The Right Kind of Football

[erod]

This season has been draining for us all. The endless wait for Romo through a stretch of futile almosts, made even more insufferable by a media of buzzards happily picking this carcass dry. It all crashed on Turkey Day as reality showed us what this team is, against a team like Dallas of a year ago.

This is a careful time, and one that is desperate for Valley Ranch introspection. I understand they can't give up on the season, but effort and consideration need to be spent on regaining the culture and chemistry they seem to have lost. That is ultimately far more important right now.

The perfect locker room is not easily obtained. Last season, you could see it and feel it, but then the tinkering began, some necessary, some not. That's always a delicate endeavor that often leads to buyer's remorse, especially when the QB gets hurt and the losses start mounting. It's tough to stem the tide when water is coming in from all sides.

Numerous reports I've read say that the locker room does not resemble what it did last year. The weight room isn't the frat hall it was, and players are not as tight these days. Practices, meetings, general interaction....they're not as crisp and purposeful and positive as before.

The Cowboys have to get this fixed these next months.

When the culture is right, you can easily absorb the antics of a personality like Dez Bryant. All great teams have a guy or two like him that the roster as a whole fosters along, but feeds off of, too. It's a fascinating symbiotic relationship this team has with Dez.

But there are limits. Dallas "decided" to go with troubled Joseph Randle as the lead back. They added disconnected Greg Hardy and his travelling circus. They retained the reclusive renegade Rolando McClain against some coach's wishes. They brought in weirdo Christine Michael and the attitudinal Corey White, then watched the petulant Brandon Weeden whine his way out after losing his job to Buffalo's 3rd-stringer.

It's all backfired. Press conferences and player interviews have devolved into talks about locker room outbursts, off-color tweets, sideline antics, monkeys, dress codes, and whatever else has gone on. You can see it wearing thin in the faces of Witten, Garrett, Stephen, and even Jerry. It's aging them fast.

In-house meetings need to be had right now. This isn't a big deal; a shrewd offseason and a properly healing collar bone can put Humpty back together again pretty quickly. This team is still young and right there, capable of a big season in '16.

When this team breaks camp next year, it needs to be decontaminated. That doesn't mean you can't have a shady character or two, but only with contracts that don't yield power or forgive behavior not tolerated from others. Let other teams make those mistakes. Carolina seems OK after shedding their problem our way.

My football brain tells me that, with Romo, the Cowboys would be sitting at 9-2 right now in control of the division. This is a more talented roster than a year ago. Winning would have cured some of the ills that have set in.

But my logical side, the one that has experience in these matters in organizations I've been in, says very much otherwise. Too much spit in the cider makes for a bad batch. There are too many eggshells to navigate in the locker room right now.

That should be the sole focus soon, when the mathematics finally shoot this ailing season in the head. Re-find last year's cohesion, and the right kind of football will follow.

 

[Fletch]

This season has been draining for us all. The endless wait for Romo through a stretch of futile almosts, made even more insufferable by a media of buzzards happily picking this carcass dry. It all crashed on Turkey Day as reality showed us what this team is, against a team like Dallas of a year ago.

This is a careful time, and one that is desperate for Valley Ranch introspection. I understand they can't give up on the season, but effort and consideration need to be spent on regaining the culture and chemistry they seem to have lost. That is ultimately far more important right now.

The perfect locker room is not easily obtained. Last season, you could see it and feel it, but then the tinkering began, some necessary, some not. That's always a delicate endeavor that often leads to buyer's remorse, especially when the QB gets hurt and the losses start mounting. It's tough to stem the tide when water is coming in from all sides.

Numerous reports I've read say that the locker room does not resemble what it did last year. The weight room isn't the frat hall it was, and players are not as tight these days. Practices, meetings, general interaction....they're not as crisp and purposeful and positive as before.

The Cowboys have to get this fixed these next months.

When the culture is right, you can easily absorb the antics of a personality like Dez Bryant. All great teams have a guy or two like him that the roster as a whole fosters along, but feeds off of, too. It's a fascinating symbiotic relationship this team has with Dez.

But there are limits. Dallas "decided" to go with troubled Joseph Randle as the lead back. They added disconnected Greg Hardy and his travelling circus. They retained the reclusive renegade Rolando McClain against some coach's wishes. They brought in weirdo Christine Michael and the attitudinal Corey White, then watched the petulant Brandon Weeden whine his way out after losing his job to Buffalo's 3rd-stringer.

