Coming to grips with reality

Nobody can do well when getting their face planted into the turf that much. Ask Tom Brady in the Super Bowl last year.

Everyone focuses on Romo’s failure in December, but doesn’t ever mention the odd coincidence that it seems to come at the same time as a complete OL breakdown.

For 2 straight years, our OL has completely given up in December.

That was the first time I turned off the game as well man.

I’m pretty mad still. That game was a pretty sad case of effort.

Which is why I say we need Ray Lewis. He’s an UFA this year.

“Ask Tom Brady in the Super Bowl last year.”

Brady at least showed up in that game. He led his team down the field to score the go ahead touchdown even with the pounding he took. An improbable, lucky catch prevented him from getting Ring Number #4.

Romo is not a big-time, clutch QB. He may become someday, but he wilts in December too. He makes foolish decisions with the ball and that is not the fault of the O-line. I certainly have hope for him, but he isn’t there yet.

We need to start with changing some personnel. Getting a Safety, NT, and a LB are a high priority. But is anything higher than fixing the O-line?

sometimes after the beginning of the 3rd quarter. it was well past midnight here and it didn’t seem worth staying up for that ! It wasn’t the loss, but the lack of effort and passion of playing football.
Right now I have no idea wether this team can turn things around or not. Then again, so did the Dolphins, so i guess there is hope

I agree with pretty much everything you said. I believe the talent is in place. Can’t think of another team with more. In a way I hope BSPN and everyone talk all offseason about how soft this group is. I can’t stand that. Hopefully, they can’t either and show something we havent seen from this group….pride.

On the surface, I like it. But if this group sent Parcells out of the game, they would send Gruden to the looney bin. He would absolutely lose his frigging mind with this team.

I think it’s from the Star Telegram.

■ Begin by firing your chief enabler, Coach Cupcake himself. Swallow your pride. Back away from last week’s hasty stupidity. Admit you are wrong. He has to go.

■ Fire Bruce Read, 12 games too late, yet still necessary.

■ Bid farewell to Pacman and Tank. Talent allows trouble makers to get second chances, but neither has enough to justify their presence.

■ Say goodbye to T.O., as much as this hurts, because his whining, his private meetings, his silliness has become a distraction. Trust me, your team is better without him.

■ Call Bill Cowher, Mike Holmgren, any and every coach who you think might look you in the face and tell you to go to hell. Keep adding zeroes until one of them says yes.

■ Bring in a real backup quarterback, with talent and potential, to challenge Romo. He obviously needs a push, from coaches and from a guy vying for his job.

■ Keep The RH-no G, with a babysitter. Too early to give up on him. Too much evidence to leave him without supervision.

■ Slap Flozell Adams and Corey Proctor, on general principle.

■ Did I mention Coach Wade? Because as long as he’s your coach, your team will lack accountability and you will not win.

the problem isn’t talent, it’s attitude ….. I love if they had the swagger that a Baltimore or Pittsburgh has instead of this heads down, crying bull.

First time I can ever remember turning off a tie game. Shut the tv down at 3-3, and went outside to take care of the horses. I could just see that Philly wanted it, and the Boys had just shown up because the had to. Pathetic, absolutely pathetic is what I thought at the time. I live in Alaska, so the view calms me immensely after watching this crap week in, and week out.

Best thing I could have done, came back in and it was 44-3. Sad thing is, I laughed, it was that predictable after the game started.

Saying we lost because we had no heart or because we didn’t play with effort or because we played too soft is lazy. Stop blaming the team’s perceived lack of attitude and heart. This team wanted to win, just like every other team wants to win. This game wasn’t lost because of a lack of effort. Did Barber lack heart because he fumbled in the red zone? Did Romo lack passion and a will to win because he had three turnovers? Of course not. Yet those four mistakes led to touchdowns. That was the game right there.

Cowboys fans need to take a week to calm down before trying to cast judgment on the team or start making suggestions for next year. Right now, we’re angry and upset and not thinking clearly. Let’s stop complaining about things that didn’t impact the game (heart, effort, toughness) and try to focus on ways the team can actually improve for next year.

I usually get something to eat around halftime, but didn’t. Midway through the third quarter I got something to go and left. I don’t think I ever walked out on a game no matter how bad it was. I knew it wasn’t our day when we kicked the opening kickoff out of bounds and the Eagles started at the 40……Right there I knew we were in trouble…

Tony Romo is Jim Everett without the playoff wins.

…I wish we weren’t all having to go through all of these post mortems, but ‘you are what you are’. And we are not a good team right now. We’re 9-7.

How many teams would rejoice if they were 9-7? None the less, by our standards it sucks, and I’m glad we have high standards.

