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Judgment time for the Cowboys
Posted Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010
By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL
The Wonder Twins, or whatever DWade and his Super Friends in Miami have taken to calling themselves nowadays, mercifully stumbled through Dallas on Saturday.
Literally stumbled. Big Mavs W.
And mercifully because The Heat is a reminder of what a hot mess actually looks like, talent and expectations crumbling under the hubris of a self-important useful idiot like LeBron. The Cowboys, by comparison, are merely a mess trying to upgrade to a mess with potential.
So why after an infinitely entertaining and closer- than-anybody-anticipated loss to New Orleans on Thanksgiving were so many so mad? A month ago, losing a game they should have won to a team nobody thought they could beat would have been progress. Now it is grounds for Terence Newman to be retired and Roy Williams to be dumped and interim coach Jason Garrett to be un-shortlisted, or at least if e-mail reaction is to be believed.
They are neither the train wreck they once were nor the Super Bowl contender they were supposed to be. And therein lies the problem with the final five games of this Cowboys season: How do we judge what clearly has been an abject failure, albeit an abject failure with potential lately?
It cannot simply be by the "well, they are trying now" yardstick, because the fact that a good number of Cowboy players did quit is the most embarrassing portion of this season. Nor can it simply be about W's and L's, because this is a team with zero postseason aspirations and a backup QB and a pretty brutal schedule. Nor can the final five simply be a job interview for Jason Garrett because that suggests the only problem was the coach.
And as cupcakey as Wade was, he is not the only one getting dropped in the grease for the abject or the failure. So how do we judge the Cowboys in these final five games?
And what we are really asking is, without playoffs, or seedings, or anything of any real meaning on the line, what do we need to see from these Cowboys going forward?
Easy actually:
1. Quitting by any player, at any time, is a fireable offense.
We saw enough of that in the second half of the Giants game, and the Jags game, and in Green Bay. And there is no benefit of doubt on that anymore. Any guy who cannot be bothered to bust his butt for four quarters once a week is not part of 2011 or whenever they start playing football again.
How do we judge effort?
Tackling into the fourth quarter, running hard, diving and trying and just being competitive in every. single. game.
1a. JG handles any signs of give-up immediately and decisively.
The "quit" was ignored in The Wade Era, most notably in Green Bay when a certain cornerback decided to just skip a tackle. The next guy who decides to go Mike Jenkins on a play, or a game, needs to be yanked by his face mask into a torrent of naughty words and then cut. What you allow is what you become.
2. There have to be some wins.
What the Giants and Lions victories and even the Saints loss demonstrated is there is enough talent on this team to win games. There is no reason to believe they cannot beat Washington and Philly at least once. And Arizona needs to be handled.
Indy is unlikely, as is a sweep of Philly.
So 2-3 victories in the final five games is a fair expectation.
3. Fewer penalties. Positive turnover ratio.
Yes, it is that simple.
Progress has been made since JG became coach four weeks ago. They play smarter. They do it to others at least as often as they have it done to them. What I want to see is them playing smart and aggressive all the way to the tape.
4. What kind of finishing kick does JG have?
What we know for sure about the first-time coach is he can establish a tone and get his team to play hard and smart and aggressive. We know he can win and come out swinging. What we do not know is if he can sustain it.
I am like 93.7 percent sure he can. And if Owner Jones asked me, I'd tell him to hire JG right now. I like how this team looks under JG. So sue me.
But I am not in charge. And not everybody is as confident.
So basically we are looking to see if he can maintain the tone, keep the confidence of the locker room and how he handles things when they get messy, which inevitably they will.
5. Who on this Cowboy team is willing to sacrifice a lot, hurt a little and work extremely hard to be better, even now in garbage time?
As I watched LeBron on Saturday, his entitled self on his overrated team getting handled up on by Tyson Chandler and the Mavs, I could not help but think about his little Nike ad war with Michael Jordan.
And his favorite NFL team, the Cowboys.
What Jordan said so eloquently and viciously rings true for both, for LeBron and for Dallas.
"Maybe I led you to believe it was easy when it wasn't.
"Maybe I led you to think my highlights started at the free-throw line and not the gym.
"Maybe I made you think every shot I took was a game-winner, that my game was built on flash, not fire."
What we need to see from the Cowboys is now that they know better, they will do better, that while they are a mess they are not that Miami mess, and mostly that they are not LeBron destined to keep tripping on the easy way out.
