January 2, 2012
Any time there is a full and complete collapse — such as going 1-4 to finish the season — it would
be much too simplistic to single one portion of an organization for ridicule and public identification.
Rather, for the 2011 Dallas Cowboys, we must look in all sorts of directions. And we must wonder, after a very disappointing 8-8 campaign, how long things will continue in this general direction before the Cowboys can break out of this franchise-worst drought of playoff futility and return to their formerly usual spot with the heavyweights of the NFL.
Once upon a time, the Cowboys set the pace for excellence in the league. Playoff regulars and a team that amassed division titles, playoff wins and Super Bowls for much of the first 35 years of its existence has now hit such a drastic wall that nearly every fan of the team can recite the horrible facts:
In 15 years, the Cowboys have one wild-card playoff victory. One. That's one more than the Muncie Flyers and the Canton Bulldogs, but given that those teams folded shortly after World War I, that would clearly not be a very large consolation.
The Cowboys have hit the wall of resistance nearly every season at a similar time. Usually right around the holidays is where the Cowboys take a promising start and wither under the bright lights of the holiday season, as they did in 2011. Dallas was 7-4 after Thanksgiving and looking ahead at a stretch that included two games against very poor teams (Arizona and Tampa Bay) and three divisional wars, with two of those games on their home field in Arlington.
And yet, a 1-4 finish has the fan base as frustrated as ever that once again their team cannot put together results at the time of year where teams either load up for a title run or go home with tears streaming down their face. This Cowboys team is going to need a lot of tissue.
So, where does one properly place the blame? One could easily suggest the better question is where does one not place the blame?
The organization has not passed the test yet again for a myriad of reasons. And, with all due respect to Emmitt Smith, mental toughness is well down the line. Smith might think that mental toughness is the sole explanation for a team not rising to the occasion in a place like New York, as he did in 1993, but, he played on a team that had many Hall of Fame-caliber players and depth that amazed any observer. Mental toughness is a great tiebreaker when talent is equal, but in this space, the premise is that the Cowboys have some very impressive top end talent, but not nearly enough strength on their roster to win a game like the contest that was asked of them on Sunday night.
There is a theory around these parts that Tony Romo has a bad December record. This would make sense if he were playing tennis or golf, but in football it doesn't compute. Yet, he will deal with the blame again. The reason for this is that it is an easy narrative that allows people (even national "experts") to simplify an extremely complex conversation down to one talking point. In football, that usually means that one either blames the coach, the quarterback or both. And while they should certainly share the blame for another failure, there is no way that they should bear full responsibility for yet another Cowboys mess. Not even close.
This team fails in December for one primary and simple reason: The roster doesn't contain the quality personnel that is required to sustain the assaults of a 16-game campaign in the NFL.
Think about it: When does the team fail? December. In a four-month season, which month would best reveal your depth and quality down the roster that can compensate for fatigue and injuries? December.
The truth is that the Cowboys have enough talent on the top of their roster to compete with some of the best teams in the league. Romo, DeMarcus Ware, Jason Witten, Miles Austin and Jay Ratliff are a very solid top five. Dez Bryant, Sean Lee, DeMarco Murray, Tyron Smith and Mike Jenkins are a reasonable 6-10 on a roster. But then the drop-off begins.
And if the season were only eight to 10 games long, they would likely be able to hang in there. Any Cowboys historian will confirm that the team certainly gets to Thanksgiving in great shape nearly every season. So, what changes?
Good teams in the NFL have quality from 1-10 but also from 11-53. When fatigue strikes someone like Ratliff, they have a player behind him who can bridge the gap. If Ware is being double-teamed, someone else can rise up. When the line is under siege, a solid veteran can do a reasonable job and protect his QB.
The good teams have enough quality on their roster that they can construct a solid team effort for the regular season. Sure, they count on their stars to perform, but beyond that, there are starters and reserves that never find a magazine cover that do their job admirably.
December is when we find a Cowboys offensive line that cannot allow Romo time to throw. On Sunday night, the Giants drove the Cowboys' line back into their QB again and again. And why would this surprise anyone? The Eagles did, too. So did the Cardinals. And the Giants three weeks ago.
As a unit, the Cowboys' offensive line failed again. And to show you how attrition took its toll, the Cowboys allowed six sacks in September, nine in October, five in November and 19 in December/January.
The Cowboys allowed a season-high six sacks Sunday night in the biggest game of the season. Teams don't win if they get sacked six times. In fact, teams that allow six sacks in a game are 8-49 the past three seasons.
It would sure be great to blame injuries for the offensive line breaking down, but that would be difficult to do. The team had perfect health at tackle this season, and the interior of the line was ignored by the general manager all season. Most NFL observers would suggest that the Cowboys' line was exactly what they thought it would be: poor. It offered the team an inconsistent running game and horrendous pass protection as the season built to its climax.
And, then there is the defense. A change of coordinators and schemes disguised the truth for a while. But in the end, we see the truth again: The personnel on the defense has some top-side talent (Ware, Ratliff and Lee) but not enough to compensate for a unit that has weaknesses in many other spots. Putting tape on a shotgun wound will cause many to blame Rob Ryan, but I would love to see what coordinator could make sense of what he was given. No offseason. No upgrades. No help from the draft. No expenditures. Just take the worst defense in franchise history and fix it with your magical formula. Good luck, Rob.
