Our mistake - firing Wade Phillips

[Cowboy Brian]

I was all for it, and I was wrong. In hindsight he was a great coach for us, Garrett was the problem and is the problem now.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Other than the fact the team completely quit on him - I agree.

 

[speedkilz88]

What was his record that final year?

 

[Cowboy Brian]

What was his record that final year?

34-22 over his tenure.

 

[cowboys1981]

Finished 1-7 and the team quit on him. That SNF game was the end of it. The guy is too soft. Great defensive mind, like Norv, their ceiling is coordinator.

 

[MissionCoach]

It doesn't matter who the Coach is here as long as we still have "the ego" as our part time GM the Cowboys are doomed to mediocrity.

 

[Dodger12]

I was all for it, and I was wrong. In hindsight he was a great coach for us, Garrett was the problem and is the problem now.

Our biggest mistake was not firing Wade Phillips, but hiring him in the first place. Wade was hired for two reasons, IMO. First, he's a good defensive coach and, second, he was the polar opposite of Bill Parcells' style. Beyond the personnel failures, hiring Wade Phillips had probably the biggest impact that started the organization's demise from it's very foundation. Just my opinion.....

 

[viman96]

hahahah...Wade had to go. He took a solid team and basically drove it into the dirt.

 

[percyhoward]

I think Wade benefited from the team Parcells help build. I'd like to see us get a strong head coach and give him authority, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Corso]

I still wonder to this day why his team quit on him.
He supported his players.
He may have come off as a bumpkin, but I don't think he was a moron.
You can't be as successful a DC as he is and be a moron.

Maybe someone here knows more about the situation than I.

 

[CrownCowboy]

I like Wade as a person, seems like a good guy. However, the guy is a loser and has been anywhere he's coached.

Not that I am saying anything different about Red. Garrett is a loser as well and is in way over his head. It's really been embarrassing seeing how this team is ran.

 

[Risen Star]

I think Wade benefited from the team Parcells help build. I'd like to see us get a strong head coach and give him authority, but I'm not holding my breath.

Of course he did.

This is a kid trying to be clever. Wade Phillips is a loser of a head coach. The mistake was in hiring him not firing him. We were in a prime position to make a nice run had the owner continued down the Parcells path of a real head coach with authority.

 

[Jenky]

As a coach, so you can never let a team quit on you. That's a very basic fundamental of coaching.

With all the flaws Jason Garrett has, he at least has that ability.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

The team quit on him. Every coach that gets fired has that moment. Its probably why Garrett still has his job. They made David Garrard and Vince Young look like Roger Staubach in his prime. It was embarrassing. Guys literally quit on him. This organization and its stability and locker room presence isn't good enough to have a head coach like Wade here. Because soon as the honeymoon is over that's it.

 

[Tabascocat]

Wade fired in Houston......Jerry is sitting back in his La-Z-Boy pondering a reunion of coaches past. He calls Norv and Wade and brings them in as coordinators.

Fast forward to week 8 in 2014 when we are 2-6 and he fires Garrett mid-season and Wade re-takes HC. Phillips had to work hard to get the players to quit on Jason for payback!

There is the circle and/or history repeating itself and all is fine and dandy in Jerry World

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Of course he did.

This is a kid trying to be clever. Wade Phillips is a loser of a head coach. The mistake was in hiring him not firing him. We were in a prime position to make a nice run had the owner continued down the Parcells path of a real head coach with authority.

I won't go that far. Phillips did some good. He had that defense playing lights out. Something Parcells couldn't do. We went 13-3 with Wade. Anyone saying it was a mistake to hire him is exaggerating.

 

[percyhoward]

.This is a kid trying to be clever.

Ah, okay. Hadn't been following his posts.

 

[Risen Star]

I won't go that far. Phillips did some good. He had that defense playing lights out. Something Parcells couldn't do. We went 13-3 with Wade. Anyone saying it was a mistake to hire him is exaggerating.

I don't agree. At all. He's a weak willed puppet excuse maker who helped destroy the improved culture and turned the direction of the team around in a few years.

He took over a team ready to compete, looked good to the clueless for a few years, then you saw what the ramifications were when you had large and in charge Jerry with his fat puppet.

Wade Phillips sucks. Had he taken over the team in 2003 we would have sucked in 2007. The only positive I can give him for his time in Dallas was timing.

 

[Boyzmamacita]

Of course he did.

This is a kid trying to be clever. Wade Phillips is a loser of a head coach. The mistake was in hiring him not firing him. We were in a prime position to make a nice run had the owner continued down the Parcells path of a real head coach with real authority.

Why did Parcells leave anyway? I honestly forget. Was he burned out? I remember Jerry giving him an extra million to stay the year before, but he ended up leaving the next year anyway. The fact that it was right after the bobbled snap made it feel like he left us high and dry. If it was Jerry's meddling, that explains it. It just felt like unfinished business. Who knows what he would've done with the 13-3 team the following year? We'll never know.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

I like Wade as a person, seems like a good guy. However, the guy is a loser and has been anywhere he's coached.

Funny, he never had a cumulative losing record at anyplace he coached. Worst he did was at Denver where he was .500. Out of nine seasons as the real (not interim) coach, he only had two losing seasons.

But this has to be a troll-type thread, because nobody supported Wade more than I did. Part of that was the way the local media gave him so much crap, most of it personal and not about way his team performed... Directly opposite of the Garrett era. But Wade did deserve to be fired that last season. Right or wrong, when the team lays down like that, the coach has to go.

Now would I have liked to have seen him get a chance with an OC who actually worked for him and was totally on his side... Yes. Jerry admitted after Wade was gone that he wouldn't have let Garrett be fired basically no matter what. Dodger mentioned Wade being hired because he was a good 34 coach and because he was soft... I'd say it was because he was a good defensive coach and he'd accept an incredibly green Garrett being given free rein over the offense. Basically none of the other candidates in 2007 fit that one crucial Jerry criterion.