It's all backfired. Press conferences and player interviews have devolved into talks about locker room outbursts, off-color tweets, sideline antics, monkeys, dress codes, and whatever else has gone on. You can see it wearing thin in the faces of Witten, Garrett, Stephen, and even Jerry. It's aging them fast.

In-house meetings need to be had right now. This isn't a big deal; a shrewd offseason and a properly healing collar bone can put Humpty back together again pretty quickly. This team is still young and right there, capable of a big season in '16.

When this team breaks camp next year, it needs to be decontaminated. That doesn't mean you can't have a shady character or two, but only with contracts that don't yield power or forgive behavior not tolerated from others. Let other teams make those mistakes. Carolina seems OK after shedding their problem our way.

My football brain tells me that, with Romo, the Cowboys would be sitting at 9-2 right now in control of the division. This is a more talented roster than a year ago. Winning would have cured some of the ills that have set in.

But my logical side, the one that has experience in these matters in organizations I've been in, says very much otherwise. Too much spit in the cider makes for a bad batch. There are too many egg shells to navigate in the locker room right now.

That should be the sole focus soon, when the mathematics finally shoot this ailing season in the head. Re-find last year's cohesion, and the right kind of football will follow.

Well said. Prepare for the usual spew regarding bad coaching as the main reason.

 

[BHendri5]

this happened with Parcels, with Phillips and now with Garrett, I don't think it will happen again with Garrett. Anyway each coach had a good season regular season record and then the next season something happened to derail the next season, there is one thing that always happened before that next season, the media during the offseason, OTAs, mini camps and training camp, was heavily involved in our organization, for something they did not like, or believed that we did wrong or whatever and they hounded us heavily for it, and everytime that has happened we have a terrible season after a good or very good season.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

Well said. Prepare for the usual spew regarding bad coaching as the main reason.

It's in the mix. Like it or not.

 

[erod]

Well said. Prepare for the usual spew regarding bad coaching as the main reason.

Oh, I know. It's the throw-away fallback, as if Carolina's playcalling and scheme are just light years ahead of everybody else. The same Panthers that went 7-8-1 with that same playcalling and scheme last year.

 

[SultanOfSix]

0-7

 

[CATCH17]

This season has been draining for us all. The endless wait for Romo through a stretch of futile almosts, made even more insufferable by a media of buzzards happily picking this carcass dry. It all crashed on Turkey Day as reality showed us what this team is, against a team like Dallas of a year ago.

This is a careful time, and one that is desperate for Valley Ranch introspection. I understand they can't give up on the season, but effort and consideration need to be spent on regaining the culture and chemistry they seem to have lost. That is ultimately far more important right now.

The perfect locker room is not easily obtained. Last season, you could see it and feel it, but then the tinkering began, some necessary, some not. That's always a delicate endeavor that often leads to buyer's remorse, especially when the QB gets hurt and the losses start mounting. It's tough to stem the tide when water is coming in from all sides.

Numerous reports I've read say that the locker room does not resemble what it did last year. The weight room isn't the frat hall it was, and players are not as tight these days. Practices, meetings, general interaction....they're not as crisp and purposeful and positive as before.

The Cowboys have to get this fixed these next months.

When the culture is right, you can easily absorb the antics of a personality like Dez Bryant. All great teams have a guy or two like him that the roster as a whole fosters along, but feeds off of, too. It's a fascinating symbiotic relationship this team has with Dez.

But there are limits. Dallas "decided" to go with troubled Joseph Randle as the lead back. They added disconnected Greg Hardy and his travelling circus. They retained the reclusive renegade Rolando McClain against some coach's wishes. They brought in weirdo Christine Michael and the attitudinal Corey White, then watched the petulant Brandon Weeden whine his way out after losing his job to Buffalo's 3rd-stringer.

It's all backfired. Press conferences and player interviews have devolved into talks about locker room outbursts, off-color tweets, sideline antics, monkeys, dress codes, and whatever else has gone on. You can see it wearing thin in the faces of Witten, Garrett, Stephen, and even Jerry. It's aging them fast.

In-house meetings need to be had right now. This isn't a big deal; a shrewd offseason and a properly healing collar bone can put Humpty back together again pretty quickly. This team is still young and right there, capable of a big season in '16.

