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Post by theericr on Nov 11, 2008 12:01:51 GMT -7
IRVING – Good news from Valley Ranch: Terence Newman and Kyle Kosier and Tony Romo are all back, and Romo's throwing with his old zip.
Bad news: Captain Kangaroo is back, too.
You'd think the Cowboys' week off would have afforded Wade Phillips sufficient time to take stock and drop the squishy, indulgent persona that sends an unfortunate message to media, fans and his players, in particular.
When you coach a team that had Super Bowl pretensions and it goes into an inexplicable spiral that preceded the injuries, as even the owner and players concede, maybe it's time to leap out of character.
You know, do something radical. Like name a holder.
The vacancy came open when Brad Johnson went from the No. 2 quarterback to No. 3. Most teams don't carry three active quarterbacks in games because it means burning another position.
But Phillips says three quarterbacks are a possibility for the Redskins if he doesn't find another holder he likes.
Of course, he had all last week to pick one. Or he did until Friday, when he gave the Cowboys a three-day pass.
Opinions vary on the wisdom of giving the guys in this locker room anything more than 24 hours off without pulling their passports. Maybe you remember Romo's Mexican vacation. In fact, the Friday before the debacle against the Giants, two captains – Ken Hamlin and Keith Davis – and Tank Johnson went to McAllen on a venture that could not be construed as a mission of mercy.
Question: Was a border run two days before a big road game against a division rival a problem for Phillips?
Answer: Unless the commissioner steps in these days, it's anything goes.
Jason Witten cautions not to overreact when it comes to the easy off-week.
"Bill Parcells was the toughest coach ever, and he always gave us four off days," Witten said. "Just not back-to-back-to-back."
So is there anything to be gained from this kind of schedule?
"The off time is the same as it's always been," he insisted. "There's nothing [new] there."
Here's the problem, Jason: With a 5-4 record and two losses in the division, the Cowboys are in no position to go about business as usual. It's a matter of perception. If they were 7-2 and just a game back of the Giants, no one would care what they did in their off-time.
This team has dramatically underachieved, however, even with the injuries. At some point it has to be held accountable.
But by whom? Phillips?
Here's what he had to say Monday when asked if he had any special instruction for rookie cornerback Mike Jenkins, who, among other sins, didn't so much as give Derrick Ward a hard glance on his touchdown run in New Jersey:
"Players sometimes think it's all negative from coaches and you gotta watch that. It can go the other way. We try to talk about positive things, too."
Hey, we do the same with my 11-year-old's football team.
Look, no one's asking Phillips to do what Jack Del Rio did with his 3-5 Jacksonville Jaguars last week.
Del Rio suspended a team captain for celebrating a sack during a loss to Cincinnati. He also outlawed music, games and TV in the locker room.
The Jaguars responded with a win over Detroit, which doesn't sound like much, even to the players, who said Del Rio's disciplinary measures won't be an issue as long as they win.
Del Rio is just being himself. In all fairness, so is Phillips.
But would it hurt if he just acted like he was mad that T.O.'s in New York pumping his new book on Letterman?
And better get to work on that holder, Wade. Only five days until Washington.
Source: DMN / Kevin Sherrington
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Post by prossman on Nov 11, 2008 14:04:56 GMT -7
One of my biggest frustrations with wade is that our team has to discipline itself. I just hope they have to guts to do it. Prossman
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Post by MR COWBOY on Nov 11, 2008 15:16:12 GMT -7
In hindsight , thingy (first name) LeBeau should have been the choice as HC , if scheme was the only criteria . He originated the zone blitz , is a tougher personality , who was an all-pro db . The Steeler scheme , as opposed to the Charger scheme , is the one I'd have chosen .
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ccboy
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Post by ccboy on Nov 11, 2008 19:32:34 GMT -7
Sometimes, we as fans miss the complexity that is involved with discipline and the administration of directive responsibility.
This team has a very intense and very seasoned group of coaches on this staff. They have been in the NFL wars for a very long time and focus at their respective levels on the quality of play and keep touch with players and groups for accountability.
