Dallas' War of the Roses

Seriously though, you bring up valid points that are both enlightening and alarming. I haven’t really paid attention to the dynamics of the two but it’s true. As if Joe and Wade are on a completely different page than Garrett’s..

If it continues we won’t do much this season…

I still think the problems this team faces are fixed very easily, but there is likely some truth to the disconnect between Wade and Garrett. There has been evidence of this since they both came to the team. The Dan Reeves fiasco is a good example that these two don’t really mesh. I think they’re both good men, or at least that’s what I can gather. It just seems like they either can’t get on he same page, or their philosophies just don’t work well together. They’ve both achieved some really good things together, but trust may be an issue, and it could be a contributing factor to the lack of focus that seems to plague this team.

Regardless, I think there is definite truth to the fact that the Cowboys are a more extreme example of the offense and defense falling under completely different domains. This is largely due to the fact, in my opinion, that Wade is fully responsible for the defensive play-calls. My only real contention here would be that I would be willing to bet that there are and have been similar situations that have worked out just fine around the NFL. And furthermore, I would contend that in situations where the head coach is making play-calls for one side of the ball that there will be increased division between the offense and defense. For me, a few obvious examples that stick out are Mariucci and Andy Reid (the most obvious conflict and division though is Ditka and Buddy Ryan). Both are huge offensive guys and when they have had head coach jobs I think they have completely left the defense to their coordinators. For instance, do you think Andy Reid really ever went over to Jim Johnson and challenged his calls? I would say that is doubtful at best.

I suppose my overall point is that I would agree that the Cowboys have a hierarchy that is different than most of the ones you would find around the NFL (it stems a lot in my opinion from the fact that JG was handpicked and Wade exclusively handles the defense). However, I am not so sure unlike you that this is a terrible thing and the dynamics of it are built to blow up. It has worked in other organizations in my opinion and I think Wade doesn’t have enough of an ego to let Jason and the whole head-coach-in-waiting thing bother him.

but not anymore. Wade’s D did everything it could and JG called the game like a showcase of his offensive creativity – production be damned.

I know it was only the first game but imagine, just imagine, a Cowboys team that started the season strong, started games strong and stuck with a philosophy through thick and thin. Brains over talent. Maybe someday we’ll see it.

I agree pretty whole heartedly.

And I thought this was the worst game I’ve seen from Garrett from a playcall stanpoint since… the first Washington game of 2008.

The back to back Dez Bryant quick passes were just… mind boggling. Dallas played crappy last night but probably should have won even despite that.

so long as Jerry gives the full authority given to Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells.

There is indeed a fundamental organizational structural problem: there is no locus of authority and no clearly delineated hierarchy, so that Jerry can be the focal point.

At times I thought I was the only one who felt this. Wade is hung out to dry in front of the media for the teams’ performance (or lack thereof). Do you ever see, much less hear, anything out of Garrett? I don’t, and I don’t know if its that he’s a bad interview or whatever. I never see Wade and Garrett conversing and that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, it’s just you never see it in a game.
Normally I think your just a contrarian, Blings, but this time I think you nailed it on the head. It’s the strange surreal house that Jerry built.

And there’s always a semi-controversial ‘hook’ that generates interest and pushes Comment volume. But methinks this is a theory in search of a conspiracy.

We all recognize Wade operates at a hierarchical disadvantage – with responsibility for results, but incomplete authority over the process. As noted by many of us, his personality also contributes to the dysfunction.

Look no further than the D Reeves issue cited above and contrast that with the B Stewart sacrificial lamb program form a couple of seasons ago. Who is responsible – JJ, who’s Season Of we are now experiencing in all its rich tapestry already. The real question is why? What is the motivation towards essentially turning the Org Chart upside Down in this case?

So Riddle me this – name the only person in the entire football side of the organization who played on the glory teams of the 90’s? Why Jason Garrett, of course. He’s JJ’s last direct player link to his championships. And it’s really not his fault that Jerry thinks there’s some of that old magic lightning left in that particular bottle.

The true Conspiricy Theorist would postulate JG is holding back the O to the point where even the D cannot overcome its lack of productivity. Which in turn, places the titular HC in a precarious position and positions the succession plan appropriately. Alternatively, WP’s Faux, ‘Blame Me,’ postgame comments are really designed to bring attention to JG’s unconventional autonomy, hoping the light of day will demonstrate this to be doomed and restore the correct balance. Which brings me to Riddle #2 – after what we saw SUN, is anyone in this organization capable of that type of forward thinking? Methinks not..

