LaTunaNostra said:
Would you mind recapping that one, please?
http://lb.dallascowboys.com/news.cfm?editorialAuthor=3&id=4F7B1AEA-A868-4286-3426B90E864C93FA
Pad All That Knee-Jerking
Brad Sham -
Email
DallasCowboys.com Columnist
December 21, 2005 4:40 PM
http://campaign.dallascowboys.com/news_sp.cfm
IRVING, Texas - You have the easiest job in pro football.
You. Yes, I'm talking to you, whether you're sitting at your desk or stretched out wireless on the couch or reading the printout on the throne. You've got the easiest job in the game you love.
You watch, you see, you react. Maybe this is the philosophy you apply to ownership of your fantasy team. Last week you had Chad Johnson on your roster. That worked out. You had Terry Glenn, that didn't work, so you trade him or drop him. You don't have to worry about salary caps or complicated schemes or if the quarterback got sacked because there was no one open or because there was no blocking or because he read the defense wrong. You just make a move.
Believe me, Jerry Jones and Bill Parcells would love to have those rules for their jobs.
But they don't want your job, they want theirs, and that's the distinction.
You can do your job, the job of being a fan, based on whim or logic or the color of the upholstery.
If the people holding the real-life jobs act that way, and sometimes they do, disaster almost always ensues. What makes it sticky is acting on a whim usually happens
because of a disaster.
Take the Cowboys' game last Sunday in Washington. Please.
On probably four or five separate occasions, had it been feasible, Parcells would clearly have been pleased to hie his punter Mat McBriar and his kicker Billy Cundiff up to the top of FedExField and drop-kick them into the Potomac. But then he'd have had no punter or kicker for the rest of the game. It might have made him feel better but it wouldn't have been smart.
And you
know both Jones and Parcells would have hired someone out of the stands to play left tackle if they'd thought it would have helped. But they didn't, and the point is, it wouldn't have helped.
Some reporters, and probably hundreds of fans, wondered if Torrin Tucker was having such a wretched day at tackle, why not bring in Marc Colombo, the only other tackle dressed for the game. Parcells gave the answer at his Monday media briefing: "I've been watching Colombo practice. Just putting someone in doesn't mean it will make things better."
That's what you ought to remember before you spend any more valuable holiday shopping time dialing your favorite call-in show demanding the job of the head coach.
And hopefully, the head coach and the owner/general manager will remember that, too.
One of our local radio stations celebrates what they like to call Overreaction Monday. That's fine for them and fine for you. Sometimes it's fun. It never makes sense.
If you wish to read this as a defense of Bill Parcells and his staff, fine. That's not the intent, but if that's the name you must give the argument, go ahead. Let's stipulate that the Cowboys were not a well-coached team Sunday in Maryland. How do we know? Because they failed to respond to the moment.
We know because the players have told us that they were coached on the things Washington would do in the game. So isn't it on the players?
You bet it is. And it's on the coaches, too. The Washingtons were ready to play that game. The Cowboys weren't, whether it's because the schemes were inferior or the motivation was lacking or the players were too thick to absorb the importance of the moment or not talented enough or too injured. Doesn't matter. When you have one like that, the doctors got out doctored and the equipment staff got out-equipped and yeah, Babe Laufenberg and I probably got out-announced.
But that's not when you decide to make changes. A week ago, boys and girls, the Cowboys were gritty, resilient and motivated. They outlasted the Chiefs and were a simple win in Washington from mapping a Super Bowl route.
They didn't get stupid in a week.
They played as poorly as you can want a decent team to play. But Parcells, who is a Hall of Fame coach whether you like it or not, did not grow idiot's wings overnight. I doubt strenuously that that game has made Jerry Jones re-think wanting Parcells to fulfill the final year of his contract in 2006. And it better not.
One also hopes one game doesn't make Parcells decide it's time to go watch the ponies full time. Because the game has not passed him by, regardless what his critics think.
Again, he's not infallible. Bill Parcells has had a miserable December at work. It started with a disappointing loss in New Jersey and hit embarrassing new lows this past Sunday. He did a poor head coaching job in Washington.
And he may be exactly right about what happened. What we are seeing is the immaturity of young players who are still learning pro football. They have enough talent to have helped get this team to 7-3. Combine accumulated injuries with some players just not being as good as their opponents with immaturity, and yes, throw in a coaching inability to overcome all that, and you'll get that noncompetitive looking mess we all just saw. But there are reasons these things happen. Coaches don't get dumb overnight. This week, and next year, they have to do things differently in order to do them better. But if you decide on the basis of one game, or the last two road games, that you know what the problem is, then you should be working at Valley Ranch. And if Christmas Eve in Charlotte looks like last week in Maryland, your resume will probably be accepted