The truth appears to be this: The Cowboys have relied on those trusted top-end players for years and have seen the same results: good seasons, but generally no years that have been good enough. The premise that Romo, Ware, Ratliff and Witten can drag this team up and down the field with so many passengers is just nonsense. The title contenders in this league are not five strong. They are 53 strong.
Look at this history of Cowboys draft picks sometime. You will see the horrible truth that Bill Parcells and his crew put the top of this roster in place. And the rest of the roster is a product of his last draft (his worst) and every draft since. The sum total of the 2006-11 drafts right now on this roster is minimal. The should be the spine of the roster. Instead, here is what the past six drafts have yielded that were present and accounted for Sunday night:
2006: Nobody
2007: Anthony Spencer, Doug Free, Alan Ball
2008: Felix Jones, Jenkins, Martellus Bennett, Orlando Scandrick
2009: Stephen McGee, Victor Butler, John Phillips
2010: Bryant, Lee, Sean Lissemore
2011: Tyron Smith
That's out of 48 picks. None of these 48 picks have threatened to knock Ratliff, Ware, Romo, Witten or Austin out of their perches at the top of the roster yet. Lee, Tyron Smith, and Bryant may soon. DeMarco Murray shouldn't be forgotten. But, Spencer, Jones, Jenkins, and Bennett are all disappointments from where they were taken in the draft.
This is not a Tony Romo, Jason Garrett or Rob Ryan issue. They should share in the blame, but this largely remains a Jerry Jones issue. He has built a stadium that can host a Super Bowl. But he sure hasn't built a roster that can play in one.
Are you tired of hearing that Jerry the owner should fire Jerry the GM and overhaul how this team selects its players? You should be. Despite a few respites when Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells selected players, Jerry and his crew have failed to assemble anything more than a team that rides its few star players right into the ground as they try to navigate around the replacement-level players that Jerry has assembled at every other spot on the roster.
He is banking on you blaming Ryan, Romo and Garrett, again. And he also is banking on you buying $340 tickets next season.
It will be interesting to see if or when the public will have had enough of his fantasy camp routine. Yes, it is his toy. But, much like a restaurant owner that wants to be chef, he will still need people to eat his meals.
This franchise is broken and it is not getting better. Another showdown against a beatable division rival showed you all you should need to see. Assuming the past 15 years didn't already provide enough evidence.
Any time there is a full and complete collapse — such as going 1-4 to finish the season — it would
be much too simplistic to single one portion of an organization for ridicule and public identification.
Rather, for the 2011 Dallas Cowboys, we must look in all sorts of directions. And we must wonder, after a very disappointing 8-8 campaign, how long things will continue in this general direction before the Cowboys can break out of this franchise-worst drought of playoff futility and return to their formerly usual spot with the heavyweights of the NFL.
Once upon a time, the Cowboys set the pace for excellence in the league. Playoff regulars and a team that amassed division titles, playoff wins and Super Bowls for much of the first 35 years of its existence has now hit such a drastic wall that nearly every fan of the team can recite the horrible facts:
In 15 years, the Cowboys have one wild-card playoff victory. One. That's one more than the Muncie Flyers and the Canton Bulldogs, but given that those teams folded shortly after World War I, that would clearly not be a very large consolation.
The Cowboys have hit the wall of resistance nearly every season at a similar time. Usually right around the holidays is where the Cowboys take a promising start and wither under the bright lights of the holiday season, as they did in 2011. Dallas was 7-4 after Thanksgiving and looking ahead at a stretch that included two games against very poor teams (Arizona and Tampa Bay) and three divisional wars, with two of those games on their home field in Arlington.
And yet, a 1-4 finish has the fan base as frustrated as ever that once again their team cannot put together results at the time of year where teams either load up for a title run or go home with tears streaming down their face. This Cowboys team is going to need a lot of tissue.
So, where does one properly place the blame? One could easily suggest the better question is where does one not place the blame?
The organization has not passed the test yet again for a myriad of reasons. And, with all due respect to Emmitt Smith, mental toughness is well down the line. Smith might think that mental toughness is the sole explanation for a team not rising to the occasion in a place like New York, as he did in 1993, but, he played on a team that had many Hall of Fame-caliber players and depth that amazed any observer. Mental toughness is a great tiebreaker when talent is equal, but in this space, the premise is that the Cowboys have some very impressive top end talent, but not nearly enough strength on their roster to win a game like the contest that was asked of them on Sunday night.
There is a theory around these parts that Tony Romo has a bad December record. This would make sense if he were playing tennis or golf, but in football it doesn't compute. Yet, he will deal with the blame again. The reason for this is that it is an easy narrative that allows people (even national "experts") to simplify an extremely complex conversation down to one talking point. In football, that usually means that one either blames the coach, the quarterback or both. And while they should certainly share the blame for another failure, there is no way that they should bear full responsibility for yet another Cowboys mess. Not even close.
