Mental toughness and maturity is what is stopping this team from reaching the promised land

baltcowboy said:
It’s tough to play hard every week. Especially going up to play in Buffalo against a team that is desperate to win. Not saying we will win next week against Miami but guarantee we will play hard.
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No doubt.. the season is a grind.. but champions have to figure out how to survive it. How to bring that energy to practice every day, to the film room, to the meeting rooms and ultimately to the game. Our guys seems to let other crap get in their heads too much. And I have no idea how you fix that other than having guys like Charles Haley, Nate Newton, Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin et al on the team. Guys who would just refuse to let the team lose focus. It doesn't guarantee you will win every game.. but it does guarantee you will compete every game.
 
RonnieT24 said:
Games like this last one with the Bills.. the AZ game, the 49er game all illustrate that this team just isn't on a championship level mentally. And that saddens me because I don't know what you can do about something like that. This team needs more dawgs to be sure. It's been that way for at least 20 years. A lot of comes back to Garrett and his "right kinda guy" mantra for so many years. Yes it's nice to have choir boys on you team but truth be told you need some nasty sum*****es too and we simply do not have enough of the latter. For all the flak Jerry gets for his meddling, he will at least go get a guy with some edge to him no matter the optics look like. Wonder if Rolando McClain is in shape. This team needs some guys who are willing to fight each other on the sidelines to bring the team out the doldrums. Or at least fight somebody on the other team. I love our team but this mental softness will be their undoing long before any physical softness does.. The one silver lining to this loss is that it might allow them to refocus and recenter for the next 4-5 weeks. Lord knows this teams performs much better when doubted than when everybody is pumping them up. So the Buffalo butt kicking might have done them a favor.
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They will be ok. Dallas has the best qb in the NFL according to you. Though I am sure you will go M.I.A. again when they falter in the playoffs. Just like your Houdini act after your Zeke 2023 predictions went down in flames.
 
RonnieT24 said:
No doubt.. the season is a grind.. but champions have to figure out how to survive it. How to bring that energy to practice every day, to the film room, to the meeting rooms and ultimately to the game. Our guys seems to let other crap get in their heads too much. And I have no idea how you fix that other than having guys like Charles Haley, Nate Newton, Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin et al on the team. Guys who would just refuse to let the team lose focus. It doesn't guarantee you will win every game.. but it does guarantee you will compete every game.
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Yes the 90s team was the truth but I remember their stinkers against Ritchie Petibone and Norv Turner’s Washington teams and Who can forget the Eagles beat down with Hershel Walker talking smack.
 
baltcowboy said:
Yes the 90s team was the truth but I remember their stinkers against Ritchie Petibone and Norv Turner’s Washington teams and Who can forget the Eagles beat down with Hershel Walker talking smack.
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Agreed. Even those 90's dynasty teams had stinkers.

In 1992 they lost 31-7 at Philly and managed to lose to a bad Rams team at home.

In 1993 they got beat down by Washington in the opener and also lost to a 6-10 Falcons team four days before the Thanksgiving Leon Lett game.

In 1995 they went 12-4. Two of those losses were to a 4-12 Washington team. Another was a one-sided blowout to the 49ers who were playing a backup QB.

All three of these Cowboys teams won the Super Bowl.
 
It's one thing for a team to come in flat and let another team edge them out. That happens to the best of them.

It's another thing to have games where the team just looks like it collectively decided to not even show up and go 100%.
 
CT Dal Fan said:
Agreed. Even those 90's dynasty teams had stinkers.

In 1992 they lost 31-7 at Philly and managed to lose to a bad Rams team at home.

In 1993 they got beat down by Washington in the opener and also lost to a 6-10 Falcons team four days before the Thanksgiving Leon Lett game.

In 1995 they went 12-4. Two of those losses were to a 4-12 Washington team. Another was a one-sided blowout to the 49ers who were playing a backup QB.

All three of these Cowboys teams won the Super Bowl.
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The 90s Super Bowl teams just always seemed to win the late big season games. The Emmit separated shoulder game, the blowout of the Eagles in 92. We seemed to beat everyone in December and January.
 
RonnieT24 said:
Games like this last one with the Bills.. the AZ game, the 49er game all illustrate that this team just isn't on a championship level mentally. And that saddens me because I don't know what you can do about something like that. This team needs more dawgs to be sure. It's been that way for at least 20 years. A lot of comes back to Garrett and his "right kinda guy" mantra for so many years. Yes it's nice to have choir boys on you team but truth be told you need some nasty sum*****es too and we simply do not have enough of the latter. For all the flak Jerry gets for his meddling, he will at least go get a guy with some edge to him no matter the optics look like. Wonder if Rolando McClain is in shape. This team needs some guys who are willing to fight each other on the sidelines to bring the team out the doldrums. Or at least fight somebody on the other team. I love our team but this mental softness will be their undoing long before any physical softness does.. The one silver lining to this loss is that it might allow them to refocus and recenter for the next 4-5 weeks. Lord knows this teams performs much better when doubted than when everybody is pumping them up. So the Buffalo butt kicking might have done them a favor.
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Agreed, this team is as soft as Charmin.

I think part of it is the culture.

It's like you have attained something just being a Cowboy.

These players need to realize you gotta earn respect and cred in the NFL.
 
