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Dallas Cowboys finally get message of 0-2 start
Posted Sunday, Sep. 26, 2010
by Jennifer Floyd Engel
jenfloyd@star-telegram.com
HOUSTON -- There were a few tears, actual tears, in the Cowboys' locker room before Sunday's game. Hardly your typical NFL pregame speech reaction.
But the man standing in front of them is not typical.
Joe DeCamillis, the Cowboys' fiery special teams coach, was talking about those initial frightening moments after the Cowboys' practice bubble collapsed onto him and others. Players have varying memories of what he said exactly; the gist, however, was repeated verbatim.
"I had to decide: I either wanted to live or die, to fight or quit," Joe D told them. "I figured I had to do something about it."
It is a comparison only he could make, lying under the rubble of that facility and where the Cowboys were Sunday, lying in the rubble of an 0-2 start. But when Joe D talked about them having a choice to make in the ensuing hours in Houston, the message reverberated with every man in that room and stayed with them as they took the field.
What followed was a season-saving, expectation-raising, doubt-erasing 27-13 Cowboys victory against the Texans.
"I think that was the moment everybody looked at each other in the room and said 'Let's go out and do this bleeper bleeper,'" Cowboys offensive lineman Andre Gurode said of Joe D's speech.
And as impressive and necessary as the ensuing performance was and is, the single biggest thing to happen in Week 3 was Cowboys players took back their team.
They looked to be drowning after a pair of ugly, embarrassing and self-inflicted losses to open this season. The debate was under-coached, overhyped, mis-general-managed or just plain dead. And into this rudderless ugly, players stepped in and demanded meetings, delivered hard truths and then backed up every word for 60 minutes.
"I don't know if we took back control. It is more we took responsibility for what is going on," defensive lineman Marcus Spears said. "I think we found something."
The Cowboys finally found a coach. The players.
Give Coach Wade a contributing producer credit for allowing his players room to step up and lead and for his defensive coordinating efforts against what had been a highly rated Texans attack. Although watching that mess Gary Kubiak and his crew flopped onto the Reliant turf, how they ranked first in anything is dubious.
A few negative types probably will argue that the Texans beat themselves, and there is evidence to back that up. A week ago, in Arlington, that was the Cowboys, and this has to count as progress. And despite Coach Wade's talk of changes at Valley Ranch, nothing really all that big changed.
Except how players approached this game.
"We played like our lives were on the line," Cowboys safety Gerald Sensabaugh said. "When you play with passion, with the athletes we have, guys going 100 mph, we shouldn't lose. Like I said last week, on paper, we are a good team. But a good team playing without passion can be 0-2."
Credit for this turnaround goes to all 53, but a few in particular.
Credit goes to cornerback Terence Newman, who demanded a players-only meeting after that ugly Week 2 loss to Chicago. And I thought all meetings at Valley Ranch were players-only. He also admitted practice was just not good enough.
Credit goes to Sensabaugh, who was not afraid to dump a little truth on this team, accurately and publicly calling them out for "looking like a bunch of clowns".
Credit goes to linebacker Bradie James, among others, who spoke passionately at Monday's players-only meeting about how their lackadaisical approach had them in danger of wrecking every dream they had for this season before October.
"That was kind of like last week, we kind of just showed up and that was our fault," he said. "It is just so hard to win in this league. You can't just show up and expect to win. You got to do it. You got to show up and put that work in and put that preparation in and guys just really have to play for one another."
And credit goes to guys like Spears and Gurode, both of whom spoke in the locker room before Sunday's game. Rah-rah does not win games, but it has its place. They also talked about doing it for themselves, about the need for a killer mentality and the power of not giving up.
And then came Joe D.
He talked about his approach to life, and how life is like football, and there are almost always crossroads in both. There is a decision to make, to quit or to fight, to live or to die.
"When he said that I think it hit home for a lot of guys," Spears said, "because you can get into this game and you can get into practice and prep and take it for granted and think that because you are playing football you are entitled to something."
They heard him Sunday. The real test comes now: Does his message stay with the players beyond the immediate disaster, do they keep the control they took or do they fall back to same-old?
Because I like their chances with Coach Bradie, Coach Sensabaugh, Coach Spears, Coach Gurode, et al., in control. I like that team a lot.
