Shhh. Listen. Do you hear that? It is crickets chirping all over the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and Dallas Cowboys Nation in general.
Jerry Jones announced yesterday that he is keeping Wade Phillips on as head coach, and besides the few radical fans that respond violently and vociferously to any piece of Cowboys’ news, his announcement was met by a collective yawn and a “Yeah. What else is new?” Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 26% [?]
Old School still schooling the Kid
Just when I am reluctantly purchasing my ticket for the Keep-Wade Phillips-Around-Another-Year bandwagon, he reminds me why I hate myself for even thinking such a thing.
With the game still young, the offense moving the ball rather effectively, and the scoreboard clear of points, Ol’ Wade coached scared and stupid, sending in Sean Suisham to attempt a 48 yard field goal with the ball on the Vikings’ 31 yard line and only a yard shy of a crucial first down. Remember, this same Suisham is a former Cowboys’ castoff, a 2009 Redskins’ castoff, and a late-season addition to the team. He is not Mr. Clutch. Heck, I doubt whether he could even find the clutch in a standard-shift car.
Predictably, the oft-traveled, never-money kicker sent the ball wide of the upright and, consequently, sent Minnesota onto the field with excellent field position and a little wind in their sails. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 24% [?]
Not quite there yet, Red
Many have clamored for Jason Garrett’s termination; I have not.
Some have noted a dearth of Jason Garrett criticism in my writing. While I have called Wade Phillips everything, but something good to eat and have been vocal on the notion that he is not the type of head coach this team (or any team with an eye toward the ultimate prize) needs, I have been less inclined to cram an editorial boot up the proverbial arse of the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator.
The reason for this apparent discrepancy is simple: I believe that Wade Phillips’ body of work as a head coach is sufficient to deem him unsuitable to take a team to an elite status and keep it there for any length of time. He has shown that his leadership skills are as wanting as his defensive schemes skills are effective.
He has managed to post a better-than-average regular season record (79-54), but has never won a single playoff game as a head coach.
Jason Garrett, on the other hand, is still young and relatively new to the position of offensive coordinator. Phillips is past 60 and set in his ways. He is what he is and that is what he is going to be. Garrett is 43 and still growing and developing as a coordinator.
Sure, there have been misfires. At times, it has appeared that Garrett lacked the ability to adjust on the fly. Sometimes, he has appeared to get stuck in one mode or another or he has worked too hard to shoehorn one player or another into the game plan.
Of course, the position of armchair offensive coordinator is quite easy. Any informed football fan can fill it. When you have the benefit of hindsight and the knowledge of how a play,a drive, or a game plan actually worked or failed to work, it is not difficult to draw up a better scheme in your mind.
But let’s not overlook the positive impact he has had on Tony Romo and the Cowboys’ offense.
Remember, it was just a season ago that Garrett was the hottest head coach prospect in the NFL. He was courted by the Baltimore Ravens and the Atlanta Falcons and it was reported he could have taken either of those jobs. The prospects of losing Garrett prompted Jones to make him the highest paid assistant coach in the NFL (and in the history of the league, for that matter). Phillips promoted Garrett, naming him assistant head coach.
Though it was denied, many assumed at the time that Jones and Garrett had some sort of gentleman’s agreement that made the highly-regarded coordinator the de facto head coach-in-waiting for the Dallas Cowboys.
Unfortunately Garrett’s freshman season, which saw him mold, guide, and direct one of the NFL’s most prolific offenses and help the Cowboys to a 13-3 regular season record, was followed by a sophomore flop. The 2008 edition of the Cowboys collapsed and crumbled at season’s end, closing out the season with humiliating losses to the Ravens and the Eagles.
They finished the season 9-7 and missed the playoffs entirely. Furthermore, after being ranked second in the NFL in points per game and third in yardage in 2007, the Cowboys fell to 18th and 13th respectively in ’08.
Suddenly, Jason Garrett’s rising star was seen more as a plummeting, gaseous meteorite, crashing into the Cowboys’ shiny new home. Crash and burn; yesterday’s hero became today’s goat.
