The Lost Season of 2007

[junk]

We'd have won 8 or 9 games...just like the rest of his time in Dallas. He was here for the money and nothing more.

Based on this reply, I assume you've been critical of the job Garrett is doing as well?

Since, you know, Parcells actually made the playoffs twice in his tenure (once with Quincy and Hambrick starting). Both are two games over .500. Garrett also had the benefit of inheriting a franchise QB, HOF DE and HOF TE that Parcells found for him. Not to mention he inherited a team that had won the division the year before and lost in the divisional playoffs instead of a team coming off three straight 5-11 seasons

So, being critical of Parcells is completely fair....provided you are equally critical of Garrett. Garrett has certainly done less with more

Can you imagine Garrett coaching Carter and Hambrick? lol

 

[burmafrd]

Based on this reply, I assume you've been critical of the job Garrett is doing as well?

Since, you know, Parcells actually made the playoffs twice in his tenure (once with Quincy and Hambrick starting). Both are two games over .500. Garrett also had the benefit of inheriting a franchise QB, HOF DE and HOF TE that Parcells found for him. Not to mention he inherited a team that had won the division the year before and lost in the divisional playoffs instead of a team coming off three straight 5-11 seasons

So, being critical of Parcells is completely fair....provided you are equally critical of Garrett. Garrett has certainly done less with more

Can you imagine Garrett coaching Carter and Hambrick? lol

I think the best coaching job of BP's career was 2003. When you look at that roster its amazing it won 10 games.

Actually I think as a coach that year burned him out. He was never as good again.

 

[Nova]

I think the best coaching job of BP's career was 2003. When you look at that roster its amazing it won 10 games.

Actually I think as a coach that year burned him out. He was never as good again.

True. That year started 5-1, and I remember Fox doing a segment along the lines of "the Boys are back!" (and yes they played the Thin Lizzy hit). But it still felt empty. I don't think I believed that was a good team.

Ended up finishing the season 5-5 which to me, was still an accomplishment at the time.

 

[Nova]

Wait , you don't think we had a chance against NO ? The same team we previously beaten?

I was more worried about Minny than I was about NO.

That's not entirely true. Romo had shown some flat out brilliance in the last 2 drives, but those instances were also followed or preceded by bonehead errors. It seemed like he could not get a handle on intentional grounding.

Side note: a lot of people always say "well when has the defense given Romo a chance?" quite a bit. This is a good game when they actually did. After Romo and the offense squandered a late 4th Q opportunity, the defense came on the field and force Eli and the Giants offense into a 3 and out to give Romo one last shot.

I think Romo did enough to win the game, but he also made some costly errors. He's not without blame.

 

[Alexander]

Based on this reply, I assume you've been critical of the job Garrett is doing as well?

You expect an honest response?

 

[AsthmaField]

I think what happened was a combination of things.

1. We had proven everything we needed to. We'd beaten the Giants twice. We'd owned the Packers at home. We were arrogant.

2. Wade Phillips was not the type of head coach to reel our guys in and keep them focused in light of this.

3. But, IMO, the most important thing, Jim Johnson happened to us. The late Eagles defensive coordinator found a way to defend and frustrate Owens with press coverage. He found a way to limit the Cowboys big play offense that year. It's also important to note that he was the first DC to start chipping away at the Patriot Offense's mortality, too. Basically, his game plan armed his enemy (The New York Giants) with the know-how to beat the two best offensive teams that year-- DAL and NE. Garrett couldn't adjust, and we saw more of the Garrett we're used to now.

4. It didn't help that Owens was rushing back from that high ankle sprain, and Glenn was taking snaps for really the first time that year.

This is a really good and insightful post.

Nice job man.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

My $0.02 is that Cowboys - Packers played a HUGE game that year -- I believe both clubs were 11-1 or something like that and the Cowboys <mainly> dominated. They knocked Favre out of the game and pretty much had the game in hand until some scrub called Aaron Rodgers got some playing time and made interesting.

Anyway, the Cowboys never seemed the same after that game to me.

I agree with this to some degree.

Part of that was the fact that we left that game 12-1 and then if I remember right we blew a game where we could have wrapped it all up and dropped to 12-2. Then we got TO hurt in Carolina locking up everything to get to 13-2. The Washington game never really mattered because we knew the starters weren't going to play the whole game and realistically were only in the game to attempt to get some personal achievements. The problem with that is that we went into the playoffs playing pretty sloppy because of those last 3 games.

The TO injury was pretty big because even though he came back in the playoffs it became pretty clear to the Giants he didn't have the ability to cut or burst like normal cause of the ankle injury. That really hurt us. I also always felt like it really hurt us that we didn't IR Glenn and get someone the whole year. Instead they wasted a roster spot all year hoping he could bring something to us at the end of the year with that busted knee and it just didn't work that way.