Top level management has various styles for direction. Some wear their hats as personal prestige and guardedly stab and cut personalities and players to maintain their own aurora of power. Some develop groups of players that gain 'lower authorities' by kissing up to them. The lower stem players resent these as well as the top headed string pullers.
I work for a SOB who manages quiet zone indicators while you are running around in a dead sweat handling a multitude of tasks NOT being handled by his direction, with my job in perfect order, and he has a clock watch counting seconds that I am not in his direct view SHOWING a choreographed job description that very second. It doesn't matter if I do five times the amount of work at a higher standard and safely than 90% of my co-workers. He has long past LOST my respect..as a coach would in a similar situation just apply a standard of harshness that demands a fight or flight response continually. That wears on the mental aspect.
Wade Phillips waters those aspects that puts some of the game back into their jobs, as well as allows for personal satisfactions and goals as well.
If I had to critique this process constructively, I would settle in on the amount of actual WORK that is done in practices. I would work on specific aspects with much more actual sweat involved. I would put much more of the physical aspects in during the season. I don't mean two hour scrimmages and a full half hour banging at the goal line, but I would NOT have most of my practices look like a filming of American Bandstand. They would get some controlled, but physical contact and technique work. There is too much cerebral quality to the Dallas play, that almost no other team replicates come game time. That comes with disciplines as well as focused sweat equity. Let the positional coaches do a little more hands on and on the spot corrections and barking under the watchful eye of the DC or OC, who actually are a realistic presence during practice. THEN, bring in Wade Phillips in his role of bring those elements together with a sense of freshness and solidarity in each side of the ball respectively. Not a one functional group view, but two distinct and different groups, that pick up and go to work after the other is through with it's job...but, interdependent, so the necessity of working to expand what the other was able to do. Wade is to measure this element, and see that formated standards are fully developed and reinforced. It isn't a matter of vacations or pep rallys, but applied time when the team is together. If the team has problems effectively using their practices, then prep time outside of this has to be expanded or additional support types of people to assist in review, filming and observation of positional specific training, grading, and readdressing as the season unfolds. This should also include time progressive reviews and film comparisons from game to game from start to present. A player is then able to see his own progressions or bad habits as well.
You can only have so many 'generals' on the field at one time...and if you don't have a lot of grunts, then you have more of an art form and less of a football team. This is where the team is lacking...in the guts and hearts that aren't an extension of talk. Practice habits, when actually going through it, does affect this. That is where this team needs REAL work.
As a fan, I am very slow to attack the management elements while in the progressions of a season. I at least give them to earn or lose, at it's conclusion, my approval or disapproval on what I have seen on the field...and not just in victories or numbers of losses, but team play. If they are at least a black and blue producer that has the ability to explode down the field, then they get a pass by me, whether in the playoffs or not. That has a good deal with fortunes during a season. Long term, that becomes another issue if a team never meets the standard come it's end. That speaks of weakness and lack of realistic commitment. We shall see here...within about three to four weeks, the momentum. If it is NOT carried through, then there have to be questions as to actual administration of responsibility. You can NOT delegate responsibility. You can attempt to hide it and keep from view, but you have it until it is changed by another 'manager'.