Jennifer Floyd Engel
Posted Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010
By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL
The Wonder Twins, or whatever DWade and his Super Friends in Miami have taken to calling themselves nowadays, mercifully stumbled through Dallas on Saturday.
Literally stumbled. Big Mavs W.
And mercifully because The Heat is a reminder of what a hot mess actually looks like, talent and expectations crumbling under the hubris of a self-important useful idiot like LeBron. The Cowboys, by comparison, are merely a mess trying to upgrade to a mess with potential.
So why after an infinitely entertaining and closer- than-anybody-anticipated loss to New Orleans on Thanksgiving were so many so mad? A month ago, losing a game they should have won to a team nobody thought they could beat would have been progress. Now it is grounds for Terence Newman to be retired and Roy Williams to be dumped and interim coach Jason Garrett to be un-shortlisted, or at least if e-mail reaction is to be believed.
They are neither the train wreck they once were nor the Super Bowl contender they were supposed to be. And therein lies the problem with the final five games of this Cowboys season: How do we judge what clearly has been an abject failure, albeit an abject failure with potential lately?
It cannot simply be by the "well, they are trying now" yardstick, because the fact that a good number of Cowboy players did quit is the most embarrassing portion of this season. Nor can it simply be about W's and L's, because this is a team with zero postseason aspirations and a backup QB and a pretty brutal schedule. Nor can the final five simply be a job interview for Jason Garrett because that suggests the only problem was the coach.
And as cupcakey as Wade was, he is not the only one getting dropped in the grease for the abject or the failure. So how do we judge the Cowboys in these final five games?
And what we are really asking is, without playoffs, or seedings, or anything of any real meaning on the line, what do we need to see from these Cowboys going forward?
Easy actually:
1. Quitting by any player, at any time, is a fireable offense.
We saw enough of that in the second half of the Giants game, and the Jags game, and in Green Bay. And there is no benefit of doubt on that anymore. Any guy who cannot be bothered to bust his butt for four quarters once a week is not part of 2011 or whenever they start playing football again.
How do we judge effort?
Tackling into the fourth quarter, running hard, diving and trying and just being competitive in every. single. game.
1a. JG handles any signs of give-up immediately and decisively.
The "quit" was ignored in The Wade Era, most notably in Green Bay when a certain cornerback decided to just skip a tackle. The next guy who decides to go Mike Jenkins on a play, or a game, needs to be yanked by his face mask into a torrent of naughty words and then cut. What you allow is what you become.
2. There have to be some wins.
What the Giants and Lions victories and even the Saints loss demonstrated is there is enough talent on this team to win games. There is no reason to believe they cannot beat Washington and Philly at least once. And Arizona needs to be handled.
Indy is unlikely, as is a sweep of Philly.
So 2-3 victories in the final five games is a fair expectation.
3. Fewer penalties. Positive turnover ratio.
Yes, it is that simple.
Progress has been made since JG became coach four weeks ago. They play smarter. They do it to others at least as often as they have it done to them. What I want to see is them playing smart and aggressive all the way to the tape.
4. What kind of finishing kick does JG have?
What we know for sure about the first-time coach is he can establish a tone and get his team to play hard and smart and aggressive. We know he can win and come out swinging. What we do not know is if he can sustain it.
I am like 93.7 percent sure he can. And if Owner Jones asked me, I'd tell him to hire JG right now. I like how this team looks under JG. So sue me.
But I am not in charge. And not everybody is as confident.
So basically we are looking to see if he can maintain the tone, keep the confidence of the locker room and how he handles things when they get messy, which inevitably they will.
5. Who on this Cowboy team is willing to sacrifice a lot, hurt a little and work extremely hard to be better, even now in garbage time?
As I watched LeBron on Saturday, his entitled self on his overrated team getting handled up on by Tyson Chandler and the Mavs, I could not help but think about his little Nike ad war with Michael Jordan.
And his favorite NFL team, the Cowboys.
What Jordan said so eloquently and viciously rings true for both, for LeBron and for Dallas.
"Maybe I led you to believe it was easy when it wasn't.
"Maybe I led you to think my highlights started at the free-throw line and not the gym.
"Maybe I made you think every shot I took was a game-winner, that my game was built on flash, not fire."
What we need to see from the Cowboys is now that they know better, they will do better, that while they are a mess they are not that Miami mess, and mostly that they are not LeBron destined to keep tripping on the easy way out.
Jennifer Floyd Engel