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Now this is about a straight as you can say it


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Let's Get Totally RealSpagnola: Lending Some Common Sense To 9-7 Mickey Spagnola - EmailDallasCowboys.com ColumnistJanuary 15, 2009 5:40 PMIRVING, Texas - What are we doing here? You would think the Cowboys finished this season 5-11. Seriously. Why, there is all this talk about bad chemistry. There is the incessant chatter about canning T.O. There are now these thoughts Jason Garrett has to go, and I laugh when people in the media claim the luster has come off his star, yet he's still been interviewed for three head coaching jobs. Let's see, what else. This team didn't have any heart. Romo doesn't care. Witten is a prima donna. Wade has no control over his team. Jerry and Stephen don't know what they're doing. Tank was a cancer. Pacman, ah, good riddance. Just on and on and on. Now stop it, just stop it. The Cowboys did, by the way, win at least nine games for the fourth consecutive year, something they hadn't done since 1993-96. That's a long time ago. They missed the playoffs by a half-game, and I realize for a franchise once having gone to 12 NFC/NFL title games in 17 seasons (1966-82), spoiling its fans but rotten, this becomes a fireable offense . . . and becomes hard to swallow since the Cowboys haven't won a playoff game over the past 12 seasons, joining, uh, Detroit, which couldn't even win a game this season, as the only two NFC teams without a playoff victory from 1997-08. And, they are just one of seven NFC teams without a Super Bowl appearance during that time span. Hey, thoroughly understand the frustration living through the Cowboys' longest drought without a playoff victory in club history, these 12 years outdistancing the previous high of eight seasons (1983-90) during a period they only qualified for the playoffs twice, losing opening round games in 1983 and 1985. But still, let's add some common sense to all this nonsense because I can easily find two more victories despite the season-ending debacle in Philadelphia which appears to have totally colored this season a darker shade of black. Come on, even with Tony Romo missing three starts, this Cowboys team easily could have won 11 games, about what most probably figured they would at the outset. You remember how that Arizona game began? With an opponent returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown against the Cowboys for the first time in their 49-year history. Was that a chemistry problem? Or how 'bout the blocked punt in overtime recovered for the game-winning touchdown by the Cards, the first of its kind in NFL overtime history. Chemistry or Tony Curtis failing to block the guy standing right in front of him? You make the call. Let's move on, and past that deplorable St. Louis game. Those happen in the NFL. See Cleveland 35, Giants 14. See Jets 56, Cardinals 35. See Ravens 36, Eagles 7. See Broncos 38, Chargers 9. See Packers 34, Colts 14. See Jets 34, Titans 13. Catch my drift? Let's now fast-forward to the Pittsburgh game, one few gave the Cowboys a snowball's chance in hell of winning - at Pittsburgh, questionable turf, 22 degrees, wind chill of eight, a 16-mph wind gusting into the 20s, snow the night before, all the makings for a Steelers' blowout. Yet there the Cowboys were, with 12:20 remaining in the game, and with rookie Tashard Choice starting at running back, leading 13-3, owning the ball at their own three after stopping those rough-housing Steelers four times from inside the five. Forced to punt from the 18, Sam Paulescu, the punter signed off the street following Mat McBriar's season-ending foot surgery, bounced one down the field, and of all things, the ball one hops to Santonio Holmes, who goes 35 yards to the Cowboys 25. Oh that chemistry again, huh? The Steelers, against that gutless Cowboys defense, marched two yards in three plays, settling for a field-goal to cut the deficit to 13-6. Steelers' next possession, and thanks to a fourth-and-one pickup by half the football, they drive for their first touchdown of the game, tying the score at 13 with 2:04 to play - in those conditions at that stadium against potentially the now AFC champs? Bad locker room chemistry? Then the roof falls in. Isaiah Stanback mishandles the kickoff at the two, and only gets out to the 15. Trouble already. Choice gains two, and on second-and-eight from the 17, all goes wrong. Romo tries to hit Jason Witten on a little curl pattern. Witten stumbles out of his break. The ball is a little high anyway and sails right to Steelers corner Deshea Townsend, who did nothing but stand there. Touchdown going the other way. Ball game. Chemistry or bad step and bad decision? Open the locker room flood gates. Well, I was open. And I was open. And I was open. But in two seconds time, with Romo getting pressure, he had time to decide, look, I don't like those guys who are open, so I'm throwing to my buddy Jason. Come oooon. As crushing a defeat as I've seen in my days around here. But a season with a heap full of oddities wasn't over just yet, even though the Cowboys were now being counted out at 8-5. Why, this team without any chemistry, with all the bickering and secret meetings taking place, bops the 11-2 Giants right on their heads, 20-8. All the Cowboys had to do was win one of the last two and they were in. They just didn't, losing in succession to one of the two teams in each of Sunday's conference title games. Weird thing is, they refused to fold in Game 15, even after trailing the Ravens in the final game at Texas Stadium, 16-7, with 2:51 left in the third quarter and 19-10 as late as 6:30 remaining in the game. Yep, here came the gutless bunch again, Romo hitting Owens with a seven-yard pass for 19-17 at the 3:50 mark. And get this, the Ravens, who are going on to play in the AFC title game against Pittsburgh, fumbled the