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This disaster is what Wade-ball is all about
By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL
ARLINGTON -- A lot of ugly went down this weekend in a two-block radius of the little sports playground built by the friendliest taxpayers in America.
A whole lot of depressing ugly.
We had the Rangers crash and burn and crash and burn again at The Ballpark. And we followed that with a bit of one-upmanship by your friendly neighborhood NFL team at JerryWorld, an implosion of Wade Phillipsian proportions.
Titans 34 and Cowboys 27.
The Rangers, at least, had the decency to disappoint after winning a couple of playoff games and have a résumé of bouncing back. This is Week 5 in the NFL and, again, the Cowboys find themselvesstaring down "with the sixth pick in the 2011 draft, the Dallas Cowboys select ..."
Season almost over, and very little reason to believe better days lie ahead.
I'd suggest a players-only meeting, or an emotional speech about choosing to fight in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, or waking the tiger within, but the Cowboys already played those cards in Week 3. And now what is suddenly a less-impressive victory in Houston, thanks to NYG, and a bye week later, their season is again hanging in the balance.
And Dallas is having trouble indentifying the problem, much less solutions.
"At this point and time, it is not trying to find answers," Cowboys cornerback Terence Newman said. "It is more trying to find the problem. What is the problem? How do you put your finger on it?"
A simple answer exists.
To paraphrase Wash, this is what Wade-ball do.
His teams win a decent amount of games, and usually come through with a couple of big exciting W's. But with shocking frequency, they become complacent and bumble and stumble in winnable games and beat themselves.
Sunday was so typically Wade, and so classically Wade-ball.
They lost the turnover battle 3-0, including three second-half interceptions by QB Tony Romo, one of which basically handed Tennessee a touchdown. And I probably need to mention that I had two Cowboys players tell me Sunday that they were sick of a certain QB getting a free pass "from coaches and from you frauds in the media."
Romo, undoubtedly, had a horrific game and, maybe, he has escaped a proper amount of heat for this 1-3 start to this season, but listening to both players, in my mind, speaks more to the problem of the selective accountability, when there is any at all, that is another hallmark of a Wade-coached team.
Nobody gets called out except in the rarest of circumstances, and it leaves the whole team susceptible to "Why am I getting benched/chewed out/ripped when (fill in blank) is allowed to go untouched?"
For instance, look for Mike Jenkins to be torched for his bad game, while Marc Colombo goes unscathed. And his stupid celebration penalty probably cost Dallas this game.
Go ahead, hate the NFL's arcane celebration rule. I do. But then ask yourself why Colombo was celebrating at all. Nobody on the Cows' O-line should have been celebrating anything on this day. They were across the board mediocre to bad. Their team had just tied the score in spite of them.
Go to the bench.
Get ready to win the game.
Not on this team. Excessive celebration is what happens when Pizza Party Wade coaches your team. Just look at Marion Barber throw down a party for a 2-yard gain without consequence. And that just adds to the penalty pile that usually accompanies Wade-ball.
The Cowboys had 12 penalties for 133 yards, including 6 for 51 in the decisive fourth quarter. And now they are 1-3 and traveling to Minny for a visit with everybody's favorite alleged textual harasser.
The heat is really going to come down on Coach Wade this week, and Cowboys players were making preemptive strikes for him.
They like him. They play hard for him.
This is not an effort issue. It is not a talent issue. It is not simply an execution issue. It is something less hard to pinpoint and thereby harder to fix.
"That is just poor play on our part," tight end Jason Witten said. "That is not on [Wade]."
So if it is not a coaching issue or prep issue, then how do you explain the Cowboys' inability to sustain what they seemingly started in Houston, Jason?
"Good question," he told me. "I wish I had a direct answer."
It is a good question, if I do say so myself. And I am afraid the only answer is this is what Wade-ball do.
And it is not winning football.
And it is a pattern.
And it has reached critical mass.
"We're crushed right now," Witten said. "To think this is where we are at in the season and look at it ..."
He had no words for the ugliest ugly of this ugly, awful weekend in Arlington. And he has no answers.
I do. It rhymes with Tire Spade. The problem is Jerry is committed to Wade-ball. So get ready, because this is what Wade-ball do.
