Norm Hitzges -- On Attacking Penalties -- Transcript

[Gossamer]

Norm: I went bananas this morning - when I saw the comment that this week at practice the Cowboys are going to 'attack penalties'. I will give you my thoughts on that and it will start with the question of 'What on Earth is training camp for?'

Norm: The club had 12 penalties for 91 yards on Sunday and it could have been significantly worse - 3 more penalties were declined by the Commanders. The Cowboys actually had 15 flags! Now, I'll ask you something - How many plays were there in the game?!? If the Cowboys ran 72 offensive plays and the Commanders ran 65 offensive plays - and I know that because that's the number of plays Keith Brooking played - and then you mix in the special teams - in general - what were there - a 150 plays?

Norm: The Cowboys averaged a penalty every 10 plays?? Good Lord! Let that sink in - Good Lord! - That's out the roof! But that's not unusual for the Cowboys - they've been out the roof from penalties a lot!

Norm: They were 29th last year in the league - or if you look at it, they had the 4th most penalties in the league.

Norm: The year before last - we were number one, baby. We were number one. We had the most penalties per game than anyone in the National Football League. Now, I usually think of heavily penalized teams as big, rough mothers - who are overly aggressive. Or, really dumb teams. The Cowboys are not big, rough mothers! They're a good team - defense play hard - plays very hard but doesn't create many turn-overs but this isn't the kind of team - where other teams about to play the Cowboys say 'Oh, Lord, we're in fear of our lives!'

Norm: I know this sounds like a direct criticism of Wade Phillips but I think maybe it should be. Now, we're going to attack penalties? What were the OTA's for! Now we're told that this week we're gonna work on 'hand and foot techniques' to try to prevent penalties! Why did we go to Oxnard?!? Could there not of been one session a week where the coaches simply said, 'Instead of a walk-through this morning - we're gonna have two solid hours on penalties! - We're breaking into groups and each of those groups will discuss rules and penalties. Then we're gonna come back together as a team. We're gonna talk about 'em - because I want to plant in your mind - the fact - that these penalties are killing us!!'

Norm: And they did kill the Cowboys...They killed them all sorts of times on Sunday. Buehler missing the field-goal kick -- terrible. Choice's fumble -- terrible. Alex Barron's hold on the final play -- terrible. How many other plays did they mess up with penalties? Or stop the offense with penalties?

Norm: Witten pass for 12 yards and a first down to the Washington 44? Oppps! Holding! It goes all the way back to the 32 yard line of the Cowboys! That's 22 yards! And only NOW we're attacking penalties!!

Norm: What are we going to have a session on this week - on showing us how to better CHOKE somebody!!

Norm: Hey! A choke-hold is illegal! Do we really need to spend time on explaining that if you throw your left arm around the neck of Brian Orakpo and try to choke the life out of him - that this is going to be a penalty!?!

Norm: Do we really need to explain that!?! And if we do - on the week we're preparing for the Bears - we're gonna take some extra time to talk that?

Staff: Is there anything you can do to discipline these players?

Norm: Well, you can, but that's up to Jerry! I hate to be so cold about this but that's up to Jerry.

Norm: There are some coaches who will threaten you with your life for that type of stuff. Wade doesn't have that right, I don't believe. I don't believe that Wade has that right. And you can't tell a team - 'Don't be aggressive.' - You can't! You want them to play hard and within the rules but you shouldn't have to explain rules to people!

Norm: This club needs to know that there are repercussions for the penalties - that this type of play will not be put up with! It will simply not be put up with. And I don't know if Wade has the right to so thoroughly discipline the team?

Norm: The problem I see is to have so many things happen just out of camp. A camp that we were assured - even though our eyeballs said 'Ewww' - we were told, 'We're fine. We're gonna be fine. Don't worry about us.'

Norm: You're not fine. You've got penalties all over the freakin' place and a lot of them - dumb ones. You can't run the ball and your offensive coordinator feels he can't call long developing plays because he can't trust the offensive line. You can't cover kicks. Hey, maybe this can all be solved in a week? Maybe it can? I don't know. I do know one thing - They better solve some stuff quickly - because you have got the cup-cake part of your schedule coming up here.

Norm: You've had Washington - you've got a lower level Bears team - and once you're past these - if you look at the last 14 games of the season - you can only find 2 games where you can say 'Oh, that'll be okay' - Jacksonville and Detroit. And the rest of them are going to be a war....

 

[Jarv]

Norm: I went bananas this morning - when I saw the comment that this week at practice the Cowboys are going to 'attack penalties'. I will give you my thoughts on that and it will start with the question of 'What on Earth is training camp for?'

