The Wade Fade: Can He Get the Cowboys a Win in the Playoffs?

[Alexander]

The Wade Fade: Can He Get the Cowboys a Win in the Playoffs?

by Jim Vance on Jul 8, 2009 6:00 AM CDT in General

Wade Phillips has had four chances to win a playoff game as a head coach. He's 0 for 4. Is he cursed or is he lacking as a coach? To win a playoff game you have to make it to the post-season first and that means you have to win more games than you lose. I want to compare Wade's record against past Cowboy coaches to see if he is the right guy to even get us into the show.

Cowboys coaches have included the notorious hard case Duane Charles Parcells, the mercurial James William Johnson, the stoic Thomas Wade Landry and now the soft and cuddly Harold Wade Phillips. Which coach has been the most successful over the span of the coach's careers during the NFL regular season?

I took a look at the winning percentages of the four coaches over the span of their years as a head coach. A partial season will count as a full season in regards to winning percentage as a head coach. For example, Phillips was with the Saints for four games 1985, his one win gives him a .250 winning percentage as a head coach that season. I will include every team the coach represented, in Phillips' case, New Orleans, Buffalo, Denver, Atlanta and Dallas.


Coach Years as HC Games Win Loss Ties Winning %
Phillips
9
119
70
49
0
.588

Parcells
19
303
172
130
1
.570

Johnson
9
144
80
64
0
.556

Landry
29
418
250
162
6
.607





In the regular season, Wade is in good company, finishing second to the great Tom Landry among Cowboy coaches with at least 9 years as an NFL head coach. It would appear that Wade can get us to the playoffs, can he get us through the playoffs?

Landry, Johnson and Parcells have all won Super Bowls, Phillips has yet to win a playoff game. Let's take a quick look at those four playoff losses.

Three of Wade's four playoff appearances have been in wild card games. In 1993 as coach of the Denver Broncos, Phillips met the Raiders and Art Shell in the Coliseum. The Raiders had a come from behind victory over Phillip's Broncos the week before, and trounced the Broncos 42 to 24 in that wild card game.

In 1998, Philips coached the Bills to the wild card spot and faced the Miami Dolphins, led by Jimmy Johnson. The Dolphins forced 5 turnovers but Buffalo rallied and fought back. Late in the fourth quarter the Bills drove to Miami's one yard line behind by a score of 24 - 14. The Bill's receiver Andre Reed was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct and Buffalo had to settle for a field goal. Buffalo recovered the onside kick and drove to Miami's five yard line. The Bill's QB Doug Flutie was hit making a throw, fumbled for the fifth turnover, and Miami won 24 to 17. (You were probably watching the playoff game later that same day in Texas Stadium. Troy Aikman was sacked four times and threw three interceptions during a loss to the Cardinals.)

The next year, 1999, Wade returned to the playoffs with another wild card spot against the Titans. This game is known in Nashville as The Music City Miracle. This is the playoff game where Wade Phillips' Buffalo Bills drove down and kicked a 41-yard field goal to pull ahead of Tennessee with 16 seconds left to play. The Bills kicked off and their stingy defense only had to hold on for a couple of plays to win, however, there was a controversial across the field lateral on that kickoff and Tennessee ran the ball 75 yards for a touchdown and the win. Bruce DeHaven, the 13-year Buffalo special teams coach was fired after the season. Phillips was roundly criticized for benching Doug Flutie in place of Rob Johnson. Flutie led the team to the post-season but was inexplicably benched before the playoffs.

In 2007, Phillips coached the Cowboys to a first-seed playoff position in which the Giants, twice defeated in the regular season, came to Texas Stadium. The Cowboys led halfway through the third quarter. Dallas penalties kept Giant drives alive and Dallas' penalties killed their own drives. The game ended in the final minutes with the Cowboys driving for a win, and Romo being intercepted in the end zone. The Giants went on to win the Super Bowl. This was Wade's fourth playoff loss.