I was in favor of Singletary back when he was available, and still am, but that won’t happen. He would be the cure for what ails this team. He may not be the best X’s and O’s guy but he could hire them. What he is, is a winner!

He expects to win and he expects those around him to expect to win, and do everything to ensure that win. He has the chops to pull it off (Super Bowl ring, pro-bowl player, future Hall of Fame) there’s no arguing with this guy and his credentials. Not that he would brook any arguments from players or coaches.

You will play your butt off, or he will climb so far up up your butt that you will be tasting hair tonic.

Wade is a good football mind and can be a good HC, if he can get some good coaches under him. I admire him for being willing to take a bullet for his guys, but he also needs to have a heavy hat. Everyone knows how tough Marine Corps drill instructors are, usually three to a platoon. The Senior DI, the final word, tough but fair. He can be the father figure to the recruits when needed, but he sets the pace. The 3rd DI is usually a new DI, in training, he is basically an apprentice to the SDI. Then there’s the heavy hat…the flaming a-hole who will curse you and criticize you no matter what. You can’t please this guy and you are scared to death of him. If you developed a cure for cancer he would pour it on the ground, spit on it and scream that it wasn’t the right color. You kill yourself trying to keep out of this guys cross-hairs.

The Cowboys can use Wade as the Senior DI, but I think they defintely need a ’heavy hat" to keep guys lean and hungry.

no worse than 9-7 for 4 straight years says you aren’t losers. Just marginal winners.

But they are soft, unfocused, mistake prone. The Cowboys need to study what the Ravens did last season, turning their training camp in to a boot camp. Worried about injuries in the preseason? At least those guys won’t burden the roster.

Before we pine about Saparano going 11-5 in his 1st year lets remember:

Payton in his first year in NO, then falling apart for 2 years
Parcells 10-6 to 6-10.
NYJ 11-5 to 5-11 under Mangini in year 1 and 2
it goes and goes… lets wait tell Saparano has 100 games before we declare him the Jesus we missed.

Wade is promising to be tougher. Thing is we have no choice. Wade it is. If he wants to be remembered as a great coach, the coming out of this gutter will freaking make him immortal.

Sure, theres a lot of 1st year coaches doing well this year. Lets see if 1 wins the superbowl

This team’s rookie core and young player core is solid.

The biggest change we need is the threat of benching. I can’t imagine a team being more humbled right now… but lets remember
A) The Texans went .500 for 2 straight years now, their best run ever. How’d you like that mediocrity?
B) There is lower. We could being saying people ought to be shot, like our name was Chris Cater

My fears are that
Sloppy tackels
Bad Blocking
Bad Block Shedding
Sloppy Routes
off target throws
that these won’t go away.

Wade should but a gag order on the whole team and coaches, especially in the season.

What do more knowledgeable football observers say about the criticism of Garrette’s schemes?

Via the DMN blog:

21 Turnovers in 13 games (14 INT’s and 7 fumbles).

We will get nowhere (and in fact, we didn’t get anywhere) with those kind of stats from our QB.

I genuinely enjoyed parts of this year, watching Bradie James jump over people to sack McNabb was pretty cool even in this last game.

I hope this team knows the story of the undefeated Dolphin’s team, who used a humiliating defeat to make a season of legend.

Or the story of the ’94 49ers, who used 2 humiliating defeats to power them to a superbowl.

incidentally both teams lost to the Cowboys – Dallas is still the best winning percent in history, so if people give you crap call them out for their perennial mediocrity.

You turned the game off at halftime and you’re telling those who want Phillips fired and Tony Romo challenged to have faith?

I never turn off COwboys games after watching the Buffalo Bills come back from 31 points down to win a game. But hey, that’s just me. I sat through the entire hell of it. But I also want Wade Phillips fired and the Cowboys to bring in a quarterback to challenge him

Someone please tell me no…

until they prove otherwise.

…I agree with just about everything you said. My only small quibbles are I’m not worried about T.O. and I think Roy Williams, the WR, will end up working out for us if he is utilized properly.

The team is mentally soft and Romo is not ready for Prime Time at the moment. Of course, those things can be fixed if they are recognized and addressed properly.

As far as your mocking of JJT, Floyd Engel, etc, don’t feel bad — they deserve to be mocked, as most of these people are simple media harlots seeking to curry favor and attention from larger Cowboys-hating outlets like the BSPNs of the world. Besides Ed Werder getting punked by his own employer, the highlight of the media circus’ year was JJT’s writing the “T.O. is done” piece on the same day Owens put up 200 yards. Doesn’t get any better than that and everyone in the organization laughed their rear ends off at JJT after the game.

