Post by scorpion42 on Dec 31, 2008 16:34:32 GMT -7
The Worst Loss
Sham: Two to Forget Mark '08 Struggles
Brad Sham - Email
DallasCowboys.com Columnist
December 31, 2008 4:30 PM
IRVING, Texas - Last week, if memory serves, I rhetorically asked if the Cowboys had had a good year, and answered my own question by saying that would be up to you.
Let's save some decision-making time that could be spent on New Year's Resolutions, or recycling dental floss, or something more productive.
No, is the answer. The Cowboys have not had a good year.
There have been some good moments in this Cowboys season. There have been some, in fact, that when we look back we may say were exceptional. Fortunately, most involve young players, players who could be the foundation of this team for a long time.
No light shone brighter than DeMarcus Ware. Challenging the NFL sack record and contending for Defensive Player of the Year were good enough, but Ware added to those by being a tremendous person, a citizen around whom a team can be built. A franchise cornerstone.
The rookies give great promise. What excitement we got from the brief glimpse we saw of Felix Jones. What revelations were Orlando Scandrick and Tashard Choice. We have seen only the beginning of Martellus Bennett. Imagine having them as known quantities to add to the mix in their second seasons.
Sadly, these positives were overshadowed by a season gone wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. Think Elliott Spitzer as governor of New York. Think the marriage of Liza Minelli and David Gest. That wrong.
Losing is hard enough to take. The stench of dysfunction that surrounded this team at the end was frightening. It will require heavy lifting to get this fixed.
Fortunately, there are people WAY above the pay grade of a humble scribe to take it on.
But along the way, this team may have contributed two of the most sickeningly-memorable losses in the history of the Dallas Cowboys. They bear noting.
Mind you, this will be a completely subjective list. This franchise has played football for 49 years. It's lost 309 games in the regular season and another 24 in the playoffs, by my count. Who could remember them all? Some had higher gut-punch factors than others.
I'm also trying to rate them on the disgust-o-meter. All losses hurt. Some, in the postseason, hurt more than others. Not every loss, though, rates as memorable.
Not every loss is something that sticks in your stomach like bad cheese. But some are. Those, you never forget.
Also, it might depend who you are. One of the most memorable losses in club history came in the Cotton Bowl, on November 16, 1970, 38-0 to the St. Louis Cardinals.
It dropped the team's record to 5-4. The city turned its back. Players on that team insist to a man that the coaching staff was so disgusted it gave up. More than one has said through the years, "(Coach Tom) Landry gave up on us that night." It was memorable because the players took over, pushed themselves in practice, won their last five games and eventually reached the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance. That makes the game memorable, but not, I think, disgusting.
Were original team president Tex Schramm alive today, I am certain he would nominate the 21-19 divisional round playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams on December 30, 1979. Schramm never got over that one. The Cowboys had appeared in consecutive Super Bowls, and Schramm went to his grave convinced the Cowboys would have beaten Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl that season had they survived the Rams. That one hurt.
But there is painful, and then there is humiliating. The 2000 season opener, Dave Campo's debut as head coach, was a little of both. That was the "pickle juice" game. The season opener, on an egg-frying day at Texas Stadium, was won in a walk by Philadelphia, 41-14. The Eagles later claimed they stayed regenerated by drinking pickle juice before and during the game. Whatever.
It's hard for a season opener to be humiliating, though. It's only one loss, after all. There's a whole season for redemption.
Unless you're playing a team that has never played a game. No matter how many Cowboys games I'm fortunate enough to be able to see, the 2002 season opener will always be in my top three most nauseating games. Coming off consecutive 5-11 seasons, the Cowboys opened the year on a Sunday night at Reliant Stadium in Houston.
It was the first game ever played by the Houston Texans franchise. Ever.
Let me repeat. The Houston Texans had no history, no tradition. No record book. Expansion franchise. First time ever assembled. And they beat the Dallas Cowboys on a prime time Sunday night broadcast 19-10. That was unbelievable.
Everyone has his (least) favorite. The 1985 team, Landry's last division winner, lost at home to the eventual champion Bears two Sundays before Thanksgiving, 44-0. That was pretty special. That home playoff loss to the Arizona Cardinals in Chan Gailey's first year, the 1998 season, was one of those sucker-punches that leaves you on the deck.
But for most of the second half of this season, I have been convinced that somewhere near the top of the list belonged October 19, 2008 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. When the Cowboys lost to the St. Louis Rams that day, they lost to a team that won only twice all year. They lost from ahead, 7-0. I know they played the game without their starting quarterback. It was Tony Romo's first missed game with a fractured pinkie. Sorry. Doesn't matter. That was a truly rotten Rams team. The Dallas team it mugged that afternoon played with an absence of excitement or emotion, nor with much apparent interest. If there was a chance that a team with enough talent to reach the postseason would miss out because it lost that game, that to me would have to rank as one of the most inexcusable, disgusting losses in team history. Not THIS roster. Not to THAT team.
And, of course, that's exactly what happened. Had the Cowboys played mediocre that day, they'd have snaked out a narrow, ugly win and they would not have had to beat the Eagles in Philadelphia last Sunday. That is such a revolting notion to anyone who cheers for Dallas, it makes one talk to one's self.
Of course, that game was outdone last Sunday. It is not inconceivable that you could lose a game in Philadelphia. It is beyond comprehension that with everything this team went through this year, including the St. Louis loss, and with an opportunity to render it all moot by winning one admittedly difficult game, that a team would not play its very best game, whether it won or lost.
