Last night I watched the best football game I have seen in a while. And no, it wasn’t a close game by any means, it was actually a blowout that probably could have been stopped early in the 3rd quarter for humanitarian reasons but it continued. I DVR’d the game and watched it over again.
I grew up watching the Cowboy’s play ball, in fact I remember Staubach and Danny White leading the Boy’s onto the field w/ a team of men behind them. I even had a pair of Tony Dorsett cleats that I used to wear to school w/ the little blue star on the side. They were a man’s team, you never heard of any bickering between the players, it was kept under wraps.
Today, you have guys like T.O. who’s mouth won’t close no matter how hard he tries. Just about the only bright spot on the entire Texas team in my opinion is Witten, and he is just plain tough! While my reasons for disliking the Dallas Cowboys are complicated this story posted on the Star Telegram this morning summarizes a lot of my thoughts.
The great thing about being on vacation is catching up on the old DVR. I have taped eight episodes of the fantastic NFL series America’s Game. It does an excellent job of chronicling past Super Bowl champions.
I watched the 2000 Baltimore Ravens on Christmas Eve. Trent Dilfer quarterbacked that team to a win over the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV.
Near the end of the program Dilfer said something that completely broke down why the 2008 Dallas Cowboys have been such underachievers with a 9-6 record going into Sunday’s final regular-season game.
“If I could preach to the world for 10 seconds,” said Dilfer, now retired from football and working at ESPN, “it would be substance over glamour. That team [the 2000 Ravens] had great substance.”
There you go, Cowboys fans. There is a problem at Valley Ranch. You can see that lots of glamour and the lack of substance has the Cowboys on the verge of missing the playoffs.
How sad that a team with so much talent is hoping to sneak into the postseason as a wild card needing a win in Philadelphia. Did I mention the Cowboys have lost their past eight regular-season finales?
Substance over glamour. Man, that’s just sums up what makes this franchise ill.
The owner-general manager craves glamour and wants it in his players and all around his team.
Jerry Jones granted NFL Films and HBO a second shot to feature his club on their training-camp reality show Hard Knocks.
Jones has a glamour quarterback in Tony Romo, who dates a celebrity singer/actress in Jessica Simpson. These days the opinions of Romo come in two selections: favorable or overrated.
Wide receiver Terrell Owens is a glamour receiver with issues.
Pro Bowl linebacker DeMarcus Ware is leading the league in sacks and seems to jump offside every single week.
Cornerback Terence Newman is highly paid and seems to be injury-prone.
Linebacker Bobby Carpenter, a first round pick in 2006, is a bust.
Tackle Flozell Adams cashed in a new deal and went from a Pro Bowler in 2007 to average this year.
Ken Hamlin went from a great leader in the secondary playing for a new deal to a rich man whiffing on touchdown-saving tackles at the end of the loss to Baltimore.
Forty-year-old Brad Johnson stole money as a backup QB and produced a losing record while Romo was out with a pinkie injury.
People tune in to see America’s Team. The Cowboys are still a ratings hit. This season the fans have been treated to watching the most penalized club in the NFL. Atrocious special-teams coverage and breakdowns. Suspect offensive play-calling from the highest paid assistant in the game and a head coach who refuses to say a negative word about his players’ inconsistent performance all season.
Wade Phillips’ second Cowboys team has been described as “sloppy,” “undisciplined” and “overrated.” It’s sad, really, because Phillips is a good man who knows the game inside and out, but he might be overmatched as a head coach.
Unless this club can win Sunday and get on a postseason run, Phillips will go down as another Lindy Infante — a great coordinator, but a big disappointment as a head coach.
The Cowboys have too many good football players on their roster for Jones to accept this season’s performance. Changes must be made.
If Phillips is sent packing, Jason Garrett has not earned the head coaching job, because his performance as the offensive coordinator was average.
Arizona offensive coordinator Todd Haley should get another look as the head coach by Jones. He knows the Cowboys’ personnel from his time here as the receivers coach. If Romeo Crennel is let go in Cleveland, he would be the right man to run the defense.
Next season the Cowboys need to dump the glamour and add substance to the organization.
Newy Scruggs is the sports director at NBC
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Dallas Cowboys must cut out the glamour and add some substance | Dallas Cowboys | Star-Telegram.com
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