traded to Dallas, who had to be thinking they had a pretty good back up lineman. After all, Barron was a former first round pick.

In the middle of the Cowboy mission, Barron lost it. I agree that no play loses a game. So I don’t hang my hat on Barron’s holding call on the second to last play of the first half moving the ball back to set up the Tashard Choice fumble. (Nice time for your first fumble in three years, Tashard.)
I can’t even show the last play and Barron’s horrible technique resulting in a penalty that wiped out the game winning touchdown.

But I can point to Barron’s incompetence throughout the entire game preventing the Dallas offense from functioning normally. We saw the off balance line more than ever and Jason Witten in the backfield to block instead of splitting the seams.

Was it Posey’s fault that he was put with a group in which he didn’t belong, knowing he could snap?
Is it Barron’s fault he is put in a position to fail, knowing he would fail? Washington coordinator Jim Haslett told his team that they would get Barron to commit penalties. This was a known known.

And that is the fault of the leadership that put Maggot and Barron in positions to cause harm.