”Get rid of the bum,” has been the cry of many.
Never mind that Tony Romo’s play has continued to improve and impress. The oft-maligned quarterback has now gone four consecutive games without throwing a pick for the first time in his career.
Never mind that an undrafted free agent wide receiver,Miles Austin,has begun to establish himself as one of the league’s best. Never mind that the running game has appeared formidable at times and unstoppable at others.
Never mind that the offense is currently ranked third in the NFL in yards gained. Never mind that we have never seen a team run a better draw play.
Never mind that every week Garrett shows a new wrinkle. Remember that play on the goal line against the Chargers, where they faked a screen pass on each side and then hit a wide open Patrick Crayton in the end zone?
It is true that the offense has stalled in the red zone more than a time or two. It is true that more than a few drives have ended with a deflating missed field goal by former kicker Nick Folk. It is true that the team’s point production does not jibe with the massive amounts of yardage they have racked up.
It is also true that patience is a virtue. It was not that many years ago that Sean Payton, the current offensive genius in the league, was being stripped of his play-calling duties in New York. Think anyone thought then that he would be what is he now?
Like Payton, Garrett has shown himself to possess an innovative offensive mind. Like Payton, Garrett appears to be a steadying influence on the sideline. Like Payton, Garrett has had to fight his way through the on the job learning curve.
I believe that, like Payton, Garrett will soon prove himself to be the winner we all believed he was in 2007. In fact, I am not entirely convinced that he is not the right man to take the helm in Dallas when Jerry finally says goodbye to Phillips. How is that for a minority opinion? The Republicans will get more say on health care than I will get supporters on that one, I am sure.
I know that after 13 years of frustration, Cowboys fans are not inclined to patience. That particular virtue is wearing thin. But, where Jason Garrett is concerned, it will pay off.
Believe that.
Popularity: 24% [?]
Collision Course
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. – Robert Frost
The Dallas Cowboys are 8 – 4, and as coach Wade Phillips reminded the media, that makes them winners. Unfortunately, their foe Sunday, the San Diego Chargers, are 9 – 3, riding a hot streak, and, well, they, too, are winners.
The two teams, though they seldom meet – this is only their ninth meeting – have plenty of history. Norv Turner, the Chargers’ coach, is a former offensive coordinator for the Cowboys. Wade Phillips is the former defensive coordinator for the Chargers. Both men were strongly considered for the coaching position in Dallas, after Bill Parcells left. Most thought Turner would be Jerry Jones’s choice.
He wasn’t. Phillips was. Jones figured he had the offense covered with Jason Garrett (who was a hot commodity at the time, you may recall). What he needed, in his mind, was someone to whip the defense into shape. Wade has done that.
Phillips has also posted a nice winning percentage with the Cowboys…especially if you do not count December or the playoffs. Dallas’s December woes are well chronicled and much debated. Meanwhile, Turner’s Chargers are 15 – 0 in December. Turner’s team made the conference championship in 2007, losing to the New England Patriots. They made the Divisional round last year and lost.
While the Chargers try to figure out how to take that next step and make the Super Bowl, The Cowboys are just trying to solve December and finally post a playoff win for the first time in thirteen years. The Chargers want to win this game; the Cowboys have to win it.
Phillip Rivers and company are as dangerous an offense as any this side of New Orleans. They create matchup problems all over the field, especially with Tight End Antonio Gates. The Dallas Defense is playing well, though, currently ranked fifth in points allowed and 14th in yards allowed per game.
The Cowboys’ high-octane offense, however, has not played as well in recent weeks. They run well one week, pass well the next, but haven’t put the two together in awhile.
Sunday’s game will come down to quarterback play, defense, and coaching. One might give an ever-so-slight edge to Phillip Rivers over Tony Romo, but it is razor-thin. Romo has played well this year, while Rivers is playing out of his mind. Defensively, you have to like Dallas. Phillips knows how to prepare a defense and call a game on that side of the ball. And he knows the Chargers. The Coaching edge, it says here, belongs to Norv Turner, simply because he has proven he can get his team ready to play the games that matter most and get into the post-season, where he has had good success with the Chargers.
