The Great Social Experiment: Talent or Team?

by BoyfromOz on Sep 7, 2009 11:04 PM CDT

One thing that excites me about this season is seeing the outcome of the Cowboys change in philosophy. Does a great team beat great talent or will talent usually triumph?

It seems pretty clear that the Cowboys have less individual proven talent than last year – TO, Ellis, Pacman, Canty being the main losses. Now it may be that others step up into the void but as yet this talent is unproven.

Question is whether a stronger team culture and football focus will more than offset this reduction in talent. If this was a Hollywood movie you know it would, but this is reality and the NFL is a tough place to win.

The answer of course is a bit of both. A team that has significantly inferior talent is never going to go all the way – regardless of how well they play as team. They will eventually come up against a team with stronger talent that has a sufficiently solid team culture to be effective. A team with great talent that play as individuals will never be a consistent winner, particularly in pressure situations. Football is the ultimate team game – if anyone freelances or doesn’t trust or support his teammate the whole structure is weaker.

To me the secret is that you need sufficient talent to be competitive but that ultimately the strongest team cultures win. Do the Cowboys have that? We won’t know for sure till the team is in a pressure situation with the game on the line. It is those “moments of truth” that will tell the story. But at this stage the “vibe” seems very positive and focussed. In contrast it seems all three of our rivals in the NFC East have a few distractions – Vick, Osi going walkabout, Skins undermining Campbell etc. See Mosley’s article:

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/2721/are-the-cowboys-the-most-stable-team-in-the-beast

I believe the team has made the right decision – trading off a little talent for a better team. I really didn’t like the attitude that came across from last year’s team particularly when they were anointed SB favourites in the pre-season.

Baring injuries and assuming some special teams improvement I think we are competitive and balanced. A stronger team culture should put us over the top – our first playoff team in a while. What do you think – has the team made the right choices?

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Team> Talent

by bad knees on Sep 7, 2009 11:32 PM CDT reply actions

Who was it that said "most of the talent in the NFL is

really not that far apart"?

by Musiccitynorm on Sep 8, 2009 1:38 AM CDT reply actions

The team has made

the right choices….so far. I think this team is actually a team this year. I was a big fan of TO but got tired of his antics throughout the season last year and he wasn’t the only one talking noise. With the comments coming from TNew, Romo, RW (#11), Crayton, Bradie James, etc, etc., they all lost sight of what was important. They all kept kept running their mouths, pointing the finger at someone else, instead of looking at themselves in the mirror and saying “Hey I need to do better!”. The HC started this crap by defending everything said or done. Hopefully that is o-v-e-r!

The big question is if / when things start to go wrong, will the HC and players make the right choices then? That is what I am waiting for. I have high expectations for this team and I am patiently waiting for DEC to arrive and see how this team handles it, win or lose. We win as a team and we lose as a team. Do they revert back into last year’s mantra of "It wasn’t me, it was his fault’ crap or stay this years’ course of Man-up and perform?

My guess is Man-up and perform!

Go Cowboys!

by Boyz4Life on Sep 8, 2009 1:55 AM CDT reply actions

I think its oversimplifying things

to say talent vs. team. We were 4-1 before Romo went down and the injuries started mounting last year. And while we did have pretty bad locker room problems in december, they seemed to have the “us against the world” thing going for them up to late in the Baltimore game, when everything seemed to collapse. The only player who seemed to play bad against pitt was Romo – everyone else brought the fire. IN the Giants game, we physically beat up a very physical team.

We are maybe SLIGHTLY less talented than last year. What we are missing with TO gone should be easily made up for with a healthy Barber, Felix, Witten, and a whole season for Roy and Romo to get on the same page. TO seemed to decline a large amount last year, and by december he was clearly not the dominant player he usually is. Ellis was rapidly declining. And Pacman and Tank didn’t bring much to the table. The most significant player loss we had may end up being Burnett, cause we’re an ilb injury away from being in dire straights. And he doesn’t fit into the whole talent vs. team argument.

Not trying to completely discredit your post – you’re right, the team has taken steps to become a more cohesive unit. The coaches made it clear with those cuts + Roy WIlliams + firing Reed and bringing in Camillis + drafting Buehler + a tougher TC + trading a broken Henry for a reliable backup that there are no free passes and this teams players will be held accountable. And that imo means more than any small decrease in talent from last year.

by foyesboys on Sep 8, 2009 3:32 AM CDT reply actions

I like things simple

by bad knees on Sep 8, 2009 8:09 AM CDT up reply actions

I agree that the only real talent we're missing this year is T.O.

but I’m glad he’s gone. I think the replacements overall are a push, with upgrades in Brooking and Sensabaugh.

And I think the diversity of this

Garrett-friendly

offense will make up for the loss of T.O. and greatly contribute to the team philosophy.

"Everybody wants something but nobody wants to pay the price" - Michael Irvin

by 24Hz on Sep 8, 2009 9:32 AM CDT up reply actions

oops. Garrett-friendly was supposed to be in italics, not a block quote.

My bad.

"Everybody wants something but nobody wants to pay the price" - Michael Irvin

by 24Hz on Sep 8, 2009 9:33 AM CDT up reply actions

I think we had a great offseason

We got rid of our overrated, cancerous players and signed some very underrated players. The overall team chemistry is improved and playing as a team was the only missing ingredient for a championship run,,,and staying healthy of course.

In Romo we Trust

by Terry on Sep 8, 2009 2:01 PM CDT reply actions