Post by heavyg on Mar 14, 2007 18:29:43 GMT -7
www.dallascowboysweekly.com/n...0A213FB6D6A733
Time to Let the Fun Begin
Coaching Change Impacting Valley Ranch
By Mike Rabun
Dallas Cowboys Official Weekly
We have reached that point in time where some stock taking might well be in order.
Taking stock, after all, is a good thing to do from time to time. It's sort of like house cleaning without the vacuum. The idea is to take just a moment to assess where you are. And having done that you decide if where you are is a good spot or if some more movement is needed.
After due reflection, therefore, the amateur opinion is this. The Cowboys are probably in a better spot than they were when the 2006 season came to a sudden and unpleasant end. Maybe even a MUCH better spot.
Much turmoil has ensued since then, as will have been noticed. The head coach, one of the most familiar names in all of professional football, mulled things over to the extent that most of us were convinced he was going to jump back in the pool for another lap.
Suddenly, however, he grabbed his towel, dried off and said he had had enough, thank you very much.
And then after a considerable amount of consideration involving a considerable amount of candidates, Mr. Wade Phillips out of Orange, Tex. as well as Houston, Oklahoma State, Kansas, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Denver, Buffalo, Atlanta and San Diego became the team's new coach.
The next item of business, therefore, is to let the fun begin.
At least that is the way it appears from here as the would-be psychologists among us attempt to get a handle on what this all means.
Having some fun truly appears to be at the core of the subject, a theory that will now be further evaluated.
It is always easier to evaluate, of course, after the deed is done. And the change of coaches was a pretty big deed.
It doesn't happen very often that a coach who has won multiple Super Bowls and is regarded as an icon around the NFL exits the scene. Well, it doesn't happen very often unless it is the Dallas Cowboys. This is the third time it has happened here in less than two decades, but that is another story for another time.
The first of those three coaches, as it has turned out, shared a given name with the newest one. And Thomas Wade Landry always told media members that when he made certain decisions he did so because he "had a feeling," it was the thing to do.
Well, now that things have calmed down from the recent burst of activity, it is possible to look back on the recently completed season and get a "feeling" that the Dallas Cowboys were not having the proper amount of fun.
If that was the case, a myriad of reasons might have combined to bring about the non-fun result. After all, it takes more than one carrot and a pinch of salt to make a hearty vegetable soup.
And there is always the question as to whether the apparent lack of fun was caused by the occasional bizarre setback. Or, perhaps, it might have been the other way around.
It is a chicken or the egg kind of thing that is unanswerable without further evidence.
If the status had remained quo following the 2006 campaign, the concern would have become whether the Cowboys could have found some fun. And this is where the ability to look in the rear view mirror comes in handy.
There is every reason to believe that fun would have remained absent had the route the Cowboys were on had not taken its dramatic curve.
In retrospect, the team seemed to be stuck in a gear other than overdrive. There were moments of glee, of course. But the downside kept getting in the way.
And here is that business, again, about having a feeling. There never seemed to be a feeling going into any game that the Cowboys were in position to just take control and whip up on an opponent.
Even during those days when Dallas was being touted as the best team in the NFC (remember those brief, heady times), the feeling was that the Cowboys were receiving accolades more as a result of weakness throughout the conference than because of their own dominating skills.
The bottom line of all this is that the former head coach, after what was no doubt an agonizing time of reflection, made the decision he did. One cannot help but believe that if Bill Parcells had any thought that the Cowboys would win big in 2007 and make waves in the playoffs he would still be here.
And that's not to say he thought they couldn't. But, just perhaps, he thought they couldn't if things continued to head down the path they had been on.
It does, without question, help every now and then to have a breath of fresh air. It helps to have a weight lifted from one's shoulders. It helps to have new voices saying new things.
All of that has now happened. So now what?
Well, the feeling is that this is where we get back to the fun part. And if this train of thought bears any weight at all, we will likely see the fun first emerge on the defensive side of the football. It is an area that should whet the local fans' appetite from now until next September.
Over the past few years the Cowboys have used some very high draft picks on defensive players with dandy credentials. Highlight films from their college days generated waves of admiration on draft day.
And although all of those players have had their moments, the feeling has been that there could be a little more.
Wade Phillips, if he does nothing else as coach of the Dallas Cowboys, will try to get more out of his defensive playmakers. Actually, it might be argued that the fate of his tenure in Dallas hangs on whether he gets more out of his defensive playmakers.
At any rate, the fun should be expected to return on defense. It is always fun when you rush more people than the other team can block (as long as they don't counter by throwing a 60-yard touchdown pass). It's always fun when the sack total for a game reaches double digits. It's always fun when the opposing team's home fans boo their offensive as it leaves the field.
Doing what they were doing didn't work. And if there was a chance it was going to work, the guy pulling the strings would still be here. So now they will try something else. Basically, they will try to have more fun. And it is quite likely that more fun would translate into more victories.