rcaldw said:
Ok, who is man or woman enough to admit you were wrong? We have all read the chest beating on this board for a long time. If anyone is RIGHT about anything they are more than quick to point it out. Can you be just as forthright about being wrong?
Ok, I'll start.
1. I was wrong to hope in Gary Hogeboom in 1984. Thought it was the right move.
2. I was wrong to think that Chan Gailey was going to bring innovation to the offense. I know some still think of him as an innovater, but from my point of view that turned into a predictable offense, and he had this uncanny ability to kill a drive with some finesse play when we were moving the ball conventionally.
How about you?
rcaldw, I disagree with you somewhat on #2.
I think Chan was indeed an innovator, and you have to remember the circumstances. The '97 team under Switzer and the play calling of Zampese had become so predictable that I remember Phillipi Sparks (when he was still w/ the Giants) talking about how they knew what we were running before we ran it, because the offense had basically remained the same for years. Then flash forward to the post-game comments after the '98 opener (Gailey's first game), when Aeneas Williams said that we ran quite a few things they never would have expected. It just wasn't the element of surprise that naturally comes w/ changing offensive schemes either, it was that Gailey was running certain formations and plays that just weren't very common in the NFL in the late 90s, i.e. the 5 wides, WRs in the backfield, direct snaps to the running backs,the option play, etc. Granted, some of those have actually become almost commonplace in the last 4-5 seasons, but weren't yet at that point.
I don't know of too many, be it media members or fans, that were unhappy with Gailey's offense at all through Thanksgiving '98. They were in a bit of a slump that December, but you also have to remember that we still had some holes to patch up that year (example, Billy Davis was still starting at WR).
'99 was the season that I think permanently skewed the perception of Chan's contributions in Dallas. We were doomed from the July afternoon that James McKnight went down w/ a knee injury. That began to throw everything out of whack, and then Irvin, Mills, and McGarrity all going down in rapid succession once October hit totally forced Gailey to change his playcalling. This is where we could have really used Patrick Jeffers after the promise he'd shown the season before, but he had unfortunately been jettisoned. Then of course, it seemed like Aikman went over Gailey's head at the end of the season and he got the "hire an offensive coordinator or be fired" ultimatum from Jerry.
Irrespective of all that, the fact remains that Emmitt had his last 2 1300+ yard seasons under Gailey, and Aikman, in spite of the broken collarbone he suffered early in the '98 season, had two of his highest ever passing days in Gailey's offense.
