Hostile
The Duke
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No matter how nice it would be to simply throw a switch and turn on a Champion, it doesn't happen for a reason. We've already seen threads that have ideas guaranteed to work to make a difference. Stuff like a particular city for Training Camp, getting rid of a particular player or coach. We're all guilty of that kind of thinking. Every living, breathing, pooping one of us. For example as to myself, getting rid of Dave Campo was my biggest agenda.
The fact of the matter is though that Dave Campo, nor anyone else on the staff or the team are the get rid of piece that makes this team suddenly a winner. Dave Campo does have 3 Super Bowl rings and a college Championship ring to boot. Granted they all came courtesy of Jimmy Johnson, but it proves his presence is not the albatross.
Getting rid of Terence Newman or Anthony Spencer or Phil Costa or insert name here ______________ is not the magical solution to victory. Sometimes you have to win in spite of who is on your roster. Terence Newman probably will be gone this off season, but it is about dollars, not about his ability as a player. Football is still a business after all and cap room matters. If he were only a million against the cap in 2012, he would be back and probably penciled in as the starter until someone took it away.
That is just a fact of football that is true of all teams. All teams talk of continuity to a degree. All teams make roster moves based upon money over ability. All teams have to evaluate the direction they want to move forward in.
We as fans have gotten pretty good at figuring out most roster moves teams will make. We see Newman in his Quincy Carter gray jogging suit already in our heads. We saw it with Colombo last year. We saw it with Campo, but let's be honest for a minute. We've seen it with Campo for how many years now before it actually happened?
Every player and coach on the roster will eventually leave. Claiming to be right after years of predicting it is rather foolish. "I told you Terence Newman was going to be cut. You should have listened to me." Yeah, but how many years have you been saying it to finally be right? I've been saying Campo has to go since the day he arrived. He's gone. How right was I? Not very much in light of how long he stayed.
In the middle of the 2011 season the New York Giants lost 4 games in a row and 5 out of 6. In the 2010 season the Green Bay Packers lost 3 out of 4 towards the end of the season. Yet both of these teams hoisted trophies in those seasons and the Packers, this year's dominant team, fizzled when it mattered.
Why? Why do we see a 2010 Patriots team go 14-2, then 1 and done? How does a 2009 Chargers team got 13-3 and then 1 and done? How does a 2007 Cowboys team do the same? It happens almost every year, we shouldn't be surprised by it any more. It happens because football is a game of inches and seconds.
Take the last play of the Super Bowl 2 days ago. If Rob Gronkowski were 1 foot closer or the ball popped up a foot higher we might have had a Hail Mary miracle finish to the Super Bowl. Ask the 1999 Titans if you can come up 1 yard short. Ask the 1999 Bills team that lost to them in the playoffs if that lateral was legal or illegal by how many inches.
So many things can derail a team that has Championship aspirations. How does an Aaron Rodgers and his Packers Offense dominate the season and then only manage 20 points in the most important game of the season? It happens because there are no guarantees in football. There are no magical solutions. There are no right or wrong ways that never fail. You cannot just flip a switch and win.
Mike Brown is one of the worst General Managers in the NFL by most accounts. Yet his Bengals have made it to 2 Super Bowls, only to lose to Joe Montana. Papa Bear George Halas is perhaps the greatest football man who ever lived, yet it is his daughter, Viriginia Halas McCaskey who has seen 2 teams reach the Super Bowl, and 1 team win it. Joe Montana, the greatest QB who ever lived by many people's standards of 4 Super Bowls didn't have the same magic with the Chiefs. Jimmy Johnson didn't have it with the Dolphins.
What I'm saying is it is not about individuals. Adding Victor Cruz didn't hand Eli Manning another ring. If you paid attention to Chris Collinsworth on Sunday he did an absolutely perfect job of explaining how the Patriots took Cruz out of the game plan for the most part and said the Giants would have to beat them another way. If Wes Welker had made that catch and given Tom a 1st down perhaps the plan would have worked just as the Hail Mary could have. If Bellichick had instructed his Defense to let them score sooner, perhaps Tom Brady would have had time to move them down the field for a FG. Perhaps if they had tired that Bradshaw could have fell at the 1 instead of his momentum carrying him into the end zone.
