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Jason Garrett brings change the Cowboys believe in
jenfloyd@star-telegram.com
IRVING -- A day of wedding planning-type errands awaited recently engaged Cowboys QB Tony Romo as he exited Valley Ranch on Monday. And he seemed actually pretty excited.
His smiley and upbeat attitude as he talked about pulling off his surprise proposal was infectious. Nor was this just I-do related.
"I'll tell you what, this team is going to play good football next year," he told me. "We are going to be very competitive. We won't have a season like we had this year."
Biting my tongue always has been a weakness, a trait that has brought much trouble into my short life. So I cringed listening to tape of me blurting, "How do you figure that?" into his optimism.
"Things happen. And in a weird way, sometimes, they can allow you to have success down the road," he explained.
As is Romo's way, he did not divulge specifics about what he believes went wrong in 2010 or what or, better yet, who needs fixing for 2011. He has his theories, all of which he shared with relevant parties like Owner Jones and soon-to-be-official coach Jason Garrett. Everybody else has to try to read between the lines.
And the longer I thought about what he said, the more I agree with what I think Romo was saying.
The ugly of 2010 was the best thing that could happen to the Cowboys.
Losing him to injury and a 6-10 record and being embarrassed actually was necessary because it all forces the Cowboys to get real.
No more lying to themselves.
No more grinding to nine-win seasons and pretending they are really close when actually they were kind of lucky.
No more slapping lipstick on the pig.
Owner Jones had to fire Coach Cupcake in spite of himself and now seems convinced big changes have to follow with assistant coaches and with personnel and with the way the Cowboys go about their business.
And for everybody except me, Babe Laufenberg and the 14 other people who have endured the full ride on The RHG bandwagon, bumps and all, get ready.
He's back. And Owner Jones probably was being a little too honest when he said his coach would have "input" on hiring coaches. That dynamic is not changing. Everything else is, has to, after this hot mess of a season.
The reality is, coming into this season, the Cowboys were on a crash course with hot and mess anyway, or has everybody already forgotten how close Coach Wade was to getting fired in 2009?
"Let me tell you something," linebacker Bradie James said, "Wade almost got fired at the end of last year. We had to go into New Orleans and beat an undefeated team or we knew what was coming. I know it was 'Wade this' and 'Wade that' after that, but we pitched those shutouts. We played the games, but we didn't fix what was wrong.
"All of those things caught up to us. Nothing was fixed in that area."
So while the Eagles were retooling, the Cowboys were celebrating their first playoff win in forever and ignoring what had them going into New Orleans so desperate in the first place -- a weak coach, a senior citizen-ish offensive line, an untrustworthy secondary and problem children like Marion Barber.
They did not fix the problems that sent them into New Orleans facing playoff elimination. The victory merely gave them justification to forget how screwed up things actually were. Add on that training camp, where they did not play football but mostly pantomimed, and it is not really that surprising how quickly things unraveled.
"So much happened from the beginning. You know this, so I am not going to sit here and talk about the whole dialogue again," James said. "The best thing that happened, in my opinion, we had a guy to come in and motivate people... make things so black and white to where we, as captains, didn't have to run up behind other guys. And if we had to say something, feel like we were left out because there wasn't anything reinforced."
The reality is Garrett has won over the guys in the locker room who should be back, including a few who had their doubts. Of course, even I, as Day One-er on The RHG bandwagon, had moments of doubt as I watched him let Barber act a fool and as this team looked to revert to undisciplined chaos against Arizona.
It was the players on Monday who talked me down off the ledge, including one who noted, "You may want to give him a little leeway on that considering how many other messes he had to and did clean up."
Having a real coach is not quite the only fix needed to reach Romo's optimistic talk of playoffs and improvement.
So how do I figure that?
The Cowboys will have a healthy Romo next year, and the NFL is still a QB league. The defense is finally getting turnovers, which makes everybody better. The schedule is going to be a lot easier, too, with Rams and Seahawks and Lions and Bills and Cardinals. They will have higher draft picks to work with in April. And those are just the things that happen naturally because of 6-10.
The real impact is it forces the Cowboys to get real in a way they had not since Dave Campo wandered the sideline. What is wrong will not be fixed with a couple of minor changes, or Jerry going about business as usual, or a coaching change, or a fiery speech from a player.
Romo gave one of those during the much ballyhooed players-only meeting early in the season before things really fell apart. He told his teammates how losing stinks and how nobody is going to like what happens if they finish in the 6-10 neighborhood.
"But when you are bad, that stuff doesn't matter," Romo said. "What matters is changing it."
Changes are coming.
So thanks, Coach Wade, you at least brought that to Dallas.
Jennifer Floyd Engel
817-390-7697
Looking for comments?