When this team breaks camp next year, it needs to be decontaminated. That doesn't mean you can't have a shady character or two, but only with contracts that don't yield power or forgive behavior not tolerated from others. Let other teams make those mistakes. Carolina seems OK after shedding their problem our way.

My football brain tells me that, with Romo, the Cowboys would be sitting at 9-2 right now in control of the division. This is a more talented roster than a year ago. Winning would have cured some of the ills that have set in.

But my logical side, the one that has experience in these matters in organizations I've been in, says very much otherwise. Too much spit in the cider makes for a bad batch. There are too many eggshells to navigate in the locker room right now.

That should be the sole focus soon, when the mathematics finally shoot this ailing season in the head. Re-find last year's cohesion, and the right kind of football will follow.

Most NFL teams are made up of spit and not cider as you like to put it.

That's what happens when you have a bunch of 20 year olds making millions.



All of this locker room stuff is just entertainment driven.

The Cowboys have a team that works very hard. I don't question the effort these guys put in and I don't see them as a team that is distracted by anything other than their own success.

What I see is a team that is completely Romo dependent and has coaches that don't maximize their talent and really don't offer anything on gameday.

 

[Rockport]

This season has been draining for us all. The endless wait for Romo through a stretch of futile almosts, made even more insufferable by a media of buzzards happily picking this carcass dry. It all crashed on Turkey Day as reality showed us what this team is, against a team like Dallas of a year ago.

This is a careful time, and one that is desperate for Valley Ranch introspection. I understand they can't give up on the season, but effort and consideration need to be spent on regaining the culture and chemistry they seem to have lost. That is ultimately far more important right now.

The perfect locker room is not easily obtained. Last season, you could see it and feel it, but then the tinkering began, some necessary, some not. That's always a delicate endeavor that often leads to buyer's remorse, especially when the QB gets hurt and the losses start mounting. It's tough to stem the tide when water is coming in from all sides.

Numerous reports I've read say that the locker room does not resemble what it did last year. The weight room isn't the frat hall it was, and players are not as tight these days. Practices, meetings, general interaction....they're not as crisp and purposeful and positive as before.

The Cowboys have to get this fixed these next months.

When the culture is right, you can easily absorb the antics of a personality like Dez Bryant. All great teams have a guy or two like him that the roster as a whole fosters along, but feeds off of, too. It's a fascinating symbiotic relationship this team has with Dez.

But there are limits. Dallas "decided" to go with troubled Joseph Randle as the lead back. They added disconnected Greg Hardy and his travelling circus. They retained the reclusive renegade Rolando McClain against some coach's wishes. They brought in weirdo Christine Michael and the attitudinal Corey White, then watched the petulant Brandon Weeden whine his way out after losing his job to Buffalo's 3rd-stringer.

It's all backfired. Press conferences and player interviews have devolved into talks about locker room outbursts, off-color tweets, sideline antics, monkeys, dress codes, and whatever else has gone on. You can see it wearing thin in the faces of Witten, Garrett, Stephen, and even Jerry. It's aging them fast.

In-house meetings need to be had right now. This isn't a big deal; a shrewd offseason and a properly healing collar bone can put Humpty back together again pretty quickly. This team is still young and right there, capable of a big season in '16.

When this team breaks camp next year, it needs to be decontaminated. That doesn't mean you can't have a shady character or two, but only with contracts that don't yield power or forgive behavior not tolerated from others. Let other teams make those mistakes. Carolina seems OK after shedding their problem our way.

My football brain tells me that, with Romo, the Cowboys would be sitting at 9-2 right now in control of the division. This is a more talented roster than a year ago. Winning would have cured some of the ills that have set in.

But my logical side, the one that has experience in these matters in organizations I've been in, says very much otherwise. Too much spit in the cider makes for a bad batch. There are too many eggshells to navigate in the locker room right now.

That should be the sole focus soon, when the mathematics finally shoot this ailing season in the head. Re-find last year's cohesion, and the right kind of football will follow.

Good take. FO has surely made some mistakes this year.

 

[NoLuv4Jerry]

Well said. Prepare for the usual spew regarding bad coaching as the main reason.