I know many people do not like what Garrett is saying about every play matters, games come down to the final minutes and a handful of plays, and injuries nor other pitfalls can be used as excuses not to do your job. But I am telling you that in the NFL where a powerhouse football team is only a reputation because the other team has professional athletes too, he is exactly right.
More than anything else we could do to improve this team this year in Free Agency and the Draft, the thing that will improve them the most is the attention to detail they are pushing, preaching, and selling at Valley Ranch. As much as some of you seem to hate to hear it, that is what makes a long term difference in success or failure because it leads to focus, hunger, and eventually to the results we demand, craze, and seem to elude us.
It isn't about Jerry making a deal with God for one more Super Bowl in 1995 and so now we are doomed. John Mara didn't make a deal with the Devil. Robert Kraft didn't make a similar deal with God in 2004 and now they can't win the big game. It isn't about the 50 year patch in year 51 that drove me so crazy. It isn't about Tony Romo.
Winning is entirely about 53 guys and their coaches coming together at the right moment, playing unselfish football, smart football, and in many cases lucky football, and believing in themselves or wanting to prove the world wrong.
There is not a doubt in my mind that the 2007 and 2011 Patriots were better football teams than the Giants that beat them those years. But little things happened here and there to give the Giants trophies that the Patriots felt was their birthright. It's actually an old story Cowboys fans should know by heart. All 3 of our Super Bowl losses there are plays within the game that could change the outcome, just as in our last Super Bowl if Neil O'Donnell hadn't been looking for Larry Brown we might have lost that one.
Inches and seconds. Attention to details. These things lead to opportunity and then add a little luck to the mix and you can have a Championship run. It isn't about all the talent in the world. We had that in 1993 and still lost 4 games that season. But not when it counted most and it was entirely because of that team's attention to details and focus.
Make no mistake about it, parts of the team need to be fixed. For my money Campo did have to go. But Campo very easily could have gone to Green Bay and in 2012 won it all with them. No one coach or player sinks an entire team. No one player makes an entire team.
The 2012 Dallas Cowboys are being built the right way. It started in 2010 when Jason Garret came on board and started pushing details. 2011 was not a disaster, it was a lesson. 2012 we get to see what they have learned.
Now, I know someone is probably going to say this was too long and they didn't read it. It happens all the time. Just so you know, those are the people whose football opinions are driven by short attention spans only. Not worth your time to listen to. Just my opinion.
The fact of the matter is though that Dave Campo, nor anyone else on the staff or the team are the get rid of piece that makes this team suddenly a winner. Dave Campo does have 3 Super Bowl rings and a college Championship ring to boot. Granted they all came courtesy of Jimmy Johnson, but it proves his presence is not the albatross.
Getting rid of Terence Newman or Anthony Spencer or Phil Costa or insert name here ______________ is not the magical solution to victory. Sometimes you have to win in spite of who is on your roster. Terence Newman probably will be gone this off season, but it is about dollars, not about his ability as a player. Football is still a business after all and cap room matters. If he were only a million against the cap in 2012, he would be back and probably penciled in as the starter until someone took it away.
That is just a fact of football that is true of all teams. All teams talk of continuity to a degree. All teams make roster moves based upon money over ability. All teams have to evaluate the direction they want to move forward in.
We as fans have gotten pretty good at figuring out most roster moves teams will make. We see Newman in his Quincy Carter gray jogging suit already in our heads. We saw it with Colombo last year. We saw it with Campo, but let's be honest for a minute. We've seen it with Campo for how many years now before it actually happened?
Every player and coach on the roster will eventually leave. Claiming to be right after years of predicting it is rather foolish. "I told you Terence Newman was going to be cut. You should have listened to me." Yeah, but how many years have you been saying it to finally be right? I've been saying Campo has to go since the day he arrived. He's gone. How right was I? Not very much in light of how long he stayed.
In the middle of the 2011 season the New York Giants lost 4 games in a row and 5 out of 6. In the 2010 season the Green Bay Packers lost 3 out of 4 towards the end of the season. Yet both of these teams hoisted trophies in those seasons and the Packers, this year's dominant team, fizzled when it mattered.
Why? Why do we see a 2010 Patriots team go 14-2, then 1 and done? How does a 2009 Chargers team got 13-3 and then 1 and done? How does a 2007 Cowboys team do the same? It happens almost every year, we shouldn't be surprised by it any more. It happens because football is a game of inches and seconds.