Jennifer Floyd Engel, 817-390-7697
Posted Sunday, Sep. 26, 2010
by Jennifer Floyd Engel
jenfloyd@star-telegram.com
HOUSTON -- There were a few tears, actual tears, in the Cowboys' locker room before Sunday's game. Hardly your typical NFL pregame speech reaction.
But the man standing in front of them is not typical.
Joe DeCamillis, the Cowboys' fiery special teams coach, was talking about those initial frightening moments after the Cowboys' practice bubble collapsed onto him and others. Players have varying memories of what he said exactly; the gist, however, was repeated verbatim.
"I had to decide: I either wanted to live or die, to fight or quit," Joe D told them. "I figured I had to do something about it."
It is a comparison only he could make, lying under the rubble of that facility and where the Cowboys were Sunday, lying in the rubble of an 0-2 start. But when Joe D talked about them having a choice to make in the ensuing hours in Houston, the message reverberated with every man in that room and stayed with them as they took the field.
What followed was a season-saving, expectation-raising, doubt-erasing 27-13 Cowboys victory against the Texans.
"I think that was the moment everybody looked at each other in the room and said 'Let's go out and do this bleeper bleeper,'" Cowboys offensive lineman Andre Gurode said of Joe D's speech.
And as impressive and necessary as the ensuing performance was and is, the single biggest thing to happen in Week 3 was Cowboys players took back their team.
They looked to be drowning after a pair of ugly, embarrassing and self-inflicted losses to open this season. The debate was under-coached, overhyped, mis-general-managed or just plain dead. And into this rudderless ugly, players stepped in and demanded meetings, delivered hard truths and then backed up every word for 60 minutes.
"I don't know if we took back control. It is more we took responsibility for what is going on," defensive lineman Marcus Spears said. "I think we found something."
The Cowboys finally found a coach. The players.
Give Coach Wade a contributing producer credit for allowing his players room to step up and lead and for his defensive coordinating efforts against what had been a highly rated Texans attack. Although watching that mess Gary Kubiak and his crew flopped onto the Reliant turf, how they ranked first in anything is dubious.
A few negative types probably will argue that the Texans beat themselves, and there is evidence to back that up. A week ago, in Arlington, that was the Cowboys, and this has to count as progress. And despite Coach Wade's talk of changes at Valley Ranch, nothing really all that big changed.
Except how players approached this game.
"We played like our lives were on the line," Cowboys safety Gerald Sensabaugh said. "When you play with passion, with the athletes we have, guys going 100 mph, we shouldn't lose. Like I said last week, on paper, we are a good team. But a good team playing without passion can be 0-2."
Credit for this turnaround goes to all 53, but a few in particular.
Credit goes to cornerback Terence Newman, who demanded a players-only meeting after that ugly Week 2 loss to Chicago. And I thought all meetings at Valley Ranch were players-only. He also admitted practice was just not good enough.
Credit goes to Sensabaugh, who was not afraid to dump a little truth on this team, accurately and publicly calling them out for "looking like a bunch of clowns".
Credit goes to linebacker Bradie James, among others, who spoke passionately at Monday's players-only meeting about how their lackadaisical approach had them in danger of wrecking every dream they had for this season before October.
"That was kind of like last week, we kind of just showed up and that was our fault," he said. "It is just so hard to win in this league. You can't just show up and expect to win. You got to do it. You got to show up and put that work in and put that preparation in and guys just really have to play for one another."
And credit goes to guys like Spears and Gurode, both of whom spoke in the locker room before Sunday's game. Rah-rah does not win games, but it has its place. They also talked about doing it for themselves, about the need for a killer mentality and the power of not giving up.
And then came Joe D.
He talked about his approach to life, and how life is like football, and there are almost always crossroads in both. There is a decision to make, to quit or to fight, to live or to die.
"When he said that I think it hit home for a lot of guys," Spears said, "because you can get into this game and you can get into practice and prep and take it for granted and think that because you are playing football you are entitled to something."
They heard him Sunday. The real test comes now: Does his message stay with the players beyond the immediate disaster, do they keep the control they took or do they fall back to same-old?
Because I like their chances with Coach Bradie, Coach Sensabaugh, Coach Spears, Coach Gurode, et al., in control. I like that team a lot.
Jennifer Floyd Engel, 817-390-7697