ensuing kickoff, but of all people, Darren Stone, a guy the Cowboys had for one week, recovered the ball for them at the 23. And with all that inner hydrochloric acid bubbling away and with T.O. causing all these problems, Baltimore's Willis McGahee, who to that point in the game had rushed six times for 23 yards, takes what was designed to be a clock-consuming handoff over right tackle and . . . . Goes 77 yards for a touchdown. Kidding me? Chemistry? T.O.? Romo? Garrett's bonehead play-calling? No, a run-blitz and Ken Hamlin whiffing on the tackle for what should have been a five-yard gain. Am I right? Still, the no-heart, no-guts Cowboys come right back, go 71 yards in 11 plays to once again narrow Baltimore's lead to two, 26-24. Still 1:36 to play and the Cowboys have three timeouts remaining, so Wade Phillips elects to kick deep and the questionable Cowboys cover unit pins the Ravens down at the 18, of all places. Again, the Ravens are hanging on for dear life. All they want to do is run the ball three times, drain those three timeouts from the Cowboys and who cares if that leads to a punt. So this time, on the first play, rumbling fullback turned tailback Le'Ron McClain, he of 21 carries for all of 57 yards so far, takes an innocent handoff off the same right tackle and . . . . Goes 82 yards for a touchdown. Joking me? And that's chemistry? T.O.? Romo? Garrett's bonehead play-calling? No, another run-blitz and Ken Hamlin whiffing on the tackle for what should have been a five-yard gain. Ball game. Season. Did any of you have any doubt in your mind had the Cowboys stopped the Ravens on either of those two one-play drives they wouldn't have kicked the game-winning field goal at the end? Tell the truth now. See, win any one of those three games and the Cowboys are in the playoffs. And as we've clearly seen this year, get in and who knows, even sixth seeds can advance to the conference title games. See Eagles and Ravens, who by the way owe the Cowboys a debt of gratitude if they happen to advance to the Super Bowl. Because without the oddest of all the odd plays filling this season, the Ravens likely would have come up a win short of qualifying as the AFC's sixth seed. So as we sit here having to watch on Sunday the Eagles go to Arizona and the Ravens go to Pittsburgh for the conference title games, while remembering the slim and odd differences between 9-7 and 12-4, ask yourself: Would chemistry have absolved the Cowboys from the tangible sins of these three games? Would getting rid of T.O. have meant winning that one more game? Would sacking Garrett have meant winning that Baltimore game? What about that short, miserable punt in Pittsburgh that hit poor Tra Battle on the helmet? Or Barber fumbling at the four in Philly? Or Nick Folk hitting the upright in Arizona for his only missed field goal of less than 40 yards and just one of only two for the season? Or Pacman fumbling away that kickoff with seconds left in the first half at Philly? Or Brad Johnson unable to cut it in those games against St. Louis and the Giants in relief of the injured Romo? Hey, I'm not making excuses for this team. The Cowboys should have played better. They should have won 10 games. They should have been better prepared for the game at Philly and the two-point loss at home to Washington. But don't come in here with the all-encompassing chemistry excuse. That to me is lame. Don't tell me Garrett lost his touch, the Cowboys averaging just 3.7 less points a game in Romo's 13 starts this season than they did in last year's scoring-fest. Doubly lame. So this supposed rift between T.O. and Garrett or Romo and Garrett or T.O. and Witten or T.O. and Romo or . . . . If all that was going on, how did the Cowboys ever win nine games? How did they come so narrowly close to winning 10 or even 12? You tell me, and please don't resort to telling me this player has said this or that player has said that. Players don't take responsibility for losing. That's their nature. There is always someone else or something else to blame. Always has been, always will be this way. Mercy me. Maybe I'm too pragmatic about these things, far too analytical to paint a season with one bold, broad, controversy-stirring, emotion-fanning stroke. Just kills me when everything is blamed on chemistry and T.O. poisoning a locker room and Romo playing favorites and Garrett snubbing Owens. Come on. Get real.

 

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I only skimmed this. Dallas was a massive dissapointment again. With all of the good coaches out there I am sick that we seem to be sticking with this turd. I only hope some of these guys are around next year or Holmgren gets the itch . Another year with Wade will yield another undisciplined inmates run the asylum joke.

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The problem with Dallas isn't that they finished 9-7 and missed playoff by only half a game. The problem is that they are supposed to be better than that. Just ask them. They will tell you how talented they are, and until now every beat writer would agree and pen them in for the next years Superbowl. Then, for the least 3 years, they have fallen far short of that and it seems to be getting worse, not better. After 3 years the seems are cracking INSIDE the locker room, and the reporters are making note.

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I only skimmed this. Dallas was a massive dissapointment again. With all of the good coaches out there I am sick that we seem to be sticking with this turd. I only hope some of these guys are around next year or Holmgren gets the itch . Another year with Wade will yield another undisciplined inmates run the asylum joke.

 

I work with a guy from Denver....he said they couldn't wait for Wade to be gone and for someone to step in and take control of the team....i never knew that

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