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Moore: Cowboys owner apologizes to fans: 'We’ve got to do something that changes this'
07:11 PM CDT on Sunday, October 31, 2010
David Moore
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ARLINGTON _ Political careers and athletic achievements are built on the audacity of hope.
The only thing more audacious these days is to believe the Cowboys have any left.
A joyless season took another morose turn with Sunday’s 35-17 loss to Jacksonville. This team continues to crumble under the weight of unfulfilled expectations and inferior performance.
The four-game losing streak the team lugs into November is its worst in eight years. This is a listless, lifeless bunch that head coach Wade Phillips prays he hasn’t lost. He admits he can’t say for sure.
Jerry Jones can’t say what he’ll do, either. The Cowboys owner apologized to fans after they watched his team remain winless at home and drop to 1-6. Jones tied himself into a verbal knot, defending Phillips one moment then acknowledging the team’s unacceptable performance forces him to look at all options, including a coaching change.
“Let me be real clear,’’ Jones said. “There’s no way the result and the way we played tonight, there is no way I can rest, sleep, eat well with a diet of that right there. There is no way.
“If you look at what we’re about, our team, our stadium, the pride I have in this franchise, you know it doesn’t digest. It doesn’t go down. We’ve got to do something that changes this on the field.’’
The Cowboys have now lost more games than they did all last season because they can’t run, can’t stop the run and can’t respond when challenged.
Buffalo is now the only team in the league with a worse record _ let that sink in for a moment_ because whenever backup quarterback Jon Kitna did get the offense moving, Felix Jones or Miles Austin or Roy Williams had a pass go through their hands for an interception.
The Cowboys suffered their biggest loss of the season because their defense transformed Jacksonville’s David Garrard, Maurice Jones-Drew and Mike Sims-Walker into the second coming of the Cowboys Triplets. Garrard tied a club record with four touchdown passes, Jones-Drew rushed for 135 yards and Sims-Walker tormented the secondary with 153 receiving yards and a touchdown.
“Our team didn’t play with enough passion, enough effort, enough fortitude to compete in this game,’’ Phillips said.
For the third time this season, and the second consecutive game, the Cowboys failed to rush for more than 50 yards. The only reason they reached half-a-hundred this day is because the 38-year-old legs of Kitna scrambled for 12 yards.
The sequence that symbolizes how ineffective the ground game has become came in the waning seconds of the first half. The Cowboys had a third-and-goal on the one-yard line with 15 seconds left. A touchdown and extra point would have allowed the Cowboys to enter the lockerroom down only four points.
Marion Barber was stopped inches short of the goal line. On fourth down, Kitna and Barber ran into each other on the handoff. Barber was stopped short again to turn the ball over to the Jaguars.
“I’m not exactly sure what happened,’’ Kitna said. “I had a collision before the handoff that knocked me into Marion which disrupted the whole play.
“You have about a one percent chance of succeeding at that point.’’
Kitna had about a one percent chance of succeeding in his first start in more than two years with a ground game that gave him no support. He threw into traffic all afternoon and finished with four interceptions to go with his one touchdown pass.
And what is there to say about the defense? This group is a shadow of the unit that ended last season with back-to-back shutouts.
The Cowboys allowed 76 points and 884 yards in the final seven days of October. Phillips concedes he should not have played cornerback Terence Newman, who took two injections before the game and labored with a rib muscle strain before he was forced to the sidelines in the third quarter.
But the defensive problems run much deeper than Newman’s injury.
“If you told me that we’d be in this situation before the season started, I probably would have cussed you out,’’ Newman said. “But now it’s a reality and it’s something that nobody can really comprehend.’’
The time for comprehension has passed.
Now, Jones must determine if there is anything to be done.
“This is not an acceptable place to be and rest and say we’ll do better next week or we’ll have another season,’’ Jones said.
“That’s just not the way I think.’’
• • •
07:11 PM CDT on Sunday, October 31, 2010
David Moore
Archive | E-mail
ARLINGTON _ Political careers and athletic achievements are built on the audacity of hope.
The only thing more audacious these days is to believe the Cowboys have any left.
A joyless season took another morose turn with Sunday’s 35-17 loss to Jacksonville. This team continues to crumble under the weight of unfulfilled expectations and inferior performance.
The four-game losing streak the team lugs into November is its worst in eight years. This is a listless, lifeless bunch that head coach Wade Phillips prays he hasn’t lost. He admits he can’t say for sure.
Jerry Jones can’t say what he’ll do, either. The Cowboys owner apologized to fans after they watched his team remain winless at home and drop to 1-6. Jones tied himself into a verbal knot, defending Phillips one moment then acknowledging the team’s unacceptable performance forces him to look at all options, including a coaching change.
“Let me be real clear,’’ Jones said. “There’s no way the result and the way we played tonight, there is no way I can rest, sleep, eat well with a diet of that right there. There is no way.
“If you look at what we’re about, our team, our stadium, the pride I have in this franchise, you know it doesn’t digest. It doesn’t go down. We’ve got to do something that changes this on the field.’’
The Cowboys have now lost more games than they did all last season because they can’t run, can’t stop the run and can’t respond when challenged.
Buffalo is now the only team in the league with a worse record _ let that sink in for a moment_ because whenever backup quarterback Jon Kitna did get the offense moving, Felix Jones or Miles Austin or Roy Williams had a pass go through their hands for an interception.
The Cowboys suffered their biggest loss of the season because their defense transformed Jacksonville’s David Garrard, Maurice Jones-Drew and Mike Sims-Walker into the second coming of the Cowboys Triplets. Garrard tied a club record with four touchdown passes, Jones-Drew rushed for 135 yards and Sims-Walker tormented the secondary with 153 receiving yards and a touchdown.
“Our team didn’t play with enough passion, enough effort, enough fortitude to compete in this game,’’ Phillips said.
For the third time this season, and the second consecutive game, the Cowboys failed to rush for more than 50 yards. The only reason they reached half-a-hundred this day is because the 38-year-old legs of Kitna scrambled for 12 yards.
The sequence that symbolizes how ineffective the ground game has become came in the waning seconds of the first half. The Cowboys had a third-and-goal on the one-yard line with 15 seconds left. A touchdown and extra point would have allowed the Cowboys to enter the lockerroom down only four points.
Marion Barber was stopped inches short of the goal line. On fourth down, Kitna and Barber ran into each other on the handoff. Barber was stopped short again to turn the ball over to the Jaguars.
“I’m not exactly sure what happened,’’ Kitna said. “I had a collision before the handoff that knocked me into Marion which disrupted the whole play.
“You have about a one percent chance of succeeding at that point.’’
Kitna had about a one percent chance of succeeding in his first start in more than two years with a ground game that gave him no support. He threw into traffic all afternoon and finished with four interceptions to go with his one touchdown pass.
And what is there to say about the defense? This group is a shadow of the unit that ended last season with back-to-back shutouts.
The Cowboys allowed 76 points and 884 yards in the final seven days of October. Phillips concedes he should not have played cornerback Terence Newman, who took two injections before the game and labored with a rib muscle strain before he was forced to the sidelines in the third quarter.
But the defensive problems run much deeper than Newman’s injury.
“If you told me that we’d be in this situation before the season started, I probably would have cussed you out,’’ Newman said. “But now it’s a reality and it’s something that nobody can really comprehend.’’
The time for comprehension has passed.
Now, Jones must determine if there is anything to be done.
“This is not an acceptable place to be and rest and say we’ll do better next week or we’ll have another season,’’ Jones said.
“That’s just not the way I think.’’
• • •
