Strength and conditioning - Dallas Cowboys Forum

JDSmith · 01-05-2005

Am I the only person on the board who thinks this plays a big part in our failure?

A lot of people have noticed that we play poorly in the fourth quarter of games. We take stupid penalties late in games, and our D can't seem to stop anyone, if we didn't have Julius I doubt we'd even have much offense late in games. Tired players are stupid players, and will make more mental errors.

A lot of people have noticed that we fade down the stretch during the season. We don't get any pass rush from our front 4 late in the season. Greg Ellis finished with 9 sacks, he had 1 sack in the last 5 games. Our D line made the Giants look like a bunch of all pros out there.

I don't know how many of you remember Mike Woicik, he was our strength and conditioning coach in the early to mid 90's, when we used to wear out teams and beat the hell out of people in the 4th quarter. Some teams would be able to hang with us for 3, but the 4th quarter was when our team would impose it's will and take over. Ever since Jones fired him (thanks Barry Switzer, you bag) our team has had a history of fading. The following year we lost (or nearly lost) our season opener to the Cards when they rallied late - and we've NEVER been a good 4th quarter team since then. BTW, Woicik is the strength and conditioning coach for the Patriots and has been for their all of their superbowl wins - coincedence?

Anyway, I think our strength and conditioning coach now, a Campo holdover, is simply not good enough. I fully expect that Parcells will bring in someone else, and I think that might be one of the 9 things he wants to change. It could have a huge impact on the entire team IMO, more than bringing in any big name player. I remember TB fired their strength and conditioning coach (last year I believe), and he was a Parcells guy, does anyone remember his name and know if he's available?

JDSmith · 01-05-2005

A lot of people probably don't think much about the strength and conditioning coach one way or the other. I personally think he's one of the most important coaches on the team. He's one of the only guys who has an affect on everyone, both offensively and defensively. You can have the greatest DC in the world, and if your players are tired at the end they're going to be more likely to give up the big play. Same goes for offense, if your guys have a little more spring in their step they are going to be likely to hit that big play late. Also, tired athletes make mental mistakes. Those costly 4th quarter penalties could be reduced with better conditioning. Additionally, tired players are more likely to get hurt. And a good strength coach can gives his guys a little bit more explosiveness throughout the game, and that could be the difference between a win or a loss IMO. There isn't a whole lot separating the talent on most NFL teams because of free agency, a great strength coach allows you to get just a little more out of the talent you are able to acquire. And he has an affect on every player out there, which not many coaches can say.

dmq · 01-05-2005

We don't have good depth. THats why are team fades in the 4th. We don't even have many good starters, so its easy to see why the depth isn't there.

JDSmith · 01-05-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmq

We don't have good depth. THats why are team fades in the 4th. We don't even have many good starters, so its easy to see why the depth isn't there.

We started fading late in games the year following the release of Woicek, we had much better depth then but not better results late in games.

Jarv · 01-05-2005

I remember people singing the praises of Mike Woicik in the 90's. Funny thing is I didn't know he was at the Patriots. Good find !

Maybe he has a protégée we could hire ?

JDSmith · 01-05-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jarv

I remember people singing the praises of Mike Woicik in the 90's. Funny thing is I didn't know he was at the Patriots. Good find !

Maybe he has a protégée we could hire ?

Woicik actually went to the Saints for a few years after he left here, he's been with the Pats since 2000. He's got 5 superbowl rings and nobody knows who he is.

Johnny Parker was the Pats strength and conditioning coach until 2000, he's the guy who was just fired by the Bucs last year and he's one of Parcells' guys. He's also supposed to be very good. I would not be surprised at all if he becomes our strength coach this offseason, although I don't know if he's working with another team right now.

joseephuss · 01-05-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by JDSmith

We started fading late in games the year following the release of Woicek, we had much better depth then but not better results late in games.

Dallas started losing depth immediately afer Superbowl XXVII and just continued to lose more. With less depth, strength and conditioning becomes even more important. Bring Woicek back.

Jarv · 01-05-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by joseephuss

Dallas started losing depth immediately afer Superbowl XXVII and just continued to lose more. With less depth, strength and conditioning becomes even more important. Bring Woicek back.

If he was fired, I doubt he would come back...which is too bad for us.

jcblanco22 · 01-05-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by JDSmith

Am I the only person on the board who thinks this plays a big part in our failure?

A lot of people have noticed that we play poorly in the fourth quarter of games. We take stupid penalties late in games, and our D can't seem to stop anyone, if we didn't have Julius I doubt we'd even have much offense late in games. Tired players are stupid players, and will make more mental errors.

A lot of people have noticed that we fade down the stretch during the season. We don't get any pass rush from our front 4 late in the season. Greg Ellis finished with 9 sacks, he had 1 sack in the last 5 games. Our D line made the Giants look like a bunch of all pros out there.

[View Full Quote]

I think I recall Parcells highly praising Juraszdek's work at the end of each of his (Parcells') 2 training camps here because he does seem to get terrific results in the offseason from these guys. However, perhaps things do deteriorate during the season, who knows. I know that with the attention to detail that Parcells has for every part of the teams he coaches, he'll make a move swiftly if he feels it is impacting the performance.

I do recall that Juraszdek had previous ties to OU and therefore to Switzer. BTW, I think the game you're referring to against the Cardinals was the 2nd game in '98 actually, we played excellently in the opener that year and won 38-10.

JDSmith · 01-05-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by jcblanco22

I do recall that Juraszdek had previous ties to OU and therefore to Switzer. BTW, I think the game you're referring to against the Cardinals was the 2nd game in '98 actually, we played excellently in the opener that year and won 38-10.

No, I think was actually in 97 but it was the second game of the season and not the opener. We were up by 15 against the Cards, with Kent Graham as their QB, and they came back to tie it and win it in overtime. And that season we lost our last 5 games, not exactly playing well down the stretch.

Crown Royal · 01-05-2005

Seeing that we won 2 games in the last few seconds this year - no. The philly game is the only close game I feel we lost in the final quarter....

I think that strength and conditioning is far from our biggest problem.

JDSmith · 01-05-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crown Royal

Seeing that we won 2 games in the last few seconds this year - no. The philly game is the only close game I feel we lost in the final quarter....

I think that strength and conditioning is far from our biggest problem.

What about games like the first Washington game, where the only thing that kept them from winning was the fact that they were literally a few seconds late? I can't remember many games where I'd say we got better as the game went on, usually it's quite the opposite. Beating the Seahawks was nice, but it was hardly our blocking or our defense that allowed us to do that - it was more like Julius doing some fantastic running on draw plays. We couldn't even block the Seahawks on regular runs.

And while I don't think that conditioning is our biggest problem, I definitely think it is a problem.

jterrell · 01-05-2005

Its not conditioning it is crap for depth.

Greg Ellis shouldn't have to play every down. DE's simply don't do that. Unfortunately his backups suck bad. He ends up overextended and worn down.

When we do get pressure late in games its usually with the scrubs we bring in because they are fresh. In the early to mid 90s we didnt play our DL more than 30 plays because we had so many.

I like our current S&C coach just fine as he was my S&C coach in college.

JDSmith · 01-05-2005

Again, everyone is only addressing the defense. How many offensive linemen rotate? And yet other teams seem to do well against our D as the game progresses. And yet we run worse in the second half of the game than in the first half. Both Eddie George and Julius have lower averages in the second half. That's because our line doesn't impose it's will or use it's size to push the D around and wear them down. We don't do well on third and short because we don't get a push. Where does that push come from? Well if your guys are bigger and theoretically stronger they should be able to get SOME push, but we can't. We're bigger...

Something is lacking.