PS – speaking of the glory years – anybody see the newly slimmed down Nate Newton on the Fox Sports West recap show? Amazing transformation.

Simple as that. Jason was handed the offense a few years ago and came out with a dominating system, one year later, the INTELLIGENT minds in the NFL figured it out. Who in their right mind runs 2 WR screens in a row on 1st and 2nd down? That was just some of the horrible play calling we saw on Sunday night.

Wade Phillips is a good coach, but I worry about his lack of control with this team. Great points were made in this post, and it proved that this is certainly a team divided. Jerry and his minions need to open their eyes and realize that there is a problem with this offense, and it’s not the personnel, it’s the man calling the plays.

Tony Romo is one of the best QB’s in this league, but he is handcuffed by a college caliber, at best, O-Coordinator. We are one of the most unbalanced offenses in the league, we rushed the ball a total of 22 times on Sunday night while averaging close to 5 ypc, while throwing the ball 48 times, averaging 6 yard per pass, something there just doesn’t make sense. We have a “Three Headed Monster” in our backfield and we used them 22 times?? That is not going to help win games, but JG has done it since he’s been here, abandons the run because he thinks he HAS to pass the ball 50 times per game to win.

Anyway, the season has begun, and we’re stuck with our staff the way it is, but something better change soon, if not, this will be a very very long season.

jerry was and still is.. the biggest team prob we have, he needs to give gm to his son and do like bum bright and hit the not seen button…..

What the hell is going to change Bling?? You actually think Jerry is going to fire either guy in mid season…it will never, ever happen.

Sunday’s loss was the result of stupid mistakes by both the players and Garrett for not having Romo take a knee to end the first half. Nothing more, nothing less.

To say the HC and one of his coordinators have to get along and be buddy buddy for the team to win is ridiculous….obviously you weren’t around when the ’85 Bears dominated the league that year with the HC (Ditka) and DC (Ryan) hating each other.

I have felt this way since the end of the 2008 season, Jerry was ready to clean house if next year did not end well and both must have decided okay I need to cover my own butt. Wade made himself the DC fulltime and that would mean that whatever time he used to look at the offense now went back to fine-tuning his defense. Wade did this to make it a tough decision on Jerry to fire a guy who is responsible for a top 5 defense with no coordinator to take his place. Jason on the other hand is going to run things the way he sees fit and probably believes that Jerry is still in his corner much in the same way that RW felt that way until Jerry drafted Dez.

The big questions are what happens if this team buckles under and fails to win and make it into the playoffs? If it is because the o-line stays injured and never gets fully health or healthy enough to be decent who is going to be at fault? The GM is safe, unfortunately for this team, will JJ take it out on his coaching staff? Where else can he direct his anger and disappointment, does he have the ability to finally have a moment of clarity and stop his nonsense? If the offense does not score enough points, will JJ then admit that JG is not only not a good enough OC but will probably be a bad HC as well? I think the man with the least amount of heat on him (in regards to the media scrutiny) is going to be garrett. Garrett has his unit underperforming again, it does not look much different from last year, he has less credibility due to the way the offense has struggled to produce points with the skill players he has, will JJ be able to swallow his pride again and admit it was a mistake if the offense flops again?

I think WP has the least amount of scrutiny, because the media and the league knows he is a guy who is under JJ thumb, but can provide a great defense, so he does bring more to the table than JG does at this point in time and over the last couple of years. I wonder if there will come a point in the season where JJ will need to step in and really give WP the offense back and say you need to manage JG, he no longer has autonomy. If this is the season of JJ then he needs to make some moves to let this team run better or it is going to blow up in his face.

I think this might be an overreaction of sorts. Jerry’s critical GM mistakes are actually being offset quite well by our insanely talented scouting department. We have an elite quarterback and wide receiver who both went undrafted. We have an all-pro nose tackle drafted in the seventh round. Think about that, those make up for all of the picks we’ve wasted on inane players (whom I believe I don’t even have to mention by name). So besides Jerry pulling the trigger on moronic trades (which I believe his son Stephen is putting a stop to A.S.A.P.) there’s no reason why a structure like this couldn’t work. I understand you want a head coach to get his players fired up and be accountable, but seriously? These are professional athletes getting paid millions of dollars. They’re not children, nobody ever had to tell me when I was playing football to go hard on every play. These guys are playing at the level they’re at because they have that fire, and if they don’t they won’t be playing in the league for long. Nobody wants to be a bad player or make stupid plays, but that’s what happens. Alex Barron’s problem? It’s not that he has no heart he’s just dumb. He’s just a big dumb ox. If he didn’t care he would have just let Orakpo pass him by and kill Tony Romo. No, he had a brain fart with his technique and panicked. Unfortunately he was our best option at that position and we went with him. I can’t blame Wade Phillips, Jerry Jones, Tony Romo, or the RHG himself for Alex Barron’s decisions. It happens to great players too. Favre threw a wicked pick to end the Viking’s season. Does that INT somehow fall back on Childress?

