Werder: Dallas Cowboys have lowered the bar

[CCBoy]

I typically have little use for Ed Werder and the sensationalistic reporting that the machine which is ESPN encourages. But I think he's on point with several issues he mentions.



I see all too often people say that it doesn't matter who starts. I completely agree with what Werder is getting at here, players should be rewarded for performance and criticized/demoted/punished for the lack thereof.



I don't know if this point was brought up by someone else, but it occurred to me.

Does anyone think that Colombo had a great game?

A game worthy of spiking a football?

I don't.

To me, Colombo had a game to forget and deserved nothing more that to keep a low profile and try to improve for the next game.

Instead, he somehow thinks he deserves to celebrate.

Ever wonder why General Custer got slaughtered at the Battle of Little Bighorn? Think those Indians were thinking in terms of respecting authority figures and harsh treatments? You really buying into Larry Allen kissing up to Bill Parcells when he was calling him lazy, fat, and pathetic on the field? Think he ever had terms of endearment for Bill?

The point here, is pride. That isn't a four letter word, now.

Believe it or not, Leonard Davis is a dedicated and conscientious player. You think that improvement in him is gained through insult and intimidation? I sure don't. Even with a player such as Davis, he has limitations. Sometimes it takes time and adjustments to function in all circumstances. The team found out that a very quick and simultaneous strong player can create problems for him. There isn't much adjustment time within a single half, to identify this game specific tendency. But given a halftime and adjustments, the Cowboys did just that with the return of Davis in the second half. Doug Free was finally set free on the left side, and assistance moved to the right side where Colombo and Davis reside.

With professionals and adults, one doesn't start out to crush respect and pride. He points where direction is movnig, and enables that player through adjustments that provide support or better base conditions from which to operate. That is the function of coaching leadership at the professional levels. Not brow beating and throwing a player under the bus in front of the press.

 

[Idgit]

Good stuff here. I tend to view penalties attached to large field changes. When real estate changes in chunks of forty to seventy yards, my eye brows go into action. As when the Titans scored on their opening drive and their very last drive for a score, following a pair of additional penalties as well. Those are significant. Other penalties, unless the last drives in a game, can somehow be overcome.

No doubt. Or they can be like turnovers, when you stop a team and then give them a fresh set of downs by doing something stupid.

I'd really like to see that data on penalties that IR and others mention that says they have little statistical correlation to winning or losing. I know that's what the data says. Wade's mentioned it in his boring pressers, too. And I can see it being absolutely true in the aggregate. But I have a hard time believing there aren't classes of penalties that will get you beat. As I said above, some penalties are like turnovers, and turnovers correlate strongly to wins and losses. How is that effect offset when it comes to penalties in general? It must be, or the stats guys wouldn't say it does. But it doesn't make much sense.

 

[wileedog]

I firmly believe we pull together for a convincing victory over the Vikings.

Me too.

Then get blasted by the Giants.

 

[wileedog]

I thought it was a good article... but...

I hate when the media complains about players not talking them and make it seem like they are too chicken to talk.... maybe they just don't like talking to you schmucks

You're point would have more validity if just about every single player on the team wasn't out there yukking it up with those schmucks after a win or when the season is going well.

 

[Tricericon]

"Dallas became the first No. 1 seed under the current playoff format to fall in the first round."

This is a massive error of fact.

Aside from that, he's making a lot of assertions and not backing them up. Good teams sometimes just have a bad month; there's really no need to go through all this hoopla about Phillips being "soft" to explain it.

Sometimes 1-3 is just 1-3.

 

[Idgit]

Me too.

Then get blasted by the Giants.

*This* is what I'm worried might happen, too. It had better not.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

But the stopped clock being right twice a day doesn't make it an accurate timepiece.

Your'e kidding right? The stopped clock?

This organization has 1 playoff win in almost 15 years and the media is the broken clock? The problems are almost too many to mention.

Come on I love the Cowboys as much as anyone but it's not the media's fault that we have become the Raiders of the NFC with stupid play, penalties and no leadership from the top.

 

[Concord]

Now that was a damn fine article and on the money.

Phillips is pathetic.

It's ludicrous to think he is the right man to be the Head Coach of the Cowboys.

It's a nightmare you can't wake up from.

 

[Mash]

I like Phillips.....

Players have to play better and stop making stupid mistakes.....these a grown men....they are professionals.....

If Wade was 4-0....he still wouldnt get any credit....it would be....wait till the playoffs.....he cant win there...

I still believe....and refuse to throw someone under the bus because of a mediots opinion........those mediots pump you up hoping you fail.......