A coach's job is to get his team prepared and in a position to win the game. Does Wade Phillips deserve to get the blame for those playoff losses?

The bigger question: Can he get the Cowboys a win in the playoffs?

 

[superpunk]

When you look at his playoff history, I think in alot of cases you have to say that he was a "victim of circumstance". If it wasn't for bad luck he'd have no luck at all.

I imagine a Wade Fade would look like this.

 

[Alexander]

When you look at his playoff history, I think in alot of cases you have to say that he was a "victim of circumstance". If it wasn't for bad luck he'd have no luck at all.

I imagine a Wade Fade would look like this.

If you look at all of the losses, the "luck" appears to be centered around penalties and special teams. The criticisms that have surrounded him for years that he has undisciplined teams and poor special teams. Go figure.

There is a fine line in winning and losing in the postseason. Phillips is a poor man's Marty Schottenheimer, who also was "cursed" with bad luck despite having a lot of regular season success.

As far as "bad luck", I don't believe it in it. Most of the time, you make your own luck or at least the circumstances for it to be a factor.

 

[Zaxor]

He has a better win% than all but Landry...who woulda thunk it

 

[Alexander]

He has a better win% than all but Landry...who woulda thunk it

It is irrelevant given the circumstances where he took over.

All of his teams were situations where he pretty much had the table set for him at each stop. Reeves, Levy and Parcells are all Hall of Fame coaches who didn't leave him bare cupboards.

Compare that to Coach Landry and Coach Johnson who took over expansion teams or what amounts to one, there is an easy explanation why his winning percentage is better.

 

[Zaxor]

OFFENSE.............
Position...........Names.................
WRTerrell Owens
LTFlozell Adams
LGKyle Kosier
CAndre Gurode
RGMarco Rivera
RTMarc Colombo
TEJason Witten
WRTerry Glenn
QBDrew Bledsoe
Tony Romo(10)
RBJulius Jones
DEFENSE
Position......Names....
LEMarcus Spears
NTJason Ferguson
REChris Canty
SLB Greg Ellis(9)
Al Singleton(6)
MLBBradie JamesJ
LBAkin Ayodele
WLBDeMarcus Ware
LCBTerence Newman
RCBAnthony Henry
FSPat Watkins (9) Keith Davis (6)
SSRoy Williams

Lots of change since Parcells last year.. we will see

 

[Yeagermeister]

If the refs make the correct call on the Music City Forward Pass he'd have a least one playoff win.

 

[Apollo Creed]

If the refs make the correct call on the Music City Forward Pass he'd have a least one playoff win.

A good coach never would've been in that situation.

 

[Yeagermeister]

A good coach never would've been in that situation.

I agree but he still got screwed on that call.

 

[Alexander]

A good coach never would've been in that situation.

I am sure you will get jumped by those who believe that you are implying he is "not a good coach".

Just to put his career in perspective, of the top 30 coaches all-time, he's one of only six to never win a title. To do that, you have to win a playoff game. He is the only one to have no playoff wins.

Coaches like George Allen, Andy Reid and Bud Grant at least made it to Super Bowls. Right now, Phillips falls in line with the Marty Schottenheimers and Mike Shermans.

The great coaches are measured by their consistency. Unfortunately, Phillips has one consistent pattern. Until he breaks it, all the excuses in the world can be made to explain away the issue.

 

[Apollo Creed]

I agree but he still got screwed on that call.

Most definitely.

Really tough call for the refs too. They had to get out lazers and computers to get to that bottom of it the next day.

Kudos to the Titans, that play probably never worked in practice and they executed it perfectly.

This was also the infamous Rob Johnson over Flutie game.

 

[Doomsday101]

No doubt for Wade to move up into the upper echelon of coaching he will need to get his teams into championships. I think he has a good opportunity here in Dallas they will play the games and we will see. I'm not going to make excuses for Wade I also do not see the need in attacking him.