NFL Netork Adam Shefter just reported it. Garrett and 3 other coordinators are interviewing for the HC job. Jerry granted Garrett permission to speak to the Lions, which doesn’t make sense because I thought any coordinator can interview for a HC job. Maybe it was a coordinator position he is going for??

I think Garrett is gone…..and I won’t be disappointed to see him go. If not Detroit maybe somewhere else. We could be in the market for a new OC and DC, OL coach, Special teams coach. I think there is going to be some major changes in the coaching staff, but not the one everyone wants.

This guy played with a broken leg in the Super Bowl. While Romo goofed off in Mexico last year, TO did all he could to rehab himself and get ready for the playoffs. He run blocks and runs after DBs who make interceptions.
I also don’t see what the problem is having private meetings with your coach to talk about problems. When I or anyone have problems at work, we go and talk to our manager privately to try to sort things out. I would like to thing football is like any other business. It seems more like the case that Werder over hyped some things.

Just when you think the circus is shutting down …

A fan wearing a Jason Witten jersey stood on the street in front of the Cowboys’ Valley Ranch facility today, wearing a sandwich board that read, “WADE IS AN EMBARRASSMENT TO THE STAR AND OUR TEAM HAS NO HEART.” The man ended up calling Irving police after a confrontation with LB Bradie James.

James said the fan was blocking his way out of the parking lot, leading him to tell the man he needed to get out of the way or get hit by the linebacker’s luxury SUV.

“He said, ‘Why you guys didn’t show that fire last night? You should have showed that heart last night!’” James recalled to reporters. “So next thing you know, I’m just ripping his sign off him. So I ripped the sign off him. He said I broke his glasses, so I went and gift-wrapped some Oakleys. He got something out the deal.”

Cooler heads prevailed when the fan met with James inside the Cowboys facility, along with a team security official and an Irving police officer. James said the fan told him his angst was directed at the rest of the Cowboys, not him.

“I told him, ‘I share your frustrations. But where we differ is I wouldn’t go to anybody’s job, especially not with 300-pound guys, trying to tell them what they didn’t do right,’” James said. “But that’s it. It’s over.”

All he’s decided so far is that he needs a plan; he’s only started putting it together. However, he said both coordinators will be back and he expects all the star players to return.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3798441

Anderson Silva should be our D coodinator any dumb plays you get one leg kick..

Whether it happens or not, let’s look at the salary-cap ramifications of cutting Terrell Owens.

He was paid a $12.9 million signing bonus last June and has three years left on the deal, so the proration that would come forward is $9.675 million. He’s scheduled to count $8.995 million against the cap.

Quick math says the move would cost the Cowboys $680,000.

What should the Cowboys do?

In case you’re wondering, the Cowboys would save $2 million if the cut Brad Johnson, $2 million if they cut Montrae Holland, $2.2 million if they cut Roy Williams (the safety).

http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/

ESPN’s ex-wide receiver Cris Carter on Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens:

“If it was me, I’d get rid of T.O. T.O. got to go from the beginning. Right from the giddy up. I take one bullet and put it right in him. Bam!”

Don’t believe me? C.C. said it on ESPN’s M&M this morning. Thanks to the woderful Awful Announcing for the heads up.

http://sportsmediablog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/12/lets-hope-cris-carter-was-only.html

Wade Must go. Tony Sucks.

and I really don’t have any defense either.

Detroit Lions interested in Jason Garrett
5:43 PM Mon, Dec 29, 2008 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz
Pete Aldrich E-mail News tips
Todd Archer has confirmed the NFL Network’s report that the Detroit Lions have requested permission to speak with offensive coordinator Jason Garrett about their head coaching vacancy.

The Lions fired Rod Marinelli on Monday, one day after becoming the NFL’s first 0-16 team.

This is not new territory for Garrett, who last off-season turned down Baltimore and also interviewed with Atlanta.

from DMN.

OC Murice Carthon, DC Ron RIVERA

http://sportsmediablog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/12/eureka-espns-marcellus-wiley-a.html

http://www.patriots.com/team/index.cfm?ac=coachbio&bio=532

and the cowboy fans are angry as hell……oh my…..

The host been killing us all day….

This was Bradie’s comment when he heard Wade is going to be more demanding. Wade didn’t address the team today.

“If you know a person to be a certain way and then all of the sudden, you have an extreme change, I don’t know,” LB Bradie James said. “I don’t know how well that’s going to be taken. I don’t know what he means by that. But he didn’t address us, so I don’t know.”

I think that about half of the people on this thread need to put the season into perspective and not relive the destructive December.

