The thing this team lacks the most is real leadership and a sense of TEAM. Too many individual stars and not enough team players IMO.
Collecting talent will NEVER win a championship unless they learn to play together. Owens may not be acting out lately but he is NOT a team leader. Yelling at Gurode isn't leading. Who yells at Owens when he drops a pass? Irvin was more than simply a rah-rah guy who got excited and yelled but he was a real leader as was Aikman. Plus you had guys on defense who were leaders as well.
I think back to the late 60s when we had a great team but just couldn't get over the hump. We didn't have guys who were willing to give everything to win and to pull together as a team, it was a collection of very talented players but they weren't a team. By 1971 though, after that crushing loss to the Colts in the SB that we should have won, nearly every player was ready to do whatever it took to win and they did. But it didn't come right away.
We were sitting at 4-3 at mid season after losing to a sorry Bears team, and suddenly it all came together! We won out and squashed the Dolphins in the SB (the same Miami team that went undefeated the following year). Most of the games we won were by big margins in that run.
I am hopeful that the same thing will happen now with this team after that loss to the Cards. These guys need to look each other in the eye and hold themselves accountable to each other.
This team has the tools but it lacks that sense of togetherness and leadership that the Giants had last year. They struggled early on and lost to us twice but they pulled it together at the end and won it all. We had more talent but they had a sense of TEAM and leadership and that's what it takes to win championships.