When you go 0-7 because your starting QB goes down...then bad coaching is a MAJOR part of the problem. And bad coaching includes Xs and Os...overall philosophy to win games, gameplan, in game adjustments, motivation, disciplinarian, etc....

Let's not act like this head coach has a track record that suggest this year was an aberration. His track record proves that without a top 10 QB....all of his slogans, platitudes, philosophies ring hollow. Prior to joining the Dallas Cowboys.....Garrett has never been a head coach or coordinator at ANY level....so there was no PROOF that his approach to winning football games works (at least not with HIM at the helm)....so this year we got a chance to see him as a Head Coach without his safety net (Romo)....and the results have been a disastrous.

 

[JoeKing]

Well said. Prepare for the usual spew regarding bad coaching as the main reason.

Agree. I don't recall anyone complaining about the coaching staff when the team was 12-4 last year. Do the complainers think the coaching staff forgot how to coach in a year?

 

[erod]

When you go 0-7 because your starting QB goes down...then bad coaching is a MAJOR part of the problem. And bad coaching includes Xs and Os...overall philosophy to win games, gameplan, in game adjustments, motivation, disciplinarian, etc....

Let's not act like this head coach has a track record that suggest this year was an aberration. His track record proves that without a top 10 QB....all of his slogans, platitudes, philosophies ring hollow. Prior to joining the Dallas Cowboys.....Garrett has never been a head coach or coordinator at ANY level....so there was no PROOF that his approach to winning football games works (at least not with HIM at the helm)....so this year we got a chance to see him as a Head Coach without his safety net (Romo)....and the results have been a disastrous.

Nope. The Cowboys were on the cusp of beating Atlanta, New Orleans, Seattle, New York, Philadelphia, and Tampa. They were plenty "coached up", but they were just too limited at quarterback to beat the superior quarterbacks on most of those teams.

There's a disconnect among the players right now, mostly because of losing, but partly because of the mix. It needs to be tweaked to fix the latter.

 

[CATCH17]

Nope. The Cowboys were on the cusp of beating Atlanta, New Orleans, Seattle, New York, Philadelphia, and Tampa. They were plenty "coached up", but they were just too limited at quarterback to beat the superior quarterbacks on most of those teams.

There's a disconnect among the players right now, mostly because of losing, but partly because of the mix. It needs to be tweaked to fix the latter.

The NFL is built for bad teams to hang with good teams so we did nothing special.

What seperates the good teams from the bad teams are QB play and Coaching.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I still firmly believe that if Romo and Dez were perfectly healthy, this team walks away with the division. And I have never heard a quality refutation to my claim. Sure, it's opinion based, but what makes us think that almost the same exact team with a better defense does not walk away with this crummy division?

With that, I think it drives a stake at this 'locker room' argument.

However, I can concede that the locker room has some problems. But, I won't concede that coaching has nothing to do with it.

Here's a fact...according to everybody here, McFadden was a 'Jerry guy' because of his Arkansas ties. And yet we started Randle anyway. Also note that Randle attended Garrett's junior football camps in NJ each year. Sounds like a coaching decision to me

Garrett has also done an almost 180 in press conferences. It used to be that he would simply not acknowledge questions from the press unless it was actual football related. This year he's made a point to scold Hardy for saying 'I plan to come out a guns blazing' and now handles those questions about problems with Hardy, Dez, Randle, Beasley, etc. I seriously don't know what Garrett is thinking and why he would change that all of the sudden. Again, the 'old locker room' was led by a coach that just didn't give that crap from the media the time of day. The 'new locker room' has a coach that addresses it.

In the end, I generally find that players...even the most volatile players...just want to win. And they are willing to put up with methods of any kind if it means victory (including TO). But when you don't give them opportunities AND you lose...that's when stuff starts to hit the fan. The fact is right now we are losing games in large part to losing our 2 greatest offensive weapons due to injury and that makes even the most brilliant coaches seem less likeable and less intelligent.






YR

 

[jobberone]

When you go 0-7 because your starting QB goes down...then bad coaching is a MAJOR part of the problem. And bad coaching includes Xs and Os...overall philosophy to win games, gameplan, in game adjustments, motivation, disciplinarian, etc....