Talking about trading the nucleus of this team is nonsense. We for sure keep Newman and Barber.

We have to remember that this season had some of the worst, if not the worst, IR and games missed by injury list in recent Cowboy memory. The fact that we were mildly successful with a street-punter, 4th string SS, an inconsistent CB lineup including 2 rookies and someone who hasn’t played in a year, 3rd string RB, back-up RG, backup and 3rd string QB, helps to ameliorate some of the bitterness of the season-ending loss. I am not saying that change is not needed, however, change may mean for a lot of the lineup, getting healthy. Also, the reaction to the fact that the Cowboys need to coalesce as a team cannot be cured by signing more high dollar, big-name free agents; this is part of the problem.

What we really need is depth and to see past the names on jerseys to not be afraid to pull a player for bad behavior. Perhaps the reason that the ‘softy’ coach couldn’t do it is because there has not been adequate back-ups to throw in. I know you can’t have great players everywhere, but Wade can only do so much about what he has been given, especially on the O-line.

To change the energy on the thread, I am excited to see the D come on, and am hopeful that the last half of the season was the D of a team that finally has more than a training camp of running it under it’s belt.
I am excited to see Bennett get better. (bc it annoys me to see Fassano catching TD’s)
I am excited to see our RB core for next year (and for them to get healthy)
I am excited to see the upside of RW the WR.
I am excited to see our rookie CB’s keep playing.

Here is my parting question, the thing that really irks me: what did Garrett do this year that he did not do last year? Are his schemes overly simplistic? Will someone hold him to a higher standard? ie. will he be fired if he doesn’t improve? (assuming he doesn’t take a better job)

http://www.dallascowboys.com/

Austin needs to see the field more because, apparently he is the only one that can get seperation. So if that means giving TO his walking papers so be it. TO won’t be on this team much longer and if it only cost 680K to do it, than let’s get it done already. If not, he will cost us nealy 9 mil against the cap in 2009.

along with some other people, and would routinely get reamed for, on the old site and here.

But NEVER in my wildest dreams did I imagine a game like that one on Sunday.
NEVER did this realist about our team, trying to bring some fans back to Earth about their team, could I have seen 44-6 coming. I walked out of the sports bar at halftime, I’m with you on that.

The good news is, in the NFL, it’s a slim difference between 11-5 and 5-11. The Dolphins are DIVISION CHAMPS! The Falcons were a joke a year ago, and are in the playoffs!
This team has the ability to be good again, but NOT if they keep the locker room cancers around.

 I’m neutral on Wade Phillips, but after a season-ending effort like that you HAVE to let the HC go.
Unfortunately, JJ made all those announcements before the last game about him staying.
I wonder if Jerry wishes he had waited a week to comment on the coaching staff?

Solid work. I’ll admit to being a T.O. apologist, and think “distractions” are horribly overblown, but pretty much everything you said hit the nail on the head.

Call attention to a “distraction” enough, and it can actually be distracting.

As much as I despise the Cowboys because of our superbowl rivalries I really felt bad for you guys’ team last Sunday. I felt at mid-season you guys were a force to be reckened with and even after my Steelers squeked by with a win over you guys (Romos fault) I still thought you guys had potential through the playoffs. It seemed like the media just caused you guys to have a rollercoaster season and it stems from T.O. and branches out to the whole team.

Heres my .02, FIRE T.O.!!!!!

And I have been saying this again and again even when he was on the Eagles. Don’t get me wrong, T.O. is great, possible one of the greatest and I believe the man would probably have 2 rings by now if it wasn’t for his attitude but the mans 35 years old and has the attitude of a high school jock trying to build his stat sheet for college by caring about nobody else but himself, and just to rub it in he screams “I love me some "Me!” Just pathetic, he is poison to any team he goes to because he thinks that “he” will bring Jerry Jones his 6th superbowl instead of helping the “team” achieve that goal.

This is the deal, when your offensive coordinator is designing plays specifically for T.O. after T.O. throws a fit about not getting enough receptions then your team is losing before the game even starts. And then you got Tony Romo worried about passing the ball to T.O. while he is in the pocket because he doesn’t want to piss him off later. It’s one of those unspoken rules that T.O. does not respect, what is said in the locker room, STAYS IN THE LOCKEROOM.

I respect J.Witten for at least taking the blame for a missed route but T.O. is just poison and you guys need to get rid of him. Talent is one thing but chemistry among the “team” instills belief and as a result, wins games. T.O. might be the probowler but I don’t care if my Steelers WR core was f****d up, I would never want him on my team.

Once again, I’m sorry for you guys’ loss to the Eagles and I hope you guys have a better season in 09.