Take the last play of the Super Bowl 2 days ago. If Rob Gronkowski were 1 foot closer or the ball popped up a foot higher we might have had a Hail Mary miracle finish to the Super Bowl. Ask the 1999 Titans if you can come up 1 yard short. Ask the 1999 Bills team that lost to them in the playoffs if that lateral was legal or illegal by how many inches.
So many things can derail a team that has Championship aspirations. How does an Aaron Rodgers and his Packers Offense dominate the season and then only manage 20 points in the most important game of the season? It happens because there are no guarantees in football. There are no magical solutions. There are no right or wrong ways that never fail. You cannot just flip a switch and win.
Mike Brown is one of the worst General Managers in the NFL by most accounts. Yet his Bengals have made it to 2 Super Bowls, only to lose to Joe Montana. Papa Bear George Halas is perhaps the greatest football man who ever lived, yet it is his daughter, Viriginia Halas McCaskey who has seen 2 teams reach the Super Bowl, and 1 team win it. Joe Montana, the greatest QB who ever lived by many people's standards of 4 Super Bowls didn't have the same magic with the Chiefs. Jimmy Johnson didn't have it with the Dolphins.
What I'm saying is it is not about individuals. Adding Victor Cruz didn't hand Eli Manning another ring. If you paid attention to Chris Collinsworth on Sunday he did an absolutely perfect job of explaining how the Patriots took Cruz out of the game plan for the most part and said the Giants would have to beat them another way. If Wes Welker had made that catch and given Tom a 1st down perhaps the plan would have worked just as the Hail Mary could have. If Bellichick had instructed his Defense to let them score sooner, perhaps Tom Brady would have had time to move them down the field for a FG. Perhaps if they had tired that Bradshaw could have fell at the 1 instead of his momentum carrying him into the end zone.
I know many people do not like what Garrett is saying about every play matters, games come down to the final minutes and a handful of plays, and injuries nor other pitfalls can be used as excuses not to do your job. But I am telling you that in the NFL where a powerhouse football team is only a reputation because the other team has professional athletes too, he is exactly right.
More than anything else we could do to improve this team this year in Free Agency and the Draft, the thing that will improve them the most is the attention to detail they are pushing, preaching, and selling at Valley Ranch. As much as some of you seem to hate to hear it, that is what makes a long term difference in success or failure because it leads to focus, hunger, and eventually to the results we demand, craze, and seem to elude us.
It isn't about Jerry making a deal with God for one more Super Bowl in 1995 and so now we are doomed. John Mara didn't make a deal with the Devil. Robert Kraft didn't make a similar deal with God in 2004 and now they can't win the big game. It isn't about the 50 year patch in year 51 that drove me so crazy. It isn't about Tony Romo.
Winning is entirely about 53 guys and their coaches coming together at the right moment, playing unselfish football, smart football, and in many cases lucky football, and believing in themselves or wanting to prove the world wrong.
There is not a doubt in my mind that the 2007 and 2011 Patriots were better football teams than the Giants that beat them those years. But little things happened here and there to give the Giants trophies that the Patriots felt was their birthright. It's actually an old story Cowboys fans should know by heart. All 3 of our Super Bowl losses there are plays within the game that could change the outcome, just as in our last Super Bowl if Neil O'Donnell hadn't been looking for Larry Brown we might have lost that one.
Inches and seconds. Attention to details. These things lead to opportunity and then add a little luck to the mix and you can have a Championship run. It isn't about all the talent in the world. We had that in 1993 and still lost 4 games that season. But not when it counted most and it was entirely because of that team's attention to details and focus.
Make no mistake about it, parts of the team need to be fixed. For my money Campo did have to go. But Campo very easily could have gone to Green Bay and in 2012 won it all with them. No one coach or player sinks an entire team. No one player makes an entire team.
The 2012 Dallas Cowboys are being built the right way. It started in 2010 when Jason Garret came on board and started pushing details. 2011 was not a disaster, it was a lesson. 2012 we get to see what they have learned.
Now, I know someone is probably going to say this was too long and they didn't read it. It happens all the time. Just so you know, those are the people whose football opinions are driven by short attention spans only. Not worth your time to listen to. Just my opinion.