Instead, it may have played its very worst. Ever. You decide.
Happy New Year.
Sham: Two to Forget Mark '08 Struggles
Brad Sham - Email
DallasCowboys.com Columnist
December 31, 2008 4:30 PM
IRVING, Texas - Last week, if memory serves, I rhetorically asked if the Cowboys had had a good year, and answered my own question by saying that would be up to you.
Let's save some decision-making time that could be spent on New Year's Resolutions, or recycling dental floss, or something more productive.
No, is the answer. The Cowboys have not had a good year.
There have been some good moments in this Cowboys season. There have been some, in fact, that when we look back we may say were exceptional. Fortunately, most involve young players, players who could be the foundation of this team for a long time.
No light shone brighter than DeMarcus Ware. Challenging the NFL sack record and contending for Defensive Player of the Year were good enough, but Ware added to those by being a tremendous person, a citizen around whom a team can be built. A franchise cornerstone.
The rookies give great promise. What excitement we got from the brief glimpse we saw of Felix Jones. What revelations were Orlando Scandrick and Tashard Choice. We have seen only the beginning of Martellus Bennett. Imagine having them as known quantities to add to the mix in their second seasons.
Sadly, these positives were overshadowed by a season gone wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. Think Elliott Spitzer as governor of New York. Think the marriage of Liza Minelli and David Gest. That wrong.
Losing is hard enough to take. The stench of dysfunction that surrounded this team at the end was frightening. It will require heavy lifting to get this fixed.
Fortunately, there are people WAY above the pay grade of a humble scribe to take it on.
But along the way, this team may have contributed two of the most sickeningly-memorable losses in the history of the Dallas Cowboys. They bear noting.
Mind you, this will be a completely subjective list. This franchise has played football for 49 years. It's lost 309 games in the regular season and another 24 in the playoffs, by my count. Who could remember them all? Some had higher gut-punch factors than others.
I'm also trying to rate them on the disgust-o-meter. All losses hurt. Some, in the postseason, hurt more than others. Not every loss, though, rates as memorable.
Not every loss is something that sticks in your stomach like bad cheese. But some are. Those, you never forget.
Also, it might depend who you are. One of the most memorable losses in club history came in the Cotton Bowl, on November 16, 1970, 38-0 to the St. Louis Cardinals.
It dropped the team's record to 5-4. The city turned its back. Players on that team insist to a man that the coaching staff was so disgusted it gave up. More than one has said through the years, "(Coach Tom) Landry gave up on us that night." It was memorable because the players took over, pushed themselves in practice, won their last five games and eventually reached the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance. That makes the game memorable, but not, I think, disgusting.
Were original team president Tex Schramm alive today, I am certain he would nominate the 21-19 divisional round playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams on December 30, 1979. Schramm never got over that one. The Cowboys had appeared in consecutive Super Bowls, and Schramm went to his grave convinced the Cowboys would have beaten Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl that season had they survived the Rams. That one hurt.
But there is painful, and then there is humiliating. The 2000 season opener, Dave Campo's debut as head coach, was a little of both. That was the "pickle juice" game. The season opener, on an egg-frying day at Texas Stadium, was won in a walk by Philadelphia, 41-14. The Eagles later claimed they stayed regenerated by drinking pickle juice before and during the game. Whatever.
It's hard for a season opener to be humiliating, though. It's only one loss, after all. There's a whole season for redemption.
Unless you're playing a team that has never played a game. No matter how many Cowboys games I'm fortunate enough to be able to see, the 2002 season opener will always be in my top three most nauseating games. Coming off consecutive 5-11 seasons, the Cowboys opened the year on a Sunday night at Reliant Stadium in Houston.
It was the first game ever played by the Houston Texans franchise. Ever.
Let me repeat. The Houston Texans had no history, no tradition. No record book. Expansion franchise. First time ever assembled. And they beat the Dallas Cowboys on a prime time Sunday night broadcast 19-10. That was unbelievable.
Everyone has his (least) favorite. The 1985 team, Landry's last division winner, lost at home to the eventual champion Bears two Sundays before Thanksgiving, 44-0. That was pretty special. That home playoff loss to the Arizona Cardinals in Chan Gailey's first year, the 1998 season, was one of those sucker-punches that leaves you on the deck.
But for most of the second half of this season, I have been convinced that somewhere near the top of the list belonged October 19, 2008 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. When the Cowboys lost to the St. Louis Rams that day, they lost to a team that won only twice all year. They lost from ahead, 7-0. I know they played the game without their starting quarterback. It was Tony Romo's first missed game with a fractured pinkie. Sorry. Doesn't matter. That was a truly rotten Rams team. The Dallas team it mugged that afternoon played with an absence of excitement or emotion, nor with much apparent interest. If there was a chance that a team with enough talent to reach the postseason would miss out because it lost that game, that to me would have to rank as one of the most inexcusable, disgusting losses in team history. Not THIS roster. Not to THAT team.
And, of course, that's exactly what happened. Had the Cowboys played mediocre that day, they'd have snaked out a narrow, ugly win and they would not have had to beat the Eagles in Philadelphia last Sunday. That is such a revolting notion to anyone who cheers for Dallas, it makes one talk to one's self.
Of course, that game was outdone last Sunday. It is not inconceivable that you could lose a game in Philadelphia. It is beyond comprehension that with everything this team went through this year, including the St. Louis loss, and with an opportunity to render it all moot by winning one admittedly difficult game, that a team would not play its very best game, whether it won or lost.
Instead, it may have played its very worst. Ever. You decide.
Happy New Year.