The wildcard may be Jason Garrett. If he can mix his game plan up enough to keep the Chargers off-balance and resist the urge to be cute when he needs to just be right, his offense could have a nice day against the Chargers, which ranks 15th in points allowed and 12th in yards given up.
The outcome of the game may very well determine Wade Phillips’s future with the Cowboys…and he knows it. His margin for error is nonexistent after the loss last week to the Giants. Should his team lose its grip on the NFC East and fall into a wild card fight, or out of playoff contention entirely, he will need to dust off that resume.
The Chargers will come to play. Of that, there is little doubt. If the Cowboys do, as well, this could be the NFL game of the week. The series edge is decidedly in the Cowboys favor. They hold a 6 – 2 series edge over the Chargers. But this is not your daddy’s Chargers…or your momma’s Cowboys.
For Wade Phillips and his Dallas Cowboys, in light of recent late-season collapses, this is definitely the time for them to take that road less traveled.
Prediction: Cowboys win 27-24.
Popularity: 5% [?]
"Yo! Ice Cream Man. Over here!"
The Dallas Cowboys beat the Giants Sunday. If you do not believe me, just ask head coach Wade Phillips. He will delight in telling you all of the good things his team did that day. He will outline all of the ways his team won.
It was, after all, a record-setting day for Tony Romo and a record-tying day for Jason Witten. The defense played well…well, if you don’t count that ridiculous 74-yard Brandon Jacobs “scamper” (if a play that lasts long enough for you to order and receive a Papa John’s pizza can be called a scamper) on a simple swing pass. Special teams were special except for that one little breakdown on the 78-yard punt return for a TD. You know, the one where every Cowboy on the field and half the ones on the sideline had their hands on him, but couldn’t get him to the ground.
Being a Dallas Cowboys fan these days can create enough mixed emotions to cause internal bleeding. On the one hand, of course, you want your team to succeed. You want them to bury the Ghost of Christmases Past and finally show up for December football.
On the other hand, however, you are desperate – desperate - to be rid of a head coach that just doesn’t get it…and never will. Wade Phillips will always have an excuse. He will always take consolation in statistics. He will always defend himself. He will never accept responsibility. He will never demand excellence of his players. He will never command respect.
He will, however, remain the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys if Jerry Jones can find the least excuse to keep him around.
So, as a Cowboys fan, you want success in December, sure. You want your team to finally get a playoff win after thirteen embarrassing years of mediocrity, underachievement, excuses, and disappointment.
But is it worth it?
A conundrum is what it is. Does any football fan want to hear the coach of his favorite team whine like a middle school girl to a room full of media types?
“I coach them the way I want to coach them,” Phillips said in response to a question about whether he ever gets as angry with his players as he does reporters, “And you can report the way you want to report.”
We will, Wade. We will call it like we see it. And what we see is a team that lost an important divisional game because of mental breakdowns and give-ups on four huge plays Sunday. What we see is a team that went into the game against the Giants with sole possession of first place in the NFC East, and came out tied with the Eagles. What we see is the Giants nipping at your heels, a season sweep of your Cowboys in their hip pockets.
What we see is the calendar, Wade. It reads, “December.” What we see is another late-season loss. What we see is you down-playing the loss, defending your team and demanding nothing (well, nothing except the respect you so desperately want from the media).
What we see is a light at the end of a thirteen-year long tunnel and we hope it is an oncoming train…and that it carries you away…far, far away, to a place where Decembers don’t matter, where early season wins are just as important as playoff victories, where stat sheets are equal to scoreboards, where reporters never badger beleaguered coaches, and where “ifs and buts” really are candy and nuts.