Call me a homer....whatever.....but my blood pressure is lower and Im not involved in all the drama I see posted here

Victory against Vikes and things will calm down.....Lose and were probably looking at a new coach next year......

but...till were officially out of playoff race......I still believe...

 

[baj1dallas]

Meanwhile, you can look directly at a stat like turnover ratio and see exactly why the team is losing games it shouldn't be losing. For the thousandth time, fixing those problems do a world more good than fixing the teams 'collective attitude towards losing games as it's influenced by the teams coaches'.

The problem is that there's no evidence that a miserable coach who belittles players and criticizes his team through the media is going to do better on things like turnovers or penalties. If so, Parcells would have won here and Coughlin would have won sooner in NY. And Payton would have failed in NO since he doesn't bash his players in the media.

 

[baj1dallas]

People liked playing for Wayne Fonts which is who Wade reminds me off

And how many coaches have had even HALF the success in Detroit that Fontes had? Their brilliant decision to hire a Parcells-like coach ended in the early retirement of one of the greatest players of all time.

 

[BehindEnemyLinez]

Here's a rebuttal of Werthless' article...

When the Cowboys recovered from a slow start to win the NFC East and their first playoff game since 1996 last season, there were people who gave Wade Phillips some of the credit for the achievements. His calm demeanor helped the team stay the course and avoid crisis in the always demanding world of the Cowboys.
Those days seem so long ago that they might as well be in black and white. The Cowboys are reeling and, naturally, Phillips is now too soft and too lax to get his team in line. Plenty of people are kicking these ideas around, but no one is doing it with quite the glee that Ed Werder of ESPN showed in a column published on Thursday.

The complete article is here...
http://www.nbcdfw.com/blogs/blue-st...ft-Train-Starts-Rolling-Again--105028304.html

Interesting to see differing views of Dallas' "situation"...

 

[InmanRoshi]

Parcells never won a damn thing in Dallas. He couldn't draft an offensive lineman to save his life. His tactics however different, actually won less than Philips has.

To compare the team Parcells inherited with the team Wade inherited as equivalent takes an mindboggling lack of brainpower.

 

[wileedog]

To compare the team Parcells inherited with the team Wade inherited as equivalent takes an mindboggling lack of brainpower.

And yet it happens almost daily.

Heck even Newman has started doing it, and he was on that God awful 2006 team Parcells took to the playoffs.

 

[InmanRoshi]

And Payton would have failed in NO since he doesn't bash his players in the media.

You obviously know absolutely nothing about Sean Payton. Ask Donte Stallworth or Jonathon Sullivan.

 

[InmanRoshi]

And yet it happens almost daily.

Heck even Newman has started doing it, and he was on that God awful 2006 team Parcells took to the playoffs.

Sure, going 10-6 with Quincy Carter, Troy Hambrick and Eb Ekuban and going 1-3 with Tony Romo, Felix Jones and DeMarcus Ware ... it's all the same.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Your'e kidding right? The stopped clock?

This organization has 1 playoff win in almost 15 years and the media is the broken clock? The problems are almost too many to mention.

Come on I love the Cowboys as much as anyone but it's not the media's fault that we have become the Raiders of the NFC with stupid play, penalties and no leadership from the top.

Where did I say the media caused stupid play and penalties? The media doesn't cause anything to happen on the field.

What I was talking about was Werder, JFE, and other local "experts" claiming that we would immediately go in the toilet the second Billl quit. Four years later, they get to claim they were right. But that doesn't mean they were right the previous three years.

And you have to admit that calling us the Raiders of the NFC is a ridiculous exaggeration. Exaggeration may not even be the right word, it's so far off.

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

Werder be right.
The standard has been lowered. This year it went from Super Bowl to making the playoffs to making a good showing the rest of the season.
Why bench Davis and defend Columbo?
Why start Barber when Felix deserves it?
Of course players defend Wade. They love a laid-back coach!

 

[Don Corleone]

And you have to admit that calling us the Raiders of the NFC is a ridiculous exaggeration. Exaggeration may not even be the right word, it's so far off.

IMO, we are the Chargers of the NFC. Perenially talented, but also perenially underachieving.

 

[Kangaroo]

And how many coaches have had even HALF the success in Detroit that Fontes had? Their brilliant decision to hire a Parcells-like coach ended in the early retirement of one of the greatest players of all time.

You mean the player that had -13 rushing with Fonts in the playoffs. Yea I think that team came up small more than once Wade is a Fonts type coach and Barry got his panties in a wad and went home crying.