Winnie's Final Four

First, let me be sure to throw Tony Romo some love over his outstanding performance against the Giants. He clearly outplayed his counterpart, Eli Manning. He stood tall in the pocket and delivered the ball more accurately than he has in a month. Unfortunately, his team let him down on Defense and Special Teams.

Okay, so now for the post.

This game will remind some of last year’s loss to Baltimore. They’ll say the defense clearly wasn’t up to the task and that they couldn’t cover Steve Smith in the middle of the field OVER and OVER and OVER in the first half.  They’ll point to the long catch and run by Brandon Jacobs in the 2nd half. They’ll say those inside runs by Jacobs and bounces to the outside by Bradshaw were our downfall.

I disagree.

This was not the same thing as seeing LeRon McClain running through gaping holes against a tired, run down Dallas defense last year. No, this was just getting outcoached, out-prepared and (no surprise) outplayed.

These New York Giants played a desperate football game in the trenches and Dallas wasn’t able to match their intensity in terms of how they defended the middle of the field with Steve Smith and suffered another abysmal performance by the defensive line in key situations. In basketball, you look for the team who is diving for loose balls. In baseball, you look at who is taking out the 2nd baseman to break up the double play. This defense, and this team, just doesn’t know how to do that. It’s not in their DNA because finesse coaches like the ones on our staff just don’t coach that way.

The Offense, with its key fumble, and the Special Teams with their major flub against Hixon didn’t do the team any favors either. More examples of a fragmented team coached by a fragmented staff.

Let’s face it; we got beaten by a better-coached and better-prepared team. And that, my fellow Cowboys fans, is the reason this team is so limited in terms of what it CAN accomplish.

But for me, there is light at the end of the tunnel…

I believe we are witnessing the final run for Winnie the Coach. The final 4 games of another torturous run of undermined, gutless coaching staffs with absolutely zero cohesiveness. I’ve always been a fan of Wade the Defensive Coordinator, but never of Winnie the Head Coach. This team has been as soft as his oversized belly since the day he held his first training camp practice that involved 1 hour of stretching and 45 minutes of actual drills and game simulation.

I can see a new HC, a new set of coordinators and a new attitude for next year.

I don’t know who our next Head Coach is going to be. It could be another Dave Campo hire. It could be a retread like Gruden or Shanahan. It could be another college coach where Jerry tries to conjure up a Jimmy-esque type of magic one more time. Regardless, I don’t like Winnie. He does not represent the kind of football I want my Cowboys to play and if I have to endure another 9-7 (or worse) ending to see us take the next step, so be it.

So while I am certainly not phoning in the last 4 games of the season, I am realistic about our chances and I think this team’s window is still wide open. Now we need the right leader to help us take advantage of that window and get to the next level where Dallas wins games like these because WE are the better-coached and better-prepared team.

GO COWBOYS