Norm: The club had 12 penalties for 91 yards on Sunday and it could have been significantly worse - 3 more penalties were declined by the Commanders. The Cowboys actually had 15 flags! Now, I'll ask you something - How many plays were there in the game?!? If the Cowboys ran 72 offensive plays and the Commanders ran 65 offensive plays - and I know that because that's the number of plays Keith Brooking played - and then you mix in the special teams - in general - what were there - a 150 plays?

Norm: The Cowboys averaged a penalty every 10 plays?? Good Lord! Let that sink in - Good Lord! - That's out the roof! But that's not unusual for the Cowboys - they've been out the roof from penalties a lot!

Norm: They were 29th last year in the league - or if you look at it, they had the 4th most penalties in the league.

Norm: The year before last - we were number one, baby. We were number one. We had the most penalties per game than anyone in the National Football League. Now, I usually think of heavily penalized teams as big, rough mothers - who are overly aggressive. Or, really dumb teams. The Cowboys are not big, rough mothers! They're a good team - defense play hard - plays very hard but doesn't create many turn-overs but this isn't the kind of team - where other teams about to play the Cowboys say 'Oh, Lord, we're in fear of our lives!'

And Wade said one week isn't a trend ?

 

[StoneyBurk]

We have dumb players. The Pats and Colts are two of the most successful teams of the last decade and are two of least penalized teams in that time , they also have the most college graduates of any two teams in the league. Go back and look at some of the wunderlic scores of our lineman .

 

[bootyhunta]

The penalty problem goes back a number of years... so why did we have the same problem when Parcells was here?

Did he not hold players accountable? Did he not work on penalties in the OTA's and training camps?

It's on the players to not make mistake's. Do NFL coaches really have to practice not holding? Do NFL coaches have to teach players how not to go offside.

Dumb players do dumb things.

 

[Mr Cowboy]

The penalty problem goes back a number of years... so why did we have the same problem when Parcells was here?

Did he not hold players accountable? Did he not work on penalties in the OTA's and training camps?

It's on the players to not make mistake's. Do NFL coaches really have to practice not holding? Do NFL coaches have to teach players how not to go offside.

Dumb players do dumb things.

This is correct, penalties have been a problem for a long time. Perhaps it is not the coaches, and it is Jerry not allowing the coaches to discipline the team through fines against the players for penalties.

I don't beleive its inteligence, but knowing that they will not be held accountable for their actions. If you start hitting their pockets, thwy will quickly get the coache's attention.

 

[InmanRoshi]

The penalty problem goes back a number of years... so why did we have the same problem when Parcells was here?.

We didn't. 3 out of the 4 years Parcells was here we finished in the Top 10 in fewest penalties.

 

[cowboyjoe]

This is correct, penalties have been a problem for a long time. Perhaps it is not the coaches, and it is Jerry not allowing the coaches to discipline the team through fines against the players for penalties.

I don't beleive its inteligence, but knowing that they will not be held accountable for their actions. If you start hitting their pockets, thwy will quickly get the coache's attention.[/QUOTE]

ost:

 

[bootyhunta]

We didn't. 3 out of the 4 years Parcells was here we finished in the Top 10 in fewest penalties.

I didn't realize that...

I just checked the stats... in 2006 we finished 21st in penalties (his first 3 years we were in top 10) and I would say the makeup of this team is closer to the 2006 team, then his teams from 2003 - 2005.

 

[CowboyChris]

The penalty problem goes back a number of years... so why did we have the same problem when Parcells was here?

Did he not hold players accountable? Did he not work on penalties in the OTA's and training camps?

It's on the players to not make mistake's. Do NFL coaches really have to practice not holding? Do NFL coaches have to teach players how not to go offside.

Dumb players do dumb things.

Parcells used to scout the officiating crews ahead of time, he knew the officiating crews tendancies on certain penalties.

 

[diehard2294]

preach it Norm!!

 

[T-RO]

We have dumb players. The Pats and Colts are two of the most successful teams of the last decade and are two of least penalized teams in that time , they also have the most college graduates of any two teams in the league. Go back and look at some of the wunderlic scores of our lineman .

This. But it's also a reflection of the Jerry Jones culture.

Year after year this is always a heavily penalized team. Jones is the constant.

 

[T-RO]

Parcells used to scout the officiating crews ahead of time, he knew the officiating crews tendancies on certain penalties.

Even under Parcells, as I remember, we were above average in penalties.

 

[CATCH17]

Norm: The Cowboys averaged a penalty every 10 plays?? Good Lord! Let that sink in - Good Lord! - That's out the roof! But that's not unusual for the Cowboys - they've been out the roof from penalties a lot!

