RainMan;2961011 said:
I'll try to make this quick, because I could ramble on for days about this. We all know this Cowboys team keeps finding similar ways to lose big games. It's a bobbled snap here, a key penalty there, a touchdown before the half here, a turnover there. But no matter how we do it, it's always something that results in us falling heart-achingly short in a big moment.
My concern isn't so much that these things keep happening, but rather is: How in the world do we change this?
The New York Giants should be a good inspiration for us. They were a team that couldn't deliver but, all of a sudden, could. And they have consistently continued doing so since.
How -- or can we at all? -- turn that switch on to where big games like Sunday's start going in our favor? That Romo doesn't throw the big interception late; that the defense doesn't give up the crippling drive?
It is a valid question. Tiki Barber was a fumbling machine until Coughlin taught him how to hang onto the ball. Remember the Bang cartoons about him fumbling? Classic stuff. Lights do come on for players. Tiki went from 4 years of 9, 8, 9, & 9 fumbles to 5 in Coughlin's 1st year, 1 the next, and 3 his last in the NFL. His last 3 seasons were his most productive as well. For him the light was a change in his technique on holding the ball. Sometimes it is not that easy.
Look at Eli. He was one of the most despised players this forum talked about. Even now you see the photshops of him from that one really bad picture that showed up on the Net. But now he also has 2 threads that I know of where people would take him over Romo. The light came on for him in 2007 and we paid a price. We all kept thinking the INTs were coming back at any moment. They haven't. As strange as it may sound I think that light coming on was the season finale loss to the Patriots. Even though they lost that game, Eli learned something from that game and he has been changed ever since. I don't think he gets enough credit for how good he really is.
We started this season saying they were depleted at WR. Clearly they aren't. Somewhere between last year and this one Steve Smith and Mario Manningham stepped into their roles and now they look confident. The lights came on. What turned them on? At this point we don't know beyond a guess that it is being thrust into the starting roles. Regardless of what it is, they now get it.
I don't partake of the hyperbole that our team is doomed, our players dumb, and incapable of the light coming on. I think all of that is ridiculous mush. The talent is there. Anyone who denies that is bitter and emotional. Anyone who thinks the lights are on already has blinders on and head in sand. It clearly has not.
I'm happy with this squad. I think it's way to soon to be lowering the lifeboats. I also think someone needs to find the light switch and soon. I do think the quickest way to do it is to change Head Coaches. I don't dislike Wade as a person, but he's simply not hard enough on the team to push them to their potential.
