Replacing the culture of losing

[TheFinisher]

and yet some still wanted to place a lot of the blame on the Offense for last year. None so blind that will not see. With the exception of 2007 and 2009 our D was never more than average at best and usually a lot worse.

The offense does own some of the blame tho for the lack of success since 2009. 2012 Tony led the league in INTs and although I don't know where we ranked in total giveaways and defensive TDs surrendered, it was definitely near the top.

Our offense has played a role in those historic blown leads and blowouts by either failing to show up entirely like the Chicago and Saints game from this year or surrendering too many giveaways like Detriot, Jets from a few years ago to GB this past year.

I agree the defense has been the larger culprit, but the offense needs to own their share.

 

[Stash]

Exactly right. That's why I can't blame Jason Garrett. He may in fact suck as a head coach but I just can't judge him here in this circus. Belichick, Parcells, Jimmy, whoever, none of those guys would accept this position under this current structure because they know they'd fail too.

Garrett's the current convenient scapegoat. The fans who have a good grasp of what goes on at Valley Ranch know the problem starts higher up in the organization totem pole.

My thinking on him is this, he's not the sole problem, but he's not part of the solution either.

He's also clearly contributed to losses during his tenure, and his powers have continued to be stripped away to the point where I have to ask 'why is he still here?'

And the answer I come up with is that Jerry is comfortable with him.

 

[Doomsday101]

Exactly right. That's why I can't blame Jason Garrett. He may in fact suck as a head coach but I just can't judge him here in this circus. Belichick, Parcells, Jimmy, whoever, none of those guys would accept this position under this current structure because they know they'd fail too.

Garrett's the current convenient scapegoat. The fans who have a good grasp of what goes on at Valley Ranch know the problem starts higher up in the organization totem pole.

Yet Parcells disagrees and has said so, he like working for Jerry he liked having an owner who gave a damn and that is was not just about making a buck. I find it strage those who have worked for him say different than the opinion of fans who have never set foot in valley ranch

Bill Parcells says outsiders who criticize Jerry Jones have a distorted view of how the Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager operates.
The two worked together for four years as Parcells was the head coach of the Cowboys from 2003-2006.

“I think there’s a definite misperception,” Parcells told DallasCowboys.com staff writer Nick Eatman. “I just think everyone thinks things are a certain way. I didn’t see it to be that way. I think Jerry is a good businessman and a good listener. What you have to do is make sense to him. You’ve got to make sense to him. If he thinks you’re making sense, he’ll alter his opinion. I enjoyed him. I like him. I like him a lot.”

http://cowboysblog.***BANNED-URL***...-jones-is-misperceived-i-like-him-a-lot.html/

 

[Little Jr]

Austin's money is likely to be used to sign the draftees so we can't really count on that for FA's...but, good post...and I agree that with an improved defense (not a top tiered one), this team could do well
.
need to stay healthy

Rookie will only count 1.9 mil against the cap.

 

[Miller]

There is a losing culture. An if there was an easy depiction of it, it would look like this

Losing:

Jerry Jones---------------->Jason Garrett

No matter the blame, the easiest way to change a culture is coaching. It happened in SF. It happened in Seattle. It happened in many places the last decade where teams were bottom dwellers. The NFL allows for it with parity. We just refuse to take advantage of it.

 

[jterrell]

various:
Hard to call it a culture of losing at 8-8.
That is a culture of average.

In the 11 years since we fired Dave Campo we've finished a season below .500 exactly twice and we've made the playoffs 4 times.

I was not a fan of Garrett the OC and was well on record liking Wade more than Garrett as a coordinator.
But Garrett had more long-term potential as a franchise manager and that's the direction we went.
I am happy to see Linehan come in as I think it will truly change the offense.

Defensively, we need to decide upon the system and draft to it.
I railed against going to a 4-3 because I didn't like the fit for our best players: Ware, Lee.
Now Lee may move to WLB and Ware has moved to Denver so it is what it is.
If we want to run the 4-3 we should be able to in year 2 and after another draft class.

 

[Carolina Cowboy]

I don't know how you replace the culture of losing, which goes back into the 90's not 2009, without changing the top of the organization.

Losing is a disease; as contagious as ...

 

[17yearsandcounting]

Get rid of the rampant nepotism and things will work themself out.

 

[Idgit]

It's not a culture of losing. It's a culture of not being able to stop opposing QBs. Change that without springing leaks elsewhere, and the wins will come.

 

[Stash]

It's not a culture of losing. It's a culture of not being able to stop opposing QBs. Change that without springing leaks elsewhere, and the wins will come.

I think much of that damage has been self-inflicted by this scheme change.