 

[Hostile]

I am sure you will get jumped by those who believe that you are implying he is "not a good coach".

Just to put his career in perspective, of the top 30 coaches all-time, he's one of only six to never win a title. To do that, you have to win a playoff game. He is the only one to have no playoff wins.

Coaches like George Allen, Andy Reid and Bud Grant at least made it to Super Bowls. Right now, Phillips falls in line with the Marty Schottenheimers and Mike Shermans.

The great coaches are measured by their consistency. Unfortunately, Phillips has one consistent pattern. Until he breaks it, all the excuses in the world can be made to explain away the issue.

A better comparison is Jim Mora Sr.

 

[Alexander]

A better comparison is Jim Mora Sr.

He actually has a better regular season winning percentage. But I was only comparing Phillips to the other 29 head coaches ahead of him in all-time winning percentage.

But yes Mora Sr. is a good comparison given his 0-6 record in the playoffs.

 

[ArmyCowboy]

The law of averages says he bound to win a playoff game this year...right?

Right?

 

[Chocolate Lab]

So was there a fundamental flaw in Mora that kept him from winning a playoff game?

 

[Doomsday101]

So was there a fundamental flaw in Mora that kept him from winning a playoff game?

Playoffs? Playoffs?

http://classic.plum.com/youtube-jim-mora-playoffs-long-version/i/1344802

:laugh2:

 

[Alexander]

So was there a fundamental flaw in Mora that kept him from winning a playoff game?

Per his wikipedia entry (I know, not the most accurate), it says this:

Despite his solid regular season record (125–106), the biggest criticism of Mora has been his NFL teams' inability to win any playoff games in six appearances. His critics, both among regular fans and media reporters, often blamed his lack of success in the postseason to his conservative approach. Outwardly, Mora did not appear to take the criticisms seriously, as evidenced in another famous Mora quote from a press conference during his years in New Orleans.

“You don't know when it's good or bad. You really don't know, because you don't know what we're trying to do, you guys don't look at the films. You don't know what happened. You really don't know. You think you know, but you don't know. And you never will.

”
Nevertheless, critics continued to argue that this conservative approach prevented his teams from closing out big games against good teams, not unlike the Marty Ball approach Marty Schottenheimer used during his coaching career. The most frequent complaint was that his teams' offenses would no longer be aggressive late in these football games. They accused him of trying the run out the clock and not make mistakes, and over-relying on his defense to hold the lead (instead of trying to build on the lead and score more points). More often than not, critics argued that this aspect of his conservative strategy backfired on him. For example, they point to the fact that his teams had second-half leads in four of his six playoff games, but won none of them. In three of those games, Mora's teams also had leads in the fourth quarter.

In an NFL Network program naming Jim Mora the #10 "Coach Who Never Won a Championship," former Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Brian Baldinger said of the Saints' playoff loss to the Eagles in 1992, "We beat 'em. But that's only because they called the dogs off. Whatever reason, they called the dogs off in the second half. I don't know what Jim Mora was thinking about that day." In that game, the Saints led 17-7 at halftime and 20-10 after the 3rd quarter. However, the Eagles scored 26 unanswered points in the 4th quarter and won the game 36-20.

I will tell you he was criticized for one of the very things Phillips has been and that is his loyalty to his coordinators. Many people wanted him to "save his job" and fire DC Vic Fangio in Indianapolis before he left.

Phillips did allow Jones to fire Brian Stewart though, so perhaps that is the tonic.

 

[Zaxor]

So was there a fundamental flaw in Mora that kept him from winning a playoff game?

NO.FUN.JUST.MENTAL

 

[Mash]

Who cares about playoff wins if they dont add up to a Super Bowl.

Really.....winning 3 or 4 playoff games in a decade isnt success.......

Wade is a good coach....is cosidered a great DC.....and will be considered a very good HC if he wins a SB.

JMHO