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Cowboys getting type of wins that recently eluded the franchise
By Albert Breer NFL Network
NFL Network Reporter
WASHINGTON -- The Cowboys have been known as plenty of things since Bill Parcells left the franchise in January of 2007.
Scrappy isn't one of them. Neither is tough or relentless.
Yet, on an uneven afternoon that was far from the rollicking rout of the week before, this Dallas group seemed to be all of those things, in scratching out a 27-24 overtime win against the Redskins at FedEx Field. It was far from perfect, and had Graham Gano not missed a 52-yard field goal in the extra frame, the narrative would be a much different one.
But sometimes you make your own breaks. And on Washington's final offensive series, that's just what Dallas did. The defense stood up after the unit gave a performance that offered Rob Ryan plenty to cuss about on the team's short week, with Barry Church burying Roy Helu for a 2-yard loss and Victor Butler sacking Rex Grossman in a three-play span, ensuring Gano wouldn't get a better look than the one he did.
"If you look at us last year, we found ways to lose games," said Sean Lee, the second-year linebacker who Ryan said will be "a damn superstar" last week. "We came up here the first game of the year (in 2010), fumbled the ball, found a way to lose it. Today, we found a way to win. That's something we've worked on. Coach (Jason) Garrett's preached it."
Maybe more significant was what Lee told me as we walked toward the bus, "As a defense, we shouldn't put them in a position to have a chance to win that game, taking it to overtime. So there's things we can get better on. But coming to Washington, getting a win, no matter how it happens, you gotta love it."
Here's what I know about the Cowboys under Wade Phillips, a team I covered as a beat writer for the Dallas Morning News in 2007 and 2008: They were talented as anyone, but very defensive about the intense coverage they got. If they won a game, it seemed like any criticism of their play was couched as "negativity."
That's why what Lee said struck me. It's been said that Parcells was less comfortable after wins than he was after losses, because he fretted that a victorious team wouldn't be as motivated to identify and correct flaws, whereas a team coming off a loss would have the impetus to push harder. The idea is it's not just about getting better, it's about ascending over the course of the season. That appears to be just what the current Cowboys are doing.
"During the season, the team that gets better wins," 10th-year Cowboy Bradie James told me. "Here we are, in the middle of November, but we still got December, we still got a lot more games to play. This is a game where you can catapult yourself -- winning this hard one, the ugly one, it shows you can win it when you need to win it."
That happened at the end, with plays made by no-names like Church and Butler to mitigate the defensive damage. Then, as Lee put it, "they missed a field goal, and our offense did what they do," referencing a drive keyed by Tony Romo -- playing in his second game pain-free, without a vest or shot, since breaking his ribs in Week 2 -- finding Dez Bryant for 26 yards on third-and-15 to set up Dan Bailey's game-winner.
You can give Lee a pass on that one, too. He's only been around two years, so he might've missed that this hasn't always been what the Cowboys do, or realize that too often the opposite has been true. For those who've spent years at Valley Ranch? They saw a step forward.
"I'm proud of Tony, and I'm really proud of Jason [Garrett]," owner Jerry Jones told me. "This was a hard, tough ballgame. I'm glad that Jason's got this kind of game in his repertoire as a head coach, and for sure Tony. Invariably, if you have any chance to have success in the postseason, you've got to have had wins like this. Otherwise, when adversity hits you in the postseason, you're not ready for it. So from that standpoint, it was good preparation for what you have coming."
To say big playoff games are what the Cowboys have coming might be jumping the gun. But having taken care of business in November, and with two showdowns with the Giants ahead, Dallas has given itself the chance to capitalize on a team that's progressing, rather than regressing, as the year has worn on.
By Albert Breer NFL Network
NFL Network Reporter
WASHINGTON -- The Cowboys have been known as plenty of things since Bill Parcells left the franchise in January of 2007.
Scrappy isn't one of them. Neither is tough or relentless.
Yet, on an uneven afternoon that was far from the rollicking rout of the week before, this Dallas group seemed to be all of those things, in scratching out a 27-24 overtime win against the Redskins at FedEx Field. It was far from perfect, and had Graham Gano not missed a 52-yard field goal in the extra frame, the narrative would be a much different one.
But sometimes you make your own breaks. And on Washington's final offensive series, that's just what Dallas did. The defense stood up after the unit gave a performance that offered Rob Ryan plenty to cuss about on the team's short week, with Barry Church burying Roy Helu for a 2-yard loss and Victor Butler sacking Rex Grossman in a three-play span, ensuring Gano wouldn't get a better look than the one he did.
"If you look at us last year, we found ways to lose games," said Sean Lee, the second-year linebacker who Ryan said will be "a damn superstar" last week. "We came up here the first game of the year (in 2010), fumbled the ball, found a way to lose it. Today, we found a way to win. That's something we've worked on. Coach (Jason) Garrett's preached it."
Maybe more significant was what Lee told me as we walked toward the bus, "As a defense, we shouldn't put them in a position to have a chance to win that game, taking it to overtime. So there's things we can get better on. But coming to Washington, getting a win, no matter how it happens, you gotta love it."
Here's what I know about the Cowboys under Wade Phillips, a team I covered as a beat writer for the Dallas Morning News in 2007 and 2008: They were talented as anyone, but very defensive about the intense coverage they got. If they won a game, it seemed like any criticism of their play was couched as "negativity."
That's why what Lee said struck me. It's been said that Parcells was less comfortable after wins than he was after losses, because he fretted that a victorious team wouldn't be as motivated to identify and correct flaws, whereas a team coming off a loss would have the impetus to push harder. The idea is it's not just about getting better, it's about ascending over the course of the season. That appears to be just what the current Cowboys are doing.
"During the season, the team that gets better wins," 10th-year Cowboy Bradie James told me. "Here we are, in the middle of November, but we still got December, we still got a lot more games to play. This is a game where you can catapult yourself -- winning this hard one, the ugly one, it shows you can win it when you need to win it."
That happened at the end, with plays made by no-names like Church and Butler to mitigate the defensive damage. Then, as Lee put it, "they missed a field goal, and our offense did what they do," referencing a drive keyed by Tony Romo -- playing in his second game pain-free, without a vest or shot, since breaking his ribs in Week 2 -- finding Dez Bryant for 26 yards on third-and-15 to set up Dan Bailey's game-winner.
You can give Lee a pass on that one, too. He's only been around two years, so he might've missed that this hasn't always been what the Cowboys do, or realize that too often the opposite has been true. For those who've spent years at Valley Ranch? They saw a step forward.
"I'm proud of Tony, and I'm really proud of Jason [Garrett]," owner Jerry Jones told me. "This was a hard, tough ballgame. I'm glad that Jason's got this kind of game in his repertoire as a head coach, and for sure Tony. Invariably, if you have any chance to have success in the postseason, you've got to have had wins like this. Otherwise, when adversity hits you in the postseason, you're not ready for it. So from that standpoint, it was good preparation for what you have coming."
To say big playoff games are what the Cowboys have coming might be jumping the gun. But having taken care of business in November, and with two showdowns with the Giants ahead, Dallas has given itself the chance to capitalize on a team that's progressing, rather than regressing, as the year has worn on.