It is a wonderful place where all of your dreams can come true, Wade. It is just too bad that Dallas Cowboys fans will be forced to endure one more nightmare just so you can dream.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Head Cheerleader
Wade Phillips has his Dallas Cowboys sitting rather pretty: They are 8-3 after eleven games and leading the NFC East by one game over the Philadelphia Eagles. After a slow start, their defense has come on strong, proving themselves to be among the best in the league. The offense has sputtered here and there, but has found a spark with Miles Austin as the featured receiver and a stout three-headed running game.
All of that is good. It may not be good enough for Phillips to keep his job with the Cowboys come the 2010 season. His boss, owner and general manager of the Cowboys Jerry Jones, said when asked whether it was important for Phillips’ team to finally post a successful December campaign and finish well, answered:
“I don’t know that it’s any more so for Wade than it is for anybody else on this team. You’re in coaching and then there’s a lot of pressure to win, so that’s there. But what we do here and how we get into these playoffs and get in with an advantage, have a game here [Cowboys Stadium], get a bye, all of those are things that look good for Wade.”
Granted, Jones did not out-and-out admit that if the Cowboys fold like a cheap lawn chair Wade is canned. He did, however, seem to send a less-than-subtle message that goes something like this: “Hey, Wade. You like pretending to be the coach of the Dallas Cowboys? Win a playoff game or playtime is over for you.”
Confronted with Jones’ comments at his daily press conference, Phillips tried to laugh it off at first, but then, more than a little irritated, he gave this response, according to David Moore of the Dallas Morning News:
“If you want to go on records, I don’t know what the determining factor is, I’ve never known. I didn’t know when I was in Buffalo and we were 29-19 in three years that I was going to get fired. I thought I did a heck of a job.
“All I do is try to do the best I can as a coach. I work hard at that. I don’t think I get a lot of respect for that, but that’s the way it goes.”
I know. Sounds like a Rodney Dangerfield quote. “I tell you, I get no respect. My only friend is a dog. I told my wife a man needs at least two friends. She bought me another dog.”
Wade’s insistence on always defending himself – every move, every decision, every loss, every little controversy – gets annoying and sounds like nothing more than a good deal of whining. He feels he never got a fair shake anywhere.
Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me. I am going to eat worms.
People say Wade Phillips is a nice guy. I guess. Nice guys are a dime a dozen.
Great NFL head coaches are few and very far between. Wade does have a nice record as a head coach. He has a nice 30-13 record with the Cowboys. Obviously, he is as good a defensive tactician as there is in the game. But that step between great coordinator and greatness as the main man is a treacherous one. Just ask Cam Cameron, or Butch Johnson, or Charlie Weis, or…
Wade Phillips is good. He is not great. The reason he is not great is that he lacks the leadership skills to be great.
Bill Parcells defends himself at a press conference and the questioner looks and feels silly. Jimmy Johnson would deflect tough questions with a stare that seemed to ask, “Did your mother have any children that lived?”
Phillips, on the other hand, defends himself and it’s like he yanked his own arm off to fend off bloodthirsty sharks. It becomes a feeding frenzy.
It seems that everyone Wade Phillips meets has a stronger constitution than he does. That doesn’t bode well for a man who would lead a band of hardened warriors through treacherous battles, devastating setbacks, debilitating injuries, nay-saying critics, and on to glory.
I think Jerry’s message could be summed up as follows:
Stop whining. Start winning the games that matter most; i.e., late-season, deal-sealing and playoff games. Or…start packing.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Garrett Then and Now
Dateline Thanksgiving Day, 1994 – The Dallas Cowboys staggered into the holiday match-up with the Green Bay Packers – a team they had owned throughout the ’90s – battered and beaten.
A worried Cowboys nation nervously gnawed Turkey legs and anxiously awaited the afternoon kickoff, sure this would not go well. After all, Cowboys hall of fame-bound quarterback Troy Aikman was injured and would not play. To make matters worse, the more-than-capable backup QB Rodney Peete was hurt, as well.
