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Jerry Jones on Wade Phillips' job security: Relax, fans
10:08 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 21, 2010
SportsDayDFW.com
Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones was interviewed on Tuesday to discuss the Cowboys, their loss to the Chicago Bears on Sunday and their upcoming game against the Houston Texans this week. Here are some highlights:
Is there any validity in the idea that the Cowboys bought into all the Super Bowl hype and got overconfident?
You know, I don’t know. I know that there’s always and should be a concern and that’s why you’re reluctant to talk about your goals, because those goals sound like that you got your mind on something different than it should be and that’s the next play. I’ve had a lot of questions asked during the offseason and during the preseason about how excited are you about the potential of playing in the new stadium in the Super Bowl. I’ve always said the most important thing on my mind is what we’re doing against the Washington Redskins when we open up and it should be that way.
But, certainly, when you have the kind of start we’re having, which is totally unexpected and I know that no player, no coach and our fans couldn’t have expected us to not one or two of these opening ball games. Well, you got a lot of things that you can reflect back on. It’s a “Well, what could we have done differently?” I think the only reason we should do that is obvious: to look for things we can change as we prepare against the Texans and no prepare against the rest of the season but prepare against the Texans. This is the time you do this; it’s not uncommon at all for a team to make adjustments. They review…they look at what it’s doing; they look at what it’s not doing well. And this is very normal for it to happen and after you’ve had one or two, certainly two, ball games.
In our particular case, we’re making adjustments and we’re going to make some changes and do some thing. And while they may be tweaking, we’ll still do some things that give us a better chance against the Texans. Fundamentally, I still believe in, very strongly, what we’re trying to do with the talent on this team.
Do you believe it’s going to be harder to find the problems than it will be to fix them?
Again, our problem is scoring. One thing about what we do is…it can sound subjective but it usually is not. It can be very technical. And I think those are identifiable. I will say this: that there is not, from where we are today, no wins, is not from effort. It’s not from players giving their effort. Now, giving your effort in a way that basically reflects what you’ve been working on in practices…football is a game of repetition and you can tell, usually. For instance, last Friday, we had some concerns about the way we went out and made some mistakes on things we had been working on. We made some mistakes in practice. And so, you can usually look back and see where you may have had a problem that manifested itself and lose the football game.
If David Buehler continues to miss field goals in the upcoming game against the Texans, are you going to consider bringing in a new kicker?
No, I don’t need to speculate there. What we can base it on is right now. We’ve had a couple of misses in the last two ball games. Now, your instincts, you can throw out the window, if he’s fundamentally doing things wrong. He’s not doing that. Now, well you say he’s missing one kick a ball game and that’s pretty fundamental and you go right to that. But, he’s hitting the ball well; he’s got a strong leg. We know what the alternatives are. All of those don’t add up to making any type of change there. We’ve got a chance here to have, we think, a really fine kicker and we want to see this thing through. And the fact that he made his last kick in that ball game, which was the long one of the night, all of that bodes to, in my mind, staying right where we are.
By losing the first few games of the season, is Wade Phillips’ job in danger or should people just take a deep breath and relax?
I think you hit it right on the head there. First of all, everyone knows you’re going to be criticized and that part comes with what we call criticism is negative critiquing of where you are with your coaching and what you’re doing on offense and what you’re doing on defense, those types of things. That goes with the territory but that’s earned and wanted because when you don’t win your first two ball games, you’ve accepted yourself to that and so that’s just the way that it is. It doesn’t surprise me at all and I do understand the sentiment that’s out there.
Why has there been such an imbalance between the running game and the passing game?
We’re not running the ball well and that’s part of it. If we could continue running the ball the way we did, at times, against Chicago, then we would have run the ball more. You get to the end of ball games and you’re down two scores, you’re going to throw the ball more then, too, although we had plenty of time the other night. The best way to say is that we just got to run the ball better, we got to block it better and we’ll get that percentage of run-pass up.
