Continuing the theme from earlier today, I link to another article where the Dallas Cowboys get ripped by a journalist. Fair enough, the Cowboys deserve the panning of their play. So here's the link, and here's some of the content.
Once the class of the NFC East -- and maybe, the NFC -- the Cowboys have become the RMS Titanic, breaking in half before sinking to the bottom of the division and the league. They lost their quarterback. Their offensive line is a mess. They can't stop the pass. They can't start the run. They can't win at home. And now, seven games into the season, their head coach has the brilliant idea to go back to the basics of running, blocking, catching and tackling. [Emphasis added]
I guess Wade Phillips didn't get that memo. Here's Wade discussing practice this week.
"We're emphasizing those fundamental things that we need to do well," Phillips said. "We did a lot of training-camp, fundamental-type drills. That was some of (the differences). Fundamentals are fundamentals. There are things you have to be able to do to play well. We just went back to the basics." Phillips said the players had an enthusiastic practice despite the subtle changes.
Now, there's two sides to this story. I don't think that spending 20 minutes or so on fundamentals is going to significantly improve a player's fundamentals this week. I mean, these are fundamentals, things they've worked on their whole life. So no one is going to learn anything new, and there's not really too much reminding going on here.
But, this exercise could serve two purposes. One, Wade Phillips has to do something different. When you're losing like we are, and seemingly getting worse, the status quo is simply unacceptable. So, as weak an effort as this may be, at least it's something.
The other thing this could do is convey a message to the players, and that message is - You stink right now. I mean, you're really playing pitiful football. So bad, that we're sending you back to kindergarten to learn your ABC's all over again because reading is fundamental.
I'm not sure it will help, but it's something.