Mental Toughness! Do the Cowboys players have it?

[Chocolate Lab]

I get so sick of this idea that anytime our team loses, it's necessarily because they don't care, they don't have heart, they aren't mentally tough, or are deficient in some other way.

It's an incredibly competitive league with every rule designed to make the teams as equal as possible. Sometimes the other team is just better. It's not that they hit more, or they spend 24/7 studying their playbooks, or never see a girl during the season, or have better moral fiber. It's just that they played better that day.

Why some people can't or won't realize that, I'll never understand.

 

[Maikeru-sama]

The problem with that rationale is that teams seem to play better then us quite often when it counts. At some point one has to wonder why this team has meltdowns late in the season. I believe it is a lack of leadership and accountability as Terence Newman suggested.

 

[Bizwah]

I get so sick of this idea that anytime our team loses, it's necessarily because they don't care, they don't have heart, they aren't mentally tough, or are deficient in some other way.

It's an incredibly competitive league with every rule designed to make the teams as equal as possible. Sometimes the other team is just better. It's not that they hit more, or they spend 24/7 studying their playbooks, or never see a girl during the season, or have better moral fiber. It's just that they played better that day.

Why some people can't or won't realize that, I'll never understand.

I see your point.

But this is something that consistently happens. It's not a fluke. Why do teams all of a sudden become better than us in December?

According to your logic...a crappy Detroit team was better than us in 2006. A Philly team we destroyed in November all of a sudden became better than us in 2007.

There is a very thin line between winning and losing...especially in December. But you would think that we would eventually be one of the teams that can figure it out.

 

[cowboyjoe]

Interesting question.

I think back to when I played in high school. We lost several close games my junior year. A lot of folks in town thought we were soft.

I knew that wasn't the case. We played hard....something just wasn't right.

The next year we got a new coach. We conditioned like crazy....we studied. We ran plays until they were perfect.

We won all the close games the next year. We were conference and district champs.

I always believed the difference for us was preparation. We never went into a game my senior year wondering what to expect. We never were surprised, we never worried about where our teammates were going to be....We lost in sectionals to a team that simply was more talented. But we gave them all they could handle.

Sometimes, when I watch the Cowboys, I see confusion. Sometimes I see that they're not certain of where to be....Maybe that's my imagination.

very good points, that may hit the nail on the head on a few issues with this team, if you remember in more than one game wade phillips said we got outplayed in defense, offense, special teams and coaching, yes coaching! That says alot there. I understand if your a young coach in the NFL you have things to learn from veteran coaches like jimmy johnson had to his first 2 years, but with wade, he has been in the league 30 years so he should know what is going on as a head coach.

I think in reality, he has woken up to the fact, you cant treat these dallas cowboys players like professionals, you have to stay on top of them. And kick their rear ends when needed. Chew them out like he did with courtney brown, and like today, proctor wasnt working wiht the centers and quarterbacks on center exchange before practice. While wade has taken over the defense and gotten somewhat better on special teams like drafting buehler on kickoffs.

I think he is waking up, now if jason garrett and the other coaches do the same this team might go somewhere.

You watch teams like the Eagles....they seem prepared...confident. I haven't felt they were more talented than us for the last four years, yet we have trouble beating them. In the playoff game vs the Giants, we were immensely more talented than the Giants. But they were more prepared. If you read any of their interviews, they knew what to expect. They did their homework on TO and Glenn, and knew that neither were ready...so, they changed their way of covering them....press coverage...they then blitzed the heck out of us.

I don't think our players don't have heart. Romo has it...you can tell. He takes those losses personally. Bradie James as well. Ware, Witten, Barber, Ratliff. They all are intense players. I believe they're tough as well.

I would like to see our OL become a little more nasty and focused. But overall, I think we're a tough group.

very good post and comments