To listen to the interview, click here.
• • •
10:08 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 21, 2010
SportsDayDFW.com
Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones was interviewed on Tuesday to discuss the Cowboys, their loss to the Chicago Bears on Sunday and their upcoming game against the Houston Texans this week. Here are some highlights:
Is there any validity in the idea that the Cowboys bought into all the Super Bowl hype and got overconfident?
You know, I don’t know. I know that there’s always and should be a concern and that’s why you’re reluctant to talk about your goals, because those goals sound like that you got your mind on something different than it should be and that’s the next play. I’ve had a lot of questions asked during the offseason and during the preseason about how excited are you about the potential of playing in the new stadium in the Super Bowl. I’ve always said the most important thing on my mind is what we’re doing against the Washington Redskins when we open up and it should be that way.
But, certainly, when you have the kind of start we’re having, which is totally unexpected and I know that no player, no coach and our fans couldn’t have expected us to not one or two of these opening ball games. Well, you got a lot of things that you can reflect back on. It’s a “Well, what could we have done differently?” I think the only reason we should do that is obvious: to look for things we can change as we prepare against the Texans and no prepare against the rest of the season but prepare against the Texans. This is the time you do this; it’s not uncommon at all for a team to make adjustments. They review…they look at what it’s doing; they look at what it’s not doing well. And this is very normal for it to happen and after you’ve had one or two, certainly two, ball games.
In our particular case, we’re making adjustments and we’re going to make some changes and do some thing. And while they may be tweaking, we’ll still do some things that give us a better chance against the Texans. Fundamentally, I still believe in, very strongly, what we’re trying to do with the talent on this team.
Do you believe it’s going to be harder to find the problems than it will be to fix them?
Again, our problem is scoring. One thing about what we do is…it can sound subjective but it usually is not. It can be very technical. And I think those are identifiable. I will say this: that there is not, from where we are today, no wins, is not from effort. It’s not from players giving their effort. Now, giving your effort in a way that basically reflects what you’ve been working on in practices…football is a game of repetition and you can tell, usually. For instance, last Friday, we had some concerns about the way we went out and made some mistakes on things we had been working on. We made some mistakes in practice. And so, you can usually look back and see where you may have had a problem that manifested itself and lose the football game.
If David Buehler continues to miss field goals in the upcoming game against the Texans, are you going to consider bringing in a new kicker?
No, I don’t need to speculate there. What we can base it on is right now. We’ve had a couple of misses in the last two ball games. Now, your instincts, you can throw out the window, if he’s fundamentally doing things wrong. He’s not doing that. Now, well you say he’s missing one kick a ball game and that’s pretty fundamental and you go right to that. But, he’s hitting the ball well; he’s got a strong leg. We know what the alternatives are. All of those don’t add up to making any type of change there. We’ve got a chance here to have, we think, a really fine kicker and we want to see this thing through. And the fact that he made his last kick in that ball game, which was the long one of the night, all of that bodes to, in my mind, staying right where we are.
By losing the first few games of the season, is Wade Phillips’ job in danger or should people just take a deep breath and relax?
I think you hit it right on the head there. First of all, everyone knows you’re going to be criticized and that part comes with what we call criticism is negative critiquing of where you are with your coaching and what you’re doing on offense and what you’re doing on defense, those types of things. That goes with the territory but that’s earned and wanted because when you don’t win your first two ball games, you’ve accepted yourself to that and so that’s just the way that it is. It doesn’t surprise me at all and I do understand the sentiment that’s out there.
Why has there been such an imbalance between the running game and the passing game?
We’re not running the ball well and that’s part of it. If we could continue running the ball the way we did, at times, against Chicago, then we would have run the ball more. You get to the end of ball games and you’re down two scores, you’re going to throw the ball more then, too, although we had plenty of time the other night. The best way to say is that we just got to run the ball better, we got to block it better and we’ll get that percentage of run-pass up.
To listen to the interview, click here.
• • •