This team fails in December for one primary and simple reason: The roster doesn't contain the quality personnel that is required to sustain the assaults of a 16-game campaign in the NFL.
Think about it: When does the team fail? December. In a four-month season, which month would best reveal your depth and quality down the roster that can compensate for fatigue and injuries? December.
The truth is that the Cowboys have enough talent on the top of their roster to compete with some of the best teams in the league. Romo, DeMarcus Ware, Jason Witten, Miles Austin and Jay Ratliff are a very solid top five. Dez Bryant, Sean Lee, DeMarco Murray, Tyron Smith and Mike Jenkins are a reasonable 6-10 on a roster. But then the drop-off begins.
And if the season were only eight to 10 games long, they would likely be able to hang in there. Any Cowboys historian will confirm that the team certainly gets to Thanksgiving in great shape nearly every season. So, what changes?
Good teams in the NFL have quality from 1-10 but also from 11-53. When fatigue strikes someone like Ratliff, they have a player behind him who can bridge the gap. If Ware is being double-teamed, someone else can rise up. When the line is under siege, a solid veteran can do a reasonable job and protect his QB.
The good teams have enough quality on their roster that they can construct a solid team effort for the regular season. Sure, they count on their stars to perform, but beyond that, there are starters and reserves that never find a magazine cover that do their job admirably.
December is when we find a Cowboys offensive line that cannot allow Romo time to throw. On Sunday night, the Giants drove the Cowboys' line back into their QB again and again. And why would this surprise anyone? The Eagles did, too. So did the Cardinals. And the Giants three weeks ago.
As a unit, the Cowboys' offensive line failed again. And to show you how attrition took its toll, the Cowboys allowed six sacks in September, nine in October, five in November and 19 in December/January.
The Cowboys allowed a season-high six sacks Sunday night in the biggest game of the season. Teams don't win if they get sacked six times. In fact, teams that allow six sacks in a game are 8-49 the past three seasons.
It would sure be great to blame injuries for the offensive line breaking down, but that would be difficult to do. The team had perfect health at tackle this season, and the interior of the line was ignored by the general manager all season. Most NFL observers would suggest that the Cowboys' line was exactly what they thought it would be: poor. It offered the team an inconsistent running game and horrendous pass protection as the season built to its climax.
And, then there is the defense. A change of coordinators and schemes disguised the truth for a while. But in the end, we see the truth again: The personnel on the defense has some top-side talent (Ware, Ratliff and Lee) but not enough to compensate for a unit that has weaknesses in many other spots. Putting tape on a shotgun wound will cause many to blame Rob Ryan, but I would love to see what coordinator could make sense of what he was given. No offseason. No upgrades. No help from the draft. No expenditures. Just take the worst defense in franchise history and fix it with your magical formula. Good luck, Rob.
The truth appears to be this: The Cowboys have relied on those trusted top-end players for years and have seen the same results: good seasons, but generally no years that have been good enough. The premise that Romo, Ware, Ratliff and Witten can drag this team up and down the field with so many passengers is just nonsense. The title contenders in this league are not five strong. They are 53 strong.
Look at this history of Cowboys draft picks sometime. You will see the horrible truth that Bill Parcells and his crew put the top of this roster in place. And the rest of the roster is a product of his last draft (his worst) and every draft since. The sum total of the 2006-11 drafts right now on this roster is minimal. The should be the spine of the roster. Instead, here is what the past six drafts have yielded that were present and accounted for Sunday night:
2006: Nobody
2007: Anthony Spencer, Doug Free, Alan Ball
2008: Felix Jones, Jenkins, Martellus Bennett, Orlando Scandrick
2009: Stephen McGee, Victor Butler, John Phillips
2010: Bryant, Lee, Sean Lissemore
2011: Tyron Smith
That's out of 48 picks. None of these 48 picks have threatened to knock Ratliff, Ware, Romo, Witten or Austin out of their perches at the top of the roster yet. Lee, Tyron Smith, and Bryant may soon. DeMarco Murray shouldn't be forgotten. But, Spencer, Jones, Jenkins, and Bennett are all disappointments from where they were taken in the draft.
This is not a Tony Romo, Jason Garrett or Rob Ryan issue. They should share in the blame, but this largely remains a Jerry Jones issue. He has built a stadium that can host a Super Bowl. But he sure hasn't built a roster that can play in one.
Are you tired of hearing that Jerry the owner should fire Jerry the GM and overhaul how this team selects its players? You should be. Despite a few respites when Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells selected players, Jerry and his crew have failed to assemble anything more than a team that rides its few star players right into the ground as they try to navigate around the replacement-level players that Jerry has assembled at every other spot on the roster.
He is banking on you blaming Ryan, Romo and Garrett, again. And he also is banking on you buying $340 tickets next season.
It will be interesting to see if or when the public will have had enough of his fantasy camp routine. Yes, it is his toy. But, much like a restaurant owner that wants to be chef, he will still need people to eat his meals.
This franchise is broken and it is not getting better. Another showdown against a beatable division rival showed you all you should need to see. Assuming the past 15 years didn't already provide enough evidence.