Let's not act like this head coach has a track record that suggest this year was an aberration. His track record proves that without a top 10 QB....all of his slogans, platitudes, philosophies ring hollow. Prior to joining the Dallas Cowboys.....Garrett has never been a head coach or coordinator at ANY level....so there was no PROOF that his approach to winning football games works (at least not with HIM at the helm)....so this year we got a chance to see him as a Head Coach without his safety net (Romo)....and the results have been a disastrous.

Bad FO decision primarily but Garrett had to have some say in it. That's on them. The major reason the season went south is Romo, Romo, Romo, other injuries such as Scandrick, the lack of turnovers, and some on game adjustments and game plans. The latter has been a problem with Romo and the coaches for some time. I'd even say misuse of certain personnel like Beasley is a great example.

 

[jobberone]

The NFL is built for bad teams to hang with good teams so we did nothing special.

What seperates the good teams from the bad teams are QB play and Coaching.

And turnovers and big plays negative and positive.

 

[NoLuv4Jerry]

Nope. The Cowboys were on the cusp of beating Atlanta, New Orleans, Seattle, New York, Philadelphia, and Tampa. They were plenty "coached up", but they were just too limited at quarterback to beat the superior quarterbacks on most of those teams.

There's a disconnect among the players right now, mostly because of losing, but partly because of the mix. It needs to be tweaked to fix the latter.

I am not saying Jason Garrett is the ONLY coach that would lose under these circumstances....but he clearly showed that when it came to winning time...he does NOT make a difference. And there are coaches that do. I will give you one example...since you brought up the Seattle game. When we blocked the FG. Jason ran the ball 3 straight times up the gut and punted. THAT was the time to try to win the game...as opposed to see if Russell Wilson would lose the game. And he has done this time and time again...even with a healthy Romo. He never injects his IMPRINT on a game....he is content to let the coach/team on the opposing sideline decide the Cowboys fate!

 

[NoLuv4Jerry]

Bad FO decision primarily but Garrett had to have some say in it. That's on them. The major reason the season went south is Romo, Romo, Romo, other injuries such as Scandrick, the lack of turnovers, and some on game adjustments and game plans. The latter has been a problem with Romo and the coaches for some time. I'd even say misuse of certain personnel like Beasley is a great example.

When Romo went down for 7 games...this team immediately went to try to REPLACE Weeden...because Garrett knew he was NEVER going to try to win a game without Romo...and he was looking for someone that could WIN a game. All he needed to do as a head coach was figure out how to win 1 or 2...the fact he could not even win ONE is stunning! And I am sure it shook the Jones family to their core. Heck...Romo ASSUMED we would win 2 or 3 games...which is why he felt comfortable telling Brady "see you in February". Garrett did not make ONE difference with Romo out.....not from an X and O standpoint...not from an execution stand point...not from a motivation stand point...he sat back and HOPED the other team would lose.

 

[CATCH17]

I am not saying Jason Garrett is the ONLY coach that would lose under these circumstances....but he clearly showed that when it came to winning time...he does NOT make a difference. And there are coaches that do. I will give you one example...since you brought up the Seattle game. When we blocked the FG. Jason ran the ball 3 straight times up the gut and punted. THAT was the time to try to win the game...as opposed to see if Russell Wilson would lose the game. And he has done this time and time again...even with a healthy Romo. He never injects his IMPRINT on a game....he is content to let the coach/team on the opposing sideline decide the Cowboys fate!

And those pick plays that Seattle used in crucial situations to get guys wide open.. Actual plays.

Instead we rely on Romo or Dez to just out athlete the other team in critical situations.

 

[cowboyblue22]

all I know is for 20 years this team had not had two succeful seasons in a row the really good coaches and front office figure out how to win consistently year after year and the great coaches for years they have winning seasons but this league now its a year to year deal unless u have a bill bellicheat to run the show its about health luck and the other teams you play and how good or bad they are

 

[NoLuv4Jerry]

And those pick plays that Seattle used in crucial situations to get guys wide open.. Actual plays.

Instead we rely on Romo or Dez to just out athlete the other team in critical situations.

Garrett finally tried to win a game against Tampa.....when we threw the ball on 3rd and 1 and Dez dropped it. Of course Dez should have caught it...but that throw and catch is not NEARLY as easy....as these pick plays that are EASY throws and catches for other teams QB/WRs...but I was impressed that he at least realized that we are on a 6 GAME LOSING STREAK...and we are running out of time to WIN a game!