Better playcalling will overcome penalties Norm!:

 

[CATCH17]

Norm: The Cowboys averaged a penalty every 10 plays?? Good Lord! Let that sink in - Good Lord! - That's out the roof! But that's not unusual for the Cowboys - they've been out the roof from penalties a lot!

Better playcalling will overcome penalties Norm!:

 

[cowboyjoe]

Parcells used to scout the officiating crews ahead of time, he knew the officiating crews tendancies on certain penalties.

right, parcells would prepare players to know each ref team what they called

i doubt that wade really centers on that

 

[cowboyjoe]

This. But it's also a reflection of the Jerry Jones culture.

Year after year this is always a heavily penalized team. Jones is the constant.

Again, I am trying to get you fans to stand up, be countable, write stories like this,

remember one year wade was griping because penalty fine wasnt enough and jerry jones wouldnt let wade fine players anymore

stand up, write stories on this with the culture that jerry jones has set and wont let coaches discipline players heavy, get this to media writers to write stories on jerry jones, so jerry cant duck this anymore, and jerry is forced to make some changes himself in training camp

it can be done, remember what jerry jones said when he wanted to build the new stadium, but he couldnt because people were on his back due to losing with way jerry was running the team

so jerry had to go out and get parcells to turn the team around, which parcells did, but jerry still had some strings on parcells things he could and couldnt do

get mad, downright fed up

write stories, get this to media writers like norm just wrote an article blaming penalties on wade and jerry jones

so then, jerry cant duck it, has to answer for it, with heat on jerry jones

then things will change

but you have to stand up and be counted as fans, that wants a smart, disciplined team, and wont settle for less, with dumb mistakes by coaches and players

stand up and be counted!

 

[Jarv]

Again, I am trying to get you fans to stand up, be countable, write stories like this,

remember one year wade was griping because penalty fine wasnt enough and jerry jones wouldnt let wade fine players anymore

stand up, write stories on this with the culture that jerry jones has set and wont let coaches discipline players heavy, get this to media writers to write stories on jerry jones, so jerry cant duck this anymore, and jerry is forced to make some changes himself in training camp

it can be done, remember what jerry jones said when he wanted to build the new stadium, but he couldnt because people were on his back due to losing with way jerry was running the team

so jerry had to go out and get parcells to turn the team around, which parcells did, but jerry still had some strings on parcells things he could and couldnt do

get mad, downright fed up

write stories, get this to media writers like norm just wrote an article blaming penalties on wade and jerry jones

so then, jerry cant duck it, has to answer for it, with heat on jerry jones

then things will change

but you have to stand up and be counted as fans, that wants a smart, disciplined team, and wont settle for less, with dumb mistakes by coaches and players

stand up and be counted!

Lol, we should fine Jerry for every penalty the team commits, they would stop right quick.

 

[DallasEast]

Norm: I went bananas this morning - when I saw the comment that this week at practice the Cowboys are going to 'attack penalties'. I will give you my thoughts on that and it will start with the question of 'What on Earth is training camp for?'

Norm: The club had 12 penalties for 91 yards on Sunday and it could have been significantly worse - 3 more penalties were declined by the Commanders. The Cowboys actually had 15 flags! Now, I'll ask you something - How many plays were there in the game?!? If the Cowboys ran 72 offensive plays and the Commanders ran 65 offensive plays - and I know that because that's the number of plays Keith Brooking played - and then you mix in the special teams - in general - what were there - a 150 plays?

Norm: The Cowboys averaged a penalty every 10 plays?? Good Lord! Let that sink in - Good Lord! - That's out the roof! But that's not unusual for the Cowboys - they've been out the roof from penalties a lot!

Norm: They were 29th last year in the league - or if you look at it, they had the 4th most penalties in the league.

Norm: The year before last - we were number one, baby. We were number one. We had the most penalties per game than anyone in the National Football League. Now, I usually think of heavily penalized teams as big, rough mothers - who are overly aggressive. Or, really dumb teams. The Cowboys are not big, rough mothers! They're a good team - defense play hard - plays very hard but doesn't create many turn-overs but this isn't the kind of team - where other teams about to play the Cowboys say 'Oh, Lord, we're in fear of our lives!'

Norm: I know this sounds like a direct criticism of Wade Phillips but I think maybe it should be. Now, we're going to attack penalties? What were the OTA's for! Now we're told that this week we're gonna work on 'hand and foot techniques' to try to prevent penalties! Why did we go to Oxnard?!? Could there not of been one session a week where the coaches simply said, 'Instead of a walk-through this morning - we're gonna have two solid hours on penalties! - We're breaking into groups and each of those groups will discuss rules and penalties. Then we're gonna come back together as a team. We're gonna talk about 'em - because I want to plant in your mind - the fact - that these penalties are killing us!!'