 

[blindzebra]

You expect an honest response?

Hypocrisy at its best.

Anyone brings up Landry or Belichick's rough starts and you scream about comparing Garrett to a HOF coach, well the ball is in your court since Parcells is a HOF coach we should expect better than .500 right?

 

[KJJ]

And then our o line collapsed against Minnesota. I still don't even think we would have gotten pass the Saints the defense wasn't the greatest but they feasted on turnovers

Yes the OL fell apart vs Minn but the Cowboys didn't look prepared entering that game. Everytime the Cowboys start playing good football they seem to relax and read their press clippings. It had been so long since the Cowboys had won a playoff game that I think they celebrated that win over Philly a little too long. Wade was patting everyone on the back and the Cowboys looked flat from the get go vs Minn. The Saints would have been tough to get past but the Cowboys would have had confidence knowing they had already beaten them. The Saints looked like a declining team at the end of the 09 season losing their last 3 regular season games. The loss to the Cowboys appeared to take some steam out of them although they did rest players the final 2 regular season games.

 

[DFWJC]

Honestly the Cowboys had their best shot of winning the SB in 09. We found out in week 6 of the 07 season that the Cowboys didn't match up well with NE who torched the Cowboys 48-27. The Cowboys started fading after the win over the 10-1 Packers in week 13. By week 15 vs Philly I knew the Cowboys were headed for a one and done in the playoffs. They weren't scoring nearly as many points and Romo's game was coming apart.

The Cowboys were in the middle of a real swoon looking nothing like the team we saw the first 12 weeks of that season. In 09 the Cowboys caught fire in Dec beating the 13-0 Saints in the dome. The Cowboys finished that season strong with back to back shutouts. The last 3 games of the 09 season was the best I had seen the defense play in 10 years.. Spencer had come on and Romo was having his best Dec/Jan. This was a much better Cowboys team than the one that beat the 9-0 Colts in 06 who went on to win the SB.

What you say about '07 is true...the team was fading into a reality check later in the season.

The irony here is that you use 2007 all the time in your Romo blame game as if that team should have won it all or made it to the SB. I'm not sure, but I think you (or maybe jnday) may even be one that uses the 13 pro Bowler thing--when everyone knows that number was radically inflated due to early season hype and some credit from previous seasons rep...like Gurode, Williams, etc.

It was a missed opportunity, yes. Mainly because they lost a home playoff game. You need to win those while you have the chance b/c road wins are hard to come by.

The '09 team had a terrible injury in the Minny game and were playing against a buzz-saw in a stadium that fed that Minny pass rush. It was an avalanche.
I thought Minnesota had the best team that year and without the injury to Favre (bounty-gate at NO), would have won it all.

 

[junk]

Hypocrisy at its best.

Anyone brings up Landry or Belichick's rough starts and you scream about comparing Garrett to a HOF coach, well the ball is in your court since Parcells is a HOF coach we should expect better than .500 right?

I agree that being satisfied with Garrett and critical of Parcells is hypocritical. That was big of you to admit it

Parcells did more with less. He wasn't good enough in his time here nor has Garrett been.

 

[CCBoy]

I think what happened was a combination of things.

1. We had proven everything we needed to. We'd beaten the Giants twice. We'd owned the Packers at home. We were arrogant.

2. Wade Phillips was not the type of head coach to reel our guys in and keep them focused in light of this.

3. But, IMO, the most important thing, Jim Johnson happened to us. The late Eagles defensive coordinator found a way to defend and frustrate Owens with press coverage. He found a way to limit the Cowboys big play offense that year. It's also important to note that he was the first DC to start chipping away at the Patriot Offense's mortality, too. Basically, his game plan armed his enemy (The New York Giants) with the know-how to beat the two best offensive teams that year-- DAL and NE. Garrett couldn't adjust, and we saw more of the Garrett we're used to now.

4. It didn't help that Owens was rushing back from that high ankle sprain, and Glenn was taking snaps for really the first time that year.

Functionally, with TO hobbled and Glen a closed curtain to previous play, the type of game to be played had a marked deck to start.

The Eagles had the coaching staff with the most tenured members and had been together for a pretty long time. They also were top notched on both sides of the ball.

 

[KJJ]

What you say about '07 is true...the team was fading into a reality check later in the season.

The irony here is that you use 2007 all the time in your Romo blame game as if that team should have won it all or made it to the SB. I'm not sure, but I think you (or maybe jnday) may even be one that uses the 13 pro Bowler thing--when everyone knows that number was radically inflated due to early season hype and some credit from previous seasons rep...like Gurode, Williams, etc.

It was a missed opportunity, yes. Mainly because they lost a home playoff game. You need to win those while you have the chance b/c road wins are hard to come by.

