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Cowboys fire Phillips

IRVING, Texas - The Wade Phillips era is over. After a 1-7 start and lackluster play, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made a historic personnel move and fired Phillips on Monday afternoon, replacing him with offensive coordinator/assistant head coach Jason Garrett.

IRVING, Texas - The Wade Phillips era is over.

After a 1-7 start and lackluster play, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made a historic personnel move and fired Phillips on Monday afternoon, replacing him with offensive coordinator/assistant head coach Jason Garrett.

Garrett will carry the "interim" title.

Jones announced the changes at a news conference at Valley Ranch. He said Paul Pasqualoni will take over as defensive coordinator.

Jones said he believed as late as Saturday that Phillips would finish the season as head coach, but said he changed his mind after Sunday's loss.

"Wade is a vivid example of accountability," said Jones, who said he broke the news to Phillips earlier Monday afternoon.

Jones said he always believed that Phillips' "head coaching would have a great benefit from how well the defense was doing."

"When we started having the problems we're having over there, it compounded the overall team thing. There was a lot of me in denial for at least the last couple of ball games."

Phillips, who was named the club's seventh head coach in 2007, won two NFC East titles during his nearly four-year stint. The Cowboys finished 13-3 in his first season, slipped to 9-7 in 2008 and improved to 11-5 last season, including the franchise's first playoff win since 1996.

He was given a two-year contract extension in the off-season and also the charge of leading the Cowboys to Super Bowl XLV, which will be hosted at Cowboys Stadium.

But the Cowboys crumbled from the outset in the face of the high expectations for 2010. They opened with two straight losses, beat the Houston Texans, and then followed with a five-game losing streak, capped by Sunday's lackluster, 45-7 blowout loss to Green Bay on NBC's Sunday Night Football.

Before Monday, Jones had never fired a coach in midseason. But the Cowboys' poor play and lopsided losses at home to the New York Giants and Jacksonville before Sunday's wipeout forced him to make a rare move.

Garrett had always been a star on the rise with Jones, dating back to his decision to name him offensive coordinator in 2007 before he even hired Phillips as head coach.

Garrett was one of the league's hot coordinators the next two years, interviewing for jobs with St. Louis, Baltimore, and Detroit. It prompted Jones to make him one of the league's highest-paid coordinators at $3 million annually and give him the title of assistant head coach.

Garrett has eight games to show that he can make a difference and make a case for himself.

High-profile names such as former Super Bowl champion coaches Jon Gruden and Bill Cowher will be at the center of any national coaching search, as well as possible hot college candidates such as Stanford's Jim Harbaugh.