Jennifer Floyd Engel
By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL
ARLINGTON -- A lot of ugly went down this weekend in a two-block radius of the little sports playground built by the friendliest taxpayers in America.
A whole lot of depressing ugly.
We had the Rangers crash and burn and crash and burn again at The Ballpark. And we followed that with a bit of one-upmanship by your friendly neighborhood NFL team at JerryWorld, an implosion of Wade Phillipsian proportions.
Titans 34 and Cowboys 27.
The Rangers, at least, had the decency to disappoint after winning a couple of playoff games and have a résumé of bouncing back. This is Week 5 in the NFL and, again, the Cowboys find themselvesstaring down "with the sixth pick in the 2011 draft, the Dallas Cowboys select ..."
Season almost over, and very little reason to believe better days lie ahead.
I'd suggest a players-only meeting, or an emotional speech about choosing to fight in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, or waking the tiger within, but the Cowboys already played those cards in Week 3. And now what is suddenly a less-impressive victory in Houston, thanks to NYG, and a bye week later, their season is again hanging in the balance.
And Dallas is having trouble indentifying the problem, much less solutions.
"At this point and time, it is not trying to find answers," Cowboys cornerback Terence Newman said. "It is more trying to find the problem. What is the problem? How do you put your finger on it?"
A simple answer exists.
To paraphrase Wash, this is what Wade-ball do.
His teams win a decent amount of games, and usually come through with a couple of big exciting W's. But with shocking frequency, they become complacent and bumble and stumble in winnable games and beat themselves.
Sunday was so typically Wade, and so classically Wade-ball.
They lost the turnover battle 3-0, including three second-half interceptions by QB Tony Romo, one of which basically handed Tennessee a touchdown. And I probably need to mention that I had two Cowboys players tell me Sunday that they were sick of a certain QB getting a free pass "from coaches and from you frauds in the media."
Romo, undoubtedly, had a horrific game and, maybe, he has escaped a proper amount of heat for this 1-3 start to this season, but listening to both players, in my mind, speaks more to the problem of the selective accountability, when there is any at all, that is another hallmark of a Wade-coached team.
Nobody gets called out except in the rarest of circumstances, and it leaves the whole team susceptible to "Why am I getting benched/chewed out/ripped when (fill in blank) is allowed to go untouched?"
For instance, look for Mike Jenkins to be torched for his bad game, while Marc Colombo goes unscathed. And his stupid celebration penalty probably cost Dallas this game.
Go ahead, hate the NFL's arcane celebration rule. I do. But then ask yourself why Colombo was celebrating at all. Nobody on the Cows' O-line should have been celebrating anything on this day. They were across the board mediocre to bad. Their team had just tied the score in spite of them.
Go to the bench.
Get ready to win the game.
Not on this team. Excessive celebration is what happens when Pizza Party Wade coaches your team. Just look at Marion Barber throw down a party for a 2-yard gain without consequence. And that just adds to the penalty pile that usually accompanies Wade-ball.
The Cowboys had 12 penalties for 133 yards, including 6 for 51 in the decisive fourth quarter. And now they are 1-3 and traveling to Minny for a visit with everybody's favorite alleged textual harasser.
The heat is really going to come down on Coach Wade this week, and Cowboys players were making preemptive strikes for him.
They like him. They play hard for him.
This is not an effort issue. It is not a talent issue. It is not simply an execution issue. It is something less hard to pinpoint and thereby harder to fix.
"That is just poor play on our part," tight end Jason Witten said. "That is not on [Wade]."
So if it is not a coaching issue or prep issue, then how do you explain the Cowboys' inability to sustain what they seemingly started in Houston, Jason?
"Good question," he told me. "I wish I had a direct answer."
It is a good question, if I do say so myself. And I am afraid the only answer is this is what Wade-ball do.
And it is not winning football.
And it is a pattern.
And it has reached critical mass.
"We're crushed right now," Witten said. "To think this is where we are at in the season and look at it ..."
He had no words for the ugliest ugly of this ugly, awful weekend in Arlington. And he has no answers.
I do. It rhymes with Tire Spade. The problem is Jerry is committed to Wade-ball. So get ready, because this is what Wade-ball do.
Jennifer Floyd Engel
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