The '09 team had a terrible injury in the Minny game and were playing against a buzz-saw in a stadium that fed that Minny pass rush. It was an avalanche.
I thought Minnesota had the best team that year and without the injury to Favre (bounty-gate at NO), would have won it all.

Romo was part of why that 07 team faded compare his numbers from Sept-Nov with his numbers from Dec-Jan. In Romo's final 4 games of the 2007 session including the loss to the Giants his TD to turnover ratio was 2-6 and the Cowboys record during that period was 1-3. He played poorly the final month of the season and the defense couldn't make critical stops.

That's been the story of the Cowboys for years. Favre's injury didn't cause him to choke vs NO. The final few seasons of his career most were ending with him throwing picks. When he wasn't throwing TD's he was throwing picks he's the all-time record holder for both.

 

[burmafrd]

Romo was part of why that 07 team faded compare his numbers from Sept-Nov with his numbers from Dec-Jan. In Romo's final 4 games of the 2007 session including the loss to the Giants his TD to turnover ratio was 2-6 and the Cowboys record during that period was 1-3. He played poorly the final month of the season and the defense couldn't make critical stops.

That's been the story of the Cowboys for years. Favre's injury didn't cause him to choke vs NO. The final few seasons of his career most were ending with him throwing picks. When he wasn't throwing TD's he was throwing picks he's the all-time record holder for both.

Favre blew a lot more games then Romo ever could on picks but you hardly ever hear about it.

 

[KJJ]

Favre blew a lot more games then Romo ever could on picks but you hardly ever hear about it.

You hardly ever hear about it because he's won several league MVP awards, been to 2 SB's winning one of them and he holds several all-time NFL passing records.

 

[big dog cowboy]

You hardly ever hear about it because he's won several league MVP awards, been to 2 SB's winning one of them and he holds several all-time NFL passing records.

Always seems to make a difference doesn' it? Even though he played like complete crap in one of his two SB victories Big Ben will always get a bye for having those two rings no matter what.

 

[Alexander]

Hypocrisy at its best.

Anyone brings up Landry or Belichick's rough starts and you scream about comparing Garrett to a HOF coach, well the ball is in your court since Parcells is a HOF coach we should expect better than .500 right?

If anyone brings up Landry or Belichick's "rough starts" to somehow excuse Garrett's futility, I will laugh at them as they deserve to be.

What I find hypocritical is that people like you gripe that Parcells did not deliver the goods, but bend over backwards to excuse a novice who didn't take over a dumpster fire and right the franchise. By all rights, the talent Garrett inherited could have and should have been enough for at least one playoff appearance if he made a few simple moves each season that stole a game or two.

Am I happy Coach Parcells did not bring a Super Bowl? Absolutely not. But I can see what he left behind was significant.

But at no time under Parcells' watch did we set franchise records for defensive futility, for example. At no time did they allow losses to occur like Detroit and Green Bay that basically were historically significant rarities that are nearly impossible to believe.

For every excuse you have why Garrett has not got over the hump, it is completely neutralized by the fact he inherited a football team with a QB and quite a bit of talent in his area of specialty.

Any sort of deconstruction if you can even call it that he has had to do did not even come close to what Parcells had to not only do to the roster, but how the entire organization was run.

Garrett still is a novice and there is nothing tangible that you or anyone else can point at as a sign he is getting smarter as a head football coach. Other than vague romantic feelings that he is "building something". Parcells resurrected a franchise that was in the toilet and basically reestablished relevance.

The mistakes he is making that impact football games are still here. If you thought Parcells was senile and that made his era a failure, you have an equal effect now of Garrett's inexperience and failure to progress making his just as futile.

 

[KJJ]

Always seems to make a difference doesn' it? Even though he played like complete crap in one of his two SB victories Big Ben will always get a bye for having those two rings no matter what.

Anytime a QB wins a couple of SB's and has a number of playoff wins on their resume they get a pass for all the crappy games they had.

 

[DFWJC]

Anytime a QB wins a couple of SB's and has a number of playoff wins on their resume they get a pass for all the crappy games they had.

Some truth there.
But that is a bit silly, seeing that one is a total team thing while the other is referring to how a particular player played in a game.

 

[links18]

For some reason, we wanted to switch up our style completely. We started Barber and became a run first, clock managing team. We tired Barber out and played out of our element.

This right here. We were terribly sloppy all year long. Penalties galore, snaps sent miles over Romo's head, etc. We regularly had to overcome 3rd and very long on offense. But we nevertheless thrived with Romo hitting TO or Witten in clutch situations to keep drives alive and score a lot of points. Throughout the year we gave ourselves a huge margin that allowed us to overcome our sloppiness. Then, for some reason, we change it up in the playoffs, starting Barber and almost taking the air out of the ball. Barber ran like a beast, but we were never able to give ourselves a big enough margin to overcome the critical dropped passes, penalties and defensive ineptness in that game.