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/01/03/2741491/jason-garrett-brings-change-the.html##ixzz1A4x65HKs
jenfloyd@star-telegram.com
IRVING -- A day of wedding planning-type errands awaited recently engaged Cowboys QB Tony Romo as he exited Valley Ranch on Monday. And he seemed actually pretty excited.
His smiley and upbeat attitude as he talked about pulling off his surprise proposal was infectious. Nor was this just I-do related.
"I'll tell you what, this team is going to play good football next year," he told me. "We are going to be very competitive. We won't have a season like we had this year."
Biting my tongue always has been a weakness, a trait that has brought much trouble into my short life. So I cringed listening to tape of me blurting, "How do you figure that?" into his optimism.
"Things happen. And in a weird way, sometimes, they can allow you to have success down the road," he explained.
As is Romo's way, he did not divulge specifics about what he believes went wrong in 2010 or what or, better yet, who needs fixing for 2011. He has his theories, all of which he shared with relevant parties like Owner Jones and soon-to-be-official coach Jason Garrett. Everybody else has to try to read between the lines.
And the longer I thought about what he said, the more I agree with what I think Romo was saying.
The ugly of 2010 was the best thing that could happen to the Cowboys.
Losing him to injury and a 6-10 record and being embarrassed actually was necessary because it all forces the Cowboys to get real.
No more lying to themselves.
No more grinding to nine-win seasons and pretending they are really close when actually they were kind of lucky.
No more slapping lipstick on the pig.
Owner Jones had to fire Coach Cupcake in spite of himself and now seems convinced big changes have to follow with assistant coaches and with personnel and with the way the Cowboys go about their business.
And for everybody except me, Babe Laufenberg and the 14 other people who have endured the full ride on The RHG bandwagon, bumps and all, get ready.
He's back. And Owner Jones probably was being a little too honest when he said his coach would have "input" on hiring coaches. That dynamic is not changing. Everything else is, has to, after this hot mess of a season.
The reality is, coming into this season, the Cowboys were on a crash course with hot and mess anyway, or has everybody already forgotten how close Coach Wade was to getting fired in 2009?
"Let me tell you something," linebacker Bradie James said, "Wade almost got fired at the end of last year. We had to go into New Orleans and beat an undefeated team or we knew what was coming. I know it was 'Wade this' and 'Wade that' after that, but we pitched those shutouts. We played the games, but we didn't fix what was wrong.
"All of those things caught up to us. Nothing was fixed in that area."
So while the Eagles were retooling, the Cowboys were celebrating their first playoff win in forever and ignoring what had them going into New Orleans so desperate in the first place -- a weak coach, a senior citizen-ish offensive line, an untrustworthy secondary and problem children like Marion Barber.
They did not fix the problems that sent them into New Orleans facing playoff elimination. The victory merely gave them justification to forget how screwed up things actually were. Add on that training camp, where they did not play football but mostly pantomimed, and it is not really that surprising how quickly things unraveled.
"So much happened from the beginning. You know this, so I am not going to sit here and talk about the whole dialogue again," James said. "The best thing that happened, in my opinion, we had a guy to come in and motivate people... make things so black and white to where we, as captains, didn't have to run up behind other guys. And if we had to say something, feel like we were left out because there wasn't anything reinforced."
The reality is Garrett has won over the guys in the locker room who should be back, including a few who had their doubts. Of course, even I, as Day One-er on The RHG bandwagon, had moments of doubt as I watched him let Barber act a fool and as this team looked to revert to undisciplined chaos against Arizona.
It was the players on Monday who talked me down off the ledge, including one who noted, "You may want to give him a little leeway on that considering how many other messes he had to and did clean up."
Having a real coach is not quite the only fix needed to reach Romo's optimistic talk of playoffs and improvement.
So how do I figure that?
The Cowboys will have a healthy Romo next year, and the NFL is still a QB league. The defense is finally getting turnovers, which makes everybody better. The schedule is going to be a lot easier, too, with Rams and Seahawks and Lions and Bills and Cardinals. They will have higher draft picks to work with in April. And those are just the things that happen naturally because of 6-10.
The real impact is it forces the Cowboys to get real in a way they had not since Dave Campo wandered the sideline. What is wrong will not be fixed with a couple of minor changes, or Jerry going about business as usual, or a coaching change, or a fiery speech from a player.
Romo gave one of those during the much ballyhooed players-only meeting early in the season before things really fell apart. He told his teammates how losing stinks and how nobody is going to like what happens if they finish in the 6-10 neighborhood.
"But when you are bad, that stuff doesn't matter," Romo said. "What matters is changing it."
Changes are coming.
So thanks, Coach Wade, you at least brought that to Dallas.
Jennifer Floyd Engel
817-390-7697
Looking for comments?
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/01/03/2741491/jason-garrett-brings-change-the.html##ixzz1A4x65HKs