RonnieT24 said:
No I react to how they played for the better part of 8 weeks juxtaposed to this performance. I still maintain that when they are on their p's and q's they are as good as anyone. But they just lose focus at times and what we get is games like this. Mind you this is as much about what happens on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as it is about what happens on Sunday. Mental toughness means having the ability to keep grinding even when everybody is telling you how great you are. About maintaining the focus and attention to detail during the week despite 100 different interview and appearance requests every day. I am not saying it's easy.. hell I'm not even sure I could do it.. but I AM saying that this team needs to figure out how to keep their heads on straight and their feet on the ground. Because when they forget that games like this last one are the result.
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Attention to detail is something this team lacks and one reason we lead the league in penalties.

It's starts with the HC.
He struggles with clock management and challenges, for example.
 
One thing Jimmy Johnson was sure to do was inject some veteran leadership into the team.

Don't get me wrong the team was built by the draft but it was also peppered with a few veterans in the right places.

Tony Casilles, Ray Horton, Thomas Everett, these guys led the defense. They also had their homegrown veterans like Mark Tuinei and Bill Bates. These guys added the maturity element.

This is where guys like Zack Martin, Tyron Smith, Demarcus Lawrence and Dak Prescott need to accept the role of veteran leadership by taking it to a higher level that they ever have before.
 
Respectfully disagree with the OP. The problem lies with the roster. All these touchy feely concepts like toughness, maturity, culture, etc... are just nonsense. It's all about the personnel.
 
In today's NFL with all the teams and how diluted the talent is it's difficult enough to find talent finding talented players that actually make winning a priority is like winning the lottery .

Most players who come here mirror the business model of our owner market your brand stay relevant and prolong your career at all costs winning a super bowl doesn't really enter into it it doesn't make them enough money to risk shortening their careers.

They're playing a kid's game and they get paid whether they win or lose
If game checks were only handed out if you won you would see a whole different attitude on the field.
You want to see leaders emerge make the game like the real world if you don't succeed you don't get paid and the cream will rise to the top.
Till then the mediocre will find their way here market their brand and collect as much salary as they can
 
Yeah I'm sorry Ronnie but I disagree these kids are brainwashed by their agent and are mentally tough enough to ignore the romance of winning a super bowl and focus on prolonging their career and making the most money they can.

They're mature beyond their years they dreamed of winning a super bowl at 12 years old but now being in the NFL they are mature enough to realize a little piece of jewelry and a trophy in the owners cabinet is not worth anything compared to risking shortening your career and losing millions by not being able to stay on the field.

These kids are mature mentally tough business men. That translate this business sense on to the field and it doesn't always create a very good product for the fans to watch who's only thought is about winning a super bowl..
 
Guys like Tom Brady and Ray Lewis that cared more about winning than the money are a thing of the past.

You get a guy like that on your team and you might be able to get the rest to buy in and win a super bowl.

Without someone that puts getting that trophy above everything else and has the credentials in credibility to lead along with the hardware from previous battles you're just spinning your wheels there's no Charles Haley on our horizon that's going to come in and put the fear in the whole locker room and turn this thing around.

It's a kinder gentler NFL just interested in marketing themselves and making the most money in the short window they have
 
Blackrain said:
Yeah I'm sorry Ronnie but I disagree these kids are brainwashed by their agent and are mentally tough enough to ignore the romance of winning a super bowl and focus on prolonging their career and making the most money they can.

They're mature beyond their years they dreamed of winning a super bowl at 12 years old but now being in the NFL they are mature enough to realize a little piece of jewelry and a trophy in the owners cabinet is not worth anything compared to risking shortening your career and losing millions by not being able to stay on the field.

These kids are mature mentally tough business men. That translate this business sense on to the field and it doesn't always create a very good product for the fans to watch who's only thought is about winning a super bowl..
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You may be right... Winning championships might have become secondary to being the highest paid or the #1 this or #1 that for our guys. That part saddens me. I had hoped that guys like Zack, Dak, Tyron, Tank and a few others had made enough money already that they could put money on the back burner in the name of the pursuing a championship. Maybe they're better businessmen than football players.. which is too bad. I hope you're wrong and that the pain of this most recent loss gets them back on course. I know the guys can't live and die with every game like a lot of fans do because if they did they wouldn't be able to function after a loss.. but surely it eats at them enough that they can refocus for the next 6 weeks?
 
I would really love to think that they would all put getting a super bowl as their top priority but unfortunately they watch their owner lead by example and he will just never go all in and do everything necessary to get us over the hump and win that game he does just enough to keep us relevant.

Jerry Jones is a man with the money power and influence to get anything in this world that he wants including the little silver trophy with some coaches name on that none of the players even recognize .

It's really very simple he doesn't want it bad enough to sacrifice enough to get it and as a result they don't either.

Everyone is very content to stay relevant market their brand collect their paychecks and accumulate wealth a super bowl ring and a Lombardi trophy are not a reason to compromise the accumulation of wealth.
They just watched Jerry and follow his example no one will ever convince me that this man in 28 years is really unable to build a super bowl quality team it's just not financially advantageous enough
 
Now Ronnie if this was my Cowboys of the '70s after a gut wrenching loss I would guarantee you they would all bare down Landry would have them laser focused and Roger Staubach would lead the charge to victory because he was a competitor that would not settle for losing he didn't need to make his money playing football he was smart enough to be able to make plenty after football.

All that said brother don't worry we are going to beat the dolphins in spite of ourselves because the league is not going to let them run away from the bills and ruin the last game of the season between the bills and dolphins which will no doubt be for the AFC North title.
 
rambo2 said:
They might. They look like the best team, but that can change very quickly. Look at what happened to them last year.
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When they were forced to play McCaffrey at QB in the NFC title game? Yeah, losing all of your QBs to injury can be a problem.
 
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