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Post by prossman on Nov 11, 2008 20:47:07 GMT -7
You know I'm not overly concerned whether wade is a hard taskmaster like Jimmy Johnson. Jimmy's psychological warfare on his players was extremely taxing , but was effective in producing top results in a very young and impressionable team. Wade style can win super bowls to ala Tony Dungee, but tony is a guy who plays very close attention to detail, and excellence is still demanded though the delivery is different. My challenge with Wade is Sloppy play, poor tackling, stupid mental mistakes, and numerous questionable coaching decisions, don't lead me to believe that the standard of excellence required to be a top team/ super bowl winner is close to being in place in Dallas. This Dallas team ( with romo) never seemed to get the killer instinct. They didn't punch people in the mouths and dominate, maybe because they were talented enough to win anyway. The bottom line is you are not going to win a super bowl with the mentality that this team has, or at least had before Romo got hurt. Now that Dallas is land blasted in the press for being the joke of the NFL, and the Giants are the media darlings , hopefully this team will learn how not only to win games but dominate, like they are capable of. Prossman
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ccboy
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Post by ccboy on Nov 12, 2008 0:21:39 GMT -7
Pross, the mentality that you talk about left the last two years that Troy Aikman was the top dog for the Cowboys. He lost his 'guts' in action and the whole team went downhill from there. The young players never did grab the opportunity by the horns and make plays in pressure situations. Romo has done this to some extent, but he hasn't been consistent at it. The past ten to twelve years, that very aspect of guts and all out delivering has not been the rule. The team was too sophisticated to actually play football, AND were allowed to remain there. There also is a danger in letting go of those fine production qualities, as dynamics and ability to adjust and meet challenges if that becomes only a gut experience as well. I think this team is solid, and until the lose spirits as a team, will be fine, and those things that you are not having much faith in, operate at optimum function. There really is a lot of proven and 'old' coaches on this staff. They may not be flashing neon signs to the likes of a 'new' world all geared at IMMEDIATE gratification, but they are very established on principals that carry the whole of the NFL. They should get there quite well, if they play football and not protect their job descriptions...missing the actual play on the field. I just wish I had a nickle on every long and scoring play that went against Dallas the past ten years, that had a couple of Dallas' secondary guarding an area of real estate while an opposing receiver cut his way completely through that area...uncontested.
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Post by MR COWBOY on Nov 12, 2008 4:55:10 GMT -7
Posted by prossman on Yesterday at 11:47pm You know I'm not overly concerned whether wade is a hard taskmaster like Jimmy Johnson. Jimmy's psychological warfare on his players was extremely taxing , but was effective in producing top results in a very young and impressionable team. Wade style can win super bowls to ala Tony Dungee, but tony is a guy who plays very close attention to detail, and excellence is still demanded though the delivery is different. My challenge with Wade is Sloppy play, poor tackling, stupid mental mistakes, and numerous questionable coaching decisions, don't lead me to believe that the standard of excellence required to be a top team/ super bowl winner is close to being in place in Dallas. This Dallas team ( with romo) never seemed to get the killer instinct. They didn't punch people in the mouths and dominate,maybe because they were talented enough to win anyway. The bottom line is you are not going to win a super bowl with the mentality that this team has, or at least had before Romo got hurt. Now that Dallas is land blasted in the press for being the joke of the NFL, and the Giants are the media darlings , hopefully this team will learn how not only to win games but dominate, like they are capable of. Prossman
To this day I still say that Jerry made a big mistake in hiring Wade .You hired this guy who has a track record of playoff failures , to lead young players to the pinnacle of success ? Nope , you saw what he's made of at his post game press conferences.Now , just imagine what the players are thinking when they see that .You think they're going to be motivated ?
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Post by prossman on Nov 12, 2008 11:00:15 GMT -7
can't argue about the press conferences cause they are a embassment when we lose a game. I believe the veteran leadership can pull it togeather and make a run. It is just sad It has to be that way. Prossman
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Post by lonestar22 on Nov 13, 2008 9:33:17 GMT -7
Out at Valley Snatch the Marshmellows are soft these days, every since Camp CupCake arrived.
This week the Cowboys backs are against the Wall vs one of the toughest opponents in the NFL. Not to mention we still have Philly, New York and Pittsburg...maybe Phillips can pull a marshmellow bunny out of his Bonnet this week but... bluntly speaking guys, making any real run at the play-offs seems like a very tall order for a Cream Puff pointing the finger team this season under Coach Marshmellowman.
Ofcorse will support my team intill the end each year, just ask yourself "do I really want to set myself up for another let down?"
Peace
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Post by prossman on Nov 13, 2008 9:50:44 GMT -7
If Dallas doesn't show up this week verses the skins, I will be on a all out warpath for wade Phillips neck in a noose. there are NO excuses this week. We are as healthy as we have been all season. It's put up or shut up time in Big D! Prossman
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