Has A Head Coach Every Been Fired After A Win?

by Lord Humungus on Oct 12, 2009 10:14 AM CDT

Let's not consider last games of the season, because I'm sure there are plenty of coaches that get fired in such a fashion.

I've never been so frustrated by a win in my life. This is the NFL, where you play a 16 game season, and each win is important. It's been my motto to not let a "bad win" sink in too much, because there are close losses against superior teams that I rarely consider moral victories. Either you win in this league or you lose.

Then there was the game yesterday, against one of the worst teams in the NFL. Dallas was clearly the superior team, and should have rammed it down the Chief's throats, but they simply couldn't get out of their own way. Each mistake was a microcosm in itself, like Crayton's fumble(s), 5 off-sides calls in one series, bad routes, broken pass coverage, a phantom helmet-to-helmet personal foul (that just can't warrant a fine from the league). But add them all together, and you have a team in serious disarray. It wasn't the clueless, heartless team that put on their pads only to get pounded by the Eagles in the last game of last year's season, but it was a team that had next to no focus and showed a hideous lack of attention to detail. And detail starts with coaching and attention to detail. Plain and simple, we have a terrible head coach and an offensive coordinator that thinks he's smarter than everyone else. We play down to our competition and that's completely inexcusible.

Off-sides penalties?? In the pros? Not on a hard-count?? When does that happen??

It looks like this year is going to be another ho-hum Cowboys season, and as a life-long fan I've fooled myself time and time again to think THIS team could be the one to win it all. After all, any team can win on any given Sunday (not to give props to one of the worst movies in history), but how many times have I told myself, "This team will NEVER win anything with Jerry Jones as General Manager."? The day Jerry fired Jimmy Johnson, I told my friend, "The Cowboys will never win the Super Bowl again.". I'm glad I was wrong once. But I find that statement to be the wisest, most prognosticating statement I've probably ever made (sigh).

I love this team, I love the tradition (or what it once was), and I still love the blue star and the tradition of greatness that I grew up with as a child. But Jerry's incompetence as a GM is finally starting to emotionally divorce me from this team, and that makes me very upset. Maybe he'll finally make the call at the end of the season and step down as GM. Maybe Bill Cowher and his amazing underbite will step in and lead this team back to prominence. But after so many years of Jerry's overriding ego, I doubt it will happen.

- Lord Humungus (formerly GhostofGaryHogeboom).

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A couple of thoughts

One.

The team’s been carrying focus problems since before the days of Bill Parcells and nothing has changed. Is it a problem with coaching or with the players themselves? Parcells could do nothing with his my-way-or-the-highway ways and Phillips hasn’t been able to accomplish anything with his player-friendly ways, so, what makes you think that things will change with a change at the top?

The players are the ones that have to keep their focus on the field, the coaches can’t force them because they aren’t the ones executing when the bullets are flying.

And two.

In 1992, and with one of the most talented and well coached teams that we’ve seen, the Cowboys lost at home against the Rams, a talent and coaching poor team, in a really poor played game for both the Offense and especially the Defense. And that loss, while it made the chicken littles look up to the sky in dismay, didn’t prevented the team from going in the right direction, they won that year Super Bowl and the next.

On Sundays anything can happen, which is why there’ve been as few winless teams.

Viva México! Go Cowboys!

by Chandus on Oct 12, 2009 10:40 AM CDT reply actions

agreed

especially with part one

by BishopWest on Oct 12, 2009 10:53 AM CDT up reply actions

I remember that Rams game

Cleveland Gary killed us.

"Well, we didn't block real good but we made up for it by not tackling."

- John McKay, the first coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

by 5Blings on Oct 12, 2009 2:08 PM CDT up reply actions

Dallas fire a coach after a win

Jimmy Johnson was fired after winning Super Bowl 28. Meanwhile, Jerry refuses to fire himself.

Jerry, 500 GM’s could do a better job than you… hire one!

by HutHut on Oct 12, 2009 12:43 PM CDT reply actions

most fantasy football players could do better

Lifetime Cowboys Fan from the Swamps of Jersey

by Seanrude on Oct 12, 2009 1:20 PM CDT up reply actions

Interesting comment...

Jerry, 500 GM’s could do a better job than you… hire one!

If that were true, there would be a surplus of talented GMs and talent poor teams wouldn’t suffer from being poorly run. There’re far fewer talented GMs than you believe.

While I don’t agree with a bunch of Jerry’s calls or signings, I do agree with many of his moves, including the hiring and retaining of Wade as a Head Coach, just because it made sense at the time.

Viva México! Go Cowboys!

by Chandus on Oct 12, 2009 2:10 PM CDT up reply actions

Dunno

…but we can hope!!!

"Well, we didn't block real good but we made up for it by not tackling."

- John McKay, the first coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

by 5Blings on Oct 12, 2009 2:56 PM CDT reply actions

you are truly delusional if you think

Jerry will ever fire himself, that will never, ever happen. Jerry will run this team until the day he dies, he’s on record as stating such and only a fool would think differently.

Not..going..to..happen.

In Romo we Trust

by Terry on Oct 12, 2009 8:58 PM CDT reply actions

This is true..

Jerry will NEVER ever ever ever EVER relinquish GM responsibilities until it absolutely is required by his own health. So..wasting your precious time and giving yourself carpal tunnel trying to voice your hopes (though perhaps justified) is going to be very unrewarding.

I’m not going to say that Jerry has made terrible decisions because really he hasn’t. He doesn’t seem to miss on decent players any more than the average GM does and really he has done a decent job of allowing the last two coaches to make decent personel decisions. This was a good move as both Parcells and Wade are considered good personel guys (sort of a missed note about Wade)

Jerruh’s biggest issue as our GM seems to be his constant need to keep his team hyped and in the headlines. If you are going to have a winning football team this is often a terrible way to go about it…it creates too many outside issues and removes the focus from football. But, I came to term with this a long time ago. Jerry doesn’t just want a winning football team. It would be nice, but really it is secondary to having a popular football team. Jerry is a great businessman, no matter how you feel about him, and unfortunately in Jerry’s World (excuse the pun) Ws are secondary to $s.

This does have a positive side though… many teams sit at the bar and complain about their teams’ ownership never spend enough money to make them a contender. This has never been, nor will ever be the problem with Jerry Jones. His ability to distinguish well paid personel and good personel is questionable at times but he most certainly cares. Just not as much as about the success of his product… Our Dallas Cowboys.

Wade Phillips has never won a playoff game as a head coach..he has lost 4 home playoff games.
His longest tenure as head coach was 3 years.
Only once did his record as a HC improve from one year to the next (by 1 game)

Wade Phillips for DC

by SDTrueblue on Oct 13, 2009 4:13 AM CDT up reply actions