The Cowboys were down to their third string quarterback, a redhead named Jason Garrett. Everyone knew Garrett had the grey matter to play the position. We also knew he lacked the natural physical gifts of a frontline quarterback. With Favre leading his Packers into Texas stadium, it figured to be a long day for the silver and blue.
What it figured to be and what it was turned out to be were two very different things.
The game started just as one would expect. The Cowboys stumbled out of the gate with Garrett at the helm. By halftime, the Packers had established a pretty comfortable 17-6 lead over a team that didn’t look like they were up for putting up much of a second half fight. Just get it over with and get to the turkey and dressing.
But Jason Garrett had other ideas.
Garrett connected on a 45-yard touchdown pass to Alvin Harper. Then, he threw a 36-yard TD to Michael Irvin. Later, he hit Emmitt Smith, who turned the pass into a 63 yard gain that led to another touchdown.
The Cowboys scored on their first five second half drives. Garrett out-dueled the great Brett Favre, passing for 311 yards and two TDs. And the Cowboys won what would become a classic Thanksgiving Day game, 42 – 31.
That game changed the perception of the ruddy redhead with the big brain and the somewhat slight frame. He became a folk hero, a fan favorite. Then, years later, as the Cowboys offensive coordinator, in the 2007 season, he became the hottest commodity in the NFL, after helping to guide the Cowboys to a 13-3 record with his high-powered offense.
My, how times have changed. The genius tag has been pulled and replaced by the “What the @#$%! is he thinking” tag.
Jason Garrett changed the perception of a team and their fan base once upon a Thanksgiving. Can he do it again? The table is set. The turkey has come all the way from the west coast, freshly plucked, gutted, ready to baste and bake.
Come on, Jason. Light that oven. Cook this turkey’s goose. Be our Thanksgiving hero again.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Who am I? Why am I here?
“Everything rises and falls on leadership.”
I do not know who said that first. I first heard it from a preacher named Lee Roberson, back in the seventies. Then, John Maxwell popularized it in more recent memory. Whoever said it, said it right.
All you can really add to it is, “Amen.”
The Dallas Cowboys are a team in desperate need of a leader. Plenty of players have emerged as positive locker room and field leaders, not the least of which is Keith Brooking. But the dearth of leadership on the sideline is ominous and distressing to the Cowboys faithful.
Last weekend, before the Green Bay game, my wife and I went to dinner with her parents. For my father-in-law and me, the subject turned, as it often does, to the Dallas Cowboys. We were talking about this very subject: the dreadful state of the head coaching position.
Coming off that huge win in Philly, my father-in-law was optimistic and hopeful.
“You know, Gene,” he said, “They don’t really have a head coach. They have an offensive and a defensive coordinator.”
I said that they do have a head coach. His name is Jerry.
He agreed.
He said he thought the team was mature enough and had enough team leaders to compensate for Wade Phillips’ lack of leadership. I said I hoped he was right, but I rather doubted it.
After Sunday’s debacle, he called and said, “I was wrong.”
Now, I do think he is right about being wrong. But I wish he wasn’t.
All of this got me thinking. I wondered who were the worst coaches ever to win a Super Bowl? I thought I would list the five worst Super Bowl winning coaches of all time.
That is a tough assignment. I only came up with two candidates I felt worthy to fill the five slots. But I will fill them anyway.
As you can see, even a list of the “weakest” Super Bowl-winning coaches gets pretty strong after you get past those first two slots. I doubt many would call Billick, Ditka, or Gruden “bad” head coaches.
So how does Phillips measure up? Through the 2009 season, he had posted a 76-52 regular season record (a .594 winning percentage). The rub comes, however, in the post-season, where he is 0-4.
The problem with Wade Phillips is not his regular season coaching record. The problem is his laissez-faire approach to leadership. The problem is his penchant for over-celebrating minor victories and down-playing major losses. The problem is his tendency to become defensive, when he should become determined. The problem is that he is not now, nor has he ever been, the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
I just don’t see any way for that not to matter.
Popularity: 8% [?]
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