As far as Wade Phillips goes, Jerry’s watching the games. He understands football (believe it or not). When his defense holds the opposing team to two field goals (should have been three) there’s no reason we shouldn’t win that game. If anybody’s on the hot seat right now it’s going to be RHG.

Speaking of, he threw a few quick screens to Dez so that he could get his first few touches out of the way and play football. I can understand why he would want his rookie receiver to get the quick plays so that he could settle down a bit. But seriously, he was missing two starters on his offensive line and he was working with one receiver who hadn’t played a single down in the NFL, and one who’s very close to playing his last down in the league. I praise Jason Garret’s game plan for this game, talk all you want about not having an identity but when your line is this erratic than of course you’re not going to have a solid identity on the offense. I wouldn’t trust our starters + Marion Barber to run tough out a 3rd and 1 for a hard fought first down. Why should RHG? If anything, our offense does well because of Jason Garrett and when we head down to the red zone our weakness on the line is expounded.

If anything, this falls on Jerry. His insistence that Roy Red Zone Williams stays on the field as well as his failure to adequately address the line (but I mean hey – they don’t grow linemen on trees and the linemen we have drafted have been misses for the most part) have kept this team from making the next step. Michael Irvin said it himself, you’re playing 10 on 11 football out there and when you can’t get separation from London Fletcher or catch a pass that hits you in the hands you really are a non factor on the field

Honestly, our coaches are top notch. If anything, I like having one person focused on the offense and one focused on the defense. Say what you want about continuity but Ray Lewis went out and said it the year they won their Superbowl, their defense was a separate entity from the offense. Our GM should have been let go though :P

’blings, another great and thought provoking post.

This team/organization is Jerry’s, and built the way Jerry thinks it should be. One of the problems, IMHO, is that the communication between HC and OC, outside of games, involves GM more than in most other organizations. This is how Jerry wants it, and he signs all the checks, so only Jerry can change it.

As long as Jerry is making gobs and gobs of money, he is not likely to make any fundamental changes. If the team has a bad year, he will fire somebody, but I really don’t see his management style changing. I think that would only happen if there was a total team meltdown, and even that might have to be a multiseason event to really change Jerry.

He has built box of shiny toys. And it’s hard to argue with a man who income during the time he takes a dump exceeds my yearly take.

I said some similar things in comments to another post, if you think this sounds familiar.

Oh, and one piece of advice, 5blings. Quit arguing with Terry. He is obviously a politician, who is morally and intellectually incapable of ever, ever admitting to any kind of error whatsoever.

http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/09/cowboys-coaching-dynamic-been.html

Respectfully, who cares where they are ranked? Look at our teams talent for crying out loud. If you think for one moment that our offense has done better than 3 years ago, i would say simply this- our success in winning the division has just as much to do with our divisional foe’s sliding downward just as much as people will say that our offense has gotten better. It has gotten better, but it has gotten worse in an area it needed to get better at for us to win it all- Offensive playcalling and the run offense.

Our coaching on offense has kept us out of winning it all, period. I’m not sure, with the right OC, if we wouldn’t have already won 2 or 3 super Bowls in the last 5 years.

; )

I may be wrong,(It has happened before), but it seems that 5blings’ posts seem to generate alot of comments

I am not the most active member but i do make a few comments here and there. Mostly on your posts…….

If you take out the Terry “Victory Formation is not a play debate” you probably lose about 150 comments…..LOL

Marshall Faulk just repeated every single thing I wrote in this post on NFL Network’s Sunday Morning show.

Of course, Irvin totally disagreed with him.

Faulk even went on to talk about how statements like “they work well together” and “it’s a good working relationship” are really just Dalrymple spin.

Yeah, feeling pretty good about myself this morning. Waitress! Another bloody mary and stat!!!