Norm: And they did kill the Cowboys...They killed them all sorts of times on Sunday. Buehler missing the field-goal kick -- terrible. Choice's fumble -- terrible. Alex Barron's hold on the final play -- terrible. How many other plays did they mess up with penalties? Or stop the offense with penalties?

Norm: Witten pass for 12 yards and a first down to the Washington 44? Oppps! Holding! It goes all the way back to the 32 yard line of the Cowboys! That's 22 yards! And only NOW we're attacking penalties!!

Norm: What are we going to have a session on this week - on showing us how to better CHOKE somebody!!

Norm: Hey! A choke-hold is illegal! Do we really need to spend time on explaining that if you throw your left arm around the neck of Brian Orakpo and try to choke the life out of him - that this is going to be a penalty!?!

Norm: Do we really need to explain that!?! And if we do - on the week we're preparing for the Bears - we're gonna take some extra time to talk that?

Staff: Is there anything you can do to discipline these players?

Norm: Well, you can, but that's up to Jerry! I hate to be so cold about this but that's up to Jerry.

Norm: There are some coaches who will threaten you with your life for that type of stuff. Wade doesn't have that right, I don't believe. I don't believe that Wade has that right. And you can't tell a team - 'Don't be aggressive.' - You can't! You want them to play hard and within the rules but you shouldn't have to explain rules to people!

Norm: This club needs to know that there are repercussions for the penalties - that this type of play will not be put up with! It will simply not be put up with. And I don't know if Wade has the right to so thoroughly discipline the team?

Norm: The problem I see is to have so many things happen just out of camp. A camp that we were assured - even though our eyeballs said 'Ewww' - we were told, 'We're fine. We're gonna be fine. Don't worry about us.'

Norm: You're not fine. You've got penalties all over the freakin' place and a lot of them - dumb ones. You can't run the ball and your offensive coordinator feels he can't call long developing plays because he can't trust the offensive line. You can't cover kicks. Hey, maybe this can all be solved in a week? Maybe it can? I don't know. I do know one thing - They better solve some stuff quickly - because you have got the cup-cake part of your schedule coming up here.

Norm: You've had Washington - you've got a lower level Bears team - and once you're past these - if you look at the last 14 games of the season - you can only find 2 games where you can say 'Oh, that'll be okay' - Jacksonville and Detroit. And the rest of them are going to be a war....

Is Norm a televangelist also? I could almost see a revival breaking out in my mind's eye at one point.

 

[Cover 2]

Again, I am trying to get you fans to stand up, be countable, write stories like this,

remember one year wade was griping because penalty fine wasnt enough and jerry jones wouldnt let wade fine players anymore

stand up, write stories on this with the culture that jerry jones has set and wont let coaches discipline players heavy, get this to media writers to write stories on jerry jones, so jerry cant duck this anymore, and jerry is forced to make some changes himself in training camp

it can be done, remember what jerry jones said when he wanted to build the new stadium, but he couldnt because people were on his back due to losing with way jerry was running the team

so jerry had to go out and get parcells to turn the team around, which parcells did, but jerry still had some strings on parcells things he could and couldnt do

get mad, downright fed up

write stories, get this to media writers like norm just wrote an article blaming penalties on wade and jerry jones

so then, jerry cant duck it, has to answer for it, with heat on jerry jones

then things will change

but you have to stand up and be counted as fans, that wants a smart, disciplined team, and wont settle for less, with dumb mistakes by coaches and players

stand up and be counted!

Was it Jerry who wouldn't let Wade fine the players more money, or was it the NFLPA and the CBA?

 

[cowboyjoe]

Was it Jerry who wouldn't let Wade fine the players more money, or was it the NFLPA and the CBA?

from what i understand, was jerry, the next year, jerry raised penalty price for like missing trainers treatment, like one year, spencer didnt some in for treatment, and wade said im going to have to fine u

but couldnt because wasnt as much as wade wanted it to send a message to players that was one of years T O was here, and wade couldnt fine players as much,

there was an article written about it,

again, its the culture that jerry jones has set and allowed, if you go back and look, one person wrote how with parcells (before parcells got here, we were high in penalties) we were low in penalties, because parcells delivers in discipline over and over, with players knowing all situations,

but when parcells left, penalties and lack of discipline resurfaced,

again, jerry jones culture for not letting coaches discipline players like a shanahan, or belicheater or parcells would do

some of it lays at wade's door, and some at jerry jones door too

along with jason garrett for not having a smart offensive team, with discipline

if you look, most of time, mistakes are on offense, not on defense

and we all know how jason garrett is jerry jones baby for coach to a degree