Make a huge investment (huge money in Carr, huge draft investment in Claiborne) in two man cornerbacks and then decide to go with a zone/coverage scheme?

Recipe for disaster, and disappointment.

To say nothing of the continued busts and journeymen rotated in as acceptable safeties.

 

[visionary]

It's not a culture of losing. It's a culture of not being able to stop opposing QBs. Change that without springing leaks elsewhere, and the wins will come.

also, why would you want to change something you have told us many times you have been enjoying

 

[dreghorn2]

I agree the defense has been the larger culprit, but the offense needs to own their share.

It's funny how time makes us all forget the past so easily.

We don't seem to remember that the 2012 offense set an all-time record for first half scoring futility putting a terrible strain on a very thin defense.

Personally i think the reason Ryan was shipped out is because there may have been some very heated exchanges in some of the staff meetings regarding the burden the heavily injured defense was having to endure due to the lack of offensive support.

It's funny that Jerry rolled Ryan out but following the season the play calling mystery magical selection tour also began.

 

[Idgit]

also, why would you want to change something you have told us many times you have been enjoying

Um...to enjoy it more?

On the flip side, why would you continue to watch something you presumably do not actually enjoy watching? Or do the two of us have enjoying watching the Cowboys in common, visionary?

 

[Idgit]

I think much of that damage has been self-inflicted by this scheme change.

Make a huge investment (huge money in Carr, huge draft investment in Claiborne) in two man cornerbacks and then decide to go with a zone/coverage scheme?

Recipe for disaster, and disappointment.

To say nothing of the continued busts and journeymen rotated in as acceptable safeties.

I agree. Though I think we switched to more zone because of the DL injuries, for the most part. I expect that to change.

But no doubt we dithered around with the defensive direction here under Garrett.

 

[burmafrd]

It's funny how time makes us all forget the past so easily.

We don't seem to remember that the 2012 offense set an all-time record for first half scoring futility putting a terrible strain on a very thin defense.

Personally i think the reason Ryan was shipped out is because there may have been some very heated exchanges in some of the staff meetings regarding the burden the heavily injured defense was having to endure due to the lack of offensive support.

It's funny that Jerry rolled Ryan out but following the season the play calling mystery magical selection tour also began.

funny how one brings up one period during one year to try and excuse about 5 other seasons...

 

[visionary]

Um...to enjoy it more?

On the flip side, why would you continue to watch something you presumably do not actually enjoy watching? Or do the two of us have enjoying watching the Cowboys in common, visionary?

some things, you cant let go
sometimes you follow your heart even though your mind tells you it is not meant to be

 

[dreghorn2]

funny how one brings up one period during one year to try and excuse about 5 other seasons...

I'm not sure i know what you mean, i mean i definitely don't know what you mean.

'I agree the defense has been the larger culprit, but the offense needs to own their share.'

This was the post i quoted in my comment.

It's been more than just one period of one year but it's not really worth arguing about, the defense was reasonable in 2012 (until the wear and tear of constant bad field position and never being ahead caught up to them), it's been bad mostly for some time, Idgit is right, pass defense in particular, but the offense has not held up it's own end.

I mention 2012 in particular because Ryan took a lot of heat for not generating more pass rush with exotic blitzes etc.. but it was essentially impossible for him to do that when they never ever had a lead.

 

[Stash]

I agree. Though I think we switched to more zone because of the DL injuries, for the most part. I expect that to change.

But no doubt we dithered around with the defensive direction here under Garrett.

Yeah, I'm still lamenting that switch and wish we would have stuck with the 3-4 defense.

 

[xwalker]

I think this is one of the most important aspects the team needs to look at going forward, and another reason why I am pleased that we're going in a new direction with veteran players.

This team has had a culture of losing games since we got beat by Minnesota in 2009. Defenses that blew huge leads in the 3rd and 4th quarter of games.

I don't want to entirely blame the defense, but the defense has been the largest culprit.

One of my thoughts when people were lamenting the loss of Ware and Hatcher was that the Cowboys haven't won anything with them and maybe it's time for change.

 

[xwalker]

Austin's money is likely to be used to sign the draftees so we can't really count on that for FA's...but, good post...and I agree that with an improved defense (not a top tiered one), this team could do well

need to stay healthy

I went back and looked a the contracts signed by each player drafted in 2013 at each pick that the Cowboys have in 2014. When I consider the rule of 51 and the Cowboys current top 51 contracts, my estimate was that the draft picks would cost 1.8M of additional cap space. If you bump that a little for inflation from 2013 to 2014, then 2M is a good number to use.

Drafts pick in the 5th round an later don't even make it to the top 51. If they make the team, it actually increases the amount of available cap space.