Did the game pass Landry by

[Zaxor]

Did the game pass him by?

I don't think so.

I think a coach is either flexible or he isn't.

Shula was a tough son of a gun but he was also flexible...he adapted his style to his players.

Guys like Landry and Parcells on the other hand, generally speaking, are fixed in their styles. They fit the players to their system.

So for instance, Landry kept running the Flex in an era when pressure defenses became the rage, ironically, partly due to Landry's influence on offense philosophy ie, multiple offenses etc....defenses became offensive in their approach, partly to take the game away from the offense. Yet Landry wasn't going to move away from the flex.

So I don't see it as the game passing him by...I see it more as a case of his disinterest in changing what he firmly believed in.

I think Parcells is much the same way.

With regard to botching the down and distance vs Philly...he didn't botch it during the game...he botched it when asked in a press conference after the game.

Quite honestly, he often botched stuff...he sent in the wrong players for the goal line formation on the last play of our first championship game vs Green Bay...Bob Hayes ended up having to block a LB...ooops...with disasterous results.

If Landy had done that in his last year, everyone would have called him senile.

I don't think the game passed him by.

Yeah that is sorta what I meant...though I couldn't spell it out so clearly like you did...again, with good and heady young players I still think his Flex would work or would have worked...

and you are right Tom did botch things up...Don, Roger and Danny have all said that...i.e. Tom would send in 74 Z Left go and they would change it to want he really wanted to call like 74 Z Right go...but I doubt Tom was unique in that...

But I am glad to see you also thought the game did not pass him by...when I use to hear those talking heads say that I use to get so mad cause to me it sounded very insulting towards Tom Landry

 

[jman]

I have been saying that for a long time regarding Jones and the Landry situation. To this day I think Bum Bright who was the owner and employer of Landry should have gone to Tom and told him what the situation was and allowed Tom to step down. Bright choose not to and took the money and left Jerry with the problem.

Almost accurate. Bum Bright gave Tex the unenvyable job of firing Landry the year before Jerry Jones bought the team. Tex said he just could not bring himself to do it and let him coach that last year, I believe, knowing the team was going to be sold and the job would be taken out of his hands.

So one way or the other, Landry would have been gone. Like you said, Bright took the money and history took care of insuring Jones took the blame